Is it normal for hoover to smell of burning rubber after changing the drive belt?

[PelvicF1oorOfSteel]

I'm pretty certain it's all aligned correctly so I'm hoping it's just a temporary thing while it's wearing in.

If not does anyone knowledgeable want to help advise me on what sort of hoover to get next, as I've not had a lot of luck with them lately!

Is it a Hoover (as opposed to other brands, I mean)?

I had this with my Hoover, and I discovered that the little plastic cap that is supposed to hold the belt on was gradually disintegrating and getting sucked into the engine in small pieces. It must have been rubbing against something. The belt fell off every 2 minutes after that.

I must say, I was strangely relieved when the damned thing went up in smoke (literally) and I could buy something decent (a Miele - pricey but well worth it).

So just check there is nothing amiss underneath the Hoover.

It's a Morphy Richards bagless thing (I don't spend enough time in good housekeeping to get all my terminology right ).No plastic cap as far as I can tell, certainly nothing visible disintegrating.

So Miele is the way forwards? (I know I should be more concerned for the welfare of the current one but I need more suction than it has ever seen fit to provide). Do you have bagless or bagged?

no, something is wrong.

have a look to make sure the beaters are spinning and not jammed with threads and hairs

have a look to see nothing has got jammed in the mechanism. Look again to check that the covers and everything are fitte right.'

if it has a "beaters on/beaters off" lever it might be that the new belt is not fitted right and is rubbing on it.

If you're buying a new vac, the Miele cylinders wiped the floor with everything else in the "Which" tests. It is much more difficult and expensive to find a good upright, but they recently tested them and the Miele ones came top there too.

I prefer bagged.

p.s. if suction is poor, take out and wash or replace all the filters (there may be three) and verify that there is nothing in the tube or hose or the gullet of the head.

I have a Miele upright - I normally subscribe to the "cheap and cheerful" school of thought, but after going through three vacuum cleaners in two years I decided enough was enough.

It is truly fab, has a loooong guarantee. It leaves lines on the carpet like when you mow the lawn, so you know it has really brushed. It has a bag (I fell out of love with bagless after it dawned on me that I really didn't enjoy getting up close and personal with the contents of the dust collector every time it needed emptying).

I sound worryingly fond of the damned thing......

I wash the washable filter and replace the one it says not to wash occasionally, it just doesn't seem to have as much oomph as it did when it was new. This is my first bagless and I'm not hugely impressed.

The previous bagged one was a nightmare though as nowhere local stocked the bags and the p+p was ludicrous for them. I finally bulk bought a pile of them just in time for it to break down. Something which takes a universal bag would be near the top of my wish list!

For some reason I've always had uprights, never really thought about cylinders but I'm quite open to suggestions. During the months time it took us to actually get round to replacing the belt I've been using our upright as an awkward and heavy cylinder, by just using the tube attachments and it wasn't too bad. Any reason why they're so much cheaper than uprights?

Cointreau - that sounds lovely, I shouldn't be getting excited about lines in the carpet should I?

You can get a motorised head that is electrically driven by a little socket on the cylinder, we had an AEG like that (the motorised head was very expensive). The current Miele has a socket, but we didn't buy a motorised head for it (also have an upright now so no need).

Cylinders usually have fewer working parts, so I suppose are cheaper to make. I think they also usually have more suction.

An upright (or a motorised head) with beaters is best for carpets.

Ah, I think I realised that when I used the proper upright bit again, despite the burning smell the carpet does look better, must be the beaters. I do like the sound of a motorised head so I can get beaters and more suction all at the same time. Can I ask why you have an upright and a cylinder? And whether anyone pays you for handing out good advice on all things domestic (your name is familiar from quite a few appliance and heating threads )?

Apparently uprights are better if you have a lot of carpet area (which we do). They don't have as high suction power as cylinders, due to the design, but they do have beaters, which cylinders don't. But cylinders are more manouverable.

I think it comes down to what you were "brought up" with. We always had an upright, and I find cylinders really awkward to use, and give me backache.

It might just be so there's an upstairs one and a downstairs one, doesn't everybody? The cylinder is much more convenient for stairs and hard floors (the old AEG cylinder lives in the garage now for doing the cars)

Or possibly because the previous upright broke down and we needed to get another vac while it was being mended.

I will be sending my invoice later, it's £10 per answer.

I do get a modest reward somewhere else.

Yep, grew up with an upright, always had an upright!

I wish I'd used vac at the start, much better than hoover (confusing brandname) or vacuum cleaner (takes too long to type). I'll just stick another tenner in the envelope.

We have carpets downstairs, upstairs and upyetmorestairs, I've always just carted the upright around with me, used tube attachments on the stairs and flicked a switch for kitchen and bathroom. It is all a bit of a pain but I've never known anyone with upstairs and downstairs vacs before! I'm not sure we have enough storage space to make that work.

Upstairs vac - oooooh, get you, how posh.

Our upstairs is a single bedroom and bathroom, so a dedicated vac would be a little "de trop" I think.

I choose to knacker my back lugging the gorgeous Miele machine up and downstairs instead.

At least your back is knackered due to a gorgeous Miele not a slightly frumpy Morphy Richards! I'm going to win the vac version of misery top trumps here.

Given that quite a large proportion of our house is stairs, perhaps a lightweight cylinder would be less effort overall.

Do you have a cat or a dog?If so I wouldnt bother with a cylinder they are crap at picking up the hairs.

No pets at the moment but if we get a vac which lasts more than 5 minutes it's possible we might get one during it's lifetime, I have noticed the cylinder Miele does come in a specific cat and dog model (not that I've been googling Mieles instead of trying to fix the current model).

I'm not entirely sure I can justify the £300ish the uprights seem to cost but then I must have spent around that much on a series of cheap, crappy vacs over the last 10 years. January sales are quite soon....

Tried it again today and no smell so I guess it was just wearing in. It is probably wrong but I'm now kind of hoping for a breakdown so I have an excuse to get a Miele!