Safety first. Everything below is an external check any owner can safely do. Do not open a battery pack, work on exposed wiring, or bypass a safety cut-out. If a product is hot, smoking, swollen or physically damaged, stop using it and call us.
A cordless Dyson that gives you nothing when you pull the trigger is alarming, but a genuinely dead machine is less common than the alternatives. Work through these in order — they run cheapest and most likely first.
1. Confirm it is actually charging
Put it on the charger and watch for any light at all. No light usually shifts suspicion away from the vacuum and onto the charger, the dock or the outlet. Try a different outlet you know works, and check the charger cable along its whole length for kinks or damage near the connector.
2. Look at what the lights are telling you
Modern Dyson models signal specific conditions through their lights rather than simply failing. A pattern of flashes is information, not noise. Note exactly what you see — how many flashes, what colour, how often — because that pattern narrows the cause considerably when you describe it to us.
3. Let it come back to room temperature
Lithium batteries refuse to charge or discharge outside a safe temperature band. A machine stored in a cold garage or left in a hot car can appear dead and then behave perfectly an hour later indoors. If the machine has been somewhere cold or hot, give it a few hours at normal room temperature before concluding anything.
4. Check the filter and airflow path
Some models will cut out rather than run against a blockage. A filter that was washed and put back damp is a very common cause — filters need to dry fully, which takes longer than most people leave them. Check the filter, the bin inlet, the wand and the cleaner head for anything restricting airflow.
5. Check the contacts
Where the battery meets the body, and where the wand meets the cleaner head, there are contacts that can get dusty or grubby. A dry wipe with a clean cloth is safe and occasionally solves it outright.
When it probably is the battery
If the machine runs only while on the charger, runs for a few seconds and stops, or has gradually dropped from long runtimes to very short ones over a year or two, the battery is the likely culprit rather than the machine. Whether that is worth addressing depends on the model and the age and condition of the rest of the unit — which is exactly the comparison worth having before you spend anything.
Still stuck?
Call a product specialist and describe what yours is doing.