Review: Vax Air Lift Steerable Pet Pro Vacuum Cleaner

You know you are a fully-fledged adult when you get sheer pleasure in a new vacuum cleaner. I used to squeal with joy when a parcel from ASOS plonked onto my doorstep, now any type of cleaning implement has the same affect. Guess it’s all part of the process, I grew up! In our house when it comes to cleaning, I feel like I have a particularly uphill battle – having a toddler who spreads crumbs, food, crisps and anything she can get her hands on plus an extremely hairy black dog, who moults like he should be completely bald keeps me on my toes – I can be quite a clean freak so I get quite frustrated with it too. Somedays I’ll have finished hoovering one room, just as Violet pours a packet of crisps onto the floor in the next. Hoovering a few times a day isn’t unusual, so a good vacuum cleaner in our house is a must!

So, my post today is to discuss our new addition to the family (well, I use it enough!) – The Vax Air Lift Steerable Pet Pro Vacuum Cleaner. Welcome to the family, you little beauty – she is purple too, our relationship was just meant to be, clearly!

Our previous vacuum was a cordless, which I thought was a step in the right direction with the current market. Who needs a cable these days when you can just charge and go? Yes, it was lightweight and I could grab it quickly for an easy job, but for our household, no amount of charge was going to be powerful enough for the amount of dog hairs Robbie sheds and I often felt frustrated that I’d have to repeat over areas to get any sort of results. This vacuum, although going back to the ‘old fashioned’ stand-up with a cable, suits us so much more and here is why…

Main Features

• The lightest ‘lift-out’ vacuum on the UK market at just 3.5kg
• Amazingly strong pick-up with two settings from deep pile carpet to hard wood floors
• A rated for energy efficiency and filtration
• Steerable technology to get round all those tricky corners!
• Turbo tool for tackling pet hair and fluff on various surfaces around the home

What’s in the box?

• The Vacuum cleaner
• 2-in-1 tool
• Flat upholstery brush
• Hard floor adapter
• Turbo tool

On first impressions….

Getting the Vax out of the box, the first thing I noticed is that it’s considerably heavier than my cordless, this was to be expected but I was quite surprised how heavy it felt in comparison. However, when using the machine this doesn’t actually matter as its so easy to manoeuvre around the floor, plus I also tried the ‘lift-out’ function where you can detach the cylinder from the base and this is so much lighter so the weight isn’t actually an issue. I’ll always use the ‘lift-out’ if I’m cleaning areas like the stairs etc.

It looks like a super smart machine, I love the purple and when I saw it glitters in the light I was sold (easily pleased). It has multi cyclonic technology, meaning you never have a loss of suction, the waste area is also right at the front so you can see exactly what you are cleaning up and when it needs emptying with ease. There is also no need for bags which is really handy.

Using the vacuum

I was super excited to give it a good go around my house, I’d only hoovered the day before so wondered how much it would pick up. I started by tackling the worst area in our house, Violet’s long-pile white, fluffy rug. Why we bought a baby a white rug I’ll never know – it’s the bane of my life! Instantly I could feel the power behind this vacuum in comparison to others I’ve used, it was really getting deep into the pile and leaving lovely deep marks in the pile (a sign of a good clean!) Checking the dust bin, I was horrified to see a considerable amount of dust and dog hairs just from a few minutes in this area, clearly our previous vacuum was never getting into the rug and it had been accumulating dirt, dust and hairs deep into the pile for a while. No wonder it looked so grotty, even after a clean! This made the rug look so much better and cleaner, the Vax also really lifted the pile too giving it a bit of life too.

Moving onto our wooden floors, just a simple click to put the hard floor adapter and we are good to go. I’ve noticed lots of other vacuums tend to blow the hairs about rather than suck them up, so when this started to capture them all I was so pleased! It cleaned the wooden floors perfectly, capturing every crumb and hair.

My last test was our stairs. We have stone steps with a Seagrass carpet runner, which clings to every hair that Robbie sheds, it’s so tricky to clean! For this, I used the lift-out mode and attached the ‘turbo tool’, which is a little handheld tool with a super strong roller brush. Using the Vax like this on the stairs was so much easier than moving the entire machine up each step and the turbo tool is a mini demon when it comes to sucking up pet hairs. The only thing that was slightly annoying was having to hold the cylinder with one hand (as it doesn’t balance) and tool with the other, they should have put a strap so you can pop it on your back (and maybe pretend you are in ghost busters at the same time?!)

I also used this setting to run over our duvet cover, sofa and dog bed to remove all the pet hairs, it works like magic and better than any vacuum I’ve used in the past, so is super versatile too – a must for pet owners.

The verdict

I’m 100% sold on the Vax Steerable Air Lift Pet Pro. Yes, I did think it was heavier than my cordless and juggling the cable without tripping over it/knocking over your tea is always a struggle – but for the amazing strength, power and suction, I’m prepared to let those things slide. At the end of the day, I’d rather have a clean house and not have to run over the same area multiple times to see a difference. Plus, I will never have to remember to charge it either!

If you have pets (or even if you don’t!) I’d highly recommend this vacuum. Its currently £189.99 on the Vax website and comes with a 2 year guarantee.

 

I’m going to be writing lots of cleaning, decluttering and house-moving posts soon, so if you enjoy that type of thing, keep an eye out!