Tearing apart my Miele S5210 vacuum cleaner
December 29th, 2009This is my vacuum cleaner.
Miele S5210.
It’s a Miele S5210. It’s a very, very good vacuum cleaner. Well, it was until the point that it broke! Actually I was somewhat responsible for that. For a little while now I have been restoring a car (OK, almost 6 years but I am nearly done – www.asciimaton.co.nz/pics). After weeks of filling and sanding of filler I finally sent it off to the panel beaters to be painted. This left me with a garage full of sanding dust. I swept up what I could the used the vacuum to clean up the rest. Unfortunately your average house vacuum isn’t really designed to handle lots of very, very fine filler dust. I ended up clogging it up and the motor stopped running smoothly and instead started stuttering. I needed to take the vacuum cleaner apart to clean it and remove all the dust so it would run properly again. What follows is the procedure I used to take the vacuum cleaner apart. I imagine the process is probably similar to other Miele vacuum cleaner models.
I was inspired to do this page after I found the following page online for a different Miele model (a Miele s300): http://www.sannerud.com/house/miele.html
You don’t need many tools to take the vacuum cleaner apart. Just a Torx T20 driver and a small flat screwdriver to push on the plastic clips that holds the parts together. All the screws used to hold it together are the same. The Torx bit shown here is actually a tamper proof Torx bit with a hole in the middle but it works fine on the screws. Click on any of the pictures for a larger view.
Torx screw and T20 Torx driver bit.
First unplug the vacuum cleaner and remove the bag and all the filters. The small silver honeycomb filter just clips in place. Remove this so you can then remove the lid.
The clips holding the lid on.
The lid just slides onto the hinges and two small square clips hold it in place as shown above. Depress the small squares and then slide the lid off the hinges.
Large honeycomb filter.
The large honeycomb filter is also just clipped in place. Carefully push back the two clips shown circled above and the filter should come out.
Rear plastic piece.
The plastic piece at the rear between the two buttons is also just held in place by clips. Brute force will remove this. Just yank it upwards and it will pop loose.
Removing the speed selector.
With the rear cover removed you should see two screws holding the speed selector part in place. Remove these.
Clips holding speed selector in place.
With the two screws removed the speed selector can be removed by pushing in the small clips that hold the front of it in place and lifting it off. This piece just contains the knob that controls the speed. The knob has a stalk that sticks down underneath it that fits into a selector switch on the electronics board.
Top cover screws.
The top cover is held in place with four screws shown, two at the front and two down deep holes in front of each button. Undo these then the top cover should lift off.
Electronics board plug.
With the top cover removed you can see the electronics board. It’s pretty simple really and doesn’t have much on it. The board should be free to pull off now. The only thing holding it in place is the connector shown above. Simply unplug this connector and the board will lift off.
Inner cover.
With the electronics board removed you should be able to see the screws holding the inner cover in place. There are three at the back and one in the centre as shown above. Remove all these screws.
Clips holding inner cover.
As well as the four screws there is a clip either side of the cover on the sides of the vacuum. You can simply pop these apart by hand then the inner cover should lift off. There is a small rubber hose that goes between the cover and the cord retractor mechanism which you also need to disconnect from the cover (it will probably just fall off anyway).
Inner cover removed.
With the inner cover removed you can now remove the motor (which has a foam pad over it) and the cord retracting mechanism. The only trick here is to unplug the connector that joins the two together.
Motor connector.
The motor and cord retractor will simply lift out. I gave everything a good cleaning to get all the dust out. I used my air compressor to blow it all clean. With all the dust removed from the motor I sprayed it’s brushes with electrical contact cleaner. I didn’t go as far as dismantling the motor itself (March 2010 – OK, I did eventually See below!).
Contact cleaner for the brushes.
The brushes are either side of the motor and I simply sprayed cleaner into the hole at back of them.
After letting the contact cleaner dry I put the motor, cord retractor and electronics boards temporarily back in place the tested the vacuum. You need to be VERY careful doing this as nothing is properly attached and there are exposed mains connections that will bit you it you touch them (don’t ask how I know). Also the vacuum motor is extremely loud when not encased in plastic!
Once everything was cleaned and working again reassembling the vacuum cleaner is basically the revers of taking it apart. Make sure you reattach the small rubber hose and also make sure the cord and plug are free and don’t get caught when screwing all the pieces of the case back together.
After my cleaning and spraying the motor with contact cleaner the vacuum is working nicely again. I know now I should really get a nice shop vac for cleaning the garage and leave the Miele for purely domestic duties!
I can really recommend these vacuums. They are good value for money and very powerful. And now, having seen how they look inside, I can say they are very nice quality too.
Update March 2010.
I have had a few people comment that this page was useful so I decided to post the second part of my vacuum cleaning story in case people find this further detail helpful.
My cleaned up vacuum worked well for a little while but then the motor started stuttering again until eventually it stopped running altogether. Another tear down was in order. This time right down to the motor itself. Again the nice design of the Miele made this an easy job to tackle.
First you need to remove the motor from the vacuum as described above. Then carefully tap off the metal shield on the end of the motor exposing the blower fan. Next remove the nut holding the blower fan in place. Now it was a few months ago that I did this but from memory the nut is a reverse threaded one, i.e. turn it clockwise to undo it. This allows you to pull off the aluminium blower and the flat spacer washer.
Nut and blower removed.
Next you can lift out the two carbon motor brushes. These are simply held in with spade connectors so you can just pull them straight out. In the picture below you can see the female spade socket on the face of the stator housing.
One brush already removed. The other still in place.
The brushes are nice and long so should last a very long time.You can see the long male spade connector on the bottom of the brass housing. You can also see how despite my previous cleaning this brush is still covered in sanding dust. If I didn’t mention it above I should say don’t sand filler off a car (http://asciimation.co.nz/pics/page18.html) then use this vacuum to collect the dust!
Nice brush. Boom! Boom!
With the brushes removed (and cleaned up with electrical cleaner) you can remove the stator. There is a metal spring clip that holds it in place. If you press this down the stator should then slide out.
Spring clip holding stator down.
The electronic controller is attached to the stator and will come put with it. You can see the top of a TO220 type device sticking out of the top of the plastic housing. We get to that in a minute. The inside of the stator and housing were both covered in the sanding dust so I cleaned these up as well.
Stator removed. Note the electronics are still attached.
Next you can carefully pull out the rotor. This has bearings on each end and the lower bearing is a press fit into the housing. You need to carefully pull this out. The rotor will come out in one piece. Be careful not to lose the little flat spring washer though.
Rotor removed.
The observant of you will probably have noticed one of the problems with the motor. The commutator on the end of the rotor, that ring of copper strips the brushes rub against, are filthy and scored. To fix this I carefully mounted the rotor in my mini-lathe. You only need to grip it very lightly in the three jaw chuck. I made sure it was running true and turned it on. I then used some fine wet and dry sandpaper folded into a long strip to carefully sand down the commutator.
Rotor mounted in lathe.
I didn’t try to get the commutator perfectly smooth as I didn’t want to sand too much away. It still has a few small scores around it but it doesn’t need to be perfect. The deep scoring is actually where the edges of the brushes are in contact with the commutator so the brush is in contact with smooth copper on most of it’s face.
Commutator after sanding.
Next I cleaned up the aluminium blower which was quite clogged with dust. A bit of electrical cleaner and a poke around the fins with a long cable tie did the trick.
After doing all this and cleaning everything to remove all the dust I reassembled the motor. Since I had given it a good clean with electrical cleaner I left the motor on top of my dark coloured garage roof to make sure it was fully dry before trying to run it again. I wanted to make sure all the cleaner had evaporated out of the motor and windings.
Unfortunately after putting it back in the vacuum cleaner and reassembling everything (with a little Loctite around the rotor bearing where it pressed into the housing) the motor was still dead! I had to take it apart again. This time I removed the motor, opened that up and removed the motor electronics. Again thanks to nice design this module just unclips since it is held in place with spade connectors.
Motor electronics.
The electronics on the motor are incredible simple. Basically it’s just a TRIAC and what I think is a thermal cutout device.
TRIAC and thermal cutout thingy?
About now the problem was pretty obvious. This TRIAC was burned out! A close inspection and a little prodding showed that TRIAC was burned out. Two of the legs were not even connected to the body anymore.
Well there’s your problem!
I am not sure why this happened. I am guessing a combination of a badly connecting and arcing commutator and a motor clogged with sanding dust ended up cooking things. The TRIAC itself is a T2550h 600T which is a 25 amp TRIAC. These are available in NZ but not from the easy places like Jaycar or Dick Head Smith (who don’t really do electronics anymore despite their name). You can probably get them from the bigger suppliers like Farnell or RS but they would cost a bomb and you might not be able to buy just one. So I looked on eBay and found someone in the UK sells them for just a couple of quid. I ordered one of them.
This is the data sheet for this particular part: http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datasheet/stmicroelectronics/6697.pdf
Once that arrived a week or so later it was a simple matter to unsolder the dead part and solder in the new TRIAC. I reassbmbled everything again (after this many time apart you get good at this bit) and finally everything was working again!
All that was actually done several months ago and the vacuum cleaner is still working happily now. I know these things aren’t supposed to be customer serviceable but it is nice to see that they are engineered in a way that means a customer with the right skills can successfully get in there and fix things.
January 5th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
Hey Simon,
This dude is trying to get into contact with you.
March 10th, 2010 at 9:51 am
Hi
I found your site too late (it’s already in bits.I also went a step or 2 farther mine had done slightly more than complain a little and I believe the speed controller is toast. I did strip the motor to clean it I also took readings across the coils which gave readings of 4-10 ohms on the rotor the 2 out side spade connectors and 67ohms on the stator I’ve yet to prove the motor ok but it fits with what i would expect.I now wait for the spare to arrive £60 so an expensive lesson
March 21st, 2010 at 11:43 am
Spot on. Had been looking for a while and only found your site today. Followed it to the letter and turns out that the underside of the on/off button had been damaged and wasn’t making contact with the switch underneath. Thanks to you, we are leaving the button switched on and will use the plug to switch it on and off – until we get the new part. Thanks for your endeavour in putting the detail up on the net.
March 27th, 2010 at 11:10 pm
Thanx for the efford. It helped me pull my machine apart and I found out, that my cord retractor has been broken and I don’t seem to be able to fix it – but your site helped me pull the stuff apart.
/NIP
June 16th, 2010 at 10:30 am
The reason for the legs having broken off the triac body is likely to be the years of exposure to vibration whenever the vacuum cleaner’s motor was running. To solve this, glue the body of the triac down so it can’t vibrate. Use Ados F2 or neutral cure silicone sealant.
October 19th, 2010 at 9:45 pm
Miele vacuums suck
Actually they don’t suck at all
Volta lastest me 14 years
Miele lastest me 14 months
Now Miele doesn’t want to honour the warranty
After sales service stinks
You can’t complain about it because there is no after sales service
Trust me DO NOT buy Miele
Miele technician is claiming that the vacuum was used without a bag ( even I showed them the genuine bags purchased from Godfreys ) there is excessive dust in the motor and has failed?
My question is that vacuum does not seal correctly because we only use it in the house
now they shrug their shoulders
“sorry can’t do anything more”
October 19th, 2010 at 9:50 pm
PS the notes and instructions in your website are very thourough. Better than a genuine instruction/workshop manual.
Great work
October 20th, 2010 at 7:51 am
If you are in New Zealand I would say you can ask them to sort it out under the consumer guarantees act.
http://www.consumer.org.nz/reports/consumer-guarantees-act/putting-it-right
14 months for a vacuum cleaner doesn’t sound fit for purpose to me!
November 10th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
This was a great help. I had the same problem, bag burst then after time vacuum became so noisy I thought the bearings had gone, eventually it died. I pulled it apart, inspected the TRIAC, and sure enough the solder on one leg had melted and there was a dry joint. I tested the TRIAC, which tested OK, so re-soldered it, cleaned up the dust, cleaned out the inside of the fan blades that were clogged with compacted dust (dust was like hardboard), and walla!! it goes and sounds just like new!!!! To test TRIAC follow instructions at the end of this article http://www.ab.com/support/abdrives/documentation/fb/1012.pdf
PS, id recommend the more expensive Miele dust bags. It was a cheap bag that burst. The Miele bags are way stronger and they hold at least twice the dust before loosing suction power.
January 20th, 2011 at 1:11 pm
Excellent write up…I was able to take my Callisto apart to do some preventative maintenance. And didn’t break anything in the process. I wasn’t expecting to see such complexly molded parts after taking apart my old (spare) Eureka the weekend before but I guess that’s what separates a cheaply made vac from a well made one.
February 28th, 2011 at 1:47 pm
Great help when one of the lid hinges slipped off. Your step-by-step pics and instructions saved the day. It’s always simple when you know how.
April 30th, 2011 at 12:20 am
Just wanted to clean out all that brick dust out of my S5210 after demolishing a chimney. (New house in French countryside). Your site was EXACTLY what I was looking for. Excellent work.
April 30th, 2011 at 11:54 am
Glad to help!
July 6th, 2011 at 6:19 am
Hi,
Thanks for the write up and pics. I’m up to the part on the motor where I turned the nut clockwise, removed the blower… now how do I separate the two white plastic housing parts? The part right under the blower, is it being held together by force or something else? How did you separate them?
Thanks.
July 6th, 2011 at 7:18 am
I guess it’s held together by force
I took the motor apart and found that the part that’s causing the noise, the reason I am doing this, is coming from the press-fit bearings at the bottom of the rotor. How do I lubricate these sealed bearing to keep it from sounding like a jet?
July 15th, 2011 at 12:53 am
great thread mate thanks a million. i pulled my miele to bits and couldnt find an obvious problem, so pulled the motor apart too and it turns out the bottom bearing on the rotor had collapsed and barely let it turn. stuffed if I can find where to get a replacement bearing, you wouldnt have come across anywhere on your travels would you?
July 17th, 2011 at 8:29 am
Not sure off the top of my head sorry. Best bet is take the dodgy one to a bearing place and get a replacement off them. In New Zealand you could try Saeco bearings: http://www.saeco.co.nz/
They could measure it for you and find a replacement.
September 10th, 2011 at 11:02 pm
Thanks for the write up. Great work!!
October 11th, 2011 at 10:01 pm
Hi guys,
a question from the other side of the world…….
about the engine electronics, the other part, so not the Triac, what is that for?
I unoftunately trashed the motor of my vacuumcleaner (miele s5210) with it’s electronics still attached to it. While trying to get the bottom bearing off, I wrecked it I’m afraid.
I can get another motor (not the same Model) but it doesn’t have the same electronics in it’s connector.
It seems that if i just replace the engine with a non original it will blow the electronics of the vacuumcleaner as a whole.
Therfor I want to integrate a fine piece of homemade electronics into it and need to know the specifics of the other part showing on the pictures.
Anybody?
Kind regards,
Leo
Amsterdam
October 13th, 2011 at 1:01 am
Hi again there on the other side of the world!
Posted yesterday, but can’t seem to find the post.
Maybe I’, not allowed to?
Anyway, I”LL try aagin:
looking for the make of the “thingy”
I trashed the old 2200W motor because I wrecked it while trying to release the bottom bearing.
I can get a replacement 2000W motor but it doesn’t include the motor electronics. I found the triac (thanks for that!) but still need the other part.
could anybody………?! Hope so.
kind regards,
Leo
Amsterdam
October 13th, 2011 at 6:20 am
Hi Leo, sorry I have to manually approve comments and was a bit slow. I don’t know what the other part actually is. Some kind of thermal cutout I think. But I don’t know where you could get one from. If you’re replacing the original motor with a less powerful one then you might be fine using the old electronics? I’m not really an expert but a TRIAC rated for the more powerful motor will certainly be fine for the lower powered one I think.
October 25th, 2011 at 8:58 am
Thank you so much mate!! Brilliant step by step guide. I’m a total washout at DIY which makes it even more impressive!! I was able to take the hoover appart and repair a frayed power cable. The hoover is working as good as ever!! Saved me buying another hoover. Well done!!
November 2nd, 2011 at 12:56 am
Great page!
Well, my broken one is a german model s536. I guess carbon brushes are gone (11 years old). I could disassemble it but don’t know how to get to those brushes, it seems the motor is a little different. Beside the fact i cannot get Miele parts here in Brazil. My wife will go to Germany soon and will bring new ones. It will take a while…Anyway, thank you for your post, it is brilliant!
November 2nd, 2011 at 7:30 am
By the way, have you replaced your carbon brushes?
Thanks in advance.
November 25th, 2011 at 2:46 am
Thanks for a first-class tutorial on the Miele S5210. Well done, it saved me a load of time and effort.
My vacuum cleaner suffered the same fault as yours, and I have found out what caused it in my case. Taking apart the motor, I removed the triac PCB assembly. I noticed that one leg of the fuse had fractured, and there was evidence of sparking across the fracture. Prior to the failure, the vacuum motor had suddenly started making more noise, which turns out to have been due to the intermittent connection through the thermal fuse. After a few minutes, the sparking destroyed the triac and the unit died…but the thermal fuse was still OK! (apart from having one leg sheared off). I was able to repair the sheared leg and replaced the triac, and all is now fine and tickety-boo.
So the problem in this case was not poor filtering, but cracking of the thermal fuse, probably caused by the vibration. I wonder if the motor manufacturer ever assessed the thermal fuse for vibration susceptibility….
November 25th, 2011 at 2:55 am
By the way, the “thingy” is a Klixon thermal fuse, rated at 18A. It’s hard to find any equivalent fuses, because you need the high current rating, and nobody seems to make an 18A rated fuse quite as small as this one.
Here’s a link:
http://www.klixon.com/klixon/motor-protector-3mp-self.htm
November 25th, 2011 at 6:19 am
No, it wasn’t necessary on mine. I am not sure what would happen when that’s needed. I would probably try to find something similar (from a power tool repairer maybe?) and make it fit.
December 30th, 2011 at 6:27 pm
Gteat tutorial. Thanks for putting it together. I used it to fix a jammed cord.
January 30th, 2012 at 4:13 am
Thank you, Thank you. After dismantling the whole machine, the motor was still jammed,then I nociced that one of the screws of the motor cover worked itself loose ((????))jamming the blower. I replaced the screws and added lockwashers, cleaned the whole v-cleaner.Now we have a vacum cleaner! Thanks again, My Son in law almost threw the v-c in the garbage.
The most usefull article in the internet.