How to Refurbish a Vacuum Cleaner - Dyson

Hi, I'm Josh from eSpares.

This is a Dyson DC04 vacuum cleaner, it's one of Dyson's earliest vacuum models and this one is about eight years old. It looks to be in generally quite poor condition and when we tested it earlier we found that its efficiency has dropped quite considerably.

So we are presented with two choices, we can either replace the vacuum with Dyson's current equivalent model, or we can refurbish this one to get it back up to as near to its original level of efficiency as we can.

Now, here I have eight spare parts for the DC04. As you can see, they are a different colour, a couple of them are a different colour to this one and this is actually indicative of the age of the machine, because although we can get the spare parts, they're not necessarily the same colour. It's interesting to note that the total cost of all the spare parts amounts to about one third of the cost of the new Dyson vacuum, so it's well worth performing the repair and it also means that if it works you're not having to get rid of a perfectly reliable machine that's lasted you for eight years.

Before we perform any repairs or replacements, obviously make sure your machine is unplugged.

The first thing we're going to have a look at is the filters. Okay, so first I'm going to take a look at the post-motor filter, the reason I'm looking at the filters to begin with is because these are the parts of the vacuum that are supposed to be cleaned or replaced every six months. So, let's take a look inside, wow, as you can see this filter is absolutely filthy. Looking at it, it looks like it hasn't been replaced at all throughout the course of the vacuum's life. If we turn it over, you can also see some black dirt on the top, which would indicate that it's no longer efficiently removing dirt from the air flow.

If I compare the colour of the old filter, with the colour of the new one I'm going to be replacing it with, you can see there's quite a stark contrast between the two. Now, if I just pop that to one side, before I put the new one in I'm going to clean some of the dirt out of the filter cavity, now that's looking a lot better I can just drop the new one in.

Now let's have a look at the pre-motor filter. Okay so this one doesn't look to be as bad as the post-motor filter was, but it is still quite stained, carrying a lot of dirt in it. We could just clean this but judging by its current condition, I think we're going to go ahead and replace it with a new one, so we'll pop that in the top there.

Also I'm going to have a look at the canister. The canister doesn't appear to be broken in any way but it is very dirty and very scratched as well, which is going to make it quite unhygienic and also you can't really see through the plastic to the inside of the canister very well, so again I think we're going to go ahead and replace that with a new one. Before I do, I'm just going to get rid of some of the caked on dust off the cyclone unit, there we go, just pop that to one side and here's my new replacement canister, just pop that to one side as well.

Now I'm going to turn the Dyson round and take a look at the wand and hose on the back. Okay, so this is the part of wand where the crevice attachment tool is held on, here, but as you can see there's quite a large chunk of plastic that's just broken off so that tool isn't going to be held in place at all. Also the top of the handle has broken away and been taped back on, so definitely a new wand is required there.

Looking at the hose, it appears to be in generally good condition, except for I've just noticed a tear here at the top. A tear in the hose is going to cause a huge loss of suction and a massive drop in efficiency in your machine. A new hose is definitely required as well. We can replace the hose and the wand together, I'll just pop that down and release this button at the bottom of the hose and pull it out, here I have my replacement wand and hose and I'm just going to pop that in the top there. Now, when you first put the wand into the hose it might be quite stiff so you might need to use a bit of force to get it in, like that, and now this can be replaced back on the machine.

Now I'm going to turn the Dyson onto its front and we'll take a look at the brush bar and sole plate underneath. I'm just going to move this back to give myself a flat surface to work on.

The sole plate seems to be in generally good condition, except for this roller here, this roller's not turning at all. If you have a laminate floor or a wooden floor, that can leave some pretty deep scratches in it, so we're going to go ahead and replace that. Let's unlock the sole plate, I'm just using a penny but you can use a flat head screwdriver and we'll take a look at the brush roller underneath. Now, the brush roller is in fairly good condition, there's a lot of hair and carpet fibre wrapped round it, which is quite normal but the bristles on the brushes are quite short. That's going to cause the vacuum cleaner to not pick up a lot of the debris that's on the carpet, so we're going to go ahead and replace the brush roll I think.

The belt here, that's quite tight and that's good, we need the belt to be tight against the brush roll so that it actually turns properly. This is a clutched model of Dyson, if the belt on your vacuum is clutched and you need to replace it, you can see another eSpares video on how to do that. So, let's go ahead and replace the brush roll.

Okay, now those are both fitted, I'm just going to have a look at the internal hose and that appears to be okay, no rips or tears there, as there were with the external hose at the back. I'm now going to take a look at this ducting at the back and that all looks okay as well, no blockages or cracks, and now I can fit the replacement canister back in place.

There we have one newly refurbished DC04. Now, I've also got some attachments for it because this Dyson didn't actually come with any attachment tools, so I'll just pop those in there. If you're experiencing motor problems with your Dyson, you can also fit a new motor and the great thing is that even with the addition of a new motor and all the spare parts you've seen me fitting, it will still cost less than half the price of a brand new Dyson. You can actually fit most of the parts in a Dyson, most spares are available and it will save you money and also save the environment.

All these spare parts and spares for a range of other vacuum manufacturers are available on the eSpares website.

Thanks for watching.