I ran into an issue a few weeks ago in that my Dyson DC14 Canister wont latch on my DC14 vacuum. At first I thought it was an issue with the canister itself. But after taking off the cover for the latch release I found the the plastic was broken that covered the pivot point.
DISCLAIMER: This is not an instructional post. I am not a professional and this is just how I fixed my Dyson. This may or may not be safe. Your issue may be different. If you do not know what you are doing hire a professional. I am not responsible if you injure/kill yourself or damage your property. Please follow you owners manual and all safety instructions. This post is for entertainment purposes only.
The problem : Dyson canister wont latch.
My issue was the Dyson DC14 canister would not latch unless i pulled it up a little. It was almost like the canister was sitting to low. At first I thought I might have lost a piece on the bottom of the canister to hold it up. I verified everything was intact on the bottom of the canister.
Since I found that my canister looked to be ok, I went ahead and removed the two T-15 screws from the back for the cover that goes over the latch assembly. (Yes I first made sure the Dyson Vacuum was unplugged.) This is where I found my issue, you can see the plastic holding the latch button in place at the pivot point is broken on each side. This was causing the latch to pop out and not latch correctly.
I was able to push it back into place and my Dyson DC14 canister would latch again. But I was afraid this would keep happening. At this point I was trying to think of my options to fix it the cheapest way possible.
SIDE NOTE:
After reading up on the web, I found that one of the problems you can have with the Dyson canister not latching was the canister itself. It has a plastic lip that can break on the canister. The picture below shows where to check. This was NOT my issue, but here is where the canister lip can break in case you are having this problem with your Dyson.
The fix
The correct way to fix this would probably be to buy a new handle if they sell them, but I did not want to pay much to fix it. (Yes, I’m thrifty). One idea was to drill a couple holes in the handle at the top and bottom of hinge and use some bailing type wire to hold it in place. But I was not sure if the plastic would handle that.
A second idea was to use something to keep pressure against the hinge area to keep them from popping out. At first I was going to try to take some measurements and 3d print a couple blocks to pop in. Then I remembered I had some JBweld plastic weld from a few years ago in one of my cabinets. I decided to give this stuff a try. It is like silly putty that hardens after you mix the two putty’s together.
I went ahead and mixed some of the two tubes together and used it on the vacuum. Then I pressed it into the holes over the hinge. Here is a picture. It was a little trial and error to see how much putty to use and still make the cover fit. Then once I had the cover on I would press the latch button every once in a while to make sure it didn’t seize the button in place. I was not sure if this would work, but decided to give it a try.
How did it turn out?
Yes it did work. I have used the Dyson a few times over the last 2 weeks and the latch is working fine. One issue I noticed was that it seems to have glued that cover in place. In hindsight I should have probably removed the cover after getting everything fitted and just let the putty harden in place without the cover. Then put the cover back on. Oh well, live and learn. The good thing is I can vacuum again. If it stops latching I will try to remove the cover with a little more force. But I didn’t want to break the cover plate as it is working for me. Here is a current picture, it is latching just fine now. It was a quick fix for me and just cost me some old putty I already had.
I hope this post was helpful in some way to anyone who’s Dyson canister wont latch. Here is a link to Dyson support if you need to search for a manual. They have a great website and pretty easy to navigate.
If you happen to be having an issue with your LG washer not dispensing soap, you might like this post here.
