Dyson V11 Torque head not working?

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xyeovillian

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#322767 21-Sep-2025 14:21

Dyson V11 animal
Torque head not working is it the motor not working?
I have cleaned out etc but working intermittently or not at all
Tempted on whether to buy replacement head from Ali-express!
Anyone experienced this problem?

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Hammered
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#3417071 21-Sep-2025 14:40

I've found Dyson NZ quite responsive in the past. Maybe see what they say?

People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.

Keep calm, and carry on posting.

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eracode

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#3417194 21-Sep-2025 18:26

There’s no mention of where and when it was purchased. Is it still under warranty? What about a CGA claim?

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xyeovillian

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#3417195 21-Sep-2025 18:28

14th June 2021

eracode

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#3417280 22-Sep-2025 06:15

xyeovillian:

14th June 2021

The V11 is a premium product and the torque head is a crucial part of it. It should last longer than a bit over four years - premium products can reasonably be expected to last longer than budget ones. I would go back and talk to the retailer about CGA.

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lachlanw

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#3417281 22-Sep-2025 07:22

eracode:

xyeovillian:

14th June 2021

The V11 is a premium product and the torque head is a crucial part of it. It should last longer than a bit over four years. I would go back and talk to the retailer about CGA.

This ^^, have dealt with Dyson a couple of times and they have been good, however that was under the old NZ distributor.

eracode

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#3417282 22-Sep-2025 07:29

Stu:

I've found Dyson NZ quite responsive in the past. Maybe see what they say?

(This post has been edited and updated after checking old emails to get correct times and durations)

We dealt with Dyson when our 12-month-old V10 developed a trigger fault last year. A quick search showed our problem was a relatively frequent one.

We had bought it from Noel Leeming and their advice was to talk direct to Dyson because it would be quicker. That was almost certainly self-serving advice on NL's part and now I can't believe I accepted it.

Dealing with Dyson - only email was available - was a total nightmare. They were slow to respond at every point and their responses were obfuscating and didn't make sense. Email discussions went round and round in circles.

We ended up dealing with Dyson Australia who said we should send the main motor unit to them. I refused and then they said they would send us a whole new main body unit - and a courier bag to return the old one.

Then they told us the new unit was out of stock for a month. The new unit eventually arrived and the courier bag never showed up - so we kept the old unit. In total the vac was off the air for two months.

It was the worst customer service experience I've ever had.

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gehenna

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#3417287 22-Sep-2025 08:16

Describe how you cleaned it out? Did you twist off and remove the filter on the motor and clean the dust from it?

Yep @eracode you did NL's job for them. If you're using the CGA always make it the retailer's problem. At worst they have to deal with the supplier. At best you'll have a strong argument for the retailer to provide a replacement if the time to repair drags on.

scuwp

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#3417292 22-Sep-2025 08:35

We have had great success contacting Dyson directly on their 0800 number.

Even a few years old, once the initial fault elimination checks were completed, there was no issue getting replacement parts under CGA, which also arrived quickly.

Far better than dealing with the retailer.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

scuwp

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#3417293 22-Sep-2025 08:40

eracode:

Dealing with Dyson - only email was available - was a total nightmare. They were slow to respond at every point and their responses were obfuscating and didn't make sense. Email discussions went round and round in circles.

Huh? They have an 0800 number on their website. Were you dealing with the distributor instead perhaps?

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

eracode

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#3417294 22-Sep-2025 08:59

scuwp:

eracode:

Dealing with Dyson - only email was available - was a total nightmare. They were slow to respond at every point and their responses were obfuscating and didn't make sense. Email discussions went round and round in circles.

Huh? They have an 0800 number on their website. Were you dealing with the distributor instead perhaps?

TBH I'm not sure who I ended up dealing with in that sense. We bought the vac on 3 May 2023. When the fault arose in late May 2024, I rang the 0800 number. They asked me whether I had registered for the two-year guarantee. I hadn't so they said I needed to do that first.

I then got an email confirming guarantee period 3 May 2023 to 3 May 2025. Then everything switched to being by email - not sure how or why.

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#3417297 22-Sep-2025 09:01

xyeovillian:

Dyson V11 animal
Torque head not working is it the motor not working?
I have cleaned out etc but working intermittently or not at all
Tempted on whether to buy replacement head from Ali-express!
Anyone experienced this problem?

I'm not sure how different the heads are on the various models, but our V8 powered head died a while ago and it turned out to be a combo of a belt and the roller itself.
Ended up buying both parts online and fitting them ourselves as the vac is pretty old.
Once we then added a new battery, it started working like a brand new unit.

Our Shark, however - lasted three months of normal household duties and died - then we were told that it was caused by us (still can't accept that cleaning a house with a vac is not standard operating procedure) and we gave up on it.

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eracode

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#3417299 22-Sep-2025 09:07

Handsomedan:

Our Shark, however - lasted three months of normal household duties and died - then we were told that it was caused by us (still can't accept that cleaning a house with a vac is not standard operating procedure) and we gave up on it.

Why no guarantee or CGA action - after only three months?

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Handsomedan

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#3417311 22-Sep-2025 10:04

eracode:

Handsomedan:

Our Shark, however - lasted three months of normal household duties and died - then we were told that it was caused by us (still can't accept that cleaning a house with a vac is not standard operating procedure) and we gave up on it.

Why no guarantee or CGA action - after only three months?

It was a gift and we're not actually sure where it came from - as in we're not sure if it was a factory second or destined for destruction. Needless to say, whilst it was brand new in retail packaging, it was not from a retailer (nor was it "off the back of a truck" as such).

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noroad

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#3417336 22-Sep-2025 11:59

xyeovillian:

Dyson V11 animal
Torque head not working is it the motor not working?
I have cleaned out etc but working intermittently or not at all
Tempted on whether to buy replacement head from Ali-express!
Anyone experienced this problem?

I recently bought a new head from Dyson NZ and was amazed how reasonable and quick it was.

tehgerbil

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#3418704 25-Sep-2025 11:04

My motor head broke a while ago and I went head first into the Dyson repair rabbit hole, Dyson are one of the most anti-repair companies you're likely to come across with at least 3x built-in systems designed to prematurely fail and force costly upgrades/replacements on consumers.

Number 1 -The internal resistance check across the motor terminals.
When you pull the trigger the ECU performs an initial voltage/resistance check on the motor head and if it falls outside tolerance will not engage the motor. I assume to prevent the motor burning out if it's jammed. However if the motor is spinning freely by hand then the problem is certainly the resistance along the wiring leading to the motor itself.
To diagnose this, if you check with a multimeter you'll see a flash of a couple volts for a millisecond across the terminals when you pull the trigger before going back to 0v. (At least that was my experience with the V8)

To fix/check this you need to trace back the wiring from the head, around the bin and back to the ECU by the motor.
Clean everything with isopropyl and a toothpick/cotton bud.
If your connection traverses the dust bin (like my V8) you'll also probably need to carefully manipulate the spade connectors as they tend to get bent back too far and don't make good enough connection to avoid the build up of oxidation/dust and cause it to fail over time.
Put everything back together and you should be good to go!

Number 2 -Their battery pack BMS lacks balancing, so over time the cells get out of synch and eventually fail.

The BMS has a built in trip wire mechanism where it detects any attempt to alter the batteries and if it believes you've attempted to repair it yourself they self-destruct rendering themselves useless. You can try swapping the batteries out as I've seen people do it under perfect circumstances but again if you're a handyman trying yourself you'll likely fail and must buy a new pack.

Number 3 -The 'pulsing' where you start the vacuum and it pulses on and off.

This is the most stupid of the problems, the issue is 100% clogged filter, you must remove the filter, wash it thoroughly under water, dry it totally and then reinsert.

Anyway hope this helps you and if you or anyone else reading this experience any of the other issues may lead to some greater insight. :)

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