Need a new cordless vacuum – what’s good these days?

Requirements are:

-Not a Vax one (floor head on the old one broke numerous times)
-Pet hair capable
-Reliable

I’m a bit clueless on what’s good – shark, Dyson, other?

I’ve 2 sharks…. the newest version (both duo clean lift away thing) is a bit better as has rubber brushes..but I love them both….

I’ve had Dyson and g tech…. shark wins hands down…

DrP

Had a Shark, I think my Dyson V12 is better – it’s four years old (I think), still works perfectly well. No issues with the battery life etc.

Rarely use them around the house now as unless it’s for something quick. I now have a Miele mains powered CX something or other which is far better.

We just bought a Dyson V10 Absolute from their eBay refurb store, got it on a 15% off weekend as well so was cheaper than the base model. Night and day compared to our old upright vac, carpets are noticeably cleaner for longer. We have a greyhound and it has no problem lifting his fluff.

This one, there is a 15% off offer this weekend as well.

In time honoured STW fashion, the floor head on my vax has been fine….

Had a Dyson for awhile, horrible thing, battery life was poor, would randomly cut out, didn’t lift dirt well and was generally badly designed. Replaced it with a 2 battery Shark cordless pet vacuum, night and day yo the Dyson. Picks up well, easy to use,rarely need the second battery.

Currently £279 from Shark so cheaper than the Dyson refurb as well.

Just inherited a Dyson V10 Animal. Pretty impressed. We have a black lab that should be bald with the amount of hair he sheds and the V10 picks that up no problem. The main downside is it fills up very quickly but only takes 5 secs to empty so not a great issue. Wife didn’t want one but is now converted!

Couple of good deals at the moment

this is a which best buy but you need work/uni access:
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/samsung-jet-70-turbo-cordless-vacuum-cleaner-violet-ps13267-delivered-at-samsung-epp-student-store-3934360

Refurb from Dyson
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/dyson-v8-animal-cordless-vacuum-cleaner-refurbished-ps16999-at-dyson-ebay-3934144

We have four cats and a Shark vacuum – it’s very good at picking up cat hair, much better than our Dyson Animal which we gave away after getting the Shark.

My dyson v6 was amazing. Really cleaned the carpets brilliantly.
6 months in battery won’t last long enough to clean my small house in 1 go.
12 months in it won’t last 5 minutes. Dyson sent me a new battery and it’s good again.

If I was buying new it would a Henry with a rotating brush head

Can’t find fault with either of the Sharks that we have.

Service really good too. I ordered an accessory kit that arrived with a piece missing, one phone call and another complete kit sent without any bother, didn’t even ask for original kit to be returned.

https://sharkclean.co.uk/product/shark-classic-anti-hair-wrap-cordless-stick-pet-vacuum-iz201ukt-zidIZ201UKT

and this very handy one…

https://sharkclean.co.uk/product/shark-handheld-vacuum-double-battery-wv251uk-zidWV251UK

For little ones, and fwiw, Which rated the Dyson V7 as the best of the handholds…

Just for context it helps to say which model you are talking about. There was a previous topic where someone compared them and the Dyson single digit models were okay but the V10s and above were more powerful (when needed) than normal uprights.

If I was buying new it would a Henry with a rotating brush head

I wouldn’t touch a Henry with a shitty stick, hateful things that roll over for fun and can’t suck worth a ****. Used to use them on the shortest pile carpets imaginable and you had to literally scrub the damn things clean. To this day I honestly don’t understand how they ever became popular.

I have the John Lewis own brand one. Theere are plus points about it but I much prefer our ‘normal’ plug in. Does anyone want to buy the John Lewis to give it a go? £50? I’m in South London/East kent

We’ve just got a Dyson V15, impressive but a bit heavy on the wrist as a hand held, particularly for my girlfriend.

I bought a Shark a few months ago and I’m very happy with it. It’s my first cordless so I can’t compare it with anything else, but I did make the rookie error of not trusting the battery life so I somewhat over-provisioned – the battery lasts a lot longer than I was expecting. Anyone interested in a spare Shark battery, never even been charged!?

+1 for shark dual lift away thingy

Whichever you get, get one that you can buy a second battery for and have it charged ready..same for lawnmowers 🙂

🤣🤣 differing views on batteries, to be fair the shark one does last a long time, but I’m not good at topping it up so am better with one in use and one on charge

We’ve got this one; https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/product-reviews/house-garden/a687416/black-decker-multipower-pet-cordless-vacuum-cleaner/

Got it from AO for a lot less than the price in that review.

differing views on batteries, to be fair the shark one does last a long time, but I’m not good at topping it up so am better with one in use and one on charge

No, I agree having a second battery good to go makes sense – it’s the third one I could maybe have done without!

I have a Hoover Hfree 500, it works well- little bit fragile (imo vacuums are a “knocking around” sort of tool) but pretty amazing value as a refurb (brand new reboxed) from ebay. There’s a pet hair head available

Hoover Hfree 500 here too, got it on offer for 80 quid!, direct from hoover! Madness.
I agree with Northwind entirely; it nice a light for ease of use by an OAP or fragile maid, but i do feel in my hamfisted paws it might not last forever. Having said that, im just a bit careful with it and its been fine so far.

They write about how often you need to charge the battery, but this damn thing needs empting three times a charge. Its very very effective. Maybe my house it just disgusting

150quid direct now, and thats fine. i would happily buy another at that price.

H-Free 500 Cordless Vacuum Cleaner, Pets

A timely thread, as our corded Dyson is currently sitting in the hallway smelling of burned plastic and refusing to switch back on.

Thanks for all who have given their input.

a bit heavy on the wrist as a hand held, particularly for my girlfriend.

This could have benefits for you…

I have a shark and it is really good, but now after a couple of years the main “wand” that connects the head bit to the actual vacuum bit is all loose and wobbly.

Spares do seem to be readily available though, so I could buiy another wand but I think they’re £30 I don’t need to spend right now…

After a flirtation with Dyson and Shark we’ve gone back to a corded Miele. So much more suckage, no battery angst, much less frequent emptying and only occasional swearing as the cord wraps round your legs. I wouldn’t buy another cordless.

Olly
Free Member

Hoover Hfree 500 here too, got it on offer for 80 quid!, direct from hoover! Madness.

I wanted a second battery so I just bought another whole hoover and sold the bits I didn’t need.

Watching with interest… im in the market for a cordless jobbie, and was already considering Shark as they seem to get good reviews/price compared to Dyson, dunno what model I want yet though, probably the pet one…

I loved our first Dyson. But when it died we then bought 2 or even 3 Dysons in quite quick sucession. I will never buy another Dyson. So changed to Shark and really like it. Much better than the Dyson imo.

I wondered about the second battery, but have had the Shark about a year and never needed the second battery.

Maybe a second battery helps so you’ve always got one ready to go if you are a heavy user?

I don’t suffer from that problem though! 🙂

onewheelgood
Full Member
After a flirtation with Dyson and Shark we’ve gone back to a corded Miele. So much more suckage, no battery angst, much less frequent emptying and only occasional swearing as the cord wraps round your legs. I wouldn’t buy another cordless.

Same, we have henry which is 3 x the power, for the minor inconveniece of having a retractable cord.
The shark we bought 3 years ago is utter rubbish at picking things up in comparison.

Thanks for the input everyone. I think I’m going to get a shark, as my other half prefers them.

Also, should have said – the powerful corded upright is staying for the proper vac round the full house.

We tend to use the cordless for intermediate cleans and hoovering up toddler mess.

Don’t bother, we’ve got both shark and Dyson they’re all great until they’re a year old or so then they suck and not in a good way. We’ve got 4 dogs and 2 cats, they got clogged in minutes with hair, they’re equally rubbish on hard floors (just ping the dirt around and don’t pick anything BUT hair up) or carpet (brushes grab the carpet, it stalls, have to switch it off and on again) and yes we’ve tried all the “modes”.
Have to dismantle them nearly every time they’re used to unblock them and unwind hair/fluff from the brushes and the filters get clogged somehow that it doesn’t matter how much you clean them they’re still crap.
Hateful hateful things every time I have to use them I can be heard yelling “why are hoovers so **** crap?”

We have a Dyson V10 and it’s better than our older Dyson upright, as in you can use the upright, then go over with the V10 and still pick up dust.

One thing on batteries and how long the vac can go for. You’ve also got to remember efficiency of picking up dust. E.g. the specification of a Shark vac might say it lasts longer than a certain Dyson vac, but if it’s less effective at picking up dust then you will need to use the Shark for longer to give the same clean (could be vice-versa Shark more efficient than Dyson too). There did seem a point where batteries on Dyson’s really were rubbish though.

If you get your Shark from Curry’s, they’re a level 4 (or something) authorised dealer, so for the 5 years of warranty you can just swap it out there and then for a new one – which I’ve already tested when the motor went haywire.

Got the shark today. I can now briefly be excited about vacuuming until the novelty of being cordless wears off.

Maybe I’ll vacuum the car more than once every 2 years now.

What model did you get and thoughts on it?

^ Being as I’m wide awake after an airport run, I’ll throw in my opinion after 8 ish months of the iz300 pet job (don’t have pets though).

It’s great! I had a Henry, but one of the newer, less powerful ones, and honestly didn’t rate it. Mainly because it was a grinning idiot that kept falling over.

I’ll never get bored of the cordless novelty, it picks up fine and the battery lasts really well. I’ve got a long pile wool mix carpet for reference. It doesn’t like anything bigger than usual dirt though as it gets trapped in the head. It’s easy to empty, feels really well made and stores away really neatly. I paid £275 in store (they matched an online offer)* and the shark rep threw in a car detailing kit.

The motor went werid though a couple of month back and true to the guy’s word, I just took it back, they took it off me and handed me a brand new one there and then.

Love it, but would struggle to justify paying more…so watch out for the prices as they fluctuate all over the place.

*Noticed it was £25 cheaper in store about a month later, politely mentioned it to someone and they happily refunded me the difference. Ace!

Got the Samsung linked above yesterday and happy with it, hoovered the day before with the old Dyson upright and yesterday with the new samsung and it picked up a lot of dust. I was put off Shark by bad reviews on longevity and customer service. My Dyson has lasted 16+ years but lots of people seem to be having Sharks fail after 2-3, time will tell how the Samsung fairs

We have a Dyson v7. After 3 years the battery life started to go. £30 later it now has a new battery that has almost double the run time of the original. I noticed a crack on the handle. For £20 on eBay I picked up a new casing and motor assembly – took about 2 minutes to swap over.

I really appreciate the modular design and how easy it is to swap bits in and out. Spares are very reasonable too. To me this seems like a good way forward for making things more substainable – of course it would be better if it didn’t break in the first place. But, I think short design life is a given for battery powered devices. However, there is something to be said for going with the brand-leader in terms of spare parts availability for keeping it on the road.