Dyson: Difference between revisions

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Added 4th example of incidents with v6 battery pack repairs
 
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{{InfoboxCompany
Dyson is a manufacturer of vacuum cleaners.  
| Name = Dyson
| Type = Private
| Founded = 1991
| Industry = Household Appliances
| Official Website = https://dyson.com/
| Logo = Dyson-Logo.webp
}}
'''[[wikipedia:Dyson (company)|Dyson Limited]]''' is a manufacturer of home appliances (most notably vacuum cleaners), and has been involved in several incidents related to the aftermarket repair of its products, which are detailed below.


== Battery packs lacking cell balancing, featuring self-bricking firmware ==
==Consumer impact summary==
Dyson's policies have been troublesome for product longevity and repair. Dyson's battery design speeds up degradation, and adhesive on printed circuit boards makes easy repairs not possible, causing expensive replacements. Dyson also cut off third-party repair shops, restricting consumers and forcing them into manufacturer-recommended services. These policies add costs of ownership and shorten product lifespan, harming consumers.[[File:Dyson-glued-button.jpg|thumb|Glued PCB, preventing repair.<ref name=":0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF0nNOAFnRQ</ref>]]
==Incidents<!-- Will split this into incidents and practices later on -->==


Dyson battery packs contain a Battery Management System (BMS) with a chip that would be capable of balancing the individual cells. However, the manufacturer has decided to leave away a few inexpensive but essential resistors, resulting in no balancing to take effect. As a result, the battery pack wears out much quicker than necessary.
===Battery lifespan reduction===
{{Main|Dyson intentionally reduces battery lifespan and makes them difficult to repair}}
'''[[Dyson]]''' battery packs include a '''Battery Management System (BMS)''' equipped with a chip capable of balancing the individual cells. However, the manufacturer has chosen to omit a few inexpensive but essential resistors, preventing the balancing function from working as intended. As a result, the battery pack degrades much faster than it should.


After just a few years, spare battery packs are "out of stock" (e.g., the Dyson V8 SV10 Battery being currently unavailable in Germany), effectively suggesting that the device should be thrown away.
===Circuit boards covered in glue===
{{Main|Dyson covers circuit board in glue which prevents repairs}}
'''[[Dyson]]''' started applying a thick layer of glue to the circuit board, making it impossible to replace the power button when it breaks, and forcing customers to replace the entire housing.


Even if one charges (using a third-party charger) and balances, or even replaces the individual cells, the Battery Management System will still not allow you to charge the battery because its firmware writes 2 bytes into the configuration memory of the microcontroller that essentially bricks the battery pack. However, third-party open source firmware has been written to replace the proprietary firmware for some models, and for some models it has been found out which configuration bits need to be changed in order to un-brick the battery pack<ref>https://github.com/tinfever/FU-Dyson-BMS</ref><ref>https://github.com/davidmpye/V10_Dyson_BMS</ref>. This has been covered in the (specialist) media<ref>https://hackaday.com/2022/05/23/fighting-back-against-dodgy-dyson-batteries/</ref>.  
=== Deleting third-party repairs options ===
{{Main|Dyson ends relationship with third-party repair centers}}
The company no longer allows repairs through third-party repair centers. Dyson described this decision as '<nowiki/>''difficult''<nowiki/>' but emphasized its commitment to ensuring that '''all services and repairs meet Dyson's high-quality standards for our owners''<nowiki/>'.


This anti-consumer and anti-repair pattern can be observed across multiple models and product iterations, and appears to be fully intentional.
=== Difficult to repair battery packs for Dyson V6 cordless vacuum ===
The Dyson V6 uses replacable battery packs that are available for purchase [https://www.dyson.com/support/journey/tools/967810-23 on their website]. The battery packs have plastic casing that is clipped shut in such a way that unclipping them requires damaging the casing. Additionally, the BMS used does not have a reset button. TronicsFix was unsuccessful in repairing the battery pack that was stuck sending the voltage without the button pressed down and he was forced to buy a replacement.[https://youtu.be/Wa1dsoZK4tk?t=1109]


Open source software has been written to un-brick the battery pack by overwriting the configuration bits for some models using a 3.3V Arduino board<ref>https://github.com/kumdzio/PIC16LF1847arduino-programmer/tree/main/Dyson_original_firmware_unlocker_with_eeprom_check</ref>.
==References==
 
== Harder to repair buttons ==
[[File:Dyson-glued-button.jpg|thumb|Glued PCB, preventing an easy repair<ref name=":0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF0nNOAFnRQ</ref>]]
There have been reports of vacuum trigger button being harder to self-repair for a consumer due to the use of glue on the PCB, prompting the user to replace the whole housing.<ref name=":0" /><ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUqfrIk-FhM; [[Louis Rossmann - Video Directory#2022|Dyson's repair procedures suck, unlike their vacuums#2022]]</ref>
 
== References ==
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[[Category:Dyson]]