Defective Devices - Faulty Flex

This flex was removed from a vacuum cleaner, having failed internally.

The Video

Two Cores

This flex is two core, and was used on a vacuum cleaner.

The fault became apparent after a few months of use, when in some positions the cleaner would not work at all, yet by moving the flex slightly, it would work properly.

This type of fault is fairly common with vacuum cleaner flexes, as they are easily damaged by being trapped under doors or against the edges of furniture.

Defective from New

However in this case, the defective section was close to the handle of the vacuum cleaner, and the outer covering of the flex did not show any signs of damage at all.

When cut open, the neutral conductor had totally burned through, yet the adjacent line conductor was undamaged. It is very likely that the neutral had some defect or damage when it was manufactured, creating a weak point in the conductor which subsequently overheated and failed.

The damaged section was cut out and the flex reconnected.