Why Is My Shark Vacuum Making Weird Suction Noise? Our Experts Explain

Published by Ahmad Jamal on May 14, 2023

Nearly every single Shark vacuum model produces a little sound when they’re working, however, sometimes the sound becomes noisy and weird, but you have no idea why or how to fix it.

Let’s all agree that issues happen, some of them occur due to pure luck, while others happen due to the lack of proper maintenance.

Either way, if you’re wondering Why Is Your Shark Vacuum Making Weird Suction Noise, then you’ve come to the right place.

In this CleanersAdvisor guide, we’ll discuss the causes of the weird suction noise it makes, and how to fix each one of these causes.

Don’t worry, we’ll even provide a video guide that’s not longer than 7 minutes,  to help you demonstrate the fix in a step by step manner.

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Why Is My Shark Vacuum Making Weird Suction Noise

There are few potential causes to why your shark vacuum making weird suction noise, and those causes include:

1. Potential Blockage

2. Dirty or Damaged Filters

3. Damaged or Dirty Brush Roll

4. A Broken Fan

5. Ungreased Vacuum Motor

There are other less-potential causes that may create the same issue causing your Shark Vacuum Making Weird Suction Noise, but they’re not that common so we’ll focus on the most common ones.

Following are the best fixes to each of these causes.

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How to Fix My Shark Vacuum Making Weird Suction Noise

Before diving deeper into fixing the issue when your Shark Vacuum Making Weird Suction Noise, make sure to disconnect the vacuum from the power source in nearly all fixing steps.

This will help you lower the risk of encountering any issues regarding the motor, the electricity, and will help you protect the vacuum parts properly when working on them.

1. Fixing the Potential Blockage In Shark Vacuum

A large buildup of dirt, dust, and debris can cause the blockage in multiple areas inside the shark vacuum, and thus block the air flow to the vacuum, causing the weird suction noise.

This may also occur when your vacuum has sucked in a large piece of debris, that may fully block the airflow and cause similar noise.

Since this is a pretty common issue, it has an easier fix.

Fixing it includes locating and removing every piece of dirt or debris that’s causing the blockage in the first place.

Start by removing the vacuum’s attachments, and search for blockage in every attachment, and in the vacuum head as well.

Once you find it, put on the gloves, and remove it accordingly, depending on where you found the blockage.

And to help you do this properly, we have a full guide on how to unclog certain parts in your vacuum.

2. Cleaning Dirty Filters Or Replacing Damaged Ones

The second most probable cause on why is your Shark Vacuum Making Weird Suction Noise, is due to dirty or damaged filters.

As long as the vacuum is running, the airflow should run smoothly through the filters with as little resistance as possible, to maintain the highest level of performance and the lowest possibility of errors.

However, if the filters are faulty or dirty, the whole system would not work as perfectly as we mentioned.

To fix that, you’ll need to check the vacuum’s user manual, and look for details on the filters’ status, where they are located, and if they’re washable or not.

Attend to those filters after you take apart your vacuum properly, then remove the filters and wash the washable ones with warm water, then leave them to dry for 24 hours.

As for other filters, remove the thick layers of dirt and dust yourself using simple items and as little water as possible.

When the filters are worn out, start looking for replacements as soon as you hear the weird suction noise.

3. Attending to The Dirty or Damaged Brush Roll

Similar to what we did with the filters, we’ll disassemble the brush roll and inspect it for damages or potential blockage due to dirt or debris.

If It’s damaged, start looking for replacement parts, as it’ll continue to produce such a weird noise until it’s replaced.

But if the brushroll is suffering from blockage, then read our previously mentioned guide on how to take apart different shark vacuum parts, and inspect the brush roll for potential blockage caused by dirt.

Once you locate it, clean it while wearing gloves, using cleaning items that suit the dirt/debris type.

A huge buildup of dust may not require the same items as a simple debris blockage that goes away by simply removing the debris.

4. A Broken Fan

Fans are a great component that allows your vacuum to operate for longer periods of time without the fear of overheating.

However, a broken fan means the airflow in and out of the vacuum is obstructed, and the potential of an overheating shark vacuum increases immensely.

Multiple things can cause a broken fan, dirt and dust accumulating on your fan can sometimes cause the breaking, as it’s a fragile component with a huge role to play.

Unfortunately, a broken fan can’t be fixed, you’ll need to replace it with a new fan of the similar model or another model that works fine with your vacuum.

5. Ungreased Vacuum Motor

Dryness of the vacuum metal components around the motor due to irregular or absent greasing can cause the weird suction noise.

Even if you don’t notice it at first, but the noisy weird suction noise will get louder over time, this is how you know it’s time to grease the vacuum motor to get rid of this noise.

Here is how you can lubricate the Shark Vacuum motor:

1. Turn off the vacuum and unplug it from the power source.

2. Remove all the vacuum attachments.

3. Remove the soleplate and locate your vacuum motor.

4. Lubricate the motor by using suitable oil for the job.

5. Make sure you’re doing it properly, not over-greasing or down-greasing the motor.

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Why Is My Shark Vacuum Making Weird Suction Noise? Video Guide

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To Wrap Up

Whether your shark vacuum making weird suction noise is making a huge mess of noise around the house whenever you run it or not, our CleanersAdvisor guide has helped you through it.

We’ve diagnosed the issues that can cause it, and provided you with a pretty detailed fix for each of these issues.

In case you had a similar experience with fixing such problems, tell us about it in the comments section below.