Dyson V11 battery, filter & cyclone clean: interactive 3D teardown

All 7 steps

1. 1Slide the bin off by its red catch

   Push the red bin lever fully away from the handle: the bin slides forward and its base swings open (empty it into a bag first if it is full). Then press and hold the red catch on the bin runner, under the bin, and slide the bin forward off the runner on its spine. Set it down: the bin is cleaned with a damp cloth only, never in water or a dishwasher.

2. 2Twist the filter off and wash it trap

   Twist the filter unit at the back of the machine anticlockwise and pull it straight off. Tap the loose dust out, then at the sink rinse it in cold water only, no detergent: the pleated paper first with the foam end down, then the foam, then the outside, until the water runs clear. Shake it and stand it on the towel, foam end up, to dry for at least 24 hours. Avoid this trap: An hour or two after washing, a filter can feel dry on the outside and still be wet deep in its pleats. Twisted back on and run, the airflow pulls fine dust into the damp paper, where it cakes into a paste that blocks the pleats; the machine starts to smell damp and musty, and the moisture is drawn on towards the motor. Leave it a full 24 hours somewhere airy, and check it is dry right through before it goes back on.

3. 3Undo the hidden handle screw, then the two base screws trap

   Find the screw that people miss first: it sits behind the handle, low on its back, where the top of the battery slides up inside the handle. Undo it with the PZ1, then reach down the two deep holes in the battery’s base, at the front of the handle loop, and undo the screw at the bottom of each. All three are M2.5 × 15 mm Pozidriv screws; lay the handle one in a well of its own. Avoid this trap: With only the two base screws out, the battery seems stuck, and it is tempting to lever its front down with a flat screwdriver. But the screw behind the handle still holds the top of the battery inside the handle, so the force goes into the handle’s thin plastic: the boss round that screw tears out and the trigger housing splits beside the trigger. The battery comes out, but the handle no longer holds a battery, or a trigger, properly. Look behind the handle, low on its back, and undo that screw first.

4. 4Slide the battery out of the handle

   With all three screws out, pull the battery straight down: its top slides out of the handle and its front comes away from the battery mount. Lay it on the mat, and never puncture it, wet it or lever it with metal. The old pack goes to a battery recycling point, never in the household bin; the new one goes in when the vacuum is put back together.

5. 5Undo the three long T8 screws and slide the cyclone off

   Dyson’s own care stops at tapping the cyclone over a bin and brushing the mesh shroud with the combination tool, and going further voids the warranty. To deep-clean it as repair shops do, with the battery out: undo the three long T8 screws that run back beside the mesh, through the cyclone, into the main body, then slide the cyclone, its mesh shroud and its cap forward off the main body and lay them on the mat.

6. 6Take the cap off and ease the mesh shroud free trap

   With the cyclone on the mat, undo the four long T8 screws in its cap and lift the cap off. The mesh shroud is now held only by its four clips at the back: ease each one free with the nylon spudger, gently, and slide the mesh forward off the cyclone’s core without bending its rings. Plaster and other fine dust caked in the mesh is what chokes the suction. Avoid this trap: Pried off with the four cap screws still in, the mesh shroud cannot move: the spudger’s force all goes into one clip at the back, which snaps off, and the thin ring at the end of the mesh kinks, so it no longer seals against the cyclone. Unsealed, dust goes round the mesh and on to the filter and the motor. Take all four cap screws out and the cap off first, then ease the clips one at a time.

7. 7Rinse the mesh and the cyclone, then dry them for 24 hours

   At the sink, rinse the mesh, the cap and the cyclone under running water to wash the fine dust out: they are plastic and steel only, with no electronics. The main body, the motor and the battery never go near water. Shake them, lay them on the towel with the filter and leave everything in a warm, airy place for at least 24 hours, until it is completely dry. Then press Reassemble.

What you need

• PZ1 Pozidriv screwdriver · long and slim, for the three battery screws
• Torx T8 screwdriver · long and slim, for the cyclone’s seven screws
• Nylon spudger · for the mesh shroud’s clips
• Dyson V11 screw-in battery · genuine or compatible
• A lint-free towel and 24 hours · for the washed parts to dry
• A magnetic screw tray · ten screws, four kinds

Questions

Safety

Unplug the charger and keep your fingers off the trigger. Never puncture or wet the lithium-ion pack, or lever it with metal, and take the old one to a battery recycling point, never the household bin. Keep water away from the main body, and refit a washed filter or cyclone only once it is completely dry, after 24 hours at least.

• Lithium-ion batteries: never bend, puncture or pry a battery with metal. A damaged cell can go into thermal runaway: it smokes, catches fire and can explode. Discharge it below 25% first; if it swells, hisses, smokes or gets hot, stop and move it somewhere safe.
• Static (ESD): work on an anti-static mat with a grounded wrist strap; a spark you cannot feel can kill a chip.
• Power off: switch the device off and unplug its charger before you open it, and disconnect the battery before touching anything else inside.

About this teardown

3D Spatial Reconstruction: Models are engineered from factual hardware measurements to visualize internal layouts, screw lengths, and hidden cable traps before you open your device. Always verify cable routing on your specific hardware revision.

The vacuum is a Dyson V11 with the screw-in battery (sold as the V11 Torque Drive, the V11 Animal and the first V11 Absolute), in our own 3D, with no Dyson logo or artwork and its colours muted. Its proportions, the depth of the two holes in the battery’s base and the number of the mesh shroud’s clips (four) are our estimates from photos; the bin’s 0.76 L, the filter’s size, the battery’s seven cells and the screws come from Dyson’s pages and repair sources.

Where the real vacuum differs from our brief: the three battery screws are Pozidriv (PZ1), M2.5 × 15 mm, where the brief said Phillips #1 (iFixit’s guide lists a Phillips #1, which only fits them loosely); the bin comes off with two red controls, the bin lever pushed away from the handle and then the catch on the bin runner held; and Dyson’s own care of the cyclone is tapping it and brushing the mesh shroud, never washing it on the machine. Taking the cyclone off on its T8 screws and washing its mesh is what repair shops do: it goes beyond Dyson’s instructions and voids the warranty. The lengths of the T8 screws are not published, so the risk map names them by what they hold.

The V8 and the V10 differ. The V8 (SV10) has the same three battery screws, one at the back of the handle with a rubber washer and two in the battery’s base, reached with its bin off; its bin stands upright under the cyclone and slides down off its runner; and it has two washable filters, one in the top of the cyclone and one at the back. The V10 (SV12) has the same three screws, two at the bottom and one behind the handle, and an in-line bin like the V11’s, with one filter at the back. Later V11s have a click-in battery, released by a large red button where the handle meets it, with no screws at all.

The 3D runs faster than real hands do, and the 24 hours of drying pass in seconds.

Sources: Dyson: V11 (SV14), cleaning the bin and cyclone (the red bin release, the red button on the bin runner, tap the cyclone, brush the shroud), Dyson: V11 (SV14), washing the filter (anticlockwise off, cold water, 24 hours to dry, clockwise until it clicks), Dyson: V10, removing the bin (the lever fully away from the handle, the red catch under the bin), Dyson: V10, washing the filter (one filter unit, twisted anticlockwise off, 24 hours to dry), Dyson: V8 owner’s guide (its filters, rinsed under a cold tap, 24 hours to dry), Dyson: V11 replacement battery (two kinds, screw-in and click-in; no longer sold in the US) and the V11 filter, 970013-02, $19.99 (October 2026), Dyson: V11 Animal (0.76 L bin, up to 60 minutes, seven-cell battery), iFixit: Dyson V11 battery replacement (one screw at the back of the handle, two under the battery), iFixit: Dyson V11 trigger replacement (Torx T8 on some models; a long, slim T8 needed), iFixit: Dyson V8 battery replacement (three screws, the handle one with a rubber washer; the bin off shows the two base screws), Dyson Medic: Dyson’s battery screws are Pozidriv, not Phillips, Vac Revive: genuine Dyson battery screws, M2.5 × 15.0, a set of three (965558-11), Vac Revive: deep-cleaning a V11 cyclone (battery out, cyclone off, the mesh’s tabs, plastic and mesh only in water, 24 hours to dry), Manchester Vacs forum: V11 Absolute strip-down (long T8 screws hold the shroud and the cyclone; the shroud unclipped), Dyson Community: V10 battery screws (a PZ1 the only bit that fitted), Dyson: V11, a damp or musty smell (dust that met water; a filter refitted wet), TechRadar: why a vacuum smells (a damp filter, mould and motor damage, 24 hours to dry), Price: BatteryTek USA, a compatible V11 screw-in battery, 25.2 V, $95.23 (October 2026).

The 3D models, drawings and text are our own. Dyson is a trademark of its owner, named only to say which device this teardown is for; iTakeApart is not affiliated with it.