Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

Hello everyone. today I did something that I never thought I would ever do. I finally realized my threat against my kids to just vacuum their rooms without clearing the floor of the mess they produce. In reality I never planned to actually do this, but the situation in their rooms got really bad the last couple weeks. I figured that sometimes, you just have to go through as a parent and show your credibility. So I began vacuuming my son's room (we own a Dyson dc52) and waited to get a reaction from him, I expected him to clear the floor for me, but he showed no signs of moving. I went through with my threat and vacuumed up some legos (classic), 2-3 little figurines and even a pair of socks. And here's my question: While talking about this today, I got told that this could actually damage my vacuum cleaner's motor. So I figured this forum was the place for me to turn to :) Now, myself I would have never thought about that, especially because even the big socks seemed to be no big challenge for my trusty Dyson. I just held the floor nozzle above the sock, the vacuum got louder for a second, and the sock just went through the hose with a "sluuurp" sound, like the Dyson didn't even flinch. Now, you can probably imagine that the legos also went through the hose without problems. This is why I can't imagine that such an expensive vacuum could be actually damaged by those things. But I wanted to get sure before proceeding with my education measures ^^ Please excuse improper english, and thanks in advance! Karen

You can break the most expensive vacuum made by abusing it. A high price means nothing. A sock if it is as big as the ones on my feet will jam a brush roll solidly. If the machine has a separate motor driving the brush roll as you find on an Aerus Lux upright or some Kenmore models and it has an overload sensor (again Aerus Lux and Kenmore)it should shut the brushroll motor off before it can do any damage. Most uprights including Dyson don't have this as their brush rolls are driven off the end of the suction motor through a long stretchy belt rather than by a separate motor. In those cases when the brush roll jams the motor remains on. You will burn up the belt because the motor shaft will be left to spin against a stationary belt. If the item is big enough and solid enough it could break the brittle plastics Dyson (Diesoon) uses on their vacuums (even Kirbys can be damaged by a solid object hitting the fan blade on their old fashioned dirty air machines breaking the fan). Also the cyclone in a bagless machine is designed to work with air filled with fine dirt, not big chunks like socks and Legos. Those socks are messing up the cyclonic action so the dirt isn't separated and is probably letting a lot of dirt get into the motor. At the very least dump the dust bin out, check the filters for clogging and flip the machine over to inspect the brush roll and nozzle area for damage. Diesoon uses cheap plastic brush rolls that don't tolerate a lot of abuse. They don't agitate the carpet very well either. Better vacuums use wooden brush rolls or metal ones with replaceable brush strips (Riccar for example). Also save the kids Legos. You will be glad you did. I have to cut open a mostly full vacuum bag this weekend and pick through the dirt and dog hair (gloved hands naturally) because I am pretty sure I vacuumed up a stray Lego the other night. Sigh, kids. Legos are too expensive (and too much fun !) to throw away. Seriously.

Karen1995 wrote:
Not a great idea to vacuum toys and lego's. No offense, Karen, just some facts about how it could be harmful for your vac. I am still traumatized with the vision of a frozen beater bar and slipped rubber belts on the old upright. Good for you that your Dyson was capable to handle this, but don't... well, overuse it. My previous Dyson had great suction but it got clogged all the time though. Especially when the kids used it and sucked up bunny hay - back in time we had a lot of pets back in time. So I spent a lot of time unclogging it. A year ago I got a twig that my dogs dragged in from outside stuck in the hose, along with leaves and yard debris. That backed up in the hose, which we cleaned out. But by then some was diverted to the motor, where it stayed. Then when it backed up again, the little clog picked up a lot of hair and it got stuck. At least, that is our best guess but that clog almost ruined the vac completely: as we couldn't figure out the loss of power and overheating ourselves, we took it to the service so they could check it. Gladly it was just minor damage.
But the moral of this story is that Dysons are not unkillable - if something will miss the bag, then it could be dangerous.

Treat your vacuum well.

No, it's not good for Dyson to vacuum up smth except dust. The risk of damaging the motor is quite high. For doing this I will recommend you to buy a shop vac or a Miele(or other bagged vacuums). The Miele handle huge messes without issues. I vacuum everything with it. Lego, socks, earphones, pens and lots of big stuff. Everything goes to the dust bag and when its full I open the vacuum, hygienic door in the bag closes and nothing will fall from the bag while you are carrying it to the bin.