Rattling noise from Dyson vacuum

[MillCreek]

I have had a Dyson DC14 Animal vacuum for about six years now.  Recently, it has begun making a terrible rattling noise from the brush head area.  The noise is only present when the brush is rotating and occurs regardless of using it on carpet or hard flooring.  I have taken things apart several times, seen no obvious problems and reassembled it.  I have Googled this and seen it is a common problem.  I have done the online recommended fixes: I bought a new brushroll (did not solve the problem), made sure there are no loose parts, hair clogs or blockages (did not solve the problem), replaced the belt (did not solve the problem) removed the endcaps from the brushroll and sprayed with it Teflon lube (did not solve the problem). 

Does anyone have this problem or know of a solution?  I really like the Dyson vacuum but this noise is driving me nuts. 

[Unisaw]

No great suggestions here other than making sure there isn't a small object wedged somewhere that starts to rattle once the airflow starts.  I had a similar experience once -- removed and cleaned the brush but overlooked a very small piece of metal that had been vacuumed up.  It wouldn't hurt to give your vacuum a good shake to see if something drops free.

[MillCreek]

Some additional Googling, on UK websites, seems to suggest that replacing the clutch is the next step.  I am looking into the online availability of a clutch unit. 

[Harold Tuttle]

the units brushes spin on a plastic tab

make sure it did not wallow out

[Sergeant Bob]

The sound you are hearing is the sound of money exiting your wallet!

[Brad Johnson]

Does anyone have this problem or know of a solution?

The palatability of my solution depends on how dedicated you are to owning a Dyson.

Brad

[Jamie B]

A clutch on a sweeper? Ouch!

[MillCreek]

It turns out that I was wrong on the clutch.  This model drives the brushbar with an auxiliary motor; not a shaft off the main motor, which requires the clutch.  I am going to try to swap out the belt with another model of the belt and see if that fixes things.  I have an upgraded brushbar that takes a 10 mm belt, and the usual Dyson belts are 8 mm.  So I bought some 10 mm belts from Amazon.

[Boomhauer]

Does anyone have this problem or know of a solution?

Replace it with a shopvac! My vacuum has 5.5 horsepower and can suck up a puddle of water. And it costs under a c-note. Sure it's not as easy to maneuver as an upright, but it's a lot more durable, cheaper, and far more versatile...and my Dad's 15 y.o. craftsman shop vac is still going strong.

[RoadKingLarry]

Another vote for a Shop-vac. Mine has got to be at least 20 years old. The original bucket rusted out over a decade ago but it conveniently clips on to a basic 5 gallon bucket. I have used and abused the thing and it is so ugly my wife won't let me bring it in the house. Mostly used now for vacuuming out cars or woodworking tools.  But after all these years it still sucks.

[MillCreek]

Like any man worthy of the name, I already have three shop-vacs.  They are not so good on the wall-to-wall carpeting.  The Dyson is. Especially in sucking up the ample amounts of animal fur.

[Kingcreek]

when we were cleaning out my grandmother's house to sell, there was a big ol Kirby vac with attachments that nobody else wanted so we brought this chrome-plated made in America 30 pound monster home. it was purchased new in 1971 but still works great. my wife loves it but won't carry it upstairs.
I use a Craftsman shop vac for everything else from garage and basement to blowing leaves off the patio and driveway.

[Boomhauer]

wall-to-wall carpeting

What we did was take the head unit from one of those cannister vacs with the seperate power head and adapt it to the shopvac, splitting off a cord from the main power supply to power the power head. Works really, really well.

[MillCreek]

Problem solved.  When I replaced the brushbar, I received the new model which takes a 10 mm belt.  I was using the standard 8 mm belt.  I replaced it with a 10 mm belt and the noise went away.  I had to do some Googling to figure out that the new model brushbar had changed the belt size. It did not come with any instructions or warnings that a new larger belt was needed, and there was nothing on the Dyson website.

[SteveS]

when we were cleaning out my grandmother's house to sell, there was a big ol Kirby vac with attachments that nobody else wanted so we brought this chrome-plated made in America 30 pound monster home. it was purchased new in 1971 but still works great. my wife loves it but won't carry it upstairs.

My parents still have my grandmother's Kirby 1C that she got back in the 1930's.  It still works well, but weighs a ton.