We have far more vacuum cleaners than anyone can possibly need. We have a big house, on four floors but that’s not a good reason for so many. Part of the problem is that, because we have a lot of space, we tend to keep things, or bits of things, that might ‘come in useful’. At a recent count we had
- a large upright Dyson, which we have had for a very long time. It is quite heavy and Pat won’t use it because she once got a nasty injury from it
- Henry, who is great fun and very efficient, but the tools need a certain amount of brute force to attach and remove. They had become increasingly difficult for Pat to attach and remove
- a Vax Air cordles, which is an easily managed machine for anyone with limited mobility. It can be used like a normal upright vacuum or can be taken apart so you can hold one piece in one hand, the tools in the other, and reach anywhere you want. It has two batteries so is always ready to go. We did have a problem with its wheels some years ago but Vax replaced the entire handle/wheel section immediately.
- a hand-held Dyson DC 30 (which replaced an earlier model that died after several years). It doesn’t have a long battery life but is excellent for little jobs (and cleaning the stairs).
- two wet & dry vacuums. One is very old – a relic of when we were renovating the house; the other is newer and can cope with the water that sometimes collects in part of the cellar.
- a Vax carpet vacuum/shampooer which now blows a fuse each time you turn the brushes on. We have ill-treated it for too long because it was also used for sucking up water in the cellar.
- a pond vacuum. The houses around here, in this old mill town, have little, or no, garden but we are fortunate to have a small area at the front of the house where we have fish.
We suddenly decided that we didn’t really need them all. The first to go was poor Henry. It was sad to see him go, especially as he lived in the kitchen in a cupboard designated as ‘Henry’s cupboard’, along with his bag of tools and attachments. We sold him to a local person who was a great Henry fan and she was delighted to have him for her daughter who had just moved into a flat of her own.
Amongst Henry’s tools we found a brush from an even older Dyson which had been made to fit Henry with a series of adapters stuck together with gaffer tape. We kept it because, now we have a 3D printer I could make a part that would efficiently join it to the DC30.
It was fairly easy to design. It just needs to be the right size to fit the brush at one side (32 mm) and the Dyson at the other (35 mm). The ridge near the end lets it clip into the Dyson’s fitting.
I believe this would fit several other Dyson models and that attachments from various other vacuums would fit.