[jim etchells]

A few weeks ago I posted that my machine kept triping the electrics in a house I was cleaning. As it hasnt hapened sinse I figured it was an issue with the house. But it hapened again at the weekend so am thinking it prob is the machine. Last time someone said it could be the brushes or the switch that may be the problem.
I know nothing about how these machines work. By switch did they mean the switch that turns the pump on, or some type of internal switch. I use a cheyenne with a 135 pump as am only part time cant upgrade yet. Can anyone give me any idea what a switch or brushes problem should cost to put right. Would have to get someone to do it, and hopefully pick up some maintenance tips for future reference.
Thanks.
Jim.

[Colin Day]

The brushes in the motors are easy to remove and replace, just be careful not to get the wires caught between the carbon brushes and armature... I did it once......once

[Joe H]

Jim
Roger Peach and Clinton Neylan, both from Stockport know a guy who looks after their portys - reasonable price I believe.

[garry22]

Jim,

Do you use circiut breakers on your machines?

They may be a life saver one day.

[gwrightson]

Jim,

I am making an educated guess that the problem doe not lie within the machine!

You say it happened once in the past but not until today it happened again, a cuople of questions.

Were the houses you were cleaning new builds or recently built ? if so the circuit breaker in the house are extra sensitive as opossed to older properties and a surge will trip them .

Have you tried pluging into to sockets on different circuits within the house ? This will prevent to much strain placed on one circuit, therfore preventing the tripping .

My suggestion would be to look at this first.

geoff

[garry22]

Good point Geoff.

Check that the owner has not switched the kettle or immersion heater on (particularly if you are using a 3 Kw inline heater).

[Bob Robertson]

Jim,

Do you use circiut breakers on your machines?

They may be a life saver one day.

I use them now after getting a right good belt from a brand new machine. It turned out to be a faulty socket in the customers house.

Bob

[garry22]

Bob,

I did a job for a "handyman" who did odd jobs for some of my customers. I gently pulled a cable that was plugged in and the socket promptly pulled straight out of the wall!

I have a feeling that dodgy sockets are quite common.

Garry

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Jim

As Joe said.

Give me aring sometime and I'll give yo his details. He'll tell you it straight without wasting your time or money.

Rog

[coyote7]

Hi Jim,

Sorry to put a downer on some of the above posts but it could very well be the brushes or the pump, as the same thing was happening to me on my prochem powermax. I at first put it down to customers dodgy sockets as it happened once then nothing for a while however it happened again last week when typically I had my busiest week of work booked in since I started! In the end I decided to buy a new pump from cleansmart which cost me £130 and I am going to clean out the brushes on my old pump as it may still work and I can use as a back up perhaps. I have had the machine for 2 years and this is the first thing to go on me so can't really grumble. Hope you get to the root of it and it's not to expensive.

Rich

[jim etchells]

Thanks guys. The houses defo had new electrics. In the end I got both jobs done by leaving all the electric off and just leaving the kitchen on and using the socket above the cooker. This worked fine. Have been thinking about a pump upgrade so may be the right time. Wish I new a bit more about these machines. As I got mine secondhand ive not been on one of the prochem courses. Dont even know what brushes are. Hi Roger,I got your maintenance guys number off you a while ago so will use him for any work I need.
Just out of interest guys. If you had a prespray down and there was a total power failure with house or machine. What would you do. Thanks. Jim

[Ian Rochester]

Check for any water ingress as well, we had a problem last week and it turned out to be a weeping jubilee clip inside the machine

[Paul Redden Countryfresh]

Cables can short inside as well

[M.Acorn]

Have had probs with mine in the past,the main connector block,sits right next to the pressure valve on my machine,not good,found that it was vac motors going that made mine trip

[yorky]

I had the same problem and it was actually internal damage to one of the power cables from the machine. I only realised what it was when it again cut off when moving one of the cables.It must have been trapped at some time.
Try running the machine in your garage and then moving the cables around.