I have a DC14 which seems to have lost it's upright ability to pick-up from hard floors.
I have :
1) checked all the inserts for bloackages
2) cleaned the top filter
3) Untangled any hairs or threads from the rotating brush.
using the wand it seems to maintain good suction but not in upright mode.
I checked the short pipe which links the floating carpet section and this is fine too.
Q: My HEPA filter is dark grey/black. These are supposed to be lifetime but should they be replaced ? they filter outbound air, but I guess this also effects the suction power
These filters should be a foam. The dark grey/black is muck! You should wash out the muck under a running tap - wringing out the muck then dry the foam - Dyson recommend placing the cleaned foam _under_ a radiator (rising cool air ... ). Cleaning and drying the foam filters is a lengthy process It's possible to buy a spare/replacement filter foam and perform a quarterly/ six-monthly rotation.
Then the penny dropped. I bet the OP is talking about the washable foam filter as you say, and not the hepa filter. The washable filter has pictures of a water tap all over it;-)
I've never seen the hepa filter (which is after the motor) get any dirt in it, except traces of dust from the motor brushes after some years. This includes one Dyson which has spent 6 years sucking up plaster and brick dust, and still none has got through to the post-motor filter.
Rotating it a small amount will also extend time between washes - it tends to get dirty directly above each of the root cyclones, leaving clean gaps between them.
The DC07 and DC14 are pretty much at the limit what what will work with an extendable hose. The hoses are already quite hard to extend against the suction. There was a very noticable increase in suction in each new generation.
Does the hose bypass any of the filters ? (It doesn't appear to on my DCO1.)
When mine stopped sucking, I had to remove the base plate, and found the dust channel un underneath it completely clogged up. It was possible to see this past the rotating brush, but impossible to dig the blockage out from that direction. IIRC.
[Triumph of marketing, are Dysons. Sure, they keep sucking when the "bag" is half-full, but that's only about 2oz of dust due to the way it collects. My Vax is still working when the bag is half-full and that's
*pounds* of dust !]
Thanks for all the input. When referring to the HEPA filter I meant the filter which sits beneath the dust collection cylinder and filters the air on it's way out. I am rinsing through the top inbound filter which does get very dirty. Note: always dry these thoroughly otherwise the whole thing starts to stink.
Some posters correctly surmised that as both filters are in use in both upright and wand operation, then if the wand 'sucks' it cannot be the filters.
I stripped it down further. I think the problem is with the contraption which ensures the bottom of the cleaner is always parallel with the floor, and hence maximising suction. I cleaned the two side pivot points and rearranged the short clear hose which connects the brush head box to the main drum, which is disengaged when in the upright position. Seems better now
I'm still a bit surprised by how dark grey the HEPA filer was. The top is white but underneath is another matter and the chamber it sits in has a fine black coating, like powder paint. I guess this comes from either the motor brushes or shredding from the rubber belt ?
Are these worth replacing ?
Clearly Dyson evokes strong opinions but generally I like this cleaner and it imroves on a lot of flaws in the old DC01 I had, not least it's made of a different type of plastic which is less brittle.
well over the Christmas period I had the same problem again , so cleaned the whole thing . I removed the lower plate from the floating carpet head, and checked that the roller was clear of cotton, hair etc..
If you look at the Dyson DC14 from the side (also possibly other models), while it's upright you'll see that the floating carpet head should always be horizontally parallel with the floor or carpet. Mine was not , with the front down and the back up. This meant that no vacuum was maintained and the rotating brush never made contact with the carpet.
Either by accident or design (I'm inclined to think the latter) the white pipe which links the floating head to the motor has a secondary function. It acts as a tensioning spring to ensure that the lower plate is always forced down at the back (heel), opposing the normal drag force , down at the front (toe).
I found twisting the pipe on the housing where it clips on to the floating carpet head seemed to increase it's springiness. Eventually it resisted so the normal state for the plate is down at the back, except when the cleaner is in contact with the carpet. Then the weight of the creates an opposing force , and the plate finds a happy medium, parallel with the underlying surface. Phew !
The sound the cleaner makes now is different and there is noticeably more resistance on carpet. It picks up now too
So, if it's not picking up in the upright position, try twisting the position of the short, white hose underneath
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