Repairing my Miele White Star S300 I created this page because, much to my surprise, I could not find any information on the Internet for DIY (Do It Yourself) Miele vacuum cleaner repair. plenty of sites out there advertising repair services (more about this later) but nothing for the do itWell, here you go. I hope this helps others who are as confused about disassembling their Miele as I We have owned our Miele S300 canister vacuum cleaner since 1998 and I will admit that it has a hard life. My wife is a neatness nut. She is vacuuming constantly and she is not as careful as she should be with the machine, often bumping it and thumping it up and down stairs. Miele stands up to this heavy use and abuse day in and day out is a tribute in itself, and I would not hesitate to buy another Miele if this one were to someday die beyond my ability to fix it. The Miele canister vacuum cleaner is similar in many ways to a fine importedIt is expensive, it has superb German engineering, and sleek, sexy

good looks, and when it works, it works extremely well. Unfortunately, like an imported sports car,  maintenance is problematic. Parts are expensive and repairs, in addition to being expensive, seem to require long periods of time in the shop. This is probably why there are so many siteselectrolux vacuum cleaner z1200 listed when you Google Miele vacuum cleaner repair!cleartrak vacuum cleaner parts With kids in the house and the endless mess they generate, and considering that thevax bagless vacuum cleaner vczph1600 zen powerhead cylinder vacuum cleaner is my wife's favorite appliance, we cannot afford to be without the Miele for an hour, let alone a week or two, and buying a second vacuum

cleaner kind of defeats the purpose of having the expensive Miele in the first Our Miele has been plagued over the years by a number of minor but annoyingThe cord winder recently broke (again) and this time I decided I wouldI have repaired nearly every appliance in the house at one time or another, so I figured how hard could it be to repair a vacuum cleaner? I ordered a new cord winder online from Potomac Vacuums and they shipped it to me promptly and free too! When the part arrived, I put the Miele up on my work bench (the kitchen table) little realizing that I was about to be humbled by the simple act of taking this Miele vacuum cleaner apart! After struggling with it for a while, I swallowed my pride and picked up the phone and called the guys at Potomac who walked me through the process. turned out that the repairs were surprisingly easy, but there is a trick to theWatch and learn, and then you too can repair your Miele. need is a Phillips head screwdriver.

any of the images for a larger view. This should go without saying, but the first step is to Next, open it up and remove the bag. Now you will need to remove the lid. There are white plastic clips on either side that you must carefully disengage by pushing them towards the center of the machine. Click the picture above and you can see that the right side clip has been disengaged. Once the clips are disengaged, the lid can be lifted clearNote the thin black plastic tabs on the lid that insert into slots in the body. Set the lid aside someplace safe where nobody will step on it. As an aside, I have twice replaced the dust channel, the fragile black piece of plastic visible at the top of the lid. Fortunately it is not a terribly expensive part and it is very easy to replace because it is only secured by Go back to the vacuum cleaner body. The next step is to remove the airIt is secured by two fairly obvious screws. These screws also hold

down the switch assembly, which we will remove in the next step. now, go ahead and remove the screws and lift off the air filter. aside where you won't lose it. Here you can see that the air filter has been removed and we are ready to remove the switch assembly. At this point the only thing holding the switch assembly to the body is the electrical connector underneath, and a plastic pin or two. Get a good grip on the switch assembly and lift it straight up with a firm but gentle tug. This is the underside of the switch assembly after it has been removed from the body. The white rectangular electrical connector in the center mates to the black rectangular electrical connector in the body, seen on the next picture. Put the switch assembly in a safe place until we reassemble the vacuum cleaner. Here we see the body with the switchThe next step is to remove five screws, one of which at upper left is hidden in a deep recess.

Click the picture above to see the location of these screws. The five screws have been removed. Carefully flip the vacuum cleaner over so that the black bottom and the wheels are pointing up. Here it is, belly up. Nothing is holding it together at this point, so just lift the entire base (the big black part) off and set itIt is not necessary to remove the rubber bumper that goes all the way around the outside of the base. As I learned the hard way, It is difficult The inside of the base is likely to be pretty grungy. could clean it up a bit with a damp cloth (I did), but there are wires in there so I wouldn't get it too wet.The Miele's innards are exposed. motor is at the bottom of the picture and the cord winder is at the top. Remove one screw securing the cord winder electrical connector and then disconnect the electrical connector. You may now lift out the cord winder I was also having an intermittent electrical connection problem which I thought was related to the

It turned out to be an unrelated problem with one of the electrical connectors in the center of the machine, pictured above. Part of the plastic clip designed to hold the connectors together was cracked. Unfortunately I did not have a replacement part, so for now I wrapped some electrical tape around the connector to hold it securely together. This seems to have done the job. next time something else breaks on this Miele, I will order this part too and replace both at the same time. Follow the instructions in reverse to put your vacuum cleaner I hope you found my little tutorial useful. I am happy to provide this information for free, so please do not feel obligated, but it does cost me money to maintain this I've helped save you time, money, and aggravation and you'd like to say thanks with a small donation, I really do appreciate it. November 2006 update: Thank you all for the many positive comments I have received

Two of the more useful comments included additional repairs that readers have done on theirOne described how to replace only the electrical cord (the wire itself) without replacing the entire, very expensive, cord winder assembly. The second was how to replace the motor. Note that I have not tried either and hopefully I will never have to, so I have no additional pictures, but I will include the written directions as provided to me in case others would like to save themselves some money. Let me know if they prove useful. Basic "My Vacuum Cleaner Won't Run" Troubleshooting Tips wire on the Miele cord winder -- thanks to Georgia B. the Miele motor -- thanks to Richard F. October 2012 update: Before you replace your cord winder like I did, read this! You might be able to repair your Miele for free. The most common problem with the Miele is intermittent or unpredictable operation. This can result in bizarre behavior, such as where the cord rewind switch seems to operate as the power