http://www.gadgetspeak.com/gadget/article.rhtm/753/837334/VAX_Portable.html

VAX Portable 

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This is the second portable – untethered – unit I have looked at this autumn; my home is looking rather clean by my standards anyway. This unit that is not heavy comes in a very large and heavy box as it comes with not one but two batteries and a charger, these are the weighty bits.

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When assembled it weighs 3.4kilos, it is 1.1metres tall, 28cm wide at the cleaning head and a maximum of 25cm deep also at the head, the top 40cm is the handle and unlike the Hoover recently reviewed this does obediently stand in the corner when not in use.

The reason this stands is that it locks in an ‘L’ shaped position when not in use, unlike some cleaners that are difficult to get ready to work a small pressure on the foot of the unit is all that is required.

It has two modes with brush for carpets and without brush for solid floors you do not need to do anything when switching from former to latter the brush just stops rotating.

There are two buttons at the base of the handle and just on top of the cylinder that stores all the dusk and bits it picks up. The one on the left slightly smaller to turn on the brush bar and the one on the right the larger button to turn on the motor.

There is no indication when the battery is running low, it works and then with no warning it stops working so you need to remove the battery and either replace it with the second battery or have lunch while the first battery recharges.

Assembling it is straightforward and the box has lots of helpful illustrations as well as the unit itself telling you what the various buttons do. For example on the back ‘Wand Release’ to remove the handle from the body.

I found it an efficient cleaner for very small items but slightly larger ones required a second sweep to pick up.

One nice feature is that even items from outside the range of the 46 brushes that make the brush head are two pads of four static brushes either side 2cm away from the end of the brush bar and the wind tunnel technology will impost items from near the edge into the unit. I saw this in action when a load of small paper stars had been dropped onto a demo floor and even those slightly outside the sweep of the unit were sucked in. However in practice things are often harder to move than that in the demo.

I am not sure that having an extra battery makes it worth the extra price likely to be charged over the similar Hoover offering, the Hoover is also chargeable in the unit where this unit needs the battery to be removed to be charged.

Both units were able to do the cleaning and emptying the container was simple, best of all did not cause a mess and of course no bags to change.

The VAX Air Cordless is available from the link below for £229 with free delivery.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00KPT6AQ4?ie=UTF8&tag=gadge0a-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634

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Comment by Nar2Reviews, 9 Feb 2015 13:48

"...There is no indication when the battery is running low, it works and then with no warning it stops working so you need to remove the battery and either replace it with the second battery or have lunch while the first battery recharges...."

Oh yes there is, clearly just testing it in one day didn't reveal the pros of this fantastic product.

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OverallVAX Portable rated 68 out of 100

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