Our “hoover” is rubbish. It’s an Electrolux Vitesse Pet Lover which I bought for £70 from Tesco about 18 months ago when we moved house, but as the old saying goes if you buy cheap, you buy twice. The main problem is that it overheats after 5 minutes of use, and needs to take a half an hour break before it will run again.
So, today, I’m going to buy a new one. As with most things I buy, I do quite a bit of research before hand (sadly) and so this time I thought I would put the results of my research on-line to save someone else the bother!
Normally, I would assess a new product on various metrics, but in the case of a new vacuum cleaner, I’m interested in just two things: suction power (measured in air watts) and reliability. Reliability is hard to assess without having owned the product, so I will rely on 3rd party review scores from revoo.com.
Vacuum Cleaner Comparison
- Suction Power measurements, displayed in air watts, are taken from the Manufacturer
- Revoo scores are taken from their vacuum cleaner section.
- Prices are taken from various shopbot services such as Google Product Search, Kelkoo and Pricerunner
| Make & Model | Suction Power | Revoo Score | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dyson DC14 | 280 airwatts | 8.7 (552 reviews) | £179.99 |
| Vax V-060 Turbo | 170 airwatts? | 9.4 (1 review) | £75.94 |
Notes
After starting this blog I realised not all manufacturers publish the suction power in air watts, so the task of comparing them was harder than I thought. Also, I was only really interested in an upright bagless cleaner which ruled out some strong contenders from the likes of Miele and Numatic’s Henry / Hetty range.
I borrowed a recent (at the time of buying) Which? report to help choose a decent vacuum cleaner – Dyson’s, as bling as they are, apparently have the worse reliability – but this was 4 years ago so perhaps they’re better now.
Miele seemed to be the pick of the crop and I ended up purchasing one based on the advice Which? gave. Good luck hoover hunting =)
Hi Paul,
I’ve just done a load of research into the best vacuum cleaners. Numatic’s Hetty did come out on top but I’ve had a look a little further down the list for the next best upright and the Bissell 3760E actually came in second. Let me know if you want the link to the whole list.
Hi Jo,
Please post a link to your list on here. I pretty much gave up half way through writing this post as I couldn’t find an accurate measure of suction power in air watts from all the manufacturers and I didn’t have time to write to them all.
Paul
Hi paul,
Sorry about the delay. Here\’s a link to the list: http://www.decidewhattobuy.com/blog/2008/06/numatic-sweep-t.html
Jo
I was looking on the net to trying to identify which hoover (which make) has the most powerful/the best suction power. I have a VAX at the moment, at the beggining was ok, but now after alomst one year, it’s rubish. I have carpets in my home and the hoover leaves some of the dirt behinf (bits and bobs). I can move them around so easily with my hand, but the hoover just won’t suck them. I need a hoover with the most powerful suction power there is, to be able to actually extract the dirt and dust and everything from the carpet (especially that I am asthmatic and my little child might get it too). Please advise if you think you could help me in deciding which one would be the best. Many thanks!
I’m actually really impressed with my Dyson DC14 – I would definitely recommend it.
Hi, I am trying to find out the cubic meter rate per minute of cleaners, but there seems to be no information on this, can you help me
I am thinking of dumping my DC04, but can’t really stretch to £199 for DC14 at this time of year. I was looking at the Vax range. Still not better off as they seem to be half the air watts of Dysons, what next?
We have had several vacs over the years. Hoover, Oreck, Kirby, etc. but were always wonering why we were also dusting so much. Then saw a demo of a Rainbow and were amazed at how it performed. It is a bit expensive, but not as much as all the vacs we have bought over the years! And, we now see that we are getting the dirt up, and our dusting has ben reduces significantly. LOVE IT!
Check out the panasonic MC-CG691/MC-CG695 450 airwatts suction cassette type vacuum cleaner. 450 airwatts is the highest suction you are going to get from any vacuum cleaner, cylinder type. 350 airwatts highest for upright. £71 from amazon and very low power consumption at 1300 watts
I will never never buy a Dyson again. They are rubbish. I have had 2 dyson bagless uprights and they are made so badly that parts kept breaking and I have had to replace lots of things and to make matters worse the suction is terrible. I bought a cheap morphy richards a couple of years ago and the suction was much much better. It picked up everything. Sadly it got dropped and broke the drive shaft and morphy richards don’t make spare parts but offered a discount on a new one.However I have heard that PANASONIC are very good
I would recomend the Numatic Vacuum Cleaner Products. They have the henry Micro just for people with asmatic and they have the Harry if you have pet hairs. Or just the normal Henry