Henry and the Filler

[Anna Kettle]

I've been doing some decorating - I got some filler from Jewsons called "Easi Fill" and indeed it is an idiot proofed filler much easier to use than polyfilla, mixes up well, goes off slowly, sands down easily and has a fine finish

The fine finish has proved to be Henry's undoing. He has given stalwart service over the years from hoovering the attic through to sucking up inglenook soot but this filler caused him to emit smoke, nasty noises and smell bad

When it comes to DIY I'll tackle nearly everything but land me with an electromechanical problem and I am a complete wuss, so please will someone tell me what to do next?

So far I've taken Henry to bits washed down the plastic bits and left them to dry

Anna

[Andy Burns]

Sounds like the the fine powder blocked his filter, and low airflow=20 cause the motor windings to overheat and burn out.

Replacement motors seem to be =A350-=A360 from here, depending on model

whole new Henry can be had for under =A390 ...

[R]

Sounds like the the fine powder blocked his filter, and low airflow cause the motor windings to overheat and burn out.

Replacement motors seem to be £50-£60 from here, depending on model

whole new Henry can be had for under £90 ...

Given that the Henry has a quite rudimentary filter system of just a coarse open grain sponge then blocking that would be nigh on impossible, although with damp media travelling through it might happen. More likely is the amount of accululated crap has finally blocked the impellers or around the motor armature and stalled it resulting in the burn out. The result is the same as suggested by Andy though.

Dissassembly is quite simple.

Remove the top from the base Up-end the top section Remove the 4 screws underneath the top section around where the hole for air intake is. Remove the top cover which exposes the motor. Note the connections and wiring locations. The motor sits in a rubber seat that will pull out with the motoe when you lift it out. Reassembly is reversal of the dissassembly making sure that it all sits neatly before replacing the top.

Naturally you WON'T have it plugged in at the time ;-)

[The Medway Handyman]

> A whole new Henry can be had for under £90 ...

Henry has a three part filter system if you include the paper bag, then the nylon bag on a frame, then the foam. AFAIK the foam filter is simply to protect the motor if the other filter split.

Motors are £29 + £8 postage from Barton Electrical

[R]

>>> A whole new Henry can be had for under £90 ...

The foam filter is actualy *after* the motor in the airflow.

In the Hire trade the paper bags used to be supplied but rarely used, packs of which always came back intack as the builders thought they reduced the suction so therefore wouldn't allow the odd chunk of house brick etc to be picked up instead of bending down to remove it or shovelling. Also the secondary filter in the top, the one with the plastic insert to hold it away from the motor air intake was frequently missing because it nearly always got chucked out with the debris.

The "Wet Vac" twin motor units were even more fun to sort out, especially after being used for toilet cleaning at the end of a job :-(

[Anna Kettle]

Thanks all

I have decided to continue being a wuss and have ordered a new Henry

Anna

[John Stumbles]

Maybe you could offer the old one on freecycle, perhaps with a link to the motor man, for those with the inclination to lazarusise him!

[Anna Kettle]

Thats a good plan It'll be on North & West Suffolk Freecycle as soon as the new Henry arrives - unless anyone on here would like to put in a claim for it (and collect it)?

Anna

[R]

Nah....Sorry, already have 2

[Pete C]

If no-one wants it then it might be worth keeping the hose and some other bits as spares before dumping the rest.

cheers, Pete.

[Roger]

The message from [e-mail] (Anna Kettle) contains these words:

If only you had made that offer last week. I drove through Suffolk (A12/A14) on the way home to Yorkshire on Sunday but don't expect to be down that way again until Xmas. :-(

[Anna Kettle]

Damn! My time machine has broken too, otherwise old Henry would be yours

Anna

[Roger]

The message from [e-mail] (Anna Kettle) contains these words: