I have a Eureka bagless that I bought in October. It worked fine for about a month and then the belt started slipping off. Every time I vacuum, it comes off. This means that every time I clean, I have to take the base apart and put the belt back on. In the bigger rooms, this can be four or five times. :mad:
The belt goes over the brush roller in the front and onto a small, metal spindle in the back. There’s no stopper, bushing or anything on the end of the spindle to hold it in place.
Anybody know how to fix this? Since the machine is only a few months old, I don’t think the belt is stretched out. I know that every time I replace it, I have to pull hard to stretch it back over the spindle.
I’d start by taking a look at a parts diagram and making sure the spindle isn’t broken. Does it appear broken? I can’t imagine there isn’t something to keep it from wandering off the edge.
What’s the model number?
Personally, if you’re still within the return period at the store, I might just return it, otherwise I’d probably just call Eureka and ask them what to do. You’re only 4 months out so you’re probably within their warranty period. If not and you bought it with a credit card, most credit cards double the warranty periods so you could call your credit card company (that’s a little known thing).
Nothing looks broken, it all looks fine. It’s a Eureka AirSpeedOne. When it works, it’s fantastic. We have 2 dogs who are champion shedders and this machine keeps my floors clean. Until the belt pops off.
is there a tension adjustment for the belt? If so, then perhaps you need to tighten it. If not, then you may have a defective spindle (too small,not “true”,etc). You may need to replace that.
You also might want to look on Amazon.com and see what reviewers say about that model. While some of the reviews are useless, many times I have found that user detect problems common to certain models.
Like someone else said, if you are still under warranty which you seem to be, then I’d have them troubleshoot and fix the problem for you.
You might also make sure there isn’t anything wrapped around the beaters. The belt pops off on ours a lot when there’s hair in there.
Some times after a few times popping off you still need to get a new belt as well since coming off has stretched the existing belt.
There’s a lot of complaints on this model (on Amazon) about the belt. Not so much about it falling off, but about it breaking. If Eureka had a bad batch of belts (wrong size, wrong material) or a bad spindle or brush it could all be related. Also, if you hit something that caused the brush/beater to stall for a minute you might have cause the belt to glaze in one spot. That spot could cause some issues.
However, given that people on Amazon are complain about belt problems and you’re having belt problems, I’d probably return it if that’s possible. You’re probably just going to keep having issues.
Often, when a belt slips off, one of the pulleys is out of parallel. Perhaps you can see if there’s a mounting point that has slipped or worn enough to pull one axis out of spec.
Not a new problem. I have this happen on an Eureka vacuum that I inherited from my Grandmother in 1974. It’s probably over a half-century old now. Still works good, especially at picking up cat hair.
Suggestions:
replace the belt. They can get ‘glazed’ in use, and thus much more likely to slip off. Rub it, does it feel ‘rubbery’ or are there slick spots on it. Belts are cheap enough to try this.
check around the axle on the roller/brushes of it. Pet hair, carpet threads, etc. tend to get wound up around there. This resistance seems to make the belt more likely to jump off. Also check the hub that the belt rides on. That can get dirty or polished slick by the belt, and then it slips off easier.
Check: does this model have a height adjustment? If you have it set for bare floors and use it on carpets, the increased resistance for the roller makes the belt more likely to pop off.
silly question, but are you sure you’re putting the belt back on in the correct direction? It’s easy to do this if you aren’t paying attention, or haven’t done if for a while. If you do it wrong, the brush rotates fine, but in the backwards direction, and will pop off easily.
Finally, just live with it. My antique one does a real good job, better on pet hair than many newer, more expensive* vacuums, so I live with this occasional problem.
*Grandma was moving back to the country, and selling off much of her stuff. I paid $24 for this vacuum. She said $25 was too much to charge for a vacuum with many years of use already, so that was all she would take. A cost of 60¢ per year of use so far, and still going strong. Quite the bargain.
