Your interior cleaning gun stopped working? Here's the most common UraGun failure

Your gun stopped spinning, lost power or started sputtering? Don't order a new one yet.

The good news: in most cases you can fix it in a few minutes. Using the UraGun air-powered interior cleaning gun as an example, we'll walk through the most common failure and show you how to avoid it going forward.

Why does the gun stop working?

Based on service requests, about 9 out of 10 cases come down to improper maintenance, not a factory defect.

After interior deep cleaning, a lot of people just dunk the whole gun in a bucket of water to rinse it off fast.

That's where the trouble starts.

Water gets inside the spinning mechanism, gradually washes the grease out of the bearing and starts corrosion. Over time the bearing seizes up and the turbine loses its free spin.

Important! If the gun starts spinning slower, don't force it and keep working. The sooner you service the mechanism, the better your chances of bringing it all the way back.

How to fix your UraGun yourself

You'll need very little:

• penetrating lubricant or WD-40
• motor oil (5W-30, for example
• a few free minutes

Step 1. Remove the rust

Apply WD-40 or a similar penetrating lubricant right onto the bearing. Give it a little time to work, then gently work the mechanism until it spins more freely.

Step 2. Lubricate the bearing

After cleaning, always add a few drops of motor oil.

Regular 5W-30 or similar works fine.

One important detail: don't submerge the bearing in oil. Excess lubricant will sling out of the mechanism during use, and that only makes things worse.

How to keep it from happening again

Proper maintenance takes less than a minute, but it adds a lot of life to your gun.

After every interior deep cleaning, just do three simple things.

• Rinse the protective housing under running water
• Blow it out with compressed air
• Store the gun dry

That's exactly what the UraGun instructions call for.

The mistake that kills the gun

Never dunk the gun all the way into a bucket of water.

Rinse it that way and water gets into the bearing, washes out the grease and eventually corrodes the spinning mechanism. On the outside the tool looks clean, while its main working part slowly falls apart inside.

Bottom line

If your UraGun starts acting up, don't rush to replace the bearing or buy a new gun. In most cases it's enough to clear the corrosion, re-lubricate the mechanism and service the tool properly from then on.

Rinsing it under running water and blowing it out with air works far better than dunking it in a bucket, and those few seconds of maintenance are usually what determines how long your air-powered interior cleaning gun lasts.