DC05 - why do replacement motors fail within 2 uses?

[AA958]

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Hi, I have an DC05 Absolute+ .I have replaced the motor in it twice.  After replacing it works brilliantly, better than for a long time. Then on the second use there's a burning smell which gets worse with use until it's unbearable (after just 10mins or so).  On opening up the hoover the filters are black, there's a lot of metallic dust and chips and the brushes in the motor are chipped and the copper blackened in patches.  This has happened 2x now with Quаltex motors.  The correct motors were purchased (as two options for this model) and they were wired as per original motors (I took a photo).  I can't find fault with my reassembly. I got no joy from supplier other than a suspiciously AI-like response offering me a replacement which I used and it also failed in the same way.  All components had been thoroughly cleaned.  I must be doing something wrong and would love to get some advice on what so I can use it and fix my mothers which also needs motor replacing. I have 1 motor left to try! Be 50 odd quid down drain if it also fails.  Thanks, A

[MVacs]

This has happened 2x now with Quаltex motors. 

We very seldom source from them anymore. Their motors aren't what they were. If you have bought from eBay or Amazon from them, I'd expect AI-type replies as they do a lot of volume and it's probably not cost-effective to pay people to answer the questions.

It's really hard to find good YDK-type Dyson motors at the moment. They have suffered a race to the bottom on pricing by all the big suppliers, and that means quality has taken a hit. As the machines are getting older, and people don't want to pay a lot for a motor, nobody will invest in better ones.

If we do a refurbished Dyson cylinder, I'd rather put a good used genuine one in than an aftermarket new one.

[Dyson4u]

This has happened 2x now with Quаltex motors. 

We very seldom source from them anymore. Their motors aren't what they were. If you have bought from eBay or Amazon from them, I'd expect AI-type replies as they do a lot of volume and it's probably not cost-effective to pay people to answer the questions.

It's really hard to find good YDK-type Dyson motors at the moment. They have suffered a race to the bottom on pricing by all the big suppliers, and that means quality has taken a hit. As the machines are getting older, and people don't want to pay a lot for a motor, nobody will invest in better ones.

If we do a refurbished Dyson cylinder, I'd rather put a good used genuine one in than an aftermarket new one.

I still use Quаltex motors and find them very good. Yes, I have 2 go bad, but not much. What brand motor do you supply?

[MVacs]

It varies, but as I said above, they are all much of a muchness now.

I did toy with the idea of having some done by the company that used to do the old MTR240KK that Quаltex used to sell years ago. They were very good motors. However, they'd need to be priced at about £30. And they are bulky and heavy to store in quantity.

Getting the message out to people that they would be *much* better than what is currently available would be challenging, so sales would be slow. That and the fact that the machines that take them are fading away too would make it a poor investment.

So we are all stuck with mediocre YDK motors now.

[Dysonboy]

It varies, but as I said above, they are all much of a muchness now.

I did toy with the idea of having some done by the company that used to do the old MTR240KK that Quаltex used to sell years ago. They were very good motors. However, they'd need to be priced at about £30. And they are bulky and heavy to store in quantity.

Getting the message out to people that they would be *much* better than what is currently available would be challenging, so sales would be slow. That and the fact that the machines that take them are fading away too would make it a poor investment.

So we are all stuck with mediocre YDK motors now.

MVACS sorry to hijack the thread and go slightly off topic, is this the case with upright motors too?

I havent touched my Dyson's for a few yonks, but starting back up now. Currently got a few genuine motors in my stock to use up first, but been using up my Ametek's fitting them to all the DC04s i've been doing to save the YDKs for newer models, and will no doubt soon need to get some motors as running low.

My concern is if new motors are decreasing in quality i'll be not wanting to fit those to customers machines, and if so i'll have to raid my personal machines for good Genuine YDKs. My personal machines are one of each model DC04, 3x of which already converted to Ameteks, the rest running a bunch of YV511s and YV2200s but if needs be i'll have to convert them all to Ametek (minus the Zorbster obvs) and save the YDKs for the later models to sell, making do with some fitted with YV511s, do you think this will be the best approach? As I don't want customers suffering with reliability problems with aftermarket stuff, and keeping my stock of Ametek's wont be much use as I doubt DC04s will sell too well these days so i'm pretty much building up machines out of my stockpile of parts to clear DC04s before they go completely unsellable. i'm thinking if reliability of new stuff is a concern it'll be either that, or i'll have to get a stock up on plenty of genuine motors.

Cheers, K-y-l-e. (Sorry forgot we had to do this years ago, and once again still years on my apologies for the hassle I caused )

[MVacs]

Yes, the cylinder and upright YDK motors are the same motor, just one has a shorter spindle.

It's not that what is out there now is inherently bad per se, rather it's a bit of a lottery. They might last a fortnight or three years. We see a higher failure rate than we used to and that is down to suppliers (and this is all of them, not just Quаltex) all wanting to be the cheapest on the platforms such as Amazon and eBay. And when they want to source cheaper, that means the Chinese factories cut corners and use cheaper components. Even the boxes are cheaper and thinner than they used to be. 

The majority are still not too bad, but stories like AA958's do pop up. We are mostly using Europart Maddocks motors now (actually, we source very little from Quаltex nowadays), but they have the TCO on the inside, and people used to be sniffy about that, but again, that is a cost-cutting measure as it's a bit cheaper to do.

This relentless drive for cheaper prices has created a vicious cycle where profit margins for big suppliers are increasingly squeezed. With each attempt to outdo competitors on price, there's a compounding pressure to further reduce costs, often at the expense of product reliability and longevity. As a result, the industry finds itself caught in a race to the bottom, where the true cost of cutting corners only becomes apparent when customers experience failures and dissatisfaction with the products they've purchased.

Let's do a back of the fag packet calculation. Taking into account the current price of £17.48 of a Quаltex motor on Amazon, subtracting Amazon's 20% cut, VAT, and delivery costs to you, and assuming a modest £2-4 profit per unit, each motor must be manufactured, shipped, and have duties and VAT paid, all totalling to around £6-8 per unit. Which leaves perhaps £4 for the cost in China. £4 doesn't buy you a lot of motor in China.