Cordless vacuum or not?

[hippospot]

So my Dyson Animal DC39 died yesterday. Fair enough, it has survived several years with heavy use (cats). Should I replace it with a cordless?

My usual style of cleaning is vacuum the whole house top to bottom once a week, takes about 1.5 hours (vacuum not switched on the whole time). Floors are wooden but there is carpet on two flights of stairs (I use the spinning carpet attachment on the stairs and also sofas and doormats). Then once or twice a week I vacuum the downstairs only as this is where the pet hair is (including sofas and doormats).

What I like about the Dyson is obviously no worry about battery life as it's corded, and no bag. I can vacuum the whole house and empty it only once at the end.

DH suggests a cordless could be more manoeuvrable and that battery life and suction may be comparable to a corded vacuum by now. What's the capacity like? Will I have to empty the canister more frequently?

Another issue is storage - the current vacuum lives in a cupboard on the upstairs landing which doesn't have a power socket inside it - so charging would have to happen elsewhere. I don't love the idea of having the vacuum visible all the time. I don't have a utility room.

I'd appreciate your thoughts if you've tried cordless vacuums. Thank you.

OP, your current arrangement worked fine for years.
What advantages does a cordless have that would compensate for having to have the machine out in full view charging all the time instead of tidied away in a cupboard, plus the nuisance of running out of battery charge before you finish the whole house, and having to wait for a recharge?
As far as I can see, it is just lighter in weight. But your Animal is on wheels anyway, so you don’t have to carry it anywhere, except between floors of your house.

Personally I think they’re a bit of a gimmick, unless you are disabled and can’t lift an Animal up the stairs.
I suppose if you were really keen on it, you could get an electrician to install a charging socket in your cupboard, but it seems a rather unnecessary nuisance to me!

My cordless vacuum cleaner was a game-changer when I bought it five years ago. I wouldn't be without it. It encourages me to clean parts of the house I put off cleaning before I had it because it was just too awkward to do.

I like our cordless for whizzing round but wouldn't be without a corded one for a really thorough clean.

I prefer a cordless one but I’m not one for going around for 90 mins I’ll just do the odd spill. The Robovac does the heavy lifting. Robovac plus cordless is great but I also have a Hetty in the garage just in case 😂

Cordless.

The power cable on two year old shark lift away has recently snapped. Very badly designed, infact the whole vacuum is.

I seem to spend my life winding the wire back round the hooks.

I don't have a cordless so no experience, but the thing that put me off were some complaints online saying battery life was fine to start with, but after a few years it dropped to just a few minutes. So many reviews are either fake or written after about a week of ownership, it's hard to get any sense of whether that is a real issue or not, but given your long weekly vacuuming session I would want to get a spare battery pack at the least, if you can do that.

If it helps, the cord on my new corded one is really annoying me . I miss a retractable cord.

I'd stick with corded, if that's already working for you. I wouldn't bother with another Dyson, though. They've had their day.

We have a miele c1 downstairs (hard floor) and a sebo x4 upstairs (carpets). I sometimes set a basic eufy robovac going around the dining room when my back isn't up to sweeping up crumbs. Our cordless Dyson is consigned to a cupboard because it's rubbish.

For a more thorough clean, i’d recommended you also have a corded vacuum because from what i’ve heard, the battery life on cordless vacuums isn’t too great. If i had the money, i would buy both! Recently bought a Shark Lift Away and it’s fantastic!

I have a corded miele which is fantastic for a proper job, a cordless shark for whizzing round which is OK, but the game changer for me is my robot vacumn which I've had two weeks. I thought they were a con until I saw a friends one in action, it is amazing.

I would stick with corded especially if you have cats. I have just given my cordless one away. They don't seem to hold much I was forever having to stop to empty it. I also agree with another poster regarding the reviews about bad battery life I didn't have mine long enough to find out but there are a lot of reviews. I got a Dyson ball animal which are good. I also got a Henry hoover from Ebay (£30) which is 1200w as the new ones are restricted now to 60w-80w I think. Thats for molting season as I have dogs 😉

Thank you everyone. I decided on a corded Miele C3 in the end and it arrived today. Impressive suction but the head is bigger than the Dyson's and not quite as manoeuvrable. However I think it will be fine.

I also liked not having a bag and seeing the dirt as I emptied it each time :)

But as someone said above, Dysons aren't as good as before. The reviews I read were pretty terrible (and I've been loyal to Dysons for years - have had three).