Fixing a clogged vacuum cleaner

If your vacuum cleaner can’t do its job, then you can’t do yours. Time to remove whatever is blocking the airflow. Here are tips to help you get the job done.
Clogged vacuum cleaners that wheeze and can’t suck in air aren’t much good to you. When your household chores are interrupted by an unfortunate blockage, you need to clear the passage, whether you are using a canister vacuum cleaner, an upright model, or a nifty central vac.

Before you decide that the lack of air suction is caused by a blockage, check for other culprits. Make sure it’s not a full vacuum cleaner bag that’s hindering operation. Even if the bag isn’t completely full, empty it out to see if that changes the machine’s performance.

With a canister or cylinder vacuum cleaner, blockages happen most often in the hose. Remove the hose and then try to look through it straight by hanging it over a stair bannister or stretching it out on the floor. Can’t see light at the other end? Then you have a blockage.

Most vacuum hoses are wide enough to accommodate a broom handle or hockey stick handle. Determine which end of the tube the blockage is closest to and then poke away from the other end.

If the tube is too long for your handle, the use the accordion-like design of the hose to collapse its length enough so the stick will work.

With upright vacs, you can get other kinds of blockages. Disconnect the bag from the cleaner head and see if you have a blockage at the connection point. Often, these cleaners will have inspection panels you can check for impediments.

Look at the bottom of your upright vac. If the band that moves the beat roller isn’t in place, then you don’t have a blockage but the motor is no longer connected to the fan that drives the air.

If your central vac is losing suction, unhook it from the outlet and put your hand over the opening. If the suction is good, then you have a blockage. Check that the canister isn’t full of vacuum debris, or that the filter isn’t clogged or covered.

If you’ve got a blockage in the hose, you’ve got a long problem. To make absolutely sure you’ve got a blockage, you can roll a marble through the hose to see if it comes out the other end.

The best way to clear a blockage is to use another vacuum cleaner—shop vacs work most effectively. Put its hose in one end of the central vac tube and try sucking the clog out. If this doesn’t work, reverse the shop vac so it blows the blockage out the other way.

If you aren’t lucky enough to have access to another vacuum, then try dropping a heavier item, like a screwdriver, through the hose to see if you can dislodge the clog. Or snake a water hose down through the tube, but don’t run water through the hose!

Alternatively, attach the hose again to the outlet and place your hand over the other end of the hose and remove it several times; this can create suction that can get the clog to move down the line, where you can remove it.