I just picked up a DC17 through the local trade forum, so no warranty. This is the animal version and man did it smell bad; because the owner had no idea how to clean it and no warranty it was a good deal.
The vortex filter was packed, I mean full of hair, dander and ultra fine dust. Each of the 8 cones at the top, full. Looking at the bottom of the canister and up inside, through the 2 crescent shaped openings, there was long hairs and carpet strands running between the circulatlion holes. Looking into the top of the canister, through the outlet, there were long hairs and fibers running between holes too. This thing was plugged!
So how to fix? Where the vortex filter sits on the debri canister is where the bottom of vortex filter comes away from the top. No need to remove the handle on the top, no need to try and remove any screws through the crescent shaped holes on the bottom. Splitting the vortex filter in two is gonna take some muscle and persistance.
Remove the vortex filter from the dust bin canister, take the filter outside and blow it out with an air hose if you have it. If you don't, just shake it and wind mill it around with the handle to get off as much dust as you can.
Place it on the floor or ground, use an old towel to keep your mess from spreading and to protect the filter. Hold onto the handle end and tilt the filter so the bottom is raised up off the ground. Now, grab the lowest portion of the filter and push down while holding the top end closer to the ground. Like you are trying to bend the whole filter. What you are doing is prying the bottom section away from the top section. The two pieces are joined with some clear silicone sealant around the perimeter where the 2 pieces join.
Slowly rotate the filter around so that you are prying all around the perimeter. Where the filter rests on the dust bin is where they come apart. The same line where the release lever is to seperate the filter from the dust bin. You will see the joint open and you will hear the inner pieces getting deformed slightly. It takes some firm, consistant pressure. Once the lower section of the filter begins to seperate, you can grasp in the crescent shaped holes, or hole and outer edge and pull the upper and lower pieces apart. This is the hardest part.
Now that you have those apart, throw the lower part in a bucket with some hot soapy water and let it soak while you take apart the upper half. The upper half has 6 T-15 torx head screws that you have to remove. Notice that there is an arrow on the first of the filter plates facing away from the dust bin eject lever. The next plate has arrows built onto its surface as well, they both point to the opposite side of the filter from the dust bin eject lever. This is just an easy way to align it all when you put it back together.
Now that you have removed the first six T-15 torx screws and removed the first 2 filter plates. You can toss them into the warm soapy bucket to soak too. Also, take the rubber seals off of the lower filter section and the rubber seal off the second filter plate. The seals should be very flexible, and they stretch enough to remove them without damage. Just be tender and take your time.
Now onto the top section of the upper filter, looking at the bottom with the handle down, you can see 8 more of the T-15 torx screws. They gotta come out. Once you have them all loose, stop! Goto a trash can or have a paper sack handy. With the handle down, over the sack or trash can, lift off the section with the 8 vortex cones built into it. The last plastic filter plate is between the top of the filter and the vortex section. Keep the handle facing down or you are gonna have to sort out some screws from the trash. The vortex section will keep the screws safe as it is very deep and a lot of fine dust and hair is gonna come out of those vortex cones. Set the handle section and the last filter plate to the side, keep the vortex section facing bottom side up, cone side down over the trash. A lot of fine dust and hair is inside those cones if your filter was as plugged as mine. Bang your hand against the side of the vortex section a couple times to get as much out as you can. Now go back over to the towel on the ground and flip the vortex section right side up and push out all 8 of the T-15 torx screws.
Now, everybody in the bucket. Grab a sponge, old tooth brush and about 10 q-tips. Most of the build up will come right off, if you vacuumed up anything wet (we know you did) there will be some hard to break free stuff, but not much. Just wash at the stuff and don't use anything abrasive, or any harsher chemicals than dish washing (liquid) soap. Get everything clean and rinse under warmer water. Set the 3 filter plates off to the side ( I know they have funny shapes to them, but there are just 3 of them and they go back together just one way) and let dry. The lower section has 2 cone holes in the center of it. Off to the inner side of these 2 cone shapes are 2 dirt traps that you can't get to with anything but a bottle brush or a q-tip. I held the q-tip with some long needle nose plyers to get right down to the bottom of these 2 spaces. When you look at it, you will know where I'm talking about.
Also, along the outside edge of the lower filter section, where all the many, many holes are, is a space that holds onto wet doggie smells. Since it is nearly impossible to get between the inner wall and that outer wall where all those holes are, you might want to wash this section and then toss it back into a clean bucket of water and soap and let it sit over night, aggitating it from time to time when you think about it. I also threw those 3 rubber seals back into the bucket, that rubber holds onto the skin oils of your pets and smells pretty strong as well. An overnight soak doesn't get rid of it entirely, but puts a pretty good dent into removing the strenght of the smell.
Now that all the parts have sat out overnight, and you rinsed off the lower section and rubber seals with almost hot water, dryed them with a towel and sat them aside to air dry, start re-assembly of the top section. Take the handle section, the top filter plate, the vortex section, and 8 T-15 screws and sit down over a towel on the floor. You washed those screws I hope, because those skin oils make them stink like wet dog too.
The vortex section and the top handle section line up with the dust bin release lever. The top filter plate can be lined up without reference as long as the domed side is up towards the handle. Once the dust bin release lever is inserted easily into the vortex section the 3 pieces go together very trouble free. Now start one of the T-15 screws and then start the next one opposite side from the first one, jumping from one side to the other start all 8. Working in this fashion, using thumb and forefinger, tighten all 8. When you have to struggle with your thumb and forefinger alone to turn them, they are probably tight enough. Don't over tighten them or you will strip out the plastic they grip into. They used 8 of them to have enough grip force to seat these 3 pieces together.
Now the 1st and second filter plates and the next 6 T-15 screws can go back onto the bottom of the vortex section. Remember those arrows point down away from the filter release lever. When you have them pointed right the screw holes line up with the uprights on the vortex section. The 2 filter plates only go together one way as well, so it's pretty easy to figure out. Put the four outer screws in and tighten the same way as the first 8, thumb and fore finger. They all seat into hard plastic and firm up when they are tight enough. The last 2 inner screws seat in the soft plastic of the 2nd filter plate. Don't over tighten these and strip out their seats. Just tighten them down till they start to firm up and stop, that is plenty tight for them to keep the 2 lower filter plates together in the center.
Now the upper filter section is re-assembled, put the thin rubber seal back onto the 2nd filter plate. If you look closely at the seal it has a v shape to it. Place the seal back around the filter plate with the v shape pointing down to the bottom section. I placed a small dab of vaseline on this rubber seal. A tiny, tiny dab is all you need, then rub one way from the dab to half way around the seal and going back to the dab rub the other direction. It should be such a small dab you can't see it when you rub it around the rest of the seal. If you can see it all around the seal, you used too much. Wipe off the extra.
Now slide the lower filter section on. Take a look at the silicon bead on the upper section where the 2 pieces go together. If there is a pretty good lip all the way around you shouldn't have to redo this. Slide the 2 pieces together right up to where the lower section is starting to go back into the silicon caulking bead. Get the bead and the lower section overlapping just slightly, take a piece of paper and fold it in half. Use the edge formed by the fold, the folded side won't cut the silicon bead. Slip the paper under the lower filter section, between the silicon and the plastic lower section lip and drag all the way around. If any of the silicon lip got stuck over the lower filter lip you will get it tucked under with the paper this way. Gently pull out the paper as you go around the filter and the silicon will stay tucked under where you want it. You might have to push the lower and upper filter sections together a little more as you do this to get the silicon bead tucked back into place. Once the silicon is tucked together, push the 2 pieces of the filter back together. Since everything is clean and well rinsed the silicon bead will seat back to the lower section and not need to be re done. Just make sure to line up the reference on the edge of the lower filter section to the dust bin release lever.
Place the last 2 rubber seals back onto the lower filter section and you are done. Hopefully for another couple years. Make sure to drop the collection bin after every use and before you get to the max line and the filter should stay un plugged. You know how to clean it if you have to.
Ty B., September 2009
