However, as the pet hair, dust and breadcrumbs take their toll on your vacuum, you will find yourself faced with multiple maintenance and repair tasks like replacing a filter, swapping the battery for cordless vacuums, and perhaps vacuum cleaner hose repair.

The vacuum cleaner hose isn’t indestructible

Even though the vacuum hose is flexible and versatile, years of pressure and clogged debris might tear it at points or work it loose from the connection points. This is normal. The extent of the damage will determine whether you will simply replace the hose or do quick repairs.

A clogged or torn vacuum hose will either lead to lost suction power or put more strain onto your motor by forcing it to suck harder around the clog. The reduced sucking efficiency makes the vacuum cleaner less effective at cleaning hence forcing you to make more passes hence wasting time and electricity.

Read Also: Shark Ion Robot R75 vacuum cleaner review

Repairing your vacuum cleaner hose

If your vacuum cleaner extension hose isn’t too damaged, you can make do with some repairs and patch up. To accomplish this, you will need:

• Some talcum powder or chalk to remove the adhesive around connecting points
• A utility knife to cut and shape the hose
• Duct or electrical tape to repair tears and cracks
• A broom handle to straighten your vacuum hose
• A plastic adhesive (the kind that is easy to remove in the future)

Fixing a leak on the hose

Most vacuum cleaner hoses develop a leak towards the end. If this is at the point where the hose connects to the head or the main unit, a quick cut that gets rid of the damaged area will do the trick. Use your utility knife to cut around the hose and ensure that you cut the smallest section of the hose as you might want to do this again in future.

Once you’re done, use the talcum powder to wiggle the cut section from the plastic section. Reattached your crimped hose to the plastic connector, apply some glue for an airtight seal and reattach the hose to the vacuum head or main unit.

If your vacuum model uses a machine-fitted plastic connector, you won’t be able to use this repair trick. Your only solution will be to purchase a replacement hose compatible with your vacuum cleaner.

In cases where you can’t just cut off the faulty section, tightly wrap the electrician tape or duct tape around the tear or gash to plug the leakage. Apply a couple of layers to make a tight seal but not too much to make it bulge.

A duct tape fix will hold for a while but might work loos sooner than you think. In addition to this, it rarely looks very presentable. Think of it as a makeshift solution as you wait to purchase a replacement hose.

After using duct tape, sprinkle some chalk or talcum powder on the floor and vacuum it.

Replacing your vacuum cleaner hose

Most vacuum models will have some instructions on how to remove and replace your hose since the manufacturer understands that this piece will eventually have to be a replacement. Some vacuums will have you twist the hose in an anticlockwise direction to unscrew it while others just need a firm tug on the connector.

Before getting started, you will have to:

• Get the right hose for your vacuum model
• If your vacuum has reusable connectors, just buy a generic vacuum hose of the right diameter
• Get a vacuum cleaner hose adapter in case your vacuum cleaner won’t work with readily available parts
• Go through your manual and understand how to pull out the old hose and insert the new one

If the process involves loosening any screws, washers, or other small parts, be keen and ensure that you don’t lose anything. All these parts must go back in the right order to ensure an airtight seal.

This is very important in upholding the integrity of the vacuum suction effect your cleaner creates after the repair. Don’t forget to test your vacuum’s performance and look for any leaks after repairing or replacing the hose.

The post How to replace vacuum cleaner hose appeared first on Home Gadgets.

In time, we can be sure that eventually, robots can take over each chore needed around our homes.

There are many robot vacuum cleaners in the market for you to choose from and they all come with various standard and unique features.

Some have WIFI connectivity and allow you to pair them up with your smartphone to control them and monitor their progress.

With all that in mind, we are going to look at one of the vacuum cleaning robots that you can find in the current market – the Shark Ion Robot R75 vacuum cleaner.

Shark Ion robot R75 features

The Shark Ion Robot vacuum comes in an impressive design like some of the best vacuum cleaner robots out there. It has two side brushes and one big motorized brush at the center for cleaning out dirt.

This design is quite effective because it makes it possible for the Shark Ion Robot vacuum to pick out dirt even in tight corners and edges.

In terms of aesthetics, this vacuum robot is appealing to the eye with its black and matte grey finish with some hint of gold.

This vacuum cleaner works in a three-stage cleaning system, which involves two side brushes and a single motorized brush. The latter uses a helix pattern and high tensile bristles for the needed agitation on bare floor surfaces.

READ: How to replace vacuum cleaner hose

This makes it as efficient as some of the most popular robot vacuums like the Roomba and the Hoover Quest 800.

These brushes work together effectively to clean most floor surfaces that are bare. During the cleaning process, the collision avoidance system in this cleaner works impressively well though it kind of hinders wall-hugging for effective cleaning in the corners.

The Ion R75 can also clean carpets. But is primarily meant for bare floor surfaces, it will not be as effective on thicker carpets. It also features an easy to empty tray-type dustbin that has a big enough capacity to handle your vacuum cleaning demands.

Cleaning pattern

It has three buttons – the Clean button activates the set cleaning mode, which sets the robot in a random cleaning pattern until it runs out of juice.

The Spot button sets the robot to concentrate its cleaning mechanism on an area by maintaining a spiral motion. Dock, which is the other button sets the robot to return to its base for recharging.

To navigate around your house without hitting obstacles, the Shark Ion Robot vacuum uses proximity sensors, which detect these obstacles.

In addition to this, the Ion Shark 750 has WIFI connectivity and comes with a companion smartphone app on both Android and iOS.

The intuitive app lets you access the Clean, Spot, and Dock functions as well as scheduling features. Real-time status updates are not available though despite having an app.

Regarding size, this product might the shortest vacuum cleaner of its kind available right now. Standing at just 2.8 inches tall, it can reach beneath most furniture in your house.

Pros

Vacuum cleaners are known to be noisy machines but the Shark Ion Robot is relatively quiet. For this reason, you can use it and still be able to conduct other activities around your house without having problems with the noise.

Also, the Shark Ion Robot 750 with WIFI connectivity allows you to remotely operate it from your phone. This feature is crucial given today’s movement towards the Internet of Things.

It also has Alexa compatibility meaning you can use voice commands to control some of its functions.

Another reason that makes this product is the side brushes. They do a brilliant job in removing dirt from corners and edges.

Cons

Price is one of if not the most important consideration that any buyer looks at. For the Shark Ion Robot – the price is a bit on the higher end. This is because you can find some other equally capable robot vacuums at a significantly lower price.

If you have thick carpets that require deep cleaning then this robot is not the right choice for you. It only works best on lighter carpets and bare surfaces.

Battery life is also another concern given that some older robot models. This is given that it can last longer than the Shark Ion robot R75. Though it is still adequate to get the job done.

Verdict

Being the first product of this type from the company, the Shark Ion stacks up well enough against the competition. Though it could do much better, this product easily gets the job done. We should expect improvements in future upgrades if there will be any.

Performance is above average, and investing in the Shark Ion robot R75 vacuum cleaner won’t be an utter disappointment. You can check the price on Amazon, and if it is beyond your budget, you can get other cheaper and good alternatives.

The post Shark Ion robot R75 vacuum cleaner review appeared first on Home Gadgets.