Grumble 47

The Dyson Vacuum Cleaner... 2006

Presumably Mr.Dyson has never heard from his customers about problems with their mains leads? I say this because the latest Dyson TV adverts state that, "The Dyson NEVER loses its suction". Well I wonder if he ever realised that his cleaners need to be powered from the mains supply in order to develop suction? I reckon that ALL Dyson cleaners, unless really big modifications have been made to the strain relief arrangements at the ends of the mains lead since I last saw one, will lose their suction. After some lead waggling, as occurs when the cleaner is used normally, the mains lead conductors fracture just where the cable goes into the machine. Getting to the connections is really quite difficult as one needs either a special tool or a specially shaped piece of thin metal to get the plastic bits apart. Once the cable has been re-fitted and the cleaner is back in business, only a relatively short while later, the cleaner will again lose suction. This time it will be broken conductors at the moulded-on mains plug. How does one tell where the break is?

Not one break but two easy ones inches from the rubber grommet in this DC04! I found the following to be a good guide. Measure across the Live and Neutral pins of mains plug using a capacity meter. This is really a job for a professional as capacity meters aren't normally found in the kitchen drawer! If you see a capacity of next to nothing (a few picofarad) the break is at the plug. If the capacity can be measured in nanofarads the break is at the cleaner end of the cable. There are other ways of course, but my method is quick. A gentle pull at the suspected damaged cable end should reveal an undue amount of stretching. Sometimes one conductor will be open-circuit and sometimes both. Signs of fault onset will be intermittent operation. A good cable connection will measure continuity of just a few ohms using a resistance tester. The problem of fatigue in appliance leads is not a new one. I clearly remember our old electric iron in 1949 or thereabouts having a complicated metal spring with moulded rubber sections at the mains connection. Maybe over the years the problem has been forgotten and the designers of such things now don't have enough experience of such things? Perhaps they do, but to cut a few pence off the factory cost, they just don't bother any more. "Out of sight out of mind", and anyway what would repairers do if such things were perfectly designed? I'm not grumbling about having extra work, just silly claims by people that ought to know better.

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