Suck it and see: Vacuum cleaner choices
Plan ahead as to where this tangle of hose, body and cabling will be stored.
I have to come clean. Twenty years ago I was lucky enough to interview James Dyson for this newspaper. Apart from visiting the Hogwarts of appliance science in Wiltshire, I built my own little multi-coloured canister vacuum on the floor of a London conference room from a box of bits-and-bobs.
Forty giggling adult journalists rotated wheels and whopped each other playfully with hose-attachments, I was surprised when the thing turned up on my doorstep two weeks later. With a dodgy maintenance routine, I managed to kill my Dyson in 18 months. I did notice that the atmosphere in the Malmsbury headquarters was grim during my tour. The same year, Dyson began the process of moving all his production, bar R&D, to Malaysia.
Dyson continues to still make ergonomic, innovative machines, but they maintained high price tags. With uprights reduced to the classic Dyson Ball, new choices are curated as battery-powered, cyclonic wands and hand-helds, light enough to wave up the wall and trot effortlessly up the stairs in our modern living spaces.
The V8 at just €290 (with the generous Dyson €100 discount), delivers sustained, powerful suction over a blistering 40 minutes of fade-free action. It handles all floor types, including a fluffy cleaner head for hard flooring, great for open plan areas where you are bumping from oiled oak to thick area rugs.
A wand machine with a hand-held unit integrated into the body, its filtration will remove 99.99% of microscopic particles as small as 0.3 microns. Poly-carbonate vanes on the Motor-bar head, lift tangled strands from the brush bar (to both the main and mini motorhead tool) — a key feature in new vacuums for 2022/2023. I really like the low-reach adapter on the V8 for stabbing under kitchen counters.
The top-of-the-line Dyson V15 measures the size of dust particles, automatically adapting suction power, and is available exclusively in gold with fully-sealed HEPA filtration, high torque and an elegant small head. €740, discount included. For hard floor alone, explore the dynamic, Omni-Glide collection; dyson.ie
For a surprisingly keen price on a Dyson cordless (they are moving to 100% cordless), choose an older model — still a technically brilliant bit of kit. Online go straight to Dyson’s “Autumn Offers” for a bargain with all the motor and cylinder design that really matters in a nimble, contemporary machine. Whatever machine or brand you choose, prioritise your floor type first and explore how it will adapt between styles of going — manually, with a change of head altered to a motor-head, or by pushing out the brush height with a switch or foot toggle.
It’s vital to compare Dyson wands and uprights to the nearest Shark equivalent (beloved of online influencer Mrs Hinch). Sharks are generally cheaper, but offer impressive performance, battery life and innovation, including 50% better suction since the comapny's last model release in 2021. In cordless wands, Shark PowerFins machines with Duoclean are a legend in the €450 plus choices, with Anti-Hair-Wrap rethinking that entangling old motorised brush that’s maddened householders for half a century.
Flexible fins roll through carpeting, massaging the dirt up and out of the pile, while a softer brush flicks dirt off hard flooring, the hair gathered automatically. There’s 40 - 60 minutes of running time from most Shark vacuums (note as with all cordless machines this is done on ECO mode — which can add 200% to a full-on Standard ramble).
The pricier models offer smart LED displays showing you Eco, Standard and Boost power modes, selecting for carpet and hard floor settings and keeping you informed of the battery status. Lift-away Shark canisters allow uprights to suck-in and fly under furniture, and hybrids can switch up to hand-helds. My pick for action and economy for a middling-sized house, would be the Anti-Hair Wrap Cordless TruePet with its flexible wand which bends to reach under furniture. Feature-rich at €310, argos.ie.
Vax is a budget brand well worth exploring, with a growing following for top-flight features for under €250. Its Blade 4 Pet & Car is directed at families with dogs that swim and drip-dry in the car. At 3.1kg it’s the lightest cordless in its class on the market. From €225, very.ie
Conventional, upright corded vacuum models with powerful motors (900w is the actual EU limit, and not a mark by itself of the best machine) are heavy, with the full machine and its head held stable and weighted down into the floor. Boasting sophisticated motorised beater bars, they are robustly engineered, vertically compact, and ideal for extensive carpeting, and occasional hard flooring. Look for a ride-along 1.4m hose as a minimum to tackle most challenges.
Alternatively, if you have less storage and a multi-level home with various floor types, look to latest cord-free wand profile vacuums with a choice of cleaning heads, that can plug-in to a charging dock anywhere in the house. A second battery is a versatile upgrade.
Cylinder vacuums offer great value, and the best bag capacities across the board. So, if you don’t mind rumbling your machine behind you, that hose will feel blessedly light in the hand compared to even an articulated wand, with seamless corded power. Miele and AEG remain sound German brands, and with bag capacities of 4.5l or more they will carry a lot of muck aboard before you feel your power falling away. Miele’s latest offerings include the high-waisted, Boost CX1 Powerline which has a smooth Trackline system on large wheels to avoid collisions with furniture (“obediently on the heels of its user”). It also parks easily on a slender step or stair. The super compact body is ideal if you only have a scratch of room for storage. Vouch for the turbo-brush of the Cat & Dog model to preen your pile and furniture grooming. From €299, multiple suppliers (bagless).
For Hoover fans there’s a starter-steal at €149, in the Power Capsule Pets, which boasts a massive 5l bag (do budget for those) and just 72 dBA of roar — relatively speaking a purr for a working cylinder. Said to release purified air as it works, it is equivalent to the power of an old 2500w machine, and can save 60% on the run by moving to Eco mode when you hit the hard flooring — its best surface type as it lacks a full turbo head, harveynorman.ie. Shark again impresses with its Bagless Cylinder/Dynamic Technology.
It includes a hinged wand to dip under beds and sofas, that fab’ Shark DuoClean system, Anti-Hair-Wrap, and in-hand-operation to fly between three power settings. €180 on a very special offer, currys.ie
Choose an agile cylinder above all for its wide cleaning circumference, which allows you to pretty much stand and swivel in one spot, but plan ahead as to where this tangle of hose, body and cabling will be stored. They are highly versatile, making cylinders the choice of professional cleaners covering multiple cleaning tasks and floor types, scooting up curtains right to the ceiling.
With more kilos to handle when you lift the machine, ensure you can not only manage to carry your cylinder upstairs, but that you can park it up easily to work on the stairs. 8m to 9m cables as standard. With cordless wand machines now boasting specs’ for whole house cleaning, it’s worth questioning choosing that cylinder on its tripping-hazard leash before you swipe.
