My latest toys! Dyson DC04 DeStijl, and DC03

[madabouthoovers]

First the Dyson DC04 DeStijl.
This cost me £9.50 off Ebay - in a dirty and unloved condition, and very local so had to have it, and rescue it from an untimely end. Had to shorten the cable as it had the usual damaged gable grommet and the cable was split there.
Slight damage to the handle and the stair tool is missing - so gonna have to try and get a purple DC04 stair tool. Works well though and all original. Been after a DeStijl for a while.

The before pic:

 

[madabouthoovers]

And after a good clean up:

 

[madabouthoovers]

Side view:

 

[madabouthoovers]

The other model is the DC03 Standard, picked up for a tenner, and this has a good motor too. The only problem is that the bin catch has broken, so had to duck tape the bin to the cyclone assembly till I can get round to obtaining a new catch. It has a green wand helmet too so will need a yellow one to match.
These seem to be getting harder to get now, and mine dates from 1997, so an early model:

 

[madabouthoovers]

And the 2 side by side - note that neither of these models was available in the US, and apart from the DC11, the DC03 was the only Dyson to feature twin tanks. The right hand tank contains the pre motor(top) and post motor (Bottom) Hepa filter cartridges. A very interesting design the DC03, and I will be hunting out a DC03 Clear when I can find one.

 

[madabouthoovers]

I find that the later Dysons post DC15 are increasingly dull and boring, Dyson made such colourful looking models in the early days, with the DC07 coming in 15 different colour combinations over its lifetime, and the DC14 in even more.
The bright and lurid colours are what made the early Dysons stand out - now they seem to be just boring and toned down grey colours.
Times and fashions change I suppose, but I wish they would bring out some wacky colours again like the DeStijl - which was only made in DC01, DC02 and DC04 models.

 

[jmurray01]

You've done a good job.

Of course, a Hoover Senior Ranger would be better!

 

[parwaz786]

Wow!

You can clean the vacuums better than me btw DC03 came out in 1998 I believe . I really want a clutched DC04 to go next to my mum's Dc04 silver lime that we bought brand new 1 year and a half ago. I had a DC03 standard in 2006 and broke 1 year later due to plastics cracking easily. I would ike a DC03 zorb or standard . Enjoy the dysons mate

 

[vintagerepairer]

The DC03 went on sale in January 1998, but production of the cleaner would have been well under way in 1997. So you are both right.

 

[parwaz786]

Really?

Oh Okay, Thanks for the info

 

[dysondestijl]

wow!! yeah i agree that post-15's are very dull colour-wise. apart from the pink issey miyake DC16. i have the de stijl in dc01 and dc02. i really want a dc03, i'm thinking of getting one off ebay as theres one for spares/repairs from a house clearence.
nice dysons!

 

[rutger]

The DC03 is a very cool looking machine. Isn't that the one that's designed to lie flat so you could hang it up for storage?

Dave

 

[dysondestijl]

rutger...

yeah it was designed so you could vacuum under beds, tables etc... also because of its slim design dyson suggested that you could indeed hang it on a wall. not that anyone really did, though.

 

[jmurray01]

"I really want a clutched DC04 to go next to my mum's Dc04 silver lime that we bought brand new 1 year and a half ago." How the hell did you manage that? The DC04s haven't been on sale in years, as far as I knew.

 

[vintagerepairer]

The DC03, like so many Dyson products, did not have the perimeters and a target market readily identified by Dyson. That is a consistent failure of Dyson. They put products out into the world but don't make clear distinctions between both their own products and those of a competitor. It is a trait which I swear they learnt from Hoover.

 

[madabouthoovers]

Thanks for the comments - the DC03 is sure one very unusual machine, and considering how long they sold these for, there arent that many left of them now. They seemed to be popular with the elderly as they were the lighter than a standard upright at the time (but the DC24 soon took the crown of being lightweight upright from Dyson)
You could indeed hang them on a wall by the helmet at the top of the wand, but I doubt many people did.
The rarest DC03 is the DC03 Clear, which was a limited edition run that you very rarely see now - there is someone on vacuumland that has one, along with a DC02 clear - very nice machines that you could see through as they were translucent.

Time has come now to start getting hold of old Dysons, especially the limited editions, as prices will start going up soon as they get rarer.
Many people may frown on Dysons, but the DC01 was a masterpiece of technology at the time, and I am looking for a good one to get and keep in the collection - ideally a DeStijl model.

I trawled ebay today looking for the genuine tools for the DC04 DeStijl - the 2 tone purple and red ones with a red crevice tool - found the dusting brush and crevice, but couldnt find an original stair tool anywhere - I believe many of the original tools broke easily on the swivel joint, so to buy the 2 tools on ebay now, would cost me more than I paid for the whole vac in the first place. Crazy.

They want £5.25 for this one tool second hand - thats how rare they are getting now:

 

[parwaz786]

Jamie

Local to me, there is a house hold shop which sells all kinds of things and they had a brand new dc04 lime since 2005 been on the shelf since 2005!

 

[vintagerepairer]

The biggest miracle of the Dyson DC01 is that James Dyson was able to produce a cleaner of such poor quality, sell it for the price which he did, to an audience who had never heard of him before, and indeed in many cases who were incredibly brand-loyal. I am not saying that the cleaner did not do a good job, but I am saying for certain that the quality was the lowest I had ever seen of any cleaner.

The DC03 was indeed a popular choice by older consumers, but Dyson made no suggestion of this. The DC03 went on sale as the model which had brush control. That was the main difference between it and the DC01. The dust capacity of the cleaner was far lower, as was the motor wattage, although Dyson maintained that the 03 had the same air wattage as the 01, due to the design. Although the 03 had a long production run, the 01 and 04 cleaners were still the most sought after by consumers as these were viewed as being the full-size cleaners, which may explain why the 03 models are harder to find now. The 03 also had a weak handle which was easily broken, particularly as the cleaner was easy to pull over and land on the handle. The cost of a new handle was often considerable, in relation to the age of the cleaner, especially when some consumers considered the 03 to not be that effective at cleaning anyway, so many did not spend the money, they just bought a new cleaner.