Any reputable dealer should give you a 12 month warranty – this shows that the seller is confident in the product on offer.
Just because a machine is shiny on the outside it doesn’t always mean that the item in question is in good mechanical order – it takes an expert like Me with decades of experience to determine this.
We tend to only sell the ‘Tried & Tested by time’ models that have proved their reliability.
Of course always with a 12 month warranty as standard.
If buying something with a meaningless or no warranty at all, expect to have problems and consider that when agreeing a price – don’t spend much, a good rule of thumb is when buying a machine you know nothing about is expect to spend that again getting it repaired in the worst case scenario.
If you suspect that the machine has ever been used for Plaster Dust or Brick Dust – just walk away as the Cyclones aren’t designed to cope with particles that small and everything would have gone through the filters and motor – These types of dust kill Vacuum Cleaners that rely upon Cyclones regardless of manufacturer..
New doesn’t always mean better !
If you are looking for a well built, strong, tough machine then look for something built before the EU ruling covering the size of Motor allowed to be installed in a Vacuum.
The best in my opinion are:
DC04, DC07, DC14 and DC33. These all have 1200 Watt motors. Because of this power the Brush Bar is able to be directly linked to the main motor, this means that you have a very powerful Brush Bar.
However, as with every model there are weaknesses.
If left in the Sun or in a place where the temperature varies widely (Conservatory for example) the plastic can become brittle and body parts for these models are sometimes not easy to find so watch out for broken plastic.
Examples:
- Floor plate (The bottom part of the head which almost touches the floor).
- Brush Bar cover U shaped slots into which Brush Bar is held, either side of the top cover.
- Handle.
- Handle on top of Bin.
The worst thing that will happen to these in time is the motor will naturally wear out. but those parts are available and a Motor replacement at same time as a service is relatively inexpensive when comparing the same job on a newer machine.
Need something lighter and easier to manoeuvre ?
The pull along Canister types are ok but the heads aren’t usually very good as they are usually a ‘Turbine’ driven Brush Bar rather than being driven by a separate motor. There are exceptions of course.
You are now looking at a ‘Ball’ type upright, right ?
This was when everything started to go wrong, this design !
Because the power of the main motor is now limited by EU legislation there must be a separate motor inside the floor head to power the Brush bar.
This motor needs power to work, this power can only be delivered by a couple of wires running inside the ball to the head.
As all upright Vacuum Cleaners need to recline for general use this means that things have to move – the head articulates quite a lot during use and over time those wires will break (strangely it’s usually the white wire).
Also there are Two separate hoses that need to bend depending on the state of the machine (Reclined, or upright when using the wand hose). Both of which will fail over time and need to be replaced.
The front one is relatively straight forward but the hose at the back called a “Change-Over-Valve” is a bit more of a challenge.
These hoses tend to last about Ten years with normal use.
Popular machines are the DC40 and the smaller DC50. There are other variants around this era of course.
The DC24 and DC25 are few and far between but these wear out quickly, I suspect these may have been the more inexpensive options.
And then there is the DC41, this is an undesirable machine not much liked by people like me as they seem to have gone completely off track with their design internally.
Maybe it was an experiment in working out how to complicate things unduly !
And then came the ‘Dyson UP15, UP22, UP24 & 34 etc range which are just updated ‘Ball’ types with larger bore hoses/airways and bigger Brush Bars.
You may be looking for: How to buy a used Hand Held Dyson.
which will become available on April 25th at 4pm.
