Vax Air Cordless Lift Duo Review

DISCLAIMER: We were sent the Vax Air Cordless DuoLift free of charge for this post. All words, images and opinions are my own and may not be copied without my permission. I have not been instructed what to write.

With four children in the house, it’s safe to say that we need to vacuum our house regularly; if it isn’t the fluff off their socks sticking to the carpets, it’s the food that they have been told 1000 times NOT to take out of the kitchen or little bits of paper, sequins and beads they are dropping around the house from their various crafts projects. A family home can get pretty messy quickly if you don’t keep on top of these things. That is why you’d want almost every available device in the market to keep the place clean and healthful. While my Rabbit Air A2 (see review on CoolAndPortable.com) is scheduled for the next time,  I have to stress it keeps my place smelling fresh and clean despite the mess. So regarding the floor mess,  we have learnt the hard way that some vacuum cleaners just can’t cut the mustard!

This is most definitely NOT the case with the Vax Air Cordless. I have been a fan of Cordless Vacuum Cleaners since we moved into our new build house, only to find that we do not possess an electric socket on the upstairs landing. Yes, of course, we could have one put in, but that costs money and creates more mess, so we have learned to live without one and Cordless Vacuum Cleaners have made all the difference to upstairs cleaning.

What’s in the box?

Opening the box, I found there was very little ‘building’ to do; the Vax Air Cordless merely needed slotting together, and it was ready to go in less than 10 minutes. One thing that really impressed me was that it comes complete with two Lithium rechargeable batteries, so whilst one is charging, the other can minimise time wasted. The Vax Air Cordless also came with three nozzles in the box; a Multi-purpose tool to assist cleaning stairs and large textile areas (mattresses and upholstery), a crevice tool and a Flexi dusting brush.

Lithium Rechargeable Batteries

I shall hold my hands up and tell you that I wasn’t really expecting very much from the Vax Air Cordless, ‘how can an upright possibly be cordless and still have enough power to clean’ were my thought trails, BUT I was just about to find out and take a large slice of humble pie.

The batteries were partially charged so that you could get started on the cleaning straight away, but I popped one on charge whilst I made a start on the floors. The batteries clips into the front of the cleaner and are easy to remove by depressing the blue panel at the top of the battery pack. Whilst charging, a series of blue lights indicate the stage of charging, a red light for errors, and no light means the battery is fully charged.

It is safe for it to remain on the charging dock once fully charged. A fully charged battery will give you 60 minutes of running time on normal power but will be considerably less if you use the Boost button for stubborn mess and high traffic areas.

Using the Vax Air Cordless Lift Duo

Having used mainly Dyson Vacuum Cleaners for the past few years, I wasn’t expecting to be blown away by the Vax, but I was wrong. It was effortless to manoeuvre and is ultra-lightweight, weighing in at 5.5kg (the same as the Dyson Small Ball). It has a button on the top which you press to turn the cleaning head on and off, dependent upon the floor surface you are cleaning (off for hard floors/on for carpets).

I have had one little niggle with my Dyson when cleaning the hard floors in the kitchen; with young children, I always seem to have the floor littered with rogue pieces of cereal, and the Dyson will only pick them up if I lift it and put it on top of the cereal. The Vax will suck it straight up, provided I have lined the cereal up with the centre of the cleaning head. This made me very happy! Check out Authority Adviser for more reviews.

If you have to clean under tables or pieces of furniture, the Vax Air Cordless will light the way for you, so there can be no excuses for missing the mess. Jelly Bean thought this was highly amusing!

A great big positive . . .

One of the major selling points for the Vax Air Cordless is the Lift-off cylinder on the front of the cleaner. It can often be a balancing act trying to vacuum the stairs, and I’m sorry to say that is how one of my previous cylinder cleaners met its untimely end by falling down the stairs. The lift-off cylinder on the Vax makes light work of cleaning the stairs or hard to reach areas.

and one little negative

I would have preferred to have a small turbo cleaning head to attach to the hose when using the lift-off cylinder as I found the attachment nozzles to be a little too small for the job. They did a good job, so it wasn’t that they aren’t capable, but I found they were more labour intensive.

Easy to empty

Emptying the cylinder was very easy, too, with a smaller lift-off cylinder at the front. Press the quick-release button, hold upright above the waste bin, press the blue button on the side to open the trap door on the base, and the dirt falls away, ready for the next time you want to use it. Cleaning the filter is recommended every 4-6 uses by rinsing the removable part under tap water and allowing it to dry completely before reassembly.