Appliance troubles

We have an electric “fireplace” (in other words a pretty space heater that ads some nice ambiance—I know it’s not a real FIREplace, but we’re still going to call it one) in the living room.  I love to use it in cooler weather.  It looks nice, and makes the living room warm and cozy.  We’ve had some cool rainy weather this week.  It was 64 in the house when I woke up, so I thought today would be a great time to turn on the fireplace.  The pretty part of the fireplace turned on, but not the heat . I pulled it away from the wall, and noticed it really needed vacuuming behind there.  While using my beloved Dyson, I remembered the last couple of times I’ve tried to use the hose and attachments, it hasn’t sucked very well.

Since the vacuum is operating  fine for cleaning the floors, and Emma and I are home a vast majority of the time these days, my cold feet quickly prioritized the fireplace repair above the vacuum.   I’m pretty sure the switch needs replaced, so I took the fireplace insert out of the mantle surround and took it to an appliance repair shop before lunch.  The repairman agreed that it is probably the switch, and it should be an easy fix, and likely be around $20.  That makes me happy.

Now that we’re back home, and Emma is down for a nap, I turned my attention back to the Dyson.  When I was trying to use it earlier, I noticed that it would suck normal for about 2 seconds, and then would sound like it sucked up something huge and the sucking sound moved.  Upon further investigation, the suction was happening here at the top of the canister in a little little opening, instead of the hose?  Weird.

I checked the filters and everything was in place.  I did a quick google search to help me troubleshoot what could be the problem.  If the fireplace repair is only $20, we may be able to take the vacuum somewhere, but I’d rather fix it myself if I can. 

About 2 minutes later, with no tools other than my hand, this is found to be the root of the problem.  The gray elbow is part of the vacuum.  The ink pen, petrified french fry, and huge wad of hair were all inside that elbow, plugging things up.

Sure glad I didn’t have to pay someone to figure that out for me!!  How embarrassing.  Now to keep a super busy two year old out of this for a couple of days until the fireplace is fixed and back in place.