I've lost faith in Dyson. I had the original DC02 vacuum cleaner (the cylinder version, the DC01 was the upright). It was bloody bombproof. And very well designed. The neatest thing was the shape meant it could sit on the stairs. Well, stupid me, I really did abuse it and killed the motor sucking up piles and piles of plaster and brick dust do my loft conversion. I should have fixed it and put a new motor in it, but no, I was seduced by a shiny new DC08 "Animal".
What a mistake. I've lost count of the number of bits of plastic that have snapped or broken. It's had 3 motors (1 official from Dyson as part of their £70 fix everything call-out and 2 generic). It's had 3 sets of "lifetime" HEPA filters due to blockage. New bin, new cable and drum, new power switch, new nozzles, new pipe, new wheel. The only parts that haven't been replaced are the vortex and main chassis. The whole thing is currently held together with a large bungee cord.
But worst of all it's harder to use than the original DC02. Although it appears to have large wheels they offer almost zero ground clearance, so coupled with the titchy swivel wheel it constantly gets caught as you pull it over rugs. The mains cable is too short. It doesn't sit on the stairs. The pipe is too stiff. The accessory nozzles are difficult to take in and out (they were also mounted on a stupid clip on the hose than broke years ago - on the DC02 there was a compartment in the main body for the 3 nozzles).
The list of design flaws and quality control goes on.
Here's a typical quarterly service...
It has now been relegated to life as the shed hoover. A life spent sucking up animal ****, because that's all it deserves. It has been replaced with standard red HENRY which is just about a million times better (you can see him smiling smugly in the photo above). He recently survived a fall down to the bottom of the stairs. No damage. Motor still running. He was still smiling
