Fixing the BECOMMEND Smart Cupping Therapy Massager

This cupping therapy massager stopped creating a vacume. I will discuss how i went about repairing it.

Supplies

Small Phillips screwdriver and a straight edge knife for prying case open. Some rubbing alcohol or some de-greaser works even better. As well as some form of compressed air...this isn't required but does speed up the drying/evaporating of the de-greaser.

Step 1:

This device worked great but failed to create a vacume after a dozen or more uses. I wasnt sure how exactly the case was held together. I was hoping it to be tabbed and not glued. I was correct in that the case has multiple tabs holding it together and I was able to pry it apart with a twisting motion, using a short flat bladed knife. First one side then the next. Be carful not to slip or cut yourself. It may be a good idea to wear a pair of gloves for this part.

The first side popped apart with out any issues but the second side chipped. I may have pried up on the first side to far before moving to the other side.

Once you have all the tabs released pulll straight up on cover. There are alignment pins that will break if you try to hing open the top cover.

Once open you will find a circuit board held down by two short Phillips screws. This board has wires plugged into both ends. You will need to remove the back three connectors(motor, battery, and one other I didn't spend time investigating. They have a dab of hot glue over each connector to keep them from coming loose. Just peal this off. The front end also has a few connectors and a ribbon cable. I started taking these off but didn't want to risk damaging the ribbon cable so I stopped. These do not have to be removed anyway. Once the back three connectors are off you can hinge the board out of the way.

Once the board is out if the way you can pull off the clear suction line from the base of the massager and then remove the three longer Phillips screws holding the clamp that secures the battery and vacume pump.

The battery and pump have some double sided sticky tape on them to help seat them in position and keep them from shifting around. Once the three screws are removed you can lift this whole assembly out if the case. There may be a few wires or hot glue stuck, so make sure everything is free before lifting out the assembly.

Step 2:

Now to disassemble the vacum pump. First remove the pump from the assembly. It should be stuck in place by sticky tape. Mine has oily residue in places that was rather slipery. This I wipped down with rags and in places some rubbing alcohol. Once you have the pump by itself you can start to disassemble it as well. Mine came apart by removing three very long Phillips screws. Make sure you apply enough pressure to the screw heads to keep them from stripping out. Once they were broke free they came out rather easily.

Now pay attention to the order and even more closely the orientation of the rubber seals inbetween the vacum cases. They need to be reassembled the exact same way it came apart. Taking pictures as you go will help during the re-assembly process.

Compleatly disassemble the pump. It comes apart in sections. The last portion was removed from the motor by removing two short Phillips machine screws. This area had a bunch of oily residue and I am convinced massage oil made it passed the filter and clogged up/made pump unable to create a vacume.

Once all the pieces have been removed and layed out you can start the cleaning process. You do this by spraying everything down with a de-greaser and letting it dry. I blew the pieces off with compressed air to speed up the drying process and was imediatly able to start re-assembly.

When re-assembling make sure the black seal with the cups is fully seated into the "wobble plate" (that's the funny looking three piston piece that slides only the motor coupler). It actually worked better to seat these two pieces together before sliding them onto the motor coupler. Also make sure when sandwiching everything back together no rubber seals (rubber cups) are pinched

If you have access to a 4 volt power supply you could test the vacume pump before putting everything back together. But this is not required.

Step 3:

Reassembly is the reverse process and testing can take place before snapping the cover back in place. In fact I recommend testing unit before even putting the cover on.

I show where I did have some chipping of the case. This is unfortunate but better than disposing of the entire device. I am not convinced the this unit has the same suction as when new. But I was able to get it to suction onto my dry arm and hold itself without support rather firmly. I was told by the owner that this was not an issue as they never used it on max (#6) setting anyway. I didnt leave it on long but did creat a welt on my arm after only 20 sec. (The picture of this does not do justice)

Hope slthis help anyone having the same problem with their device. I would have to believe other units with the same function but maybe different case or shape could be fixed in the same fashion.

I would probably classify this repair as a 1 on a scale of 1-5, but maybe because the case has to be pried apart it could be bumped up to a 2.