If you are storing or transporting your vacuum in cold temperatures (below 3C°) and experiencing cut-out of the motor after 1-2 seconds, the unit is operating as-designed.

I was experiencing some problems that are not documented in the manual and I have owned my cordless v8 absolute for 25 months.  At first, I though the battery was bad.  The symptoms were that I would remove the unit from its charging base and all 3 bars would show a fully charged battery.  I would squeeze the trigger and the unit would stop after 1-2 seconds and the battery indicator would display a single flashing blue bar.  It did not matter if a power accessory was attached, or nothing was attached.  It also did not matter if the unit was in MAX SUCTION mode or normal mode.

I called Dyson support, and they thought I needed a new battery.  I am glad now that I did not order one.

My unit is stored in the garage and for the last several weeks daytime temperatures have been below freezing.  I never “connected the dots” for cold temperatures and an automatic “disable” interlock.  Had the USA manual mentioned this, it would have saved me a lot of time and effort.

Basically, my manual simply says this: 

“When not in use the machine should be stored at room temperature.  Recommended range: 64°F (18°C) and 82°F (28°C).  The ambient temperature range for operation and charging should be 50°F (10°C) to 86°F (30°C).”

Notice that the manual does not say why these limits exist.

In digging around some more, I stumbled across this important statement on Dyson’s UK website which made everything come into focus:

“Your machine won’t operate or charge if the ambient temperature is below 3°C (37°F). This is designed to protect both the motor and battery.”

Vacuum battery care (dyson.co.uk)

I wish I had that key piece of information about a week ago or that it had been volunteered (or solicited by asking a few questions) when I called Dyson support.  I wish it was in all manuals.  I wish their self-help troubleshooting tools gave this information.  I wish that one of the LED flashing diagnostic codes would have annunciated this.  It would have saved me several hours of frustration.  I thought the trigger was bad or perhaps the battery was bad.

I have now moved the unit indoors after 2 years of having it in the garage and it works once again.  Yes, I realize the manual said not to store it in those temperatures, but elsewhere people from Dyson itself provided support info that it was perfectly OK to store it in the garage as long as it wasn’t too hot.  No mention was made of cold temperatures.

The ironic thing is that it was working as-intended / as-designed.  The shutoff interlock was kicking in below 3°C (37.4°F) exactly as it should.

For anyone else experiencing issues, temperature could be the problem.  Bring the unit inside for 30 minutes and see if that resolves the problem as the battery gets up to room temperature.  I suspect the temperature sensor and “kill switch” for under-temp/over-temp is embedded in the battery itself.

I am going to reach out to Dyson and suggest that they add the UK statement to all of their manuals and troubleshooting algorithms.