Possible soleplate design fault on DC40 and DC41
Although the DC40 and DC41 are recent models of Dyson machine, and most are still under warranty, an alarming fault has been noted by a few people and the only answer is often a new cleaner head.
These machines have a central wheel on the soleplate that prevents the machine making too much contact with the floor.
That wheel and its little axle is known to disappear and the result is the cleaner head sticks itself to the floor like glue and the machine is very hard to push.
Here is a comment from an American reader here on Dyson Medic the last few days:
I work @ a doggie daycare we have two DC 41 vacuums and on both of them the center soleplate wheel gets worn out very quickly. So then the vacuum caches on every thing. It took a long time to find out where to get replacement wheels.
In the Dyson repair business, we don’t see too many of these new generation Ball machines just yet (they were launched in the States earlier so problems will start there), but I got one to repair today. The woman had lost her receipt and Dyson told her they wouldn’t honour warranty because of it.
The complaint? Sticking to the floor like glue.
The cause? Yes, missing centre wheel and axle again.
Now the wheel and axle itself are cheap to replace if you catch it early enough, but this machine looked like this:
On this machine, there was nowhere left for the little axle to mount to. The mounting had worn down.
A little investigation into what cleaner head parts are available revealed Dyson’s old trick: that worn part is not available on its own.
This means a new cleaner head at circa £65 had to be ordered in.
Now as these are such a new machine, one would imagine that the main parts suppliers wont be carrying spares yet.
However, a call to Manchester Vacs told me that they already keep the cleaner heads for these machines in stock. And they are selling. And the fault is always that centre soleplate wheel.
I’ll soon be stripping the old cleaner head down to take a closer look inside, lets hope there is not another woeful Johnson motor in there that proved so unreliable on the DC24.
Watch this space………
We have run with this already today after getting a DC41 in with a missing wheel. Here is the topic:
**Stripping Down a DC41 Cleaner Head: Brushroll Motor & Design Faults**
Proper DC41 cleanerhead motors are now available. See this topic on our forums: DC25 & DC41 Brushroll Cleaner Head Motors Coming! (Johnson DC771(2)XLLG).
Full cleanerheads can be had from here: http://manchestervacs.co.uk/Dyson/DC41-cleaner-head-assembly-920774-02
Part cleanerheads can be had from here: http://manchestervacs.co.uk/Dyson/DC41-hard-to-push-repair-assembly-923941-02
More on the issue here: http://dysonmedic.co.uk/dyson-dc40-dc41-dc50-hard-to-push-sticking-to-the-floor/
I’m in the US. it’s incredible how important that little wheel is. In my case I have never lost it; it simply seems to wear down after about three months. In the US, Dyson has sent me two more cleaner heads for free. They would work for a few months and then start sticking again. They have finally agreed to take the vacuum back for a full refund. problem is, when it works I like this vacuum. But I’m not sure I want to buy a big supply of wheels that I can swap out every three months.
Thanks for this really informative posting. It doesn’t solve my problem but at least I have quickly understood what’s going on.
Thanks again!
I have just replaced the soleplate wheel on my dc41. Ignore what you have been told that the only forward is to spend a lot of money on replacing the whole cleaner head assembly.
I simply cut a groove in the black plastic above one end of the axle then prised the wheel and axle out then pushed the axle with its new wheel (part no. DYS914892-01) back into position. A hot soldering iron closes the groove enough to hold things in place followed by a dab of glue, not too much or you’ll risk binding the new wheel. Obviously if the worn wheel and axle are not present any more then a mortgage extension is the order of the day!