Your Sirena smells bad while vacuuming

A water vacuum should not smell: the water traps the dust instead of putting it back into the air, and that is exactly why you bought it. If it smells, there is dirty water standing somewhere. The good news is that the most frequent cause costs nothing to fix.

1. Water left standing in the basin

This is it in the great majority of cases. Water and dust left together even for a single night start to ferment, and from then on the smell clings to the plastic and comes back every time you switch on.

There is only one rule: empty and rinse at the end of every use, not tomorrow. Then leave the basin open to dry, don't shut the machine away damp. It is a nuisance at first, then it becomes a twenty-second habit.

If the smell has already got into the plastic, a wash with warm water and a little vinegar, left to work for half an hour, usually takes it out.

2. The scaled-up separator

The separator is what spins the water at high speed. A layer of dirt builds up on the vanes that water alone will not carry away, and that layer stays damp between one use and the next: it is a bacterial colony working in the dark.

It needs opening and brushing out. There is a purpose-made brush with the key for removing it, which costs 6 € and turns the job into two minutes instead of twenty.

If the vanes are worn or chipped and will not come clean, the assembly has to be replaced.

3. The HEPA filter

If you have emptied, rinsed and brushed everything and the smell is still there, it is the filter. It holds the finest dust, it gets damp, and it never dries out completely. A filter that has taken on a smell cannot be saved: you can wash it as much as you like, it smells again as soon as it warms up.

with the illustrated instructions

And the deodoriser?

A few drops in the water perfume the outgoing air, and ours disinfects as well. But it has to be said plainly: it is not the solution, it is what you do once you have found the solution. A deodoriser on top of dirty water covers the smell for an hour and fixes nothing.

If the smell is of burning

That is another matter altogether and has nothing to do with the water. Switch off and write to us.