Vacuum Fire on New Vacuum

[Burky]

Hello all. I recently purchased some vacuums from Premier and two of the three started on fire. I took the dome off the third one to find a broken cooling fan on one of the motors. It is convincing to me that this is what caused the fires. The vacuums that burned had two of three cooling fans melted in place, the other one missing. I am being told that I am the only operator to have this issue and am curious if anyone else had trouble with this line of vacuums. To be fair Premier has been excellent to deal with throughout the entire issue, can’t say the same about the motor manufacturer, Electo Motor, they are trying to blame wrong wiring, bad breaker, voltage fluctuations, and their excuses go on… These vacuums were in use for about a month when the first one burned.

 

[Randy]

WOW! that really sucks. I wonder what make and model that motor is. It almost looks like a Domel.

 

[PaulLovesJamie]

Yikes!
Did I understand correctly that the broken fan is on the vac that did NOT catch on fire? If so, yeah, that's suspicious.

 

[Burky]

Yes that is on the vacuum that did not burn. The vacuums that burned were pretty charred.

 

[MEP001]

That looks like it's from someone vacuuming a flammable liquid. A motor fire isn't going to blast flame out the cleanout door. The explosion of the gases catching fire is what blew the fans off.

 

[Burky]

That looks like it's from someone vacuuming a flammable liquid. A motor fire isn't going to blast flame out the cleanout door. The explosion of the gases catching fire is what blew the fans off.

Yes that picture is a bit deceiving. The door did not blow open. I opened it after the fact. The extreme heat caused that sticker to deform. There was no sign of fire down where the air comes in from the hose. If you watch the entire surveillance footage you can clearly see the fire slowly originating from the motors. No explosive activity at all.

 

[Burky]

That looks like it's from someone vacuuming a flammable liquid. A motor fire isn't going to blast flame out the cleanout door. The explosion of the gases catching fire is what blew the fans off.

Yes that picture is a bit deceiving. The door did not blow open. I opened it after the fact. The extreme heat caused that sticker to deform. There was no sign of fire down where the air comes in from the hose. If you watch the entire surveillance footage you can clearly see the fire slowly originating from the motors. No explosive activity at all.

 

[Burky]

Yes that picture is a bit deceiving. The door did not blow open. I opened it after the fact. The extreme heat caused that sticker to deform. There was no sign of fire down where the air comes in from the hose. If you watch the entire surveillance footage you can clearly see the fire slowly originating from the motors. No explosive activity at all.

I should add that I tried to upload the surveillance footage but it is too large of a file. I downsized and shrink it to the point that it was not worth uploading.

 

[MEP001]

Use Youtube to upload, then link it here.

 

[Burky]

Use Youtube to upload, then link it here.

Great idea. Not a YouTube type. First video I uploaded

This is on 16x speed to save your time. I should add that there was no sign of any fire in the dirt canister, the bags etc. Also no smell of anything flammable. Two vacuums burnt up in one month seems suspicious. I should also add that the broken fan photo I uploaded is from a vacuum that did NOT burn, yet… Probably would have shortly if it was left operational. I have additional video of the second vacuum burning but its just the same thing twice.

 

[Burky]

WOW! that really sucks. I wonder what make and model that motor is. It almost looks like a Domel.

I am pretty sure its ElectoMotor. Not sure if they have different models.

 

[Dan kamsickas]

Why was there "smoke" coming out from under the dome when the person was vacuuming the white car? If it's just dust, you have a filter issue. Too much dust in a motor will cause a fire just like in the video.

 

[Burky]

It’s definitely smoke, no dust. They are brand new vacuums and the tops were all very clean. The motor started smoldering from the excessive heat of the broken cooling fan, eventually started burning and started the dome on fire and then it’s all over. You can see the smoke coming out even after the vacuum turned off. Might be hard to see in the YouTube video but on the surveillance system I can tell by the Dixmore when the vacuum was running.

 

[Dan kamsickas]

It’s definitely smoke, no dust. They are brand new vacuums and the tops were all very clean. The motor started smoldering from the excessive heat of the broken cooling fan, eventually started burning and started the dome on fire and then it’s all over. You can see the smoke coming out even after the vacuum turned off. Might be hard to see in the YouTube video but on the surveillance system I can tell by the Dixmore when the vacuum was running.

That "smoke" comes out at around 60 seconds. That's exceptionally fast for even the cheapest motors I've seen to overheat.

 

[eckert16]

36 seconds, while vacumming the rear seat you can see smoke

 

[Burky]

That "smoke" comes out at around 60 seconds. That's exceptionally fast for even the cheapest motors I've seen to overheat.

Yes that would be incredibly fast. If you look closely at the video you can see the customer is no longer vacuuming. I started the video clip recording when I first saw smoke coming out. He had vacuumed his entire car before the video recording. As I recall I do believe the vacuum was running for a short time on this video but was indeed running before video begins. Detail is much better on the actual NVR.

 

[Burky]

It looks like he/she did start the vacuum the second time on the screen recording. I had forgotten this. Dust was not a factor. These vacuums were brand new. He was probably only the 10th customer to use the vacuum based on sales Vacuums were installed on 10th of June.

 

[Burky]

That "smoke" comes out at around 60 seconds. That's exceptionally fast for even the cheapest motors I've seen to overheat.

If you look at the time stamp it think he was running for 2:16 the second time he started the vacuum. Uploaded video is on 16x speed.

 

[MEP001]

I'd certainly replace any remaining motors with something better. I've never even had a cheap Kleen-Rite motor catch on fire.

 

[Burky]

I'd certainly replace any remaining motors with something better. I've never even had a cheap Kleen-Rite motor catch on fire.

Agreed. I have two used vacuums on the other side of the property that have been running like a top even though they are 10+ years old. New motors of course several times but no real issues.