Dyson V8 Cordless - Shocks

[Hoonigan]

Well, I've had a funny one this week.

Back in September we invested in a Dyson V8 Animal Cordless vacuum. It's excellent, great suction, plenty of attachments, 40 minute battery life, lightweight, it's been excellent up until the weekend.

I was using it as normal and started getting electric shocks from the charging port, because my hand covers the port when holding the vacuum. There's no other way of holding it, as this image will hopefully illustrate.



So, I rang Dyson customer services on Sunday and was told to stop using it immediately, asked if I had suffered any burns or trauma/panic during the shocks. I was then told that the team I need to speak to aren't in on weekends and they'll give me a call back within 48 hours. 48 hours went by and still no phone call, so I've just rang them now to ask why I wasn't called back.

Anyway, I explained the problem again, to which I got asked the question: "Do you use it on many carpets? It sounds like static build up within the Dyson which can occur when vacuuming carpets."

So, at this point I've got hundreds of thoughts flying around my head. First and foremost is: I've paid £400 for a Dyson cordless vacuum, about 6 months ago, to find that using it on carpets generates static and electric shocks. A device designed primarily to vacuum carpets has an inherent flaw that appears when using it for its primary task.

So, a Dyson engineer is going to come out on Wednesday next week to take a look at it and work out the issue, but I can tell how it's going to go straight away.

For a company like Dyson, who pride themselves on design and engineering, placing the charging port of a cordless vacuum in the exact position where your hand will go while using it, knowing full well that static can build up, seems like an incredibly stupid decision. I've looked across Google and seen many many other people having the same issue with multiple different revisions of the same cordless vacuum.

I just wanted to get that out there.

[Moby-Dick]

I get the same on mine. I've resorted to either a bit of tape over the port or marigolds

[Jonj1611]

Dyson were pretty good when I had mine fail a few years ago, the engineer came out with the area manager, ummed and arred for a bit and then took it away. The area manager was on the phone to Dyson and they called me after they had gone and the lady on the phone said I could choose any vacuum from their range.

[DanceswithUnix]

We have one of those, not noticed any shocks.

I did notice a while back that there is a little removable filter in the top that needs cleaning out occasionally. Works a lot better now. Yeah yeah, I'm sure there are instructions and I'm sure I should have read them

As for Dyson servicing, I was livid at the cost of getting someone out to replace the belt in my old Dyson upright when it failed as it is not a user replaceable part and you can't get them. For the money he stripped the thing right down, replaced lots of things he wasn't asked to at Dyson's cost to get the machine running perfectly again. By the end I felt the visit was a bargain, and the machine is really old now and still going strong.

[Saracen999]

I have a similar machine but an earlier one. Can't remember the model. Had it years and never a hint of a shock. My brother has muh the ssme as me and no problem I'm aware of.

Maybe it's a V7 design issue

[Bonebreaker777]

Mrs is a private cleaner and she's all about the vacuum cleaners.

We have 2 Dysons. One new (new animal, the purple one) and we had the old yellow one, yellow ball floor or what it is called. The yellow has fallen apart before the 5 year warranty expired and for free they've given us a new yellow ball floor. So I can't fault the Dyson service.

In relation to the cordless models, loads of customers have them but none of them zapped her yet so...

[Hoonigan]

I was in Curry's last night, where we got the V8 Animal from, looking at the V10 to see where the charger port is. They've completely moved it, so I'm going to be asking for an upgrade fee tomorrow when the engineer is here. They've obviously moved the charger port because this is a genuine issue, which is widely reported on the internet, so we'll see how I get on.

In relation to the cordless models, loads of customers have them but none of them zapped her yet so...

Unless you're married to a Russian Shotputter, it's unlikely that her hands will cover the charging port to get zapped. My girlfriend's hand is nowhere near the charger port, it's just that I have large hands, but that shouldn't mean that my Dyson gives me static shocks.

[Saracen999]

Just looked at my old machine and it's a DC44 Animal. The charge point is right under where my hand goes. It's sort-of palm area, right behind the little finger.

However, it's buried well inside the case. The closest point of the charge point is something like 8mm, maybe even 10mm, inside the handle. As I say, never had any trouble.

I did look at the V10 recently, and rather fancy one. I never thought I'd get excited about a vacuum cleaner ..... until I ended up being the stay-at-home one that does nearly all the vacuuming. Somehow, that gave me a different perspective.

Trouble is .... they ain't cheap, and my old DC44 seems to be stubbornly reliable, and I can't bring myself to spend that while the existing old one still works perfectly. I might have to accidentally drop in in a full bath while hoovering dust off the bathroom ceiling .... as soon as I come up with a reason for hoovering while the bath was full. I did think about telling Domestic Management I dropped it in the swimming pool, but I suspect she may have noticed we don't have one.