The wife's 30+ year old vacuum cleaner has just packed in. As it's her birthday soon can you recommend a battery powered replacement? It's only used for the upstairs rooms so battery life doesn't have to be brilliant just as long as it sucks. She won't have a Dyson again.
We've got a Tineco A11 Hero here, which was on sale at £99. Washable pre- and post filters, quite small dust collection chamber, decent suction on its highest setting but then you get nowhere near the claimed runtime. The biggest complaint I've got is that it doesn't come with a flexible hose, and you can only get one if you pay £40 for a pack of accessories you don't need. Oh, and the rotating brush on the smaller of the two powered heads - the one without the LEDs - keeps getting jammed and isn't removable for detangling like the larger one. For the money, it's great: does the whole house on a single charge, if you're quick about it. There's room on the wall-mounted charging stand to store and charge a second battery, too, if you want one. However, it looks like it's now gone away - and the listing has been replaced with the Tineco A11 Master. It looks suspiciously like what I have, except it's £280 - with a £60 off voucher, so £220, then. You do get two batteries as standard now, by the look of it, but still. Ouch.
https://www.vax.co.uk/onepwr-blade-4-pet-vacuum-cleaner I have one of these and its fantastic. You can get replacement batteries really easily, there's another kit that comes with 2. I didn't have pets when I got it, but I found the pet attachement is fantastic for going the stairs!
That looks promising. It looks like our local Currys don't stock that model but they have one similar enough for Ann to check out the weight and balance. If she's OK with it I'll order the one you linked to.
My mum and dad have a blade and the battery is useless, failed once already and has been replaced. Plus the motor and battery is up near the handle which makes the weight really awkward to use it. Totally not against VAX by the way as I have two identical mains powered cleaners and 2 carpet shampooers.
When I worked retail for a company that rhymed with vomit, we had a saying: "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux". Not sure if that holds true but can be viewed either way I suppose.
Don't buy a vacuum for your missus' birthday, I make these mistakes all the time with my very practical gift giving, it is never taken the way you intend it
Why not go the whole hog and buy her a new mop and duster as well? Or, better yet, a new set of saucepans?
I bought her a Vileda SuperMocio mop for her last birthday and some Circulon saucepans and Tefal Titanium Frying Pans (she loves them and uses them a lot)
My missus is obviously less tolerant than others, or I have just done one too many practical gifts, she once wanted a fancy Knife set, great I was looking for ideas so bought some, wrapped it up and put it under the tree, she looked at the package and said ' If this is Knifes for the home, I will stab you will them' I promptly returned them. Of course the follow up was not much better, she needed tyres on the car....can you guess what's coming next from the practical gift giver ... wrapping a tyre was the most fun, she could hear me upstairs laughing my head off, I carried it down (only did one, rest were in the shed) in my best Rolf Harris impression I said 'can you tell what it is yet' as I brought in the massive rubber smelling doughnut Again, she was not impressed, can't win, hundreds of pounds and not happy, some people eh!
