Inside a faulty Karcher window vac.

Mine does some interesting motor control at start up. Spins at low speed for a second or two and then rapid ramp up to full power. Not really sure why they do that, possibly testing if there is enough energy in the battery? It's long enough to be annoying when doing windows that I leave it running between panes rather than turning off to save battery. And it's a single green led, flashes to indicate charging/need to charge and solid for charged/running

Charleso

A nuisance to say the least.

Michael Thompson

Cost probably. It adds a messy stage to manufacture and they probably thought their seals would do the job. Deep lacquer is often used to waterproof outdoor display panels. The panel is mounted very flat and the lacquer is usually flooded across it to create a thick layer. It makes maintenance a nuisance.

Big Clive

Ah, interesting. I see AvE skipped the bit where he had a fight with the tightly clipped on plastic base too.

Big Clive

Just thinking about circuits that are used in damp conditions... Is there any reason why a circuit board and the components can't be covered in a laquer or varnish as a barrier to corrosion? I've heard of conformal coating, which Franlab talks about in her videos some times, which I'm guessing is the same kind of thing. I just wondered why Karcher didn't do something like that on this board and the battery contacts...

It seemed familiar and it turns out because my second favorite youTube person aVe did it <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPM90SxK4QE" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPM90SxK4QE</a>

Aaron Nadler

I was hoping for an explosion.

Mark Trombley

Great video Big Clive, interesting how they thought it was a good idea to seal all the bits that get hot in a teeny tiny box and never made any attempt to fit a breather pipe, you switch it on, the motor gets hot, battery gets hot, the air in the box expands rapidly, the pressure increases proportionally, this forces air out through the weakest part of the seal until the pressure equalises. When you finish cleaning, you switch it off, the vacuum forms in the sealed chamber which sucks all the moist air into the bit where the moisture shouldn’t be, rinse and repeat.. Unfortunately there is no cure for stupid, “bad Karcher”.

Even if it were electrically repaired, you had a preexisting problem with the seal which would certainly not be made better through the disassembly and reassembly process. Even if it were reanimated, it would be very prone to fail again in the same way. When it comes to watertight seals, anything less than perfection is probably not going to be good enough in a device like this.

Eric Stuyvesant

You can post photos under the Community area.

are folk able to upload pics on here got a stunning example of a "ce" marked psu

Many thanks for this, Clive. Mandy sat glued to the whole video with a huge grin on her face. Her replacement window vac is still going strong. It's a later model so it'd be interesting so see if there have been any improvements to the waterproofing. That said, water will always find a way I guess.

Some people would say that's half a job Clive, not me but some people 🤫

The Tinkering Shed

Was really hoping for a repair

Neil Tonks

I'll have to test what the running current is. I did consider reanimating it but it would probably just end up sitting around.

Big Clive

Its quite an interesting device. They are quite expensive too! I was really hoping you were going to try and clean the PCB and fit a new battery (or even the bench PSU) to see if you could have repaired it.

Jamie Cruickshank