There are numerous places to find parts for a broken vacuum cleaner if you have someone in the house that's handy enough with tools to take a crack at fixing it. The part that breaks on most of the less expensive vacuum cleaners is the drive belt. It's a rubberized belt about six inches long when stretched that turns the brushes on the bottom of the unit. When you vacuum over objects that don't belong in a vacuum cleaner like pieces of rope or the cat's tail and the unit jams to a stop, the burning smell coming from your vacuum cleaner will be the melting drive belt.

Fortunately, this piece of equipment is available in numerous locations, so many in fact that most likely your local drug store will carry them. They're cheap and easily replaced with a screwdriver and just a little bit of skill. For other vacuum cleaner problems, I suggest you go to a repair specialist, but for those of you ambitious enough to tackle broken things on your own there's a lot of sources for parts near you, in the mail and on the internet.

Always remember when you're buying parts for your vacuum cleaner that most of the parts you need to buy have to have been specifically made for your brand name and model. Except for the most basic of items like those pesky drive belts and most disposable bags, parts are not interchangeable between brands and also between different models in the same brand.

The first thing you should try is your local Yellow Pages. Inside you'll find listings for appliance parts suppliers. You'll have to call them individually to see if they carry parts for your brand and model of machine, but if not, they can probably order them for you quickly and easily. The second thing to try is calling the company that manufactured your vacuum cleaner.

If you live in the right spot they may actually have a parts warehouse with a retail section near your house. If that's true, they will tell you which part you need and also give you a few tips on making the repair yourself. Failing that, they'll provide you with local repair specialists nearby who can do the job for you. Finally for the Internet savvy, going online can overwhelm you with the choices and possibilities for vacuum cleaner parts.

You must search by brand name and then narrow your search to the particular model that you own and then you can order any part from their catalogue. You can do this direct from the manufacturer or you can deal through catalogue houses that specialize in stocking popular vacuum cleaner parts on a wide variety of brands and models.