I can't open my Dyson to empty the rubbish

"I have the same problem on the Dyson V10 Animal. I was afraid to apply too much pressure on the red tab, which needs to be pushed in the forward direction to open the canister.

I did not want to risk breaking the transparent clip at the bottom of the canister with a screwdriver as recommended above.

I found once I had opened it, I observed that the red clip locks onto an outpouched area on the main device (See picture with green arrow).

I found that the red clip will click forward if I apply pressure simultaneously on the grey column below the red clip (See picture with red arrow)

Hope this helps.

Update (08/19/2019)"

"Thanks Clark

I got it. The pull on mine needs to be up and back. Confusingly the red lever will allow you to push a little both down and forward and up and forward to no avail. Up and back does the trick."

"The fact of the matter is all this is well and good, except for the fact i am not going to hold my tongue sideways, stand in the light of a full moon wiggling and jiggling this and jacking that to get a simple switch to open the next few hundred times i go to empty the dust bin. Back in the box and back to the dyson geniuses who can get a vacuum to suck chrome off a trailer hitch but can’t make a reliable latching mechanism on the dust bin.

Just keeping it real. Stuff that doesn’t work correctly gets the boot around here."

"This worked for me and I also have arthritis in my hands.

when closed, apply a small pressure on the grey column in front of the fed slider.

Pop! Opens immediately.

take a close look at the little grey plastic lip that forms the lock.

Simple mechanics but tricky for older users!"

It worked for me once I put the pressure on the other handle as stated. Thank you so much. I have limited mobility upper body and this worked immediately.

If you have cleaned the dust container, it does not slide easily. Therefore when you push red handle, you need to push cylinder from edge so handle will not be stressed. I recommend to try it after cleaning some place and fill container with dust. Because dust make container to slide easily.