Vax LiftOut Reach Pet Design vacuum cleaner review: "it's a strong all-rounder"

Price on writing: £149 | Buy now from Amazon and Vax

How I tested

I used the Vax LiftOut Reach Pet as my main vacuum for six weeks in my three-bedroom home, which has wooden flooring, tile, carpet and rugs to keep on top of. With two long-haired teenagers, two dogs and two cats, there was no shortage of hair, dirt and daily debris to tackle.

I tested out all the features, accessories and attachments, in LiftOut mode and as an upright vacuum cleaner. Taking detailed notes on user-friendliness, suction and effectiveness, I also put the vacuum through the cereal test, to assess how well it dealt with a handful of crumbled Cheerios on my kitchen floor.

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My verdict

With the amount of hair in my house, I need a vacuum that works hard without constant coaxing. The Vax LiftOut Reach Pet-Design proved itself very quickly.

On carpets, it’s powerful and thorough. The Turbine Pet tool made a visible difference on the stairs and on rugs where my dogs and cats' hair tends to accumulate. It pulled up embedded hair with satisfying ease. It also passed my usual cereal test on the first sweep, clearing dry crumbs in one forward pass.

It’s easy to push and manoeuvre around furniture thanks to its swivelly head and foot-operated tilt. The light on the floorhead is more useful than I expected - it highlights dust and fluff you’d otherwise miss. The large bin means fewer trips to the kitchen bin, which I appreciate in a high-shed home.

It’s not lightweight, though. Carrying it up and down stairs is hard work, even with the well-placed handle. And like many uprights, it doesn’t stop long hair wrapping around the brush roll. I had to cut away tangled hair after a few full-house cleans. Still, for power and versatility at this price point, it’s a strong all-rounder.

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What's in the box?

• Vax LiftOut Reach Pet-Design upright vacuum cleaner

• LiftOut detachable pod

• Turbine Pet tool

• Crevice tool

• Dusting brush

• Upholstery tool

• Extension hose and wand

• User manual

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What’s the vacuum cleaner like to use day-to-day?

In everyday use, it’s straightforward and practical. It’s nippy to steer and feels stable as you move between hard floors and carpet. The long power cord means I can do downstairs without swapping plugs, which saves time.

The LiftOut function is genuinely useful rather than a gimmick. Being able to detach the main pod and carry it while using the hose makes cleaning the stairs far easier than balancing a full upright on a step below you.

The bin is large enough to cope with a full house clean in my home, even with pets. Emptying it is simple and not especially messy. The only real drawback day to day is the weight when lifting it to carry upstairs, and the occasional need to deal with wrapped hair on the turbine pet accessory. Otherwise, it feels like a hardworking, no-nonsense vacuum that’s built for real family life.

How does the Vax LiftOut Reach Pet-Design deal with hair?

Hair is my biggest cleaning challenge, so this was my main focus. On standard carpet cleaning, the Vax performed very well. It lifted visible pet hair from rugs and high-traffic areas in a single steady pass.

The Turbine Pet tool is the standout. I used it on the stairs and other carpets where pet hair clings stubbornly, and it pulled out hair that a standard floorhead often leaves behind. It made the stairs feel properly clean and was small enough to get into the corners.

On regular carpet, rugs and hard floors, the standard vacuum head does a brilliant job with minimal effort. It pulls hair up from the fibres of carpets and rugs, and in from the edges of hard floors with ease.

Does the Vax LiftOut Reach Pet-Design offer good value for money?

The Vax LiftOut Reach Pet has an RRP of around £200, although it’s often discounted to somewhere between £130 and £160. At that price, I think it represents strong value for a busy household. You’re paying for powerful suction, a large bin, a genuinely useful LiftOut function for stairs and an effective Turbine Pet tool that pulls embedded hair from carpets rather than just skimming the top.

If you look at something cheaper like the Vax Air Stretch Pet Max, which usually retails at around £120 and is often on sale closer to £90 to £100, you can see where the savings come from. It’s lighter and perfectly decent for everyday surface cleaning, but it doesn’t feel as robust or as powerful on thick carpets and heavy pet hair. You also lose the LiftOut pod, which makes a real difference on stairs and awkward spots. In a smaller or lower-shed home that might not matter, but in mine it would.

At the other end, the Shark Stratos XL sits nearer the £300 mark. That extra spend buys you a more premium finish and anti-hair wrap technology that cuts down on maintenance, which I appreciated when I tested it. The Vax doesn’t feel quite as refined and needs more hands-on hair removal from the brush bar, but in terms of pure cleaning performance it gets impressively close. For me, especially if you can buy it below RRP, it strikes a very sensible middle ground.

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.