Anyway, my DC02 is a “limited edition” De Stijl that they don’t make any more, so I don’t want to throw it away, plus it’ll cost £200 to buy a new one.

So I went looking and found a most excellent website – DysonMedic.com, with a guide to dismantling a DC02 which I followed easily due to the great pictures and text.

Out came my motor – half of the contact strips on the armature had disintegrated and were embedded in the plastic casing (literally melted into the plastic!), new motor ordered on eBay, job’s a good ‘un.

Highly recommended if you need to fix your Dyson, the site has nearly every model on it and is well laid out and easy to use.

Thanks Dyson Medic!

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What you’ll need…
   - A small container to use as a soaking pot. I use an old bit of plastic blister packaging because it’s just the right depth to lean the back edge of the printhead against – you’ll see what I mean in the photos but anything around 2-3 inches square with sides at least 3/4’s of an inch high will do.
   - A bit of paper kitchen towel.
   - Some hot, but not boiling, water.
   - A sink or similar worksurface or some newspaper to protect your granny’s antique table.
   - Almost certainly another bit of kitchen roll to wipe your fingers on. Do what I always mean to do and get some of those plastic gloves from a petrol station otherwise you’ll have ink on your hands for at least 24 hours (it’s a badge of honour :) ).

Step 1 – Put the kettle on, this will be your hot but not boiling water in a couple of minutes. Some people advocate the use of Windex, etc. but I have found in most cases hot water alone works just fine. I’ve also seen various statements about the temperature of the water, but thermal inkjet printers work by super-heating the ink to create a steam bubble (so hotter than 100C) which forces the ink out of the nozzle (see here) so any level of hot is fine. You don’t want it boiling / too hot because it will make your soaking container go floppy :)

Step 2 – Open the printer by pulling the grey panel below the buttons / above the paper exit toward you. The printhead mechanism should move to the centre of the bay. Gain access to the printheads by raising the ink cartridge holder. This isn’t the same as the ink cartridge release button, it’s the lighter one underneath that when you pull the handle it swings open the catch. When you open it, the entire ink cartridge holder will raise up and you’ll see a line of printheads (that look a bit like cartridges) with clear plastic handles on top of each one of them.

Step 3 – Grab the plastic handle of the blocked printhead and pull it upwards to remove. Try and keep this upright, hold it (tightly - don’t drop it unless you want to be amazed at how far a teaspoon of ink can go!) in your non-writing hand. You need your other hand to close the ink cartridge holder to prevent any ink drying out on the other printheads and cartridges. Close the printer and don’t worry about the missing printhead message.

Step 4 – Assuming your kettle is in the kitchen, this step is probably best performed on the sink draining board, otherwise you should really put an old newspaper on the kitchen worktop if only to pacify the missus. You’re unlikely to spill any ink at this stage if you keep the printhead upright, but it’s always when you don’t take precautions that these things happen. Fill your soaking pot with about 1/2 an inch of the hot water from the kettle and put the printhead so the printing end (the copper bit) is in the water.

Step 5 – Reboil the kettle and, in true British spirit, have a cup of tea. It depends how blocked the printhead is as to how much time to leave it in, but I always leave it for at least an hour (and put it somewhere safe so you / kids / cat won’t knock it over). This allows the water to soften the dried ink in the printhead. You’ll see it working as the water will slowly change colour.

Step 6 – When you think it’s had a long enough soak, remove the printhead from the water and dry the surround thoroughly with a folded sheet of kitchen roll.

Step 7 – Test to see if the ink is now flowing through the printhead by gently dabbing it onto a clean bit of kitchen roll. If it’s flowing, you should be left with two lines of ink on the sheet. I find that smearing the printhead (gently but firmly) on folded kitchen roll can help to get the ink flowing.

Step 8 – Reinsert the printhead into the printer, push it down firmly to make sure it’s properly seated and then close the printer. You’ll be asked to perform printhead alignment. You can’t avoid this but it may be a waste of time if the first bit of ink is diluted with water and doesn’t give a clean printout. Check the alignment printout and if it’s still faint or streaky anywhere then run the full three stage cleaning cycle from the command centre on your PC, and/or print out test pages until the ink is flowing properly and you get solid colours (create one yourself that is just that colour to save ink). Then run the alignment test – Menu, 7, 3, Enter – again to ensure a quality printout.

If the ink still refuses to flow, go back to step 1 and re-soak until you get a decent bit of ink coming through in step 7.

If you seem to be getting nowhere, soak overnight or, instead of water, you can try the cartridge flush fluid that you get with inkjet refill kits (but don’t put this in the kettle!). This is a bit ’solvent-y’ (it’s glycol, I think) and seems to work its way in if the ink is really dried up. Also, just make 100% sure that the ink cartridge does actually have ink in it :) – you’ll see this by comparing the top of the printheads at the end of step 2.

Good luck!

If in doubt, check with your little helper puppy. I can’t seem to do anything without mine…

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If your machine has got to the point where it only blows steam through the espresso maker, rather than the trickle of fresh aromatic espresso that you’re used to, then it probably means the insides are blocked with limescale. Follow these de-scaling instructions and you’ll be back to enjoying proper coffee in no time.

What you need:

• A blocked-up coffee machine
• De-scaling solution
• Water
• A stubby handled screwdriver

Unplug the machine, make sure it is cool and empty of water.

Remove the glass jars, the espresso filter holder and the overflow grid, then turn the machine upside down. Handy tip - put your hand on the filter coffee lid to stop it flapping about.

According to the instructions, you’re supposed to remove the brewing head sieve by turning clockwise with a flat bladed screwdriver. Mine wouldn’t budge, clockwise or anticlockwise, so I abandoned that idea and, using an inkjet syringe, I squirted some descaler into the sieve and left it upside down for a few minutes. If your sieve comes off, happy days, leave it off and carry on to the next step. I reconnected the espresso filter holder and then I turned the machine back over. The stuff started to come through fairly quickly so get ready with the jug to catch any drips.

Pour your descaling solution into the machine, I filled my jug to the metal band just above the 4 cup level and poured that in.

Wait for the fizzing to do it’s business. If you’re using vinegar, this will be at least a couple of hours, anything else and you’ll have to read your label / improvise. Don’t screw the lid on as it will build up pressure (which then explodes everywhere when you open it – trust me). Stand by with a cloth in case it overflows.

When the fizzing has subsided, screw the top on the boiling chamber, place the jug underneath and switch the machine on to brew. Allow the solution to come through the machine.

You could unscrew the steamer tip and put this in the jug to give it clean if it’s dirty. You shouldn’t need to worry about the steamer tube as it’s quite wide and shouldn’t get blocked up but if you want to give the steamer tube a blast, then don’t do it into the half full jug of solution like I did because it goes everywhere. Use an empty jug!

When I used a commercial descaler, there was a lot of foam. Get ready to switch off half way through and discard the solution or your jug will overflow! It might be worth doing this anyway and leaving for a while mid-cycle just to let the solution do its work inside the pipes.

Flush through at least twice with clean water, remembering to release the pressure (by switching to steam) before you unscrew the lid. Let it cool for a minute or so with the lid off, then be very careful and slowly pour the water into the chamber as when it’s hot it will bubble up if you pour too quickly.

Once you’re happy that the water coming through is taint-free, you’re ready to enjoy real coffee again.

What de-scaling solution should I use?

Of course there are various manufactured descaling solutions. Whilst fine and I have used them in my kettle in the past, I’d rather keep those for doing the bath and sink as the big “Irritant!” label on the side is a bit scary. If your machine hasn’t been descaled for ages, you may have to use a commercial cleaner (and there are specialist coffee machine ones available), otherwise white vinegar works fine but is a lot slower so needs to be left in for longer.

^† What I did find was a great community site called Diplodocs, which hosts all sorts of manuals, from big things like cars to small appliance-y type things. Bookmark it as it’s bound to useful one day. On this site there’s a manual for an F867, which looks identical to the F866 apart from the addition of a clock.

Disclaimer: The eagle-eyed among you will have spotted the handle on my filter holder is broken. I know! And I know this is supposed to be a fix-it site ;) . However, some things just can’t be glued and are too small or awkward for plastic welding. But it doesn’t really matter as I just use a cloth when it’s hot. You don’t have to tighten it up to the max level – I discovered from the manual above that this has no impact on the strength of the coffee, anywhere within the marks will do. I thought it did make the coffee stronger, which is why I always tightened it to the max, until one day it snapped! New handle is £10+p&p, but I’ve managed without so far.

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I recently went on holiday with my son and mum to my aunt and uncle’s place, in the south of France near Nimes. My son likes playing the various games I’ve got on the xda, and he’s old enough now for me to not worry if he’s embossing the touchscreen as he uses it.

Anyway, one day, the stylus went missing. He did admit to it, he didn’t know where he’d put it. Why not just put it back in the phone, but then he is 7. Children, eh? Harder than managing staff but at least you can shout at them uncontrollably. We searched and searched every room he’d been in, even some he hadn’t,  all over the house and garden, down the sides of the sofas, in the duvet covers, etc, etc. I had another search before we left but no joy.

In true fashion, the day after we left, uncle Richard called to say he’d found it. On the front drive nestled in the gravel. I swear I’d looked there, and by using the foot to foot shuffle technique.

One week later, the package arrives. When something comes through the door in a Royal Mail package, you get all excited. That excitement quickly turned as I read the heading on the package – “Our Sincere Apologies”.

Oh dear. Poor stylus. Enclosed in the plastic bag were the remains of the envelope and my stylus, still sellotaped to the “Hope this reaches you ok” note from Uncle R, but in three pieces.

The Royal Mail are very sorry it has been damaged whilst in their care, I could complete a damaged item form so they can investigate, and they apologise for any inconvenience caused. Also, plastic bags can be dangerous, but you’d need a very small baby for this one.

There’s no way I’m going to throw the stylus in the bin after all the effort that went into searching for it and it’s traumatic journey back to the UK. What needs fixing? Two small plastic joins, there’s enough support from the metal handle, I reckon superglue should do the job.

Small drop of superglue in the metal handle tube, re-align the snap in the bits of plastic and hey presto. Hold firmly for a few seconds, letting any excess glue form in a bubble around the join. If it’s only a tiny bit of glue, leave it until it dries - removing it is much easier and cleaner when it’s dry. If it’s a big bit, like this one (whoops!), wait for the join to stick then use a bit of normal paper to remove any excess. Try not to smear it around too much, especially on the plastic, so use a clean bit of paper with every wipe. It’s easy to remove from metal, so try and get your overflow to run onto the metal if you can. Don’t use a tissue as you’ll end up getting bits of fluff stuck to your piece, and nobody wants fluff on their piece.

Wait for the glue to dry, at least 30 minutes. I mean it, don’t be tempted to fiddle before it’s dry or you’ll just end up with a mess. Take a sharp blade and, holding it almost parallel to the stylus, gently scrape away the excess glue. Be careful on the plastic bit as you will remove the plastic if you get too close, but on the metal you’re ok to gently scrape away. Don’t come in at too steep an angle or you’ll scratch the surface. Slowly and gently, remove a little bit at a time until it’s all gone.

I’ve now accepted the Royal Mail’s apologies.

I know this article’s kind of like teaching you to suck eggs, it’s really a test article for my new blog :)

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