All,

Hoping for a bit of an education on the brush bars for our Dyson vacuums.  I own a DC-14 Animal.

I have been going through my learning curve in doing upgrades to this Dyson.  About a year and a half ago, we replaced the filter before the motor, replaced that lid cover on that filter since some plastic pieces had broken on it, and updated the handle given a piece had broken on it.  I also got new versions of the HEPA fitler.  The Dyson felt in many ways like it was brand new again in terms of suction performance.

I just replaced the clutch given it had gone out.  In doing this, I learned that likely the clutch went out or was greatly encouraged that direction because the bearing on the brush bar was ceased up.  It was my first time taking the brush bar apart where I pulled out the spindle, removed hair tangled up in there, and figured out that the bearing was not spinning at all.  Frankly, I did not even know that piece could come apart.  Cleaning everything up and using just a tiny amount of high end lubricant I have from another hat in my life, I got the bearning spinning again and things loosened up.

I am still going to replace the brush bar with one of a couple of different options I found on Amazon.  One is OEM and the other is aftermarket.

My suspicion is my lack of awareness meant that this brush bar should have been replaced long ago and likely semi-regularly checked up on/cleaned/oiled before this.  No doubt I did my clutch zero favors here as well as negatively impacting overall performance of the vacuum. 

My wife was thrilled with the increased performance of the vacuum now that the brush bar was spinning fully again.  I will note that, for the first few times, I had to get it a little tap with my finger and the brush bar would then take off spinning with a good bit of vigor which is why I am going to replace it anyway.  Now, that might be because of the older brush bar or it could be a fact that the new clutch has belts way tighter than what I took off.  I do not have enough experience to know the answer there.

The question I have to those more knowledgable is how often should you do maintenance on these brush bars (take out, remove spindle, clean, oil, etc) and roughly how many years should go before just replacing the brush bar with a new one.  Frankly, it is relatively pretty easy to do so adding it to a maintenance task item to do is not concerning.  I just do not have any sense of frequency here that should matter.

Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

Never mind  Drop me a message if you get another one in that you're breaking

Thanks for the Everett Vacuum as well.  I will be down to the Washington DC area more and more so that might be the perfect match.

The only one I recall in WA is Everett Vacuum. I know they are well regarded. Worth a phone call.

Thanks for giving me the time and some directions to go.  I will pull those threads you have recommended and see what I can find out.  And, as asked, I will update back here.