journal features

burned out vacuum cleaner

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Toronto, 2012.11.11

Since Electrolux won't support our vacuum cleaner (we brought a Japanese-bought model to Canada), I've decided to take it apart and see what I could do. It was quite a chore, because Electrolux decided to use "Torx" screws, for which I had to go buy a new driver (a trip we turned into a family cycling and running outing). The problem turned out to be a burned wire. One of the leads connecting the housing for the power cable had simply burned away. From the location of the problem it seemed clear to me that the wire had kinked due to strain from repeated shaking of the power cable's housing. This is subjected to plenty of strain while the cable is spooled out and let to return, and would also have strain and shaking while the vacuum is being pulled around. Why the housing was not secured by screws is anyone's guess, but the crap design is what caused this $600 unit to die.

I'm going to try to fix it myself. I tried to find a nearby repair shop, but everything's closed on weekends.

rand()m quote

Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account.

—John Gardner