Revealed: Top cleaning appliances from wet-dry vacuums to robots
Below Henry, By J7 Bos Top Include €849 €219, From Cleaning, Wet Right,h20 €120, And Care Pet Thane Left, Right, Dry From
Now that the season of muck, foot tramps, dust, dirty shoes and salty dogs is upon us, we’ve turned our attention to the most powerful cleaning arsenal trotted out for AW24. On the showroom floor, there’s startling change within some of our favourite appliances, some solid designs are holding as popular favourites, and pricing for previously out-of-reach cleaning choices is tumbling faster than a CD deck in the mid-1990s.
If I had to pick out a new option likely to go standard in the next two to three years (and it’s not cheap I’m afraid), it’s not the smarts of the wet-dry vacuum but the self-emptying vacuum cleaner.
There’s one solid advantage that might make this feature-rich buy your next choice. The elimination of the chore of emptying the collected dry grot is reduced to as much as a month. Anti-allergen seals in these bases trap up to 99.9% of dust and irritants, suppressing any odour. What’s not to love?
Charging at your dumping position creates an ergonomic position for your vacuum, and I’ve watched as the design has improved about every six months, showing the manufacturer’s faith in its future.
I’m going for a Shark, the sleek rival that closely tracks Dyson through the water. Its new Detect Pro cordless really has it all. A 60-minute run, Dirt Detect handling, a responsive power boost to swallow dirt you cannot see, double the brush roll for changes of surfacing and edge hugs without manual alteration.
A red LED light will show you it’s raised its muscle. The Detect Pro offers an auto-empty base that can hold up to 45 days of waste. Prices from €409, multiple suppliers.
For another €100 spend you have a choice of colour with the Samsung Bespoke Jet range in a chic rocket-ship form. Its featherweight 1.44kg Pet models caught my attention with their station/dustbin that empties the machine of dirt and pet hair into an anti-bacterial dust bag using “air pulse” technology while recharging the battery.
When trying out its digital inverter motor, the responsive vacuum (click change for floor types) offers up to 210w of suction but can finesse extra chores like dusting window frames. The machine lifted high even with my single budgie’s arm; from €549, (best price) heavins.ie.
For no muss, no fuss, muscled, tethered and cheap, I take a nod to dear Henry, and this year it’s the robust Henry Petcare cylinder with a 10m cable, microfresh activated-charcoal filter, dual-head brush and 620w motor, €219, currys.ie.
Invest in a second battery for a larger house that may demand more than the run time of a single charge.
When cleaning and sanitising mouldy grout to dirty mattresses, and perking flattened carpet pile, steam mops are a fantastic addition to any domestic cleaning warfare, year-round, but a versatile two-in-one smokes the competition in winter. Steam mops are more sustainable than spray-and-wipe manual mops as the cloths can be laundered hundreds of times and these units utilise nothing more than clean water.
There’s a lot of disinformation relayed from cheerful influencers, but keep in mind, wood flooring, plank laminate and most engineered flooring is not suited to steam mops. If it’s woody looking with seams — tread lightly and look up the maker’s recommendations (for that floor). Choose a carpet-glide feature if you want to use your steamer to lightly clean and perk your carpet pile and use small attachments to give your fridge/freezer a seasonal blitz.
Two-in-one designs that pack a second hand-held unit like the Karcher SC1 Easy Fix just make more sense than a simple mop. I love the flexible jointed nozzle which allows users of all statures to use the cleaner. The hook and loop cloth attachment means you never have to touch a filthy fabric.
Like all good steamers, the unit murders just over 99% of household bacteria and common viruses on surfaces. The SCI breaks down into elements you can easily stash under the sink — perfect if you’re using it more occasionally than the vacuum; €129, suppliers include harverynorman.ie. For more welly, consider Shark’s Steam and Scrub, with two power pads that rotate 150 times per minute to buff beautiful hard floors, scrubbing, lifting, and removing stuck-on dirt, surface dust, grease, grime, and bacteria. It's €169, multiple suppliers.
Steam cleaning detailing tools are fantastic for spills and accidents in the family car, not over-wetting the upholstery. Many can also handle clothes, removing odours and freshening between washes.
Robot vacuums glided cheekily into our lives about five years back, and it was at that time impossible to get a valiant, dependable little droid for less than €800. This market is now wide open, with honest, well-reviewed choices for as little as €250.
Starting right at the top, what are you paying for. To invest in six times the power of a standard robot and all the intelligent bits and bobs, it has to be the Dyson 360 Vis-Nav. The engineering, that Volvo-style clunk and click to everything engineered by Dyson is superlative.
Eye-watering in royal blue, its Hyperdymium motor spins an astonishing 110,000rpm. There’s dual link suspension to stop it from flipping over, so more domestic hurtling than “turtling”. There’s an impressive 65 minutes of fade-free run, intelligent space mapping, obstacle avoidance and keen customisable performance to tease delicate rugs, and it cleans at a whisper quiet dBs when the baby is napping.
Set and schedule via app from your smart device. The best of robots like the 360 Vis-Nav learn at every pass and will pick up on where your dog collapses its dusty body near the back door, offering those square metres more attention, passes and power. Where it does have trouble, it will bleat a call for help to your phone for a lift or a bin-empty, dictating what to do on an integrated screen; €1,300, dyson.ie.
So, what’s the compromise for a tiny tablet-shaped surface servant at under €300? Let’s jump to the popular Beko VRR60314VW which comes in at just €240, so you could buy five of them for the price of a Dyson.
This machine boasts consistently impressive reviews for its area of the robot market. Looking at what it’s shorn of — there’s no voice control, no no-go areas, and it doesn’t empty itself (spoiler alert, neither does the Dyson, which also features a 0.5l dust box).
It will rumble up and down a space in a set grid, detecting boundaries, cliffs and obstacles, but there’s no mapping technology, not a deal-breaker if you have one large open plan area, adjoining say a hall without complicating twists and turns. I’ve had a week’s test run and was impressed with the Beko’s edge-cleaning and fuss-free set-up.
The runtime of 150 minutes was more than enough for my interlacing, one-level rooms, and I could ask it via app to venture out on multiple journeys.
In this area of the wet/dry vacuum, the Dyson has another clear premium contender with dry/wet versatility in the iRobot Roomba Combo j9+ Robot vacuum and mop which includes mapping, fuzzy logic “learning” to prioritise dirtier areas, self-cleaning (ta-dah), a swap to a deep-scrub mop and all the convenience of set up and instructions via Alexa, Siri, or Google Assistant-enabled devices. It’s my star pick at a reasonable €849 (reduced from €1399), irobot.ie.
The low profile of a robot can reach hard-to-get-to spots, perfect for anyone with physical challenges. For a seriously tiny apartment or slender mobile home see what the SwitchBot line has to offer; K10+ from €399.99, eu.switch-bot.com.