Hold on. WAIT right there. Before you ignore this post on how to replace the carbon brushes consider this … most appliances have motors, most motors have carbon brushes and the most common thing to stop a motor from working is worn carbon brushes.
If you know how to replace them you can fix almost anything motor and save hundreds of thousands of dollars in your lifetime. Total exaggeration in terms of money saved unless you happen to own a nuclear power plant, but I had to get your attention.
Changing carbon brushes sounds like something only a large man with a hairy belly would attend to, but trust me … no hair is required. If you can replace a battery in your smoke detector, you can replace a carbon brush.
Just to suck you in a little more, here's a list of things that usually have motors with carbon brushes.
What has a carbon brush?
- Power Tools
- Vacuum Cleaners
- Washing Machines
- Dryers
- Blenders
- Kitchen Aid
- and MORE.
Not all motors have carbon brushes that you can replace, but most of them do. And it really is as easy as replacing a battery. Or close to it anyway. That's another tiny bit of exaggeration but I can sense you need a little encouragement. It's way easier than getting rid of back fat. I can guarantee that.
This … is a carbon brush.
I know. You were expecting an actual brush. Surprise! They don't look like brushes. The one on the left is a new carbon brush. The one on the right is a worn carbon brush. It's like a pencil eraser that's been worn out.
A carbon brush is basically the "thing" that conducts the electricity to the motor. It actually conducts it through the motor's commutator, but since I don't care about that, I figure you don't. Don't worry about what a commutator is. Nobody knows and nobody cares.
Carbon brushes are built to wear down. If they didn't wear down, and they were constantly rubbing hard against the (nobody cares) commutator it would damage the commutator. Which is a bad thing to do even if you don't care about the commutator.
So carbon brushes are made of a material that is softer than the commutator. After years of wear, they end up being just tiny little nubs and need to be replaced because they no longer conduct electricity to the all important (but we don't care about it) commutator.
If the motor stops running, or the thing stops turning, sucking, blending or mixing … it's probably worn carbon brushes.
To replace them you need to do two things. You need to find out WHAT carbon brushes your motor takes and then you need to buy them.
You can Google your appliance and see if you can find the carbon brushes for your particular motor there, or you can call an appliance repair shop with the make and model of your appliance and have them look it up for you. Then if they carry them in stock you can either buy them from your local appliance repair shop or you can order them online. I ordered mine online because my appliance repair shop didn't have them in stock.
They arrived within 4 or 5 days.
So let's do this. Let's replace carbon brushes! Because it's FUN and we're FUN and everyone's here so we might as well! See? Isn't this the most exciting thing you've ever read about? And you thought this was going to be boring. Hah. I showed you.
I'll be showing you how I replaced the carbon brushes on my Bosch Front Load Washing machine. This is the machine I owned for 20 years and only replaced recently. The technique will be similar no matter what the appliance though.
Remove the motor. Sounds scary but isn't. O.K., it was a little scary pulling the motor out of my washing machine but now that I've done it I realize it really isn't scary at all and in fact I immediately felt superior to pretty much everyone else in the world the moment I did it.
Removing the motor from a hairdryer won't be nearly as scary.
Always UNPLUG whatever you're working on before you work on it.
I removed the back cover of my washing machine and located the motor with my eyeballs.
Any electrical that was attached to the motor got disconnected.
There was this little green wire ...
And this big plug of wires.
The inside of a washing machine and motor is filthy. Wear surgical gloves.
Once the electrical is disconnected you can remove the motor. This particular motor was held in by 2 bolts. One at the front of the motor and one at the back.
Loosen the bolts. First the one at the front.
And then the one at the back.
Now the motor will pull out with a little wiggling and work. It doesn't weigh much. A few pounds, so don't worry about that.
Drag it onto your work space and start looking for the 2 carbon brushes. I'm pointing to where the 2 carbon brushes are.
You can recognize the carbon brushes by the clips. This is what you're looking for.
Simply pull the electrical connection apart either with your fingers or with needle nose pliers.
The actual carbon brush is held in place by a small brass clip which needs to be wiggled out of its spot.
Then just give a little pull to pull the old brush out. Make sure you pay attention to what direction the carbon brush came out! It has a beveled edge and the new one has to go in the same way the old one came out, otherwise the brushes will be rubbing on the (we don't care) commutator the wrong way and won't work.
As a reminder, this is the old brush beside a new brush. You can see how worn down the old one is. No wonder it didn't work anymore. I wouldn't work if I was that worn out either.
Now it's time to put the new carbon brush in.
Just feed it into the hole you took the one one out of, making sure to put it in the same way. You can see I drew a picture with a Sharpie on my motor so I wouldn't forget which direction to put it in.
I had trouble getting it all the way down so I just used a bamboo skewer to coax it down.
Squishing the springy coil down takes some patience and fiddling. Just keep at it and it'll all go down. Then insert the clip into the slot.
Reattach the electrical clip.
And you're done. Now replace the other carbon brush the exact same way.
Drag your motor back to your appliance, in this case my washing machine, and put it back in place.
How to Replace Carbon Brushes On Any Motor.
Materials
- Replacement carbon brushes
Tools
- whatever you need to remove motor from casing.
Instructions
- Remove motor from whatever appliance you are replaces the brushes on. Make sure it's unplugged!
- This might require that you undo wires running to the motor and whatever screws or bolts that might be holding it in place.
- Locate the carbon brushes on the motor and remove their electrical wires.
- Pull brushes from their housing in the motor. Pay attention to what direction they are in. Carbon brushes are angled on the end and the angle needs to be in the same direction when you replace them.
- Insert your NEW brushes and then do everything in reverse to put your motor back together.
I don't know about you but I feel confident that I could fix pretty much any problem now.
Except back fat.
→Follow me on Instagram where I often make a fool of myself←
Edith
Hi Karen!
It was all your fault. And if you had been here I'd given you a hug afterwards!
While my hubby was on the other side of the planet a few weeks ago, the ice maker went out in our fridge. NORMALLY I would have called the repairman. BUT INSTEAD I followed my favorite Canadian gal's advice (that's you) and just gave it a shot. Well no, I didn't shoot the darn thing, I tackled the problem myself! I looked at Youtube tutorials, removed the ice maker, did some tests on it, ordered a replacement unit and installed it myself. I would have NEVER done this prior to finding your blog. You've done me so good!
Karen
Really?! That's great! I love these types of comments and stories. I'll have to do a post on them one day where everyone let's everyone else know about the things they've tackled because they now know they can. Good job! ~ karen
Magdalena
Thank you! This is sooooo awesome! These posts are what I look forward to in the morning and so I have these simple words for you 'Thank You!'. Very constructive information in this one but most importantly - funny, you are funny :)
Tigersmom
So this is what we end up paying $150 for a service call for.
NOT ANYMORE! Mooooohahahahahahah!
Su
rock on lady! thanks for sharing and inspiring us to not be afraid to give it a shot :)
Kim C.
Thank you! Great instructions and I like the clear, close up shots with each step. Gives me hope that I can now confidently take my crappy vacuum cleaner apart to see if the brushes are worn. If that's not the problem I'll stick it back in the closet and wait until you fix something else! I trust your advice and tutorials THE most! By the way, I can only imagine what work went into snapping the photos along the way. You rock=)
Grammy
" If that’s not the problem I’ll stick it back in the closet and wait until you fix something else!"
Karen, thank you once again for attracting such entertaining people to gather at your place. The comments are the other reason I come here.
Sally A
You never cease to amaze me! Thank you for the empowerment!
Laura Bee
Wow-I need to remember this! Thanks so much. Buying a new house with older Kenmore appliances & I know they last forever...but one day this will be useful. I feel better already!
Jake
Laura Bee, you have to know they will break down a week after you move in. Sorry :)
Laura Bee
Monday - keys
Wed - move in
Friday - daughter's 1st day at her new school
Sunday - new furnace
Haha. Still love our new home. Jake, not so much.
natalie
Somehow I now feel sorry for the commutators - they really got snubbed.
Sharon
Is there anything you can't do?
Karen
Hi Sharon. Math. I hate math. ~ karen!
Grammy
Sharon didn't ask what you like, Karen. You CAN do math, you just prefer to do other things.
Maura
Great post Karen! Are there always 2 carbon brushes on every motor?
Karen
Hi Maura. Yes. Always two (or more). ~ karen!
Grammy
I feel smug and I haven't even done it. Just knowing this is going to make me obnoxious for the next few days. Excellent tutorial and it makes me want to take apart all my appliances.
Pam'a
Oh, no need to wait. Next time you run into ANYBODY with ANYTHING that's not running, you are now equipped to stroke your chin and murmur, "It could be your brushes..."
Jane
Inspiring? Yes you are! But my question is this, how did you know to look for the "carbon brushes"? If there were 50 parts on that motor, what would make you think it was those specific pieces? I wouldn't have a clue what to look for. Have you taken some kind of class in the past?
Louise
Yeah, what Jane said! How DO you know?
Karen
Hi Jane. No, I haven't taken any classes. Whenever something breaks I Google and Google and Google until I've narrowed down the symptom with the possible causes then I go through the causes one by one until I've eliminated all but one. :) ~ karen!
TucsonPatty
"...having the courage to say What the hell...and giving it a shot." I love that attitude and I got me some of it this morning when I decided I could at least TRY to fix my car's rear passenger window that wouldn't roll back up. All I needed was a screwdriver to remove the door panel, thought I. Not so. I'm now afraid of breaking the 1994 plastic clips that hold the door panel on, and then there is all that electrical stuff hidden in there. I called my mechanic. I'm very proud of trying first, though! I googled and I tried. I replaced a seal on the toilet on Sunday, something I had to go to the third place to buy. It was a strange Kohler toilet part no one had seen before. All this to say - Karen, you are so very inspiring! Thank you for all your wonderful talent and can-do attitude.
Karen
Thanks Patty! At least you tried and were smart enough to say Uh oh. Nope. Better stop, lol. I've done that plenty of times. ~ karen!
Teresa Jennings Richardson
I'm impressed.
Barbie
My favorite line.... "and located the motor with my eyeballs."
You just amaze me!
Karen
No need to be amazed Barbie. Anyone can do this! I had never done it before and managed to do it on my first try. It isn't doing this sort of stuff that's hard, it's having the courage to say What the hell … and giving it a shot. ~ karen!
Rachel San Diego
There's another reason to read these types of posts-- I'm always convinced that whatever mechanical/electrical thing you blog about will immediately break in my home and I will kick myself if I didn't read your post! I'm now actively waiting for a time in my life when I will be trying to order a carbon brush online. This is a weird new problem to have. Karen, you give us weird new things to worry about! But then at least you tell us how to fix it. :)
Karen
I … I never thought of it that way, lol. I apologize. :) Here's hoping neither one of us has to fix anything ever again. (as if) ~ karen!
chris aka monkey
karen i read all of your posts you never know when you might need to use some of your tuts..i even read the garden ones and we didn't have a garden this year...you amazed me xx
Tracy Nanette
Impressive!
Let me know when you get to ride on lawnmowers. :)
Laura
Ah, you need to rename the blog: "The Art of Revealing the Secrets of the Universe"!
Rondina
This totally makes me want to take my blender apart.
chris aka monkey
see rondina wants to take apart her blender you should be a motivational speaker for the irs everyone would pay their taxes on time ha ha xx
Karen
LOL! That's just great, but who's gonna motivate me into getting my taxes done on time?? I'm too busy taking motors apart and such to do something as unimportant as taxes. ~ karen!
Pam'a
You could offer to change a tax prep person's brushes... ;)