Before you ignore this post on how to replace the carbon brushes on a motor consider this … most appliances have motors, most motors have carbon brushes, 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 any motor and will 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. 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.hamilton beach hand blender 59762 Get my posts emailed to you daily.oster blender 6806You were expecting an actual brush.  waring blender 800sThey don’t look like brushes.  oster blender model 6817 partsThe one on the left is a new carbon brush.   bamix gastro stick blender 350wThe one on the right is a worn carbon brush.ninja master prep professional qb1004 at kohls

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.   margaritaville 36 oz almond 1-speed blenderDon’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. 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 could be the 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!  Isn’t this the most exciting thing you’ve ever read about?  And you thought this was going to be boring.   I’ll be showing you how I replaced the carbon brushes on my Bosch Front Load Washing machine.  The technique will be similar no matter what the appliance.

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. 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.   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.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.