Vacuum cleaner dirt sensor light

[Steve B]

I own a Hoover Wind Tunnel bagless upright vacuum cleaner (Model U6625-900) that is about 5 years old. It has a "dirt sensor" feature in which a light is supposed to glow red when the vacuum detects dirt in the carpet, and then change to green when the carpet is clean. Mine has begun to misbehave. When the vacuum is first turned on, the indicator light glows red (i.e. supposedly detects dirt) for 5 to 10 seconds. It then switches over to green and stays green, regardless of how much dirt the vacuum is picking up. In all other respects the vacuum works normally. The customer service people at Hoover could/would offer no other advice than to "take the unit to an authorized Hoover repair center", but this problem is too small to justify the expense. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who knows a fix for this.

[dougm]

Try cleaning the dirt sensor. It's usually located where the bag connects to the vacuum. Take the bag off and clean the inside of the tube that goes into the bag with a damp cloth.

Doug M.

[BigGun]

I have a similar problem with my Kenmore Whispertone Canister Vacuum power head dirt sensor, only the light on mine never goes to green. I replaced the bag, cleaned the filter and wiped where the bag connects to the vacuum (although I couldn't find anything that looked like a sensor. Any ideas?

[TerryHenson]

Do you think the sensor really helped tell you when or how to vacuum? What about the millions of people that don't have dirt sensors on their vacuums?

I would cut a piece of electical tape and stick it over the light.

[goldstar]

I agree with Terry. Our Hoover also has the light. It's a cute gimmick, but like the tachometer on most cars who really pays attention to it.

[gh0st]

Most of the dirt sensors in the Hoover vacs are actually a microphone .Yeah, my thoughts to when I first found out, The microphone picks up the sound of the dirt particles as they are bouncing around and get ready to go into the bag.I have seen where the microphone(sensor) had come loose,and I have also seen where it stopped working and had to be replaced.The PC boards on some of those units also go bad at times causing light to stay on red.