I bought a Dyson Motorhead v6 awhile back and at first I loved it. Lightweight, balanced, worked great. I apparently should have heeded the warning label about not using it too much on extra fine particulates, though. I was dismissive because… I mean, I thought that was the whole purpose of the vortex design?
Well, it broke. It simply refuses to turn on, and just blinks rapidly at me instead. Googling suggests that is an ambiguous error code that might mean something got contaminated with fine dust, but I haven’t managed to find any good info on repairability. I let it sit and rot in the garage long enough that I kind of doubt the Dyson company will support or replace it, but maybe?
Anyway, open to advice. Including if anyone has any favorite similar lightweight stick vacs of a similar design. I love the concept, but online reviews of these things are all over the map. I don’t actually have especially tough requirements – I do NOT intend to use it extra hard in the shop every day or anything. I just want something reasonable reliable that won’t puke the first few times I decide I want to just clean up some fine sawdust, etc. Ability to handle gobs and gobs of cat hair a major plus!
Thanks for the info and discussion, y’all. I do see that the Dyson troubleshooting page looks a bit more useful than last time I tried it, and their form suggests that my issue might be a battery fault (not a perfect match, but seems close).
So anyway, I’ll poke a bit more in that direction.
In the meantime, I’m still interested in any alternative suggestions anyone might have. Or anti-recommendations; i.e. are any of the non-Dyson brands better made? Shark, etc? Or are some of them utter landfill fodder?
Oh, and @LoboFPV, if I don’t get this fixed up soon, you are very welcome to it for parts. I am definitely in favor of parts getting used for something. Curious what your impeller project is?
I’ve heard good things about the Miele Triflex HX1. It’s somewhat novel, and probably what I’d get when our ancient (non-cyclone, non-HEPA) Electrolux stick vac gets too tired to bother replacing batteries on.
Ooooh. It does look like the modular design is interesting. Haven’t looked much closer yet, but might look that direction.
Definitely not cheap… but then of course the upper-end Dysons aren’t either. For the Miele, I’m mostly just annoyed that the LED strip feature apparently only comes on the “Pro” or “Cat & Dog” models, which apparently carry a $200+ premium and it’s not entirely clear why.
We enjoy our Samsung. A bit like the Miele, in that you can add the power head to the motor chamber. The version we got came with a hard floor power head (soft brush) and a carpet power head (stiff brush) as well as an extending detail nozzle and drapery attachment.
Actually, interesting turn of events: I did actually contact Dyson support again, but this time via email. I have to say that their support team was very responsive and actively helped me troubleshoot this weird issue that didn’t directly match their checklist. I was impressed by the customer service.
But the end result was “we’re still not really sure, so try replacing the battery”. I’m not convinced that a $100 custom battery is worth it in this case, so still on the fence about what I’m going to do. I’m out of town visiting family this week, so will probably be a bit before I actually do something with it one way or another.