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Author Topic: DC41 Change Over Valve won't seal in floor position  (Read 7169 times)

Offline Brain-san

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DC41 Change Over Valve won't seal in floor position
« on: April 09, 2016, 09:00:05 pm »
Hi, my DC41 Change Over Valve has a problem. It  seals fine in the upright wand position, but it fails to seal when it changes over to the floor position. Instead of sealing, it leaves a 1/4" or larger gap. I can easily push it into position, but it won't stay there.

I can't see anything obviously wrong, but I don't really know how the mechanism is supposed to work, or what a working one looks like.

I would appreciate any suggestions on how to fix this.

Here are some photos:

Sealed in upright position:
ila_rendered

Failed to seal in floor position:
ila_rendered

Failed to seal in floor position, another view:
ila_rendered

Forced seal by hand:
ila_rendered

Offline Brain-san

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Re: DC41 Change Over Valve won't seal in floor position
« Reply #1 on: April 09, 2016, 09:26:01 pm »
Oh, I did unscrew the spring strut on the other side and fiddled with it, and it seemed to have plenty of spring tension, and it moved freely.

Offline RustySkull

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Re: DC41 Change Over Valve won't seal in floor position
« Reply #2 on: April 10, 2016, 11:45:32 am »
Have you tried oiling it? It's somewhat surprising what a little WD40 can do ;)
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Offline Brain-san

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Re: DC41 Change Over Valve won't seal in floor position
« Reply #3 on: April 14, 2016, 02:17:48 am »
Well, I've got a very impressive tale of customer service to share. (I'm a Yank, if that helps orient this tale.)

The DC41 was bought as a refurb from meh.com a few months back, and it had a 6 month warranty. While trying to figure out the problem I went through the online troubleshooter at Dyson's site, and there's a tiny survey at the end of it, with a space for comments and contact info. Since I've never seen any response from those things before, I very nearly didn't enter my email address, but I did, and within a few hours I had a response asking for more information and photos of the problem.

I didn't see the reply until near the end of the day, but I did respond with details on the purchase and the photos. That was around 10pm. When I got up the next morning (Sunday) I had three messages from Dyson that were sent between 2 and 2:30am! (The messages indicated Dyson support is based out of Chicago.)

The first two were automated messages. The first thanking me for registering my warranty, and setting the warranty start date to the date it was delivered, not the purchase date, which was two weeks earlier. That was a nice touch. ;D I'm glad the problem showed up now, since I've got a little over a month left on the warranty.

The second message was thanking me for scheduling a service appointment for my problem. It also had a UPS store finder link, and instructions to take the DC41 to the UPS store, give them the included number, and UPS will pack and ship it to the nearest service center.

The third message was a personal reply to the ongoing thread that started with the comment page, saying the nature of the problem needed service center attention, confirming the return instructions, and saying the typical turn around time was 10-14 working days, including return shipping time.

Monday my wife took the DC41 to the UPS store around the corner. It took the store staffer a long time to figure out the procedure, but they took it off her hands, and gave her a tracking number.

When I check the tracking number the next morning (Tuesday), it said it was out for delivery, which seemed a little unbelievable. Then later in the day when I checked it, it said it was delivered at 12:09pm - to the other side of Salt Lake City. Apparently the nearest Dyson service center is about 20 miles away.

All that was impressive enough, but a couple of hours later I got an email from Dyson saying that my vacuum was repaired and on the way back to me! Maybe the Salt Lake service center doesn't have much to do, but it was less than 2.5 hours from receiving the DC41 to fixing it and having it ready to ship back!

Sure enough, the DC41 arrived today, Wednesday.

Color me impressed!  :thumbsup:

Offline raquettelaker2

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Re: DC41 Change Over Valve won't seal in floor position
« Reply #4 on: March 06, 2017, 04:06:47 pm »
I have the same vacuum with the same exact issue, but am not sure that I'm under warranty still. Has anyone successfully fixed this issue without involving Dyson Service?

Thank you!

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