Few of us look forward to doing the vacuuming, but it’s all the more frustrating with a cumbersome machine that does a mediocre job and takes twice as long as it should.
Our vacuum cleaner reviews have found that barrel and upright vacuum cleaners are the best option for thorough carpet and floor cleaning, but not all vacuums are created equal.
CHOICE expert Adrian Lini testing vacuums.
We lab-tested more than 30 popular models and found a huge difference in their performance for carpeted and hard floors, pet hair pick-up, ease of use, noise and more.
Our testing revealed some high-quality cleaners (both expensive and cheap) but also exposed a number of duds bound to make vacuuming even more of a drag.
With scores like these, this ‘anti-allergy’ vac is poorly named and should probably be renamed ‘anti-cleaning’.
It claims to be anti-allergy, but if you’re allergic to pet hair it won’t do much for you: it only scored a pass mark for removing pet hair from carpet.
And with a cleaning performance score this low, it’s not great at cleaning up dust either, so it’s probably not much help for dust mite allergies.
This ‘anti-allergy’ vac is poorly named and should probably be renamed ‘anti-cleaning’
Plus, it has a canister to collect dust and debris which, even though it’s convenient, isn’t the most allergy-friendly solution to emptying your vacuum.
A bagged vacuum is a better option because you can close it up and throw the whole thing in the bin rather than risk coming into contact with the dust and other allergens when you empty the canister.
It does have a washable HEPA filter though, so whatever little it sucks up can at least be washed down the drain.
You’d expect a well-known European brand to do better than cheapos from discount stores like Kmart and Target, right?
Unfortunately that’s not the case for this Bosch Series 4 bagged vacuum, which came in a full three percentage points behind some of the vacs we tested from budget retailers.
Don’t get sucked in by the European brand name
On the upside, you’ll be able to cancel your gym membership if you buy this Bosch: it takes a lot of strength to push it across carpet.
And since it doesn’t clean especially well, you’ll probably need to vacuum the floor twice to get it clean – you’ll end up with some serious biceps with this machine!
You can pick up far better vacuums for around the same price, so don’t get sucked in by the European brand name.
Alice Richard is a Content creator and marketer. Alice writes on a range of topics, from health insurance to heaters and BBQs to bargain-hunting, always with the aim to help consumers find the best products to buy, and which to avoid.
Alice can take vast amounts of data from CHOICE product tests and turn it into content that is easily digestible and fun for readers.
Alice has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland. LinkedIn
Alice Richard is a Content creator and marketer. Alice writes on a range of topics, from health insurance to heaters and BBQs to bargain-hunting, always with the aim to help consumers find the best products to buy, and which to avoid.
Alice can take vast amounts of data from CHOICE product tests and turn it into content that is easily digestible and fun for readers.
Alice has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland. LinkedIn
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