Reviews related to : Vacuum cleaners
Over the years I have had the chance to try several vacuum cleaners and carpet washers both big and small from VAX. The more recent carpet washers are great in that they make the decisions, move forward and wash and move backwards to dry. These however have one drawback space, by that I mean you need to empty the room and in today’s cluttered world that is not easy and that is where the Spot Washer comes in.
The VAX Spot Wash Duo is 40cm tall, 17cm wide and 32cm deep, the fitted hose is 1.5metres long. The cleaning solution goes into an area in the centre of the unit under the carrying handle, at the front is the clean water tank and at the back the dirty water tank. On one side is where you insert the end of the hose to run a cleaning cycle on the hose and beside this is a wrap area for the hard wired power lead. There are four heads to attach to the end of the hose.
The problem with most upright cleaners is when you need to move them over obstructions or upstairs they are quite heavy. Now Hoover has produced an upright cleaner that is 30% lighter than previous models but still just as powerful.
The Hoover Upright Pet 300 measures 116cm tall and the foot is 30x23cm. The accessories in with the unit are a small 11cm wide foot and a small 20cm long nozzle to fit onto the hose and a double ended brush, these can either be stored in the box or fitted to the sides of the unit so they never get lost. Next a nice surprise a twelve side A4 manual in Landscape that covers everything and it’s all in English.
The latest vacuum cleaner from VAX also handles hard floors. The previous one that I saw was the Blade 2 and there are a number of changes not least is the fact that the battery is removable and can fit all of the latest range of VAX products.
The Vax ONEPWR Blade 4 measures 114cm from the cleaning foot to the top of the handle when stood upright. Unlike the Blade 2 where the power adapter fitted into the top of the handle to charge the fixed battery here in the Blade 4 the battery fits into the unit near the head and clicks out for recharging into an ‘L’ shaped holder for recharge. If you have another of the ONE PWR units from VAX then the batteries are interchangeable so while one is charging another can be in use.
This is designed to collect spills and stains without the need to have a whole room item which is often the reason why professional carpet and floor cleaners exist. That wine stain fully removed along with 99% of any bacteria with this small handheld unit. The other main drawback with the full-size cleaner is where do you put the furniture while you use it.
Don’t get me wrong Vax do full size units which work almost like a vacuum and if you look back you will see reviews from me and they advertise them on TV, this is not designed to replace them but in around two minutes this can be ready to use and almost as soon as that the stain can be removed and it takes the water and cleaning solution back into the machine so you carpet is soon dry, on hard floors its even quicker as whatever is on the sealed floor is taken and the floor is dry again.
Hard to get places can be accessed with this item, and if something metallic like say a ring has got out of reach then this small unit has a magnetic end to attract and before you capture it you can locate it with its LED light on the end.
One word in the title had me thinking this had a motor that word was ‘Vac’. It is actually a brush and the brushes holder is another brush which also has sticky Velcro sides. For good measure the end of the outside container is also a larger version of the small brush, in both cases the bristles are 3cm long meaning they can delve into crevices. The larger unit is 19cm long 7cm wide and 5cm tall, this has grippy Velcro on either side and a round brush bar on the underside.
Not to be confused with the I-Robot book of Isaac Asimov short stories or the I-Robot film staring Will Smith, the iRobot (note the slight difference in the spelling) Roomba is a vacuuming robot. I have been looking at the 980 model of this product which has been cleaning my maisonette.
Forming the central unit of this product is the Roomba 980 robot. Circular in shape, just like every vacuuming robot I have seen, the Roomba robot has a diameter of 355mm and a height of 110mm including the heavy-tyred pair of wheels. Decked out predominately in a combination of lacquered and matte black, the Roomba has the appearance of a weighing machine that it might be wise to avoid if you felt a collision might occur between your feet and the device.
Left to its own devices, this next product can provide cleaning assistance.
Developed by ECOVACS Robotics, the Deebot N79s is an automatic floor cleaning device – in other words it is a vacuum cleaner that can operate without human physical guidance. Rather than take the Isaac Asimov approach of creating robots in human form, Ecovacs has designed their robot, with its low profile, to suit its home / office type environment and its floor cleaning functionality.
The Vax Blade 2 Max is a very efficient lightweight A-rated handstick cordless vacuum cleaner with a longer than average runtime. It could well be the only vacuum that a family will need
The unit is grey and black in colour while the dust collecting portions are in clear plastic so it is easy to see the amount of dust that it collects and so know when to empty the machine. Supplied with a wall-mounted docking station it consists of the handheld unit itself, the motorised power head, and the dismountable stick that links the two, together with the crevice and brush additional tools. As a stick machine it weighs 3.1kg and so is easy to use in one hand.
Just occasionally I get an email from Hoover about new offerings, one such arrived last week and I selected what seemed an interesting offering asking if one was available for delivery four days later just in time for my weekend cleaning blitz.
The next afternoon it arrived and it therefore sat in my hall for three days waiting to clear up the last weeks mess. Assembly was a matter of extracting it from a tightly fitting box and finding the handle among all the accessories and hose extensions all provided. There is one screw - packed in position with a piece of tape – so a screwdriver is required. The supplied 6 metre power cord is almost long enough to do the whole property from a single power point – another .
Having previously reviewed a Window Vac and lots of Vacuum cleaners, this was left to last of the three products I requested to review at the recent Karcher open day. The reason is it’s a new tool to me and is definitely not for a child to use.
Having suffered some burns in my past life as a chef I can definitely say those caused by steam were some of the most painful so a steam cleaner is a tool to be used with care by an adult once they have very thoroughly RTFM (read the £$%-&*# manual). What I was sent was the smallest size of their deluxe unit that not only cleans bathrooms and floors but any soiled or stained surface so that old discoloured tile grouting has met its match.
Most Karcher cleaning items use water – at least in part – to facilitate cleaning. Not this one as it is their entry into the vacuum market. Like a number of recent releases it uses the wand principle with the motor at the top of the wand.
It comes with a conventional shoe which can be removed for other cleaning jobs and one of the three supplied other attachments fitted. With the shoe on the wand extends from as little as .62metres high to as much as 1.22metres so no excuse for the kids not to do the cleaning. My next joy was the length of the hard wired lead its 9 metres so it is far longer than most cleaners in fact the longest I have reviewed was 8 metres.
Four years ago I saw Kärcher’s earliest entry into the Window Cleaning market the WV 50. So here is the 2017 version unusually with a lower number than the original at WV 5. This is the top of the range of the three currently available units.
The cleaning unit has a 28cm wide head and all liquid it comes into contact with is sucked into the internal bottle so when you clean your windows you get results as good as the professionals with no streaks and best of all no wet arms. The unit is 31cm tall and a maximum of 8cm wide. The Kärcher yellow colour is predominate apart from the odd bit of black and the see through waste water container.
The Karcher VC5 Premium is a compact, versatile and powerful mains powered upright vacuum cleaner which has been designed with the modern home in mind where storage space is at a premium.
In Karcher’s traditional black and yellow colour scheme the body of the machine incorporates the motor, filters and the bag-less dust container. The handle is built into the top of the body while the telescopic suction tube is at the lower end. When not in use the overall height of the machine is less than 30 inches and so the machine can be stowed unobtrusively in a cupboard or in a corner and just pulled out when needed. The machine weighs just 3.2kg without accessories.
Yes you read it correctly, Hoover have brought out a cleaner specifically for cleaning of mattresses. While those of us that have mattresses that can be turned I am sure few of us – and certainly not me – have previously taken a Hoover to a mattress.
I am sure we all change the sheets regularly and turn the mattress around once a month. With a normal mattress that gives four ways of use to ensure even wear, the exception is a few of the new memory foam offerings that can only be used one way up. It is 26.5x32x16cm with the head 20.5cm wide, it weighs 2.2kilos.
This is possibly the simplest way to clean your carpets, the technology means they dry a lot quicker, the one problem you are left with is where you put all the furniture while this product does what it does for you and your carpets.
From the moment I opened the box I was happy, as a reviewer items that come out of a box need to go back in the box and the three main components that make up the machine have clear positions and the large bag with all the extras fits down the side. With something like this unless you live in a very large mansion it will not be used every day or even probably every week so storage or everything together is important so the next time it’s needed the parts are all immediately available.
It is time to give my home a good cleaning while checking out a Hoover vacuum cleaner.
The Hoover Velocity is a bagless, upright vacuum cleaner which could, more or less, seem to cover everything about the product. This is, after all, a product has been manufactured by Hoover. It is both bagless and an upright vacuum cleaner plus it has been christened “Velocity”. Fortunately there are a couple of other issues that means this review will be of a reasonable length rather than just a few sentences.
How many entities share your bed? The answer might surprise you. Did you know that an average mattress can be home to 10 million dust mites? The reason why dust mites choose this type of habitat is that they thrive in the warm, moist environment engendered by such a location.
Once firmly established in a mattress, the dust mites can get to work by bringing on allergies and respiratory problems for their human bedfellows who tend to spend up to one third of their lives in bed. It has been estimated that 300 million people suffer from asthma and up to 250 million people suffer from other allergies on a worldwide basis which goes to show how extremely busy the dust mites have been.
The Oreck Magnesium RS is a lightweight 2-speed bagged upright vacuum cleaner for both carpets and hard floors. It is a robust design originally developed for hotel use.
A very striking red colour is the first thing you notice when you take it from the box, the next thing is that there are just three items that will only connect together one way and as they click together you do not even require a screwdriver.
This latest Dyson vacuum is both an upright and a handheld cleaner in one. It can perform this seemingly impossible task by having the motor and collection container at the top of the arm remote from the cleaning shoe(s).
The Dyson Wand V6 Absolute measures 112cm from the top to the base of the shoe, the larger of the two provided is 24cm wide. AS stated it can be used with or without the single 65cm connection attached. This means as an ‘upright’ no bending and the smaller shoe sizes mean it can get into far tighter spaces that would either not be accessible or would require moving things around. For very tight places it can be used with other supplied accessories as a handheld device.
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