Beldray Airfinity Cordless Vacuum Cleaner review: a great value vacuum cleaner with one big drawback

Price on writing: £180 | Buy now from Amazon

How I tested

I used the Beldray Airfinity as my main vacuum for a month in a busy family home with two dogs, two cats and two long-haired teenagers. So there was no shortage of hair, fur and everyday mess.

I tried it on carpets, rugs, floorboards and tiles, using all three power modes. I also switched to handheld for furniture and the usual awkward spots where pet hair builds up.

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My verdict

This is a straightforward vacuum. It’s light and easy to use - you just pick it up, press the button and get on with it. I like that you don't have to hold the trigger button down while you hoover, and that the three modes (eco, normal and turbo) are easy to switch between via the touch screen display.

For day-to-day cleaning, it does the job well. Normal mode handled the usual mix of crumbs, dust and surface hair, and it’s especially quick and effective on hard floors.

Battery life really depends on how you use it. The manufacturer states up to 45 minutes, which is accurate if you stick to eco mode on hard floors and lighter jobs. In my testing, that works for quick daily cleans around the house. Switch up to normal mode, which I ended up using most of the time, and you’re looking at a shorter session before needing to recharge, but still enough to get through the main rooms in one go.

Turbo is where things drop off quite sharply. It’s useful in short bursts, but you can almost see the battery ticking down, so it’s not a mode you’ll leave on for long. In practice, it works best if you treat turbo as a spot-cleaning boost rather than your default.

The Airfinity easily transforms into a lightweight handheld. The vacuum cleaner comes with a crevice tool, but the brush attachment is cleverly squirreled away up by the dust compartment, so you can simply remove the wand and slide the brush into place.

When I put the Airfinity to the cereal test, it was really impressive. On normal mode, it hoovered up all the cereal in one pass on my tiled kitchen floor. On hard floors in general, I found this vacuum cleaner effective and easy to manoeuvre around.

However, it does struggle once things get more stubborn. Trodden-in pet hair is where it comes unstuck, and turbo mode doesn’t fully sort it. If you have a lot of hair shedding in your home, and your carpets tend hold onto it, you’ll still need something more powerful.

The bin is the most annoying part. It opens at the bottom with a button, but there’s no way to push debris out, so you end up pulling it out by hand. With pet hair, that gets old quickly.

It’s a decent budget option for lighter cleaning and hard floors, but it won’t replace a stronger vacuum for deeper carpet jobs.

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How well does the Beldray Airfinity handle pet hair?

For a daily once-over, it does a solid job. Pet hair on hard floors and rugs comes up easily on normal mode, and even easier on turbo. For quick clean-ups, it keeps things looking tidy.

The anti hair wrap feature works well. Over a month, I didn’t have to cut or pull hair off the brush bar once, which is unusual in a house like mine, where we have a long-haired cat and two long-haired children. The included cutting tool feels unnecessary, but it’s there if you need it.

The issue is with hair that’s worked into carpets, like the never-ending supply of cat and dog fur on the stair runner and the high-traffic rug by the back door. The vacuum cleaner really struggled to lift much of this kind of hair at all, even on turbo. I had to loosen the hair first, which defeats the point.

There's also the matter of emptying the dust compartment. The bin opens at the bottom, but it doesn’t empty cleanly. If you have a lot of hair in the dust compartment, it clings to the filter and doesn't drop out under its own weight, so you end up pulling it out by hand.

Read next: Best vacuum cleaners for pet hair

Is the Beldray Airfinity good value for money?

At £180, this is at the higher end of the budget vacuum cleaner market. You get a lightweight cordless vacuum with a digital display, different power modes and anti-tangle tech.

Compared with brands like Dyson, Shark or Vax, it doesn’t clean as deeply, especially on carpets. That shows up quickly with stubborn hair.

If your focus is hard floors and quick daily cleans, it works well. It’s easy to grab and doesn’t feel like a chore to use. I tested the Russell Hobbs Centaur, which performs surprisingly well for a £65 vacuum cleaner, but doesn't come with the anti-tangle features, digital modes or 45-minute run time.

It suits smaller homes or as a second vacuum for lighter jobs, rather than a full replacement for a more powerful model.

About the author

Poppy O'Neill is a Content Editor at Mumsnet and a mother of two. She researches and reviews the products Mumsnetters swear by, with a particular focus on home essentials like steam irons, vacuum cleaners and heated throws.

From a highly recommended retractable washing line to the best quiet fans money can buy, and Mumsnet's favourite dehumidifier to the steam generator iron that'll cut your ironing time in half, she loves to deep-dive into research and find the very best products on the market.