Author Topic: Quick question about beater bar/brush roller (Read 6243 times)

ribblefizz · « **on:** July 27, 2014, 08:21:41 pm »

Hello -

I have a Dyson DC17¹ whose beater bar/brush roller stopped turning today. I have done all the basic checks and gone through about 20 different websites/videos to see what I'm missing. The roller is free of hair/lint/debris, the gear is clean (to my surprise), the belt shows no signs of wear/cracking and engages on the gear without problem, etc.

I now suspect that the problem may be the roller bearing/s, and am preparing to order a new roller, but before I do I wanted to see if any of you can perhaps answer the one question none of the other sites have mentioned.

My roller has two "endcaps" which are not removable so far as I can tell. At one of these caps, the one more distant from the belt, the roller turns smoothly and with very little resistance. At the other, the one closer to the belt, the roller turns, but is pretty stiff. Rating them on a scale of 1 (spins like a pinwheel in a breeze) to 10 (won't budge), I'd rate the distant end at a 3 and the nearer end at a 7.

Is this normal, or should the resistances be more evenly matched? I hate to buy a new roller only to find out that's normal movement for this part, and that the problem is actually with the motor or wiring or something. (It should be noted, however, that there was no "electrical smell" or similar when the roller stopped - just a few weeks of a knocking sound which I had attributed to a coin I accidentally vacuumed up, then today a high-pitched squeal followed by failure of the roller to turn.)

Any information will be appreciated - and I also wanted to thank the moderators/admins for requiring email confirmation before activating new accounts. My inbox is currently filled with spam from websites that will just take any email address and stick it on their mailing list, so I genuinely appreciate sites that require a registrant to prove the email account is actually their own.

Thanks in advance,

Elayne (Texas)

¹Dyson Animal DC17, purchased in mid-2008²
²I really hope the answer is not

lol

Sleaford White · « **Reply #1 on:** July 28, 2014, 12:14:08 am »

Hi Elayne, a USA DC17 is the same as a DC14 in the UK. The high pitched squeal is basically the clutch "doing it's job" and letting you know something is unserviceable. By the sounds of it your brushbar needs replacing. If you can't get one locally, contact MVacs on this site. They are the leading Dyson dealer in the north of England and are very reasonable and will ship globally.
It's worth spending a few dollars on as in my opinion, the DC14/17 was the best Dyson model ever built!

Hope this helps, Howard.

Patrick0malley · « **Reply #2 on:** July 28, 2014, 01:41:06 pm »

Elayne, where in Texas? I am in Austin and happen to have a DC17 that is way beyond repair and am using as a parts spare myself. With the DC17 it could be the brushbar or the brush motor, its not clutched but a separate powered motor head. I happen to have both, and since it was given to me, I can only feel obligated to do the same for you, cover the shipping and they are yours (unless you're close and want to pick up) PM me if interested or with questions.

emurib · « **Reply #3 on:** July 28, 2014, 03:50:59 pm »

Deffinitely a brush is needed and it is always a good idea to replace the belt as well.

Some of the early models have an idler that the belt rides on, if that is the cast you need to remove the idler and bracket and purchase a brushbar and a new belt as the old belt would be longer than the new one.

ribblefizz · « **Reply #4 on:** July 29, 2014, 02:50:20 am »

Thanks so much, everyone, for the quick and informative replies! Amazon does carry the replacement brush, I just wondered if it was normal for the resistance to be so markedly different from one end to the other.

Patrick0malley, I'm out in the desert Southwest of El Paso - nowhere near close enough to arrange a pickup, I'm afraid! (c: But I am interested in your offer - I'll see if I can get a PM to you tomorrow to get a feel for shipping. Migraine coming on just now, so no more screen time tonight.

Thanks again to all -

--elayne

ribblefizz · « **Reply #5 on:** August 10, 2014, 01:15:45 am »

A second thanks for y'all's assistance - it took me a while to get it done because I've been battling a cluster of migraines, but I did replace the beater bar just now and it works like a charm. I had a moment of doubt when I plugged the vacuum in and nothing happened at all - thought I had broken the whole

thing somehow - but fortunately before I panicked I realized I had plugged it into an electrical outlet that has a wall-switch, which was in the off position.

So now I'm off to conquer the cat-hair jungle! Thanks again, everyone.