There are so many accessories available for Dyson vacuums. Each of them serves a different purpose. Some are essential, and some are specific things that help in particular situations.
Because of how many there are, it can be hard to find help when you have a specific Dyson vacuum attachment that’s not working. This guide should help with that, as I’ll discuss various ones!
What To Do If A Dyson Vacuum Attachment Is Not Working
- An Attachment Won’t Work With The Vacuum At All
Sometimes, users might run into trouble with a specific attachment where it just stops working. Everything else is working fine, but that specific attachment just doesn’t function at all.
Dirty contacts are the common reason for this. These electrical contacts are what allow your Dyson vacuum to power everything you attach to it instantly. Here’s a picture of what they look like:
When these points have debris hanging around them, the connection may be affected. That means the Dyson vacuum can’t tell your attachment is there, or supply it with power.
As a result, the attachment doesn’t work. So, use a safe contact cleaner to carefully get all the debris out of that spot on your attachment. Try using it again and it should work!
This problem is similar to a Dyson vacuum that’s not sucking and pulsing or not working normally. My video below shows how you can solve this problem.
Blockages and a dirty filter is usually what causes this. In order to solve this you need to disassemble parts of the Dyson vacuum to check for any blockage.
If this problem still persists even after you clean the parts of the vacuum, try using water to clean the filter. Just remember to dry the filter thoroughly before installing it back to the Dyson vacuum.
- Filters Don’t Work When Dirty
The most common specific “attachment” problem Dyson vacuum users will run into is a dirty filter. There’s no avoiding that as filters get dirty the more you use the vacuum.
They keep the rest of the components safe from excess dirt and pieces of debris by sucking them up. There’s eventually a point where they can’t suck up more because they’re too full.
Filters stop working after that happens. If your Dyson vacuum ever stops running properly or has other issues, take the filter out as I have in the picture below, and inspect it.
It’s clear the filter is dirty when it is discolored in some spots and has notable build-ups of debris, or other junk on it. You have to clean it by washing it when that happens.
You’ll regularly have to wash your filters to make sure they keep working fine. If you don’t wash them, they’ll get too dirty and stop functioning, which will ruin parts of the vacuum.
- Roller/Brush Bar Attachment Not Spinning
The brush bar attachment on Dyson vacuums is great for deep cleaning certain parts of a house, like carpets. It gets deep into spots by spinning and removes tangled hair and other debris.
That’s only if it can spin, though. If you have a roller/brush bar that’s not spinning, it’s likely jammed in place. This can happen because of excess hairs stopping the bar from moving.
Junk like that normally accumulates over time. I even took a picture of this really dirty brush bar after a bit of use to show you, which you can see down there.
All that hair around the brush bar in the image above is what’s making it jam. That’s stopping it from working. So, just get rid of the hair. You can do that by cutting the hair with scissors.
That will get it off easily, and your Dyson vacuum’s brush bar attachment will start spinning again.
I also made a video about how you can solve this problem. You can watch this video below.
An electrical or brush motor problem may also stop the brush from spinning. To confirm if this is really the case, connect the brush directly to the vacuum without the wand.
Then, use a multimeter to check the voltage supplied to the brush motor. This can help to identify if the electrical power is being supplied to the brush motor is sufficient.
- No Suction In Wand Attachment
Is your vacuum working fine, but there’s no suction coming up from the wand? This is usually a result of a bad connection between the wand and the rest of the vacuum.
Remove the wand and put it back on to see if that does the trick. While it’s not likely, this may be enough to fix the issue with this attachment for some.
But, if your wand still has bad suction and you need to fix it, try checking for any leaks. There may be some kind of damage on the surface of the wand.
With the vacuum on and sucking, carefully check around the surface of the wand attachment. If there are any leaks, you’ll be able to see, or at least hear them.
If you do, I suggest replacing the wand with a new one. In case the wand it’s new, contact Dyson and make sure they send you a new one that’s working fine.
- General Attachment Complications
Other than everything I mentioned, most other problems are usually general things with the attachment, like components inside that don’t work right anymore.
These problems aren’t extremely specific. If you’re having trouble with a particular attachment that I haven’t mentioned yet, it likely just has some damage or general complications.
General damage like that may happen due to rough use, wear and tear, or other similar reasons. Most of the time, you just need to replace the attachment that’s acting up.
After you have a new attachment, it will work fine with your Dyson vacuum!
