Vax Air Cordless

Unlike Dyson’s handheld cordless vacuums, Vax has taken a more familiar upright approach to its latest battery-powered model. The Air Cordless looks a lot like any other upright bagless vacuum, with a detachable bin in the centre and a handle for pushing it around the house. The only major difference is the chunky battery pack plugged into the base.

Vax has cleverly designed the box so the Air Cordless arrives almost fully assembled, with the base of the box folding out to reveal the charger and extra battery pack. The primary battery arrives with 20% charge, so you can start cleaning straight away while you connect the second to the mains. The charger only holds one battery at a time, and isn’t a docking station for the vacuum, so you’ll have to find room for both; other cordless vacuums tend to double up their chargers as storage for when you aren’t using the cleaner.

Ease of use

At 4.6kg, the Air Cordless is light enough to push around with just one hand, but it’s too big and bulky to lift comfortably. Thankfully, you won’t need to do that often, as the vacuum tube can be detached from the fixed brush head and an extension tube removed from the upright handle for cleaning above floors. It’s nowhere near as convenient as Dyson’s modular approach, as you have to stoop down to floor level to unclip the vacuum hose.

It has about 2m of reach and, with a crevice tool and soft dusting brush attachments, it can be used for furniture or for getting into corners. That’s handy, as the main brush head is rather wide, meaning there’s a sizeable gap to the left and right that you won’t be able to cover when sweeping parallel to walls or furniture. There’s, annoyingly, only room for one attachment on the vacuum itself, with nowhere to store the other when you aren’t using it.

The Air Cordless turns easily enough on carpets and hard floors alike, with an articulated, left/right up/down joint connecting brush to vacuum. The direct drive brush bar can be engaged when sweeping carpets, and disabled for hard floors using the button on the top of the cleaner opposite the power switch.

The bin lifts out of the machine with a quick-release switch, and a second switch unclips the lid and empties the bin into a rubbish bag. The bin has a 1.05l capacity, which is more than twice that of Dyson’s V6 cordless models. It should mean you’ll spend half as much time emptying the Air Cordless, but things aren’t quite that simple. The cylinder takes up a large portion of the bin, at least near the channel that connects to the brush, and it got clogged on several occasions when tackling large spills or a particularly dusty carpet.