Fixing a SEBO Vacuum Cleaner with No Power 

An aside about your carpet: Axminster has been making carpets for so long that Jane Austen mentioned the company in her letters!

Great job and analysis on the fault at the end Vince - definitely that's what happened!

I work on an awful lot of Sebo vacuums. Most common thing I change is cables as a lot of them I service are used in care homes, where cleaners are a bit rough on them. Very solidly built machines though, and stupidly simple to tear down and work on.

The "crimps" on the end of the fine stranded wires are called boot lace ferrules. Quite important when using screw terminals with fine stranded wire as when you tighten the screws down in the terminals this causes the fine strands to splay apart reducing the contact area with the terminal thus reducing the current carrying capacity. The ferrule also protects the conductor from damage when the screw it tightened down. Pretty sure Vince that the cable strain relief was the beige piece of plastic with two screws either side much like what you find in a British plug. Hard to tell as the video was sped up but I cannot see the Germans not incorporating a strain relief into the handle as the cable is going to get pulled on during use.

You are right ,buy quality and you can`t go wrong , I bought a Hoover upright back in 1982 and it still works

I'm always a little disappointed when it's a tea break fix 🙂 I love your looong videos 🥰

Great fix. Many products fail where the power cable enters, is regularly twisted, gets warm or gets run over by a suitcase. Given the cleaner's age (the device, not your wife), you may want to think about replacing the entire cable. My wife was using it, touched the previous Vince Sellotape repair and boom, my wife stopped working. Slightly burned carpet sample taken to Harrods.

This seems to be a common fault with Sebo vacuums. My mum's Sebo started to be problematic and it was an almost identical fault (literally when I saw your video it was 'I bet it's cable failure' and indeed it was). I ended up cutting 30cm off the cable and reterminating it into the handle. In my mum's vac there was a clear way to disassemble the handle (very similar to yours) so I could loop the cables back into the switch using the strain relief. I also thankfully had some cable crimps to terminate the end.

Had ours for 20 years. Still going strong. Can still buy parts. Way better value than Dyson.

That story about the carpet unlocked a deeeeep memory for me. The house I grew up in had a hallway carpet that came from a hotel refurb

Great video. I had the exact same problem. I'm a massive SEBO fan they are just so good and no taking it to bits to vacuum the edges just pull out the wand!!

SEBO - used by hotels everywhere! My friend went to the trouble of looking at the vacuums used in hotels to see what brands they use, as she wanted the best most reliable machine. It's Sebo! Great fix, very interesting about where the break occurred, Thanks Vince! All the best

My favourite subject-vacuum cleaners!I have a vast knowledge about these! Before seeing the vid in full Vince that power lead looks dodgy!

When i first met my now wife 16 odd years ago. She borrowed my parents vacuum to do her car. Suddenly she came it to say that it had caught fire on the drive we still laugh about it today as the first experice my parents had of her!! Those bodges always come back to haunt you Vince!! 🤣

I fixed this problem on our Sebo several times before it eventually gave up permanently. I think it's the same model as ours, and the handle slides apart lengthways once you've removed the screw.

Vince your the only guy that gets excited when a household appliance fails lol .. great vid mate ..must be the flexing when wrapping the cable up 😊

I think you're right about where the cable snapped (i was actually writing a comment as you mentioned it) and also, probably haven't lost any "pratical" cable due to it not being restrained by the cable ties as previously

Recently owned and sold within an hour a Dyson ball. Never used with all attachments but the cord was slightly chewed. I regret selling it but I do love my Electrolux

Many thanks for sharing this video. Saved me a shed load of time when ours did exactly the same thing. Only disaster was the line break was at the plug, which meant I had chopped up a lot of wire before I found the break. Wife less than impressed with 3 inch lead she was left with…….😂

Oh and it's pronounced seee bow Great repair Vince! I've had many sebos ans this fault has occurred before but generally these are fantastic reliable quality German cleaners - they are the only company I know that their cleaners look so old fashioned but are so bang up to date at the same time - their latest one - the cordless bp60 is nearly 1000 pounds - your into kirby territory there!

Another good fix. We love our SEBO. Ours must be more than 15 years old and as good as the day we bought it. It amazes me how much the bags hold as well.

Hey Vince! I’m soooo happy you got the Sebo working again, you have excellent taste in vacuum cleaners 🤣, thank you so much for the shoutout, I’m absolutely honoured for the mention 🥰. I have something to send to you to try and fix 🥰

you probably found out already, but you 1.remove screw. 2. slacken feed wires, 3. pull handle out of aluminum tube, and pry freshly exposed portion of handle backwards apart. (I've worked on Winsdor/Karcher versions of these vacuums for 19 years. LOVE THEM, ...industrial durable.

love your channel dude,you give people hope that a normal bloke can fix stuff

I had the same fault with a heavy duty extension lead, the break was over a meter from the reel end. I have no idea why it broke where it did as no strain is anywhere near where the break was. The extension lead is an expensive armoured lined strengthened construction for use in garages, we used 3 of them, the reels were retractable and mounted on the wall, they were mainly used for inspection lamps and small hand tools (pre battery and LED days) After a load of investigation, the break was where the lead sometimes hung over one of the car ramps. Yip you can get strain breaks anywhere that the cable flexes, it don't matter how much strain relief either yourself or the manufacturers fit on to appliances, the copper inside the cable will give way. Caution, If you buy a cheap appliance from some of these Chinese manufacturers, test the cable before you use it, it could have a dangerous copper coated aluminium construction. Good fix Vince, enjoyed this one. 👍👍

Vince, do yourself a favour and get some meter test leads with crocodile clips on, it will make life easier for you when testing if you have the negative clipped on so you'll have a free hand and the positive probe can be used for probing around 😉

Good catch. When I search for broken wires I grab the end then give a nice steady pull force, the wire insulation will usually get thinner (hourglass) right over the break, I just cu back a few inches from that to get non stresses wire to work from.

I'm guessing SOMEBODY was well "rewarded" that night after the fix 🤣 Way to go! The whole time you were going back on the power cord I was thinking: "Oh this is futile". But once again, perseverance pays off!

i'm glad you're sharing all these with us. thank you.

Great Job Vince 👍you could have always tinned the ends of the wire with some solder if you didn't have any wire ferrules. Great fix as usual. Well done 🙂👍

Well done for fixing, poor wife probably just wanted a new Hoover lol, nice story about the carpet

This was very helpful, thank you! I got a new Sebo (same model as yours) a couple of months ago and it had been working fine but when I came to use it recently, it was dead. I know I could have called in the guarantee but that would have taken ages, so looked up RU-vid. I watched part of your vid and took the handle out, but then watched the rest of the vid. Then I put the handle back in and - as I hadn't thought to check the fuse (duh!) - I thought I'd do that next, but before I pulled the plug out I flicked the switch at the plug and ... the Sebo sprang into life! Bizarre. Maybe pulling the handle out kicked it up the backside? But it suggests a loose connection somewhere.

I thought I saw some dirt spots on your carpet...Was my monitor... Well thought about the cable ties at the end..I was scratching my head a few times here.

I liked how you were able to take everything apart easily, or relatively easily. Shows that it's worth buying quality. Even tho the cable was a bit shoddy. Maybe the vacuum drew more Amps than the cable could handle? The cable, where it broke, looked a bit dark and melty.

I dont know if I should say this but its strange in many ways to me to think that 5 years is some kind of a feat for a vacuum... most of us had the same in the house our whole childhoods. I have a filter queen kicking around, mind you it doesn't get daily use now but its 35 years old or something and its really still working like the day it was purchased from an in-home demonstration. The carpet on the other hand.... well that looks great.

I fixed a similar fault on a 30-year old Vorwerk Tiger 251 (I think Sebo was founded in the 80s by some engineers who worked for Vorwerk before). The power leads which go through the inside of the hose were severed where they come out through the hose wall and lead to the on-off switch on the handle. Luckily I could solder them together again and put some shrink tubing on it. Was a nice success to be able to take it apart there as these (way overpriced) products were properly designed to be repairable. You can still find after-market replacements parts for these old models.

Here in New Zealand my parent's 30s era Art Deco house had the origional British made Axminster carpet in it.

German quality. Bought a 50 pound 9 year old Miele dishwasher off Facebook marketplace. 4 years later, still working perfectly.

Nice fault finding and good to see that tape & cable tie gone and properly repaired :) I have Volta vacuum cleaner from 2001, still working, never had any problems with it. Volta seems to be part of Electrolux, one of their brands. Didn't know this before, but this video inspired me to read some information from wikipedia. Nice to finally know after using it over 20 years, who's the actual manufacturer 😁

Great fix cables usually break about an inch further back than the cable streanthter they always put on items like this. These restrains stop the cable breaking right at the entry to the cleaner but they break further back instead just after the strengthener.

I haven't bought a hoover in ten years, my neighbours threw out a dyson that I fixed and it is still going strong. Since then whenever I find one discarded I try and and fix it. Out of the 11 I've found only two couldn't be saved so got used as parts.

Like you say the wire has melted where it broke. That suggests that when it did break the ends of the wire were still touching and it was still usable until the ends melted and moved away from each other. The melting would of been caused by increased resistance due to the break.

have encounted roughly the same issue in the past with a george (loose wire, neighbours) and an commercial numatic wet/dry floor machine (previous employer) that had a blown motor and cable damage, had to replace entire flex due to IP rating, whilst doing so i felt an longer flex was required (motor was replaced by company maintenance, I received authorisation to install replacement flex. The neighbour was most pleased(george still ok) and Afaik the numatic is still in use today(left company a few years now, at time of leaving company had not long bought an newer model and thus there was an machine per a site).

100% Sebo are the best vacuums on the market. I sell and repair these, unusual for the handle to not come apart easily as if it had you wouldn't of had to remove the switch first.

As soon as I read that title, I knew what the issue would be. They had quite a few of them at the school and most of them were thrown away after a couple of years.

Nice fix Vince, yes axeminster carpets are one of the best carpets in the world. Did u receive my parcel yet ?

We have a Sebo, very well built, but I use the handheld Dyson more as it’s lighter, Sebo’s are pretty heavy machines.

The crimped wire ends are called ferrules. They make for excellent permanent connections to terminals. They are much better than bare twisted wires for longevity. The balls at the ends of the frayed wires indicate they heated sufficiently to melt the wires, so, yes, there was definitely arcing going on.

Im at 48 seconds in used to fix hovers and stuff for Clark’s electrical Main faults I found with hovers 1 cable break 2 motor brushes 3 blocked pick up pip 4 snapped agitation brush belt 5 most irritating one full bag a blocked filter

Another great Fix Vince!

Sebo, Kirby, and Miele, are in my opinion the best quality vacuum cleaners you can buy, forget shark, vax etc Great fix Vince I’m glad you hadn’t taped up bare wires with sellotape lol seen it so often it’s frightening lol 😊

Look up Manchester Vacs video on how to replace the cord here on RU-vid Tube it’s excellent and explains everything with regards to replacing the power cord and an important safety tip with regards to making sure the aluminium handle does not become live. Had my Sebo for 30 years and still going strong.

Well done Vince

Result! That was a good one.

Sebos great 👍 had my Felix nearly 10 years and I bought it second hand.

When you found the break in the cable I had wondered if its where you tie wrapped it

May your expensive woollen carpets remain moth-free Vince!

Happy wife, happy life.Yet, the vacuum is pretty LOUD!

Best vacuum cleaner I ever owned was a Panasonic upright bagged vacuum. The brilliant thing about that vacuum was how the hose attachment easily came out of the vacuum making it quick and easy to use. I owned that vacuum for 20 years, and it worked flawlessly, well, that is, until one day I foolishly ran it over a wet rug. It still worked afterwards, but the motor made a weird noise ever since. One day, I bought a bagless canister vacuum to see how good they are compared to my bagged vacuum. I couldn't believe why on earth people would buy these garbage bagless canister vacuums. It was HORRIBLE! It had less suction power than my Panasonic and the canister was a filthy mess to empty. All the dust would escape into the air upon emptying the canister. Plus, it had two filters that needed to be washed every so often, otherwise, if the filters got too dirty, the vacuum would not work, and after you washed the filters, they needed 24 hours to dry before you can put them back into the vacuum. A couple of times I went to use the bagless vacuum and it wouldn't work because the filters were dirty, so I couldn't use the vacuum for 24 hours since I had to wait for the filters to dry. The first upright canister vacuum was a complete marketing gimmick, making it look like it was the next revolution in vacuuming, when all it is, was nothing but marketing gimmicks. Unfortunately the vacuum manufactures had to start switching to canisters otherwise their bagged models would not sell. Now its very difficult to find a quality upright bagged vacuum.

Sebo quality, and still made in Germany. Spares and service kits all available at reasonable prices. Axminster woollen carpets, another great product. Buy once, buy right.

Its pronounced See-bo 😁 They are simply the best machines you can buy. Before the days of the internet you really had to discover SEBO. They were once the best kept secret of high quality vacuum cleaners; usually recommended through word of mouth. They are very easy to work on and repair. Saying that though, the main cause of failure of these is often just through neglect and improper maintenance.

Hi, this is a common fault with all sebos

Well Vince you know: Happy Wife, Happy Life 😂😂😂

Great video, thnx Vince

Excellent Vince! My favourite kind of video!!!!

I wonder if measure the resistance using Ohms on the multimeter would have identified the faulty section sooner?

Report from the BBC: Strange Man in Rolls Royce found sleeping in car, yelling "Result." Seems Vince got kicked out of the house for 3 nights after saying the wife will be thrilled. Great repair, Vince!

Nice, Sebo is top shelf stuff.

Better to have soldered the wire ends. Leaded solder doesn't really crack, and the last thing you want is a bunch of tiny wires in a screw terminal all making different contact. That causes resistance and heat. It might not make a difference as the cable is oversized anyway but I still would have soldered it. I never put stranded wires into a screw terminal like that.

I wish you'd take your metal ring off your finger when you're working on electronics Vince 🙂. Another good fix though chap, nice and straight forward if not a little bit fiddly

Could've done the rest of the floor while you were at it Vince😁

I thought you were over-dressed for summer, makes sense your comment at the end of the video. I'm sure your wife was pleased, as please as you certainly!

it seams a bit loud, if you use it regularly and for years on, worth to conciser changing ball bearings. These motors run on very high rpm, if a bearing fails they rarely survive the failure.

3:24 - "So a very long time ago, I remember the lead was coming out from here". At that time, Mrs My Mate Vince, highlighted the problem with her tech savvy husband Vince knowing full well he'd run a full diagnostic check of the appliance, order in any spares and solder/unsolder/solder where necessary in order to succeed with a complete, permanent, safe fix. Or so she thought. Instead, as it was for wifey, it was a case of "pass the sellotape and cable ties love - there, fvck it, job done. Just don't wiggle the cable too much, or you'll be toast".

Hi Vince, our Sebo has stopped raising and lowering on wood/carpet flooring. Could you undo yours and show us what is going wrong maybe please?

Great video

I think they would get hot because high current is passing through a thin cable. Thin due to some of it being broken. Even when there was a connection the resistance was fluctuating. Sign that the cable is faulty.

There’s no need for the cable tie that’s what the little clear brownish part is with the two Phillips screws. That’s to restrain the cable to stop it from moving my times five finally snapped. It’s cable 15 years later.

My heart weeps every time you turn that DMM back on after only just having turned it off. Does your one not have a sleep mode? If so, need to buy one of those. I leave mine on all the time for the entire duration of me working on something and it just goes to sleep after a bit, then when I want to use it again, I just press a button and it wakes up again.

Which was nice

That is some carpet. You have been fixing stuff for years including the Rolls Royce. You must have had some grease or oil type incident at some point 😂

Same design as Karcher/Windsor used in hotels everywhere

Looks like it failed where the zip ties were.

For a vacuum like that, when you spending hundreds on it, they seem to have weak wiring (i.e. not thick and protected). The amount of flexing required is insane, for upright vacuum cleaners.

I had the same problem on different vacuum cleaner with the wire after I fix that the motor went not long after

nice socks vince mate😜😝🤪😛

Sweet

it was recorded 8 months ago?? i did not see that coming xD

I would guess the break occurred where you had the cable zip tied to the handle. It would have been flexing there with no strain relief. Edit: And I've now reached the point where you came to the same conclusion.

Posh carpet result mate!

Had gone where the cable tie was :-)

What ibe done in past if no way of securing cable ive tied a loose knot in the cable and cut neutral short so ifcable pulls out a bit neutral will be one to come out amd wont shock opposite to how youd do a plug.

When something breaks, I bet you get as excited as Steve Irwin did with a crocodile!

Even hoover salesmen say it's the best hoover.

i would of tinned with solder the ends of the cables but good video

Look online for part for the sebo

If a flex has broken at one point it will go again best to replace it.

i was an industrial cleaner for 15 years and this was my main weapon of choice. absolute beast of a unit. but sadly it will forever live in the shadow of henry.

Brilliant!

The wire was cut around where the cable ties were looks like.