The clear shroud covering the front of "hood" has two sheet metal type screws at the bottom in front of the brushes, these two screws also hold the little straight brushes ( one on each side) in place. I found one of these screws had broken it's plastic "socket" and was no longer applying any pressure to the hood, this caused loss of suction and would not pick up any water...You can test this by applying a little pressure to the "clear hood" after you have applied water and shampoo. You should immediately see water entering the pickup reservoir container. I removed the broken plastic "socket" and replaced original screw with a longer wood/sheet metal screw. I think this is a weak point on the cleaner and is easily broken by catching the front lip on any hard object. Hope this helps