Dirt Devil Jag3 Vacuum Repair

[A8t0n]

Hi All!

I am hoping for some help with repairing my Dirt Devil Jag3 canister vacuum. I was getting poor blower performance and was able to troubleshoot it down to a faulty speed or power control. The speed or power is controlled by a slider potentiometer which influences how much voltage is sent to the motor/blower. However, I don't know much about slide potentiometers. I would like to replace the defective pot with a proper resistor that will let the vacuum operate at almost full power as that is where we left the slider setting most of the time anyway. I am assuming (correct me if I'm wrong) that when the slide pot was at the "max power" or lowest resistance setting, there was still some residual resistance, and that is what I would like to duplicate with a standard resistor. I don't want to just short out the pot and take the chance of letting the smoke out

Markings on the slide pot: NGWH501-470k-A
Voltage measured when vacuum is turned on at the wires going to the pot (pot removed): 102 VAC

Any help on understanding what resistor and power rating would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Andrew.

 

[Martaine2005]

Hi A8ton,
I would like to say that you can simply wire the motor direct. And avoid the pot. However, isn't Swiss Voltage 240v?

Martin

 

[A8t0n]

Hi A8ton,
I would like to say that you can simply wire the motor direct. And avoid the pot. However, isn't Swiss Voltage 240v?

Martin

Thank you for your reply. If everyone is pretty sure I would be safe to simply short out the previous pot leads without a resistor, then I will. Swiss Voltage? In Canada the wall voltage is 110-120 60hz. However in the vacuum, the brain board is only sending 102 VAC to the pot.

 

[Martaine2005]

Swiss Voltage? In Canada the wall voltage is 110-120 60hz

Lol, Sorry, My mind was clearly elsewhere! Canada looks nothing like Switzerland..
I think the main board has some rectification going on. I do believe that you can still connect the motor directly across the points where the pot was. That will give you full power..

Martin