Vacuum Cleaners > Handheld Vacuum Cleaners

Advantages: Powerful, Portable, Looks like a space-gun
Disadvantages: Price,. Noise

...would be unfair. No, the Dyson Root 6 should truly be called a handheld vacuum cleaner. "Why?" I hear you ask... well let me tell you. Dyson, as anyone that hasn't been living under a rock for the last 10 years will know, shot to fame with their revolutionary "bagless" Hoover(tm). Only you can't call it a Hoover(tm) because that's a trademark too. Bagless technology meant that there was no loss of power as the poor vacuum motor had to suck air ...
...a fair few years before Dyson made the leap from "regular" vacuum cleaners to handheld ones. In fact, they only came on the market last year. I can only guess that it took them this long to perfect the design - or think up the marketing that would allow them to maintain their premium price-tag. Regardless of the cause of this delay, Dyson finally got a handheld to market in the form of the DC16 Root 6 in "Steel & Yellow". Looking more like a hand-gun ... Read review

Advantages: simply easy to use
Disadvantages: LIMITED purpose

This is a light and compact unit. Not very good at large areas, as the fresh water and solution dispenser contains only a very small amount of liquid. Obviously this unit is designed for spills. Not for any major clean ups. Waste collection water capacity much greater than the clean dispenser, so able to pick up anything that has been left after a spill, such as wine, etc. The unit has a simple to use knob on the side to change the operation from ...
...to suction for picking up dirty water. The brushes can be easily slowed if pressure is applied to the unit, for brush/scrubbed use, no more than the weight of the unit itself is suitable, trying to add pressure to get the scrubber action to scrub better just makes the unit struggle, and sound labouring in motor noise. Easy and simple to fill and empty both clean and dirty water containers, but I did find that the clean water container was too easy ... Read review

Advantages: Relatively inexpensive hand-held vacuum which does a good job.
Disadvantages: Minor design niggles.

...What I bought was the Home-tek HT807 also known as "The Hunter" and I got it from Lakeland Ltd for £29.95. The packaging was appropriate and all recyclable. What I got for my money was a retro-looking machine 17 x 30 x 20cm weighing no more than a lightly filled shopping basket. It comes complete with a motorised brush, dusting brush and crevice tool. The manual with the machine is comprehensive and bearing in mind the necessity to give warnings ...
...is as short as possible. I read it in a few minutes and had the machine fully-operational in less than ten. I've now been using it for about six months. It comes with 6m of flex, which is comparable to many full-sized vacuum cleaners and means that there's no problem when cleaning the stairs. I can start at the top and work my way right to the bottom without having to change sockets. There's no automatic cord re-wind or even anywhere specifically ... Read review

Advantages: it's great for little mess
Disadvantages: none

...The vax hand held hover is about 17cm long, cordless and is perfect for those little mistakes than anyone could make. So if you have just done your house work and there is a mess on the floor you can simply just use the hand held hover instead of bringing out the big bulking hover just to clean up a little bit of mess. It’s that easy. You simply just switch it on and let the hand held hover do the rest. It has different parts which are the front ...
...you must call up the vax care line. On the front of the packet it has a picture of the hand held hover (which is blue and white) and at the side it has what the product is (a cordless handheld vacuum cleaner) on the other side it had what other items are in the box (a dusting brush, crevice tool, battery charger) on the top of the box it has the exactly the same, on the bottom of the box it has the exact same again. On the back of the box it has ... Read review

Advantages: Suction...
Disadvantages: everything else...

...only 7 months. Following Vax instructions for under warranty repairs I brought my machine to their local repair centre where it has been sitting for 10 days without nobody repairing it or updating me until I have complained with Vax service manager who only then informed me that there were no spare motors available for the repair. He then instructed me to call their premium rate phone line (of course, so they can get money even from the customers ...
...her team leader, since probably Vax managers are too busy to deal with insignificant customers. The team leader at least listened and promised to get the replacement machine sent on their fastest delivery service which usually takes 3-4 working days. I am still waiting. I will never purchase a Vax product again and I would never advise anybody to buy one. ... Read review