How good is the Vax Blade 2 Max on carpets?
Simply press a button on the main unit to activate the brush bar which then rotates to trap and lift dirt from the carpet fibres. During day-to-day cleaning, it’s amazing how much dirt and hair the cleaner picks up. The manufacturers say that in boost mode the vacuum will remove 91.5% of ground-in dirt from carpets and our tester’s carpets did look clean and fresh after vacuuming. The head gets right to the edges, pulling out ingrained hair and dirt, and works well on rugs too.
In specific tests, it quickly and efficiently picked up larger debris, sucking up Rice Krispies, crisps and seeds with ease. Baking powder, washing powder and coffee granules all vanished in one or two sweeps. It was more of an effort on longer pile rugs, but still very efficient.
How good is the Vax Blade 2 Max on hard floors?
The Vax Blade 2 Max is unbelievably good on hard floors. It makes short work of day-to-day cleaning, and in our tests it picked a variety of large and small debris in one sweep – including Rice Krispies, seeds, toast crumbs, crisps, washing powder, baking powder and coffee granules. Even on tiled floors, with deep grouting between tiles, debris was picked up thoroughly and quickly.
The LED lights only come on if you use the brush bar, which you shouldn’t use for hard floors. This is a real shame, as they work so well to highlight debris in carpets – it would be great to have them for hard floors too.
How effective is the Vax Blade 2 Max on pet hair?
You can use the vacuum as a handheld on upholstery, vacuuming with the main head, and there is a crevice tool to get into corners. Our tester was surprised at how much pet hair the main head picked up, as evidenced by the very full bin.
It’s easy work to vacuum pet bedding using without needing to bend down as the main head picks up so much hair – no need to use an additional tool.
On carpets, the turbo boost helps to really pull out embedded hair, and any hair missed from edges are easily sucked out using the crevice tool. On hard floors, the vacuum sucks in clumps of hair lurking in corners and under furniture. Hardly any effort required either.
How easy is it to vacuum the stairs with the Vax Blade 2 Max?
As it’s a cordless, there’s nothing to lug up behind you, and no cord to trip over. Easy, simple, quick, light, and efficient. You can easily attach the crevice tool to tackle edges, skirting boards, and hard to reach places. It picks up effortlessly, and the turbo boost helps to pull out anything deep in carpet fibres.
How loud is the Vax Blade 2 Max?
While there is no official noise regulation for cordless vacuums, so there’s no independently tested figure, our tester found the Vax Blade 2 Max noisier than some models tested, especially in turbo mode. However, on the whole, she didn’t find the noise level to be an issue.
How easy is it to clean?
Capacity is only 0.6l, but this means the vacuum is very light. And it’s simple to empty so it isn’t a problem to do this frequently; simply press the dirt release button, allowing everything to fall straight into the bin. As with most bagless vacuums, there is some dirt left and this can be quite messy to get out – something to bear in mind if you have allergies.
To access the filter, simply press a button at the top of the dirt bin to unlock, and pull the filter out. You can also get to the separator this way and can give the bin a thorough clean. You need to wash the filter and the separator and leave to air dry. If you vacuum every day, cleaning the filter means having your vacuum out of action for one or two days – not great if you have pets.
You can remove the rotating brush bar with a coin (a 10p piece is best) to get at any threads or hair caught in the bristles. To remove any threads or hair, slide the blade of a pair of scissors into the groove and cut along the brush bar. It’s easier than it sounds!
Are there any other features?
The crevice tool is great for skirting boards, sucking up dust and pet hair quickly and easily.
The vacuum is fully charged from flat in three hours.
Low-profile head means it’s easy to clean under furniture.
One of the issues our tester had with other cordless vacuums was that it was quite difficult to remove and attach heads and tools. This isn’t the case with the Vax Blade 2 Max – the head, the wand and the tools can all be attached and removed easily.
Is the Vax Blade 2 Max good value for money?
The Vax Blade 2 Max is currently £249, including the free pro tool kit (if bought directly from Vax). It’s not the cheapest vacuum on the market, but it’s by no means the most expensive. Considering performance and ease of use, and the fact that it takes a lot of the hard work out of vacuuming, we think it’s great value for money.
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