How to Get Inside a Dyson Airblade Hand Dryer
More and more Dyson Airblade hand dryers are now coming off PLC lease-hire from Dyson contracts and making their way into the general marketplaces such as eBay and private sites.
This also means they mostly are out of Dyson guarantee. But that isn’t a hardship, as some of the Dyson vacuum specialists have by now become familiar with Airblades, and can easily repair and refurbish them alongside other Dyson products they do.
Many non-trade enthusiasts are also starting to buy Airblades and are fixing them up as well. Indeed, we have one in our kitchen.
When you consider that a new Airblade is upwards of £700 in most outlets, a refurbished one with guarantee under £350 represents good value for the small restaurant, small business or even the home.
We at Dyson Medic are also now adept at Airblade repair, and have noticed over time that the only fly in the ointment is Dyson’s reluctance to supply spares for them. To buy spares for these machines from Dyson one must telephone them, give a serial number, endure ten minutes with a girl at the other end of the phone writing War & Peace on her computer “registering” it. After that, as long as you only want one of anything, they may decide to sell you it.
The difficulty the trade has found with Dyson’s Airblade department is that once they sniff that you are in the trade, they will refuse to supply you.
Independent dealers have even gone to the top of the tree to Mr Conze the CEO (Mr Dyson himself doesn’t seem to have day-to-day involvement any more it seems). After they were booted down to the B2B manager, they were told in no uncertain terms that Dyson will not supply the trade after-market with Airblade spare parts.
Indeed, all the big trade-only parts suppliers across most of Europe report that Airblade parts are “simply not available”.
However, as with the Dyson vacuum cleaner market in the past, capitalism and ingenuity does not cease in the face of commercial protectionism. Nor do closed markets of this nature tend to work for very long outside of North Korea. The used Airblade spares market is beginning to flourish, as is the grey import spares market, and we are reliably advised that one of the large manufacturers are about to launch after-market Airblade filters and other Airblade spares at great prices. So no worries on the filter front………
So the DIY Dyson Airblade repairer can look forward to spare parts for these machines becoming more and more available. Which in turn makes them a great thing to buy.
So, you have bought an old Airblade off eBay or someplace, and you want to take it to bits to see how it works? Your first job is to get the front off.
On aluminium bodied ones (AB01 in the UK and AB02 and AB06 in the USA and other markets) the front is released via Torx screws on the inner where you place your hands. Easy.
On polycarbonate-bodied (that’s plastic to the rest of us) machines, the screws to remove the front are hidden behind these two little covers.
These are your first stumbling block, because the temptation is to stick a small screwdriver or blade down the side of them and try to prise them out.
Whilst that can be done if you are lucky, often times it means the little covers themselves get all chewed up in the process. By way of example, here are some from my Airblade spares box duly chewed up. Yes, I’ll admit it…….
If you are really unlucky, it means you damage the front cover trying to get them out. And front covers at the moment are very expensive, even if you can persuade Dyson to sell you one, which you won’t anyway without the usual pint of blood and a twenty minute call while some girl re-writes Dostoevsky on her keyboard while you are on the phone.
If you are doing the job properly, get some new screw covers in.
What I do now is drill a small hole in the front of the screw cover. Screw a small self-tapping screw in and remove the old screw cover with a pair of pliers on the screw. This extracts the screw covers with no pain. And no damage to the front body.
Yes, OK, the screw covers are now scrap, but a new pair are only five quid with delivery, and that is cheaper than replacing a front cover. And if you are reselling the machine, a new pair of screw covers is a must anyway.
Having removed the screw covers, only Torx screws remain before you remove the front cover.
Duly unscrewed, it lifts out from the bottom and up off the hooks to come off. Then you see this.
Individual repairs and troubleshooting will be the subject of future posts.
Resources:
You can get reconditioned and new Dyson Airblades >>here<<.
You can get Dyson Airblade spare parts >>here<<.
You can read further Dyson Airblade repair topics >>here<<.
You can read other Dyson Medic topics on Airblade hand dryers >>here<<.
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Dear Dyson Medic
I am investigating a claim that a person sustained burn injuries to a hand when using a Dyson AB01/AB03 Airblade hand dryer. I would be interested to learn whether this is a known problem and what it’s cause might be.
Regards
Alan Alford
I don’t really see how that would be possible, Alan. The air is tepid at best and there is no heating element in an Airblade. If they overheat (due to a blocked filter say), they cut out. Even if the cut out failed, I can’t see how a burn injury could be sustained.
Sounds like someone who doesn’t know that hoping for some free money to me.
Hi guys,
We have an AirBlade AB01 and are looking to use it as part of an art installation. To do this we need to have the AirBlade working continuously without timing out or being woken up again by someone putting their hands inside.
We’re assuming the time-out is caused by the PCB but have no idea what to do to it to make it stop cutting the motor. Do you have any ideas or would you be willing to give it a go your end and tell us the answer? We’d be happy to pay for your parts/time in helping us!
Many thanks,
Matt
I have a Airblade at work. But it doesn’t turn on when I put my hands in it . But it will turn on for no reason when noone is present. can you tell me why?
I am having difficulty removing the two tork screws from the front of an air blade (plastic body). I have the original hexhead alan key but the bolts just continually turn and I am wondering if the nuts inside the machine are turning in the mounting. I have been able to remove the air blade from the wall as it is being relocated as part of the refurbishment and the wall has been demolished. Can you suggest how I can get these two bolts out so that I can remove the front cover and remount the machine. Thanks
What has happened is the inner cover that has the mounting slots for the captive bolts has cracked and is allowing the captives to turn. You may have to break the front cover to get it off and replace it and the inner one to fix this.
Just experienced the “cant remove the front cover fixing screws” problem. The screws screw into brass bushes that are pressed into the plastic body with no other anchorage than friction. So if there’s a bit of corrosion on the screw thread the whole thing just rotates and won’t unscrew. Fortunately my problem was one of the bottom ones. I unscrewed the bottom plastic grill and then got a pliers on the rotating brass bush.
To unscrew the front cover when the tork screws just spin around….drill a small hole in line with the tork screw about 12mm up from the join between the front cover and lower half ( the hole goes in the front cover).Drill until you hit the bushes and go in a tiny bit. Insert a rivet into the hole and unscrew the tork screw by hand. It works,I just did it. A friend of mine suggested it and it worked.