Best cordless vacuum

[WittgensteinsBunny]

I'm looking for a cordless vacuum to:

• Hoover the stairs
• handheld bit for car and crumbs after diner / play date crumbs in front room
• light to be able to get cobwebs

I have a Miele for the rest of the house and no pets.

Dyson v6 or v8 - good reviews but lots of money
Shark - cheap but is it any good? (the 3.5kg cordless one)

Any recommendations?

Following. I think someone asks this question quite frequently but you seem to have the exact same list of requirements as I do so will stick around for the responses

Thanks paradise - we'll have to wait together... drums fingers

I was going to post something very similar, except I have two cats so I need something that can get cat hair out of carpet- miniscule area of carpet in my house though, only the stairs, so performance on hard floors is more important really. I shall follow this thread with interest.

The Dyson V6 is great! Everyone who seen mine has bought one and then told someone else, who's also bought one! A bit of a chain going on!
They are often on offer in Currys, at just under £200. It seems a lot for something so light and small, but worth it.
They had them in the summer sale, I don't know if it's still on. I got mine in the winter sale V6 animal £199.

Buy a dyson. I have someone who is a cleaner in my family and I think she uses just about everything and always goes back to a dyson. I have one as we have steep stairs and it is fantastic for that and also for cleaning our Cars. Also you get a good guarantee with dyson normally. Also good if you need to hoover something quickly!

One of my friends bought a GTech AirRam and has been really impressed by it. She has so far loaned hers to 4 other people to try, all of whom have then bought them and loved them
I haven't tried it yet but got my mother one as it is lighter for her to use and she is happy with it

I read all the reviews for V6 and was so excited when I got mine. I lasted about 2 months and ended up buying a shark (corded).
My issues with the Dyson are that if the particals are too fine it stops working.
Finds it difficult to pick up things from hard wood floor (even with hard floor head on)
Useless at cleaning car
almost every time I used it it would get blocked- spent more time unlocking it than actually cleaning!
The compartment that stores dirt flicks open often(especially if I've just hovered that area!!) And a had my special Dyson dirt stick to help me clean dirt out of compartment.
Not sure if I had a dodgy one or not but that's my experience of Dyson. On the other hand my shark rocks and it was under £100 but corded so it's not really comparable.

V8 is brilliant imo. I had a V6 previously but bought this when it came out and now it's my only vacuum. All the things I disliked about the V8 seem to have been fixed. It's excellent at picking up on hard floor and carpet (two heads) and you have the flexibility to use it for things like stairs, ceilings and cars. It lasts about 40 mins on the lower power and I rarely need the top setting. I wash the filter and the sponge bit of the hard floor head once a month or so but it's very simple. Even emptying it works better on the V8 as nothing gets stuck.

It's expensive but the convenience of cordless plus the fact it works so well makes it totally worth it for me. Friends have the Gtech Ram and it's ok on the floor but that's it and it's just not quite as satisfying to use because you don't see it fill up.

The only thing I want now is a dusting kit for it which I used to have for the V6 because that made cleaning skirting and blinds really easy.