A while ago now I published articles detailing how to clean the cylinder of a Dyson vacuum cleaner and how to fix a torn hose. I put together these guides because I thought that if we had these problems then probably quite a few people were having the same problems. I was amazed by the response. For a while the article detailing how to clean the collection cylinder was second only to the Dyson website in Google - it seemed like a lot of people were having the same problems with a lack of suction.

Over time I have received numerous emails thanking me for the guide which I am always pleased to get. I have also received plenty of emails asking for help with other Dyson related problems and telling me about things that have gone wrong with the countries most expensive, erm, I mean best vacuum cleaner. So without further ado here is a list of things that seem to go wrong on a fairly regular basis (unfortunately I don't have guides on how to fix these problems yet)

• Blocked Cylinder - This is far and away the most common problem and results in a dramatic loss of suction. Generally it is caused by dust settling on the cyclones. It can be corrected by following the cleaning procedure detailed in the cleaning guide.
• Torn Hose - It is rather easy to tear the hose when reaching up the stairs. Generally this can be fixed with packing tape however. A word of warning - the hose on a Dyson seems to be very strong and on at least one occasion it has nearly pulled me backwards down the stairs.
• Burnt Out Motor - I've had a few people write and tell me about burnt out motors. This is generally caused by a blocked primary filter coupled with a blocked cylinder. There is a safety valve on the side of the primary filter cover but it would seem that this isn't good enough to stop the motor from over heating.
• Brush Bar Clutch Failure - A number of people have told be about the clutch failing on the brush bar. This seems to be caused by hair getting wrapped around the brush bar. From what I have heard this is fairly difficult to replace.
• Torn Power Cable - This one is slightly more worrying that the others as it could result in a very dangerous situation. It would seem that the connector between the cleaner and the wire isn't terribly strong and it's possible to pull the wire from the cleaner while in use. I suspect what is happening is that people are running out of wire but not realizing and when they push the cleaner forward the weight of the cleaner is enough to pull the wire out. A number of people have written to me about this and as far as I know no one has manage to get into the housing to re-attach the wire.