BigAl's musings: Russell Hobbs rant

I recently bought a Russell Hobbs Pet Cyclonic 1800 vacuum cleaner (model 13944).

It worked really well for a while, but then one day it started making a really awful racket. Being me, I had to find out what was causing the racket, so I stripped the machine (mistake I know - I should have just taken it back). I traced the problem to the roller brush, so I stripped that too. This was a bit more tricky, as the bearing shaft had melted into one of the end plates of the roller brush. However, a bit of coaxing, and I was eventually able to get the endplates off. What had happened was that hair (probably mine) had gotten inside the roller brush and wrapped itself around the shaft and the endplate. Eventually, there must have been so much of this hair that it caused the shaft to heat up to such an extent that

the hair melted into the plastic of the endplate;
the shaft melted into the end plate; and
the bearing no longer fitted in its housing in the roller brush.

It was the bearing rattling inside the roller brush which was causing the racket.

Hair melted into the endplate:

Where the shaft had melted into the endplate (this is the outside end of the endplate):

The bearing, showing clearly that it no longer fits in its housing (note the gap above the bearing):

Ok, so now I'd stripped it, so the warranty is no longer valid, so I thought I'd just buy a new roller brush. This was just the start of my nightmare.

First of all, trying to find the local agent was a mission all on it's own. The South African importer/distributor is Amalgamated Appliances and they do have a Website, the only problem is it's 100% flash driven so useless to me (I hate flash and refuse to install it). Through a service agent for another product, I managed to find the agent in my home town. He said he'd try to get it for me and let me know. Two weeks went by with no word, so I phoned again, and he said Amalgamated Appliances still had not come back to him. After another week, I phoned again, and he told me Amalgamated Appliances carried NO spares for this particular vacuum cleaner.

I thought, the Internet is your friend, so maybe I could source it from overseas. I spent virtually one whole day trying trace the roller brush for this particular machine, without any success. So I decided to try to ask Russell Hobbs UK directly.

Through a process lasting several weeks, I eventually got them to send me the roller brush. It arrived about two weeks ago. This is what I was wanting:

but what I got was the item on the box:

the turbo brush for the same vacuum cleaner.

Now what do I do? Of course I emailed them immediately, and a few days later, I received this reply:

Dear Sir

Thank you for your e-mail.

We note your comments and advise that unfortunately, the roller brush for this model is not available as a spare part. However, you may return the incorrect brush to our Service Department in Manchester where a refund will be processed.

We would also ask you to please contact the following regarding your vacuum cleaner:-

Amalgamated Appliances
P O Box 39186
Booysens 2016
Johannesburg
South Africa
Tel: 0027 (11) 626 3415
Fax: 0027 (11) 626 1782
Website: www.amap.co.za

Please note that this company is not a Service Agent for Salton but they do sell and repair products so they may be able to assist you further with your enquiry.

This really bugs me, as I cannot understand why the roller brush is not a spare part. The brushes do most of the work for the vacuum cleaner, and they must wear out with time.

Also, I have to return the turbo brush to the UK for a refund, but the postage from South Africa to the UK costs more than the turbo brush, and will I get refunded for that??

From the local agent's comments on Amalgamated Appliances, as well as the negative comments about them on hellopeter.com, I'm not sure that it's worth me wasting my breath and chasing my blood pressure up further by trying to contact them.

All in all, a rather expensive lesson...

[update]
I started a thread on a local forum, to test the opinions of others. Much to my surprise, a member of that forum offered to see if he could fix the roller brush. I took him up on his offer, and fix it he did, within a couple of hours too! He made a shim for the bearing, and then rebored the roller brush to take the shimmed bearing. What's more, the very kind gentleman refused to accept payment for his services. It's wonderful that such people still exist.

[update 2]
On the way to fetch the roller brush, someone drove into the back of my car at a traffic light.

This has become a very expensive vacuum cleaner...

[update 3]
One month after the roller brush was repaired (used four times), I decided to open the roller brush to see what it looked like. As I expected there was a build up of hair again.

Hair on the damaged endplate: