Feedback Thread for the Vorwerk Kobold VK200 Vacuum Cleaner Testers

[VerityLocalEdKent]

Want to try “The Ultimate Homecare System” – the Vorwerk Kobold VK200 worth £1,049 and share feedback on Mumsnet Kent?

We have been asked by the team at Vorwerk to find 10 (lucky) local Mumsnetters to try their latest Kobold VK200 vacuum cleaner and report back on MN!

They say “compact, unbeatably handy and extremely powerful, the Kobold VK200 Upright Vacuum Cleaner is the ideal addition to your household, making life easier and cleaner.

Designed by global German household appliance manufacturer Vorwerk, the Kobold VK200, in combination with two different attachments, takes care of all your floor cleaning needs. Whether it’s carpets or hard floors – the Kobold VK200 Homecare System has it covered.

The unique SP530 DuoClean head allows you to mop and vacuum at the same time – a world first! It uses just 100ml of water to cover up to 20 m² of hard floor. And the best part? Simply remove the cleaning cloths when you’ve finished and pop them in the washing machine ready for next time.

“The EB400 brush head meanwhile ensures vacuuming is thorough, gentle and hygienic – driven by its own motor, a special rotating brush scans the floor 16 times per second and removes dirt and dust completely. Even the finest dirt particles do not stand a chance!

“Visit Kobold Vorwerk to find out more about the Kobold VK200 vacuum cleaner and discover the array of clever additional accessories that turn this machine into the Ultimate Homecare System! Simply click and swap to the attachment you need to expertly deal with upholstery, furniture, mattresses, textiles and anything else you need cleaned. Built to last, the Kobold VK200 is the only vacuum cleaner you’ll ever need”.

The 10 testers will receive the Kobold VK200 Homecare System on loan to test it out in their own home for one week, and asked to share feedback on a thread on Mumsnet Local. Those selected will be asked to share their first impressions as well as follow up feedback after it has been used a few times.

Prior to use, each selected tester will receive a visit from a representative from the team at Vorwerk who will do a personal demo of the machine in the tester’s own home to ensure the features are fully understood.

On completion of the demo and publication of the review, the selected testers will be reimbursed for their time with a complimentary VC100 handheld vacuum cleaner worth £129.

If you’d like to be considered, please get in touch quickly with your local editor at [email protected] - those 10 spaces won't take long to fill up!

Testers - please share below your first impressions

~ how did the demo from the Vorwerk rep go? What were you the most keen to try out?
~ how were the instructions in the box?
~ what did the demo cassette bag show after the first use - are you surprised by how much has been picked up?
~ please share a photo!

Mamagin I think you are absolutely correct with your review and I had a giggle or two reading it!
Answering the questions:

1. No the machine will not save me time, as for me it is much quicker to get out my trusty vileda mop to clean the kitchen floor than worry about the bottle of liquid, squeezing it on to the mop attachment, putting it on the machine etc etc
2. Yes the machine is powerful but it is much too heavy to manoeuvre when at full power and at a lower power, it doesn't pick up well, especially not all the dog fur.
3. As above

As mamagin said, I will be happy going to back to my own vacuum cleaner.
Basically there are too many attachment. Personally, I would like a basic vacuum cleaner with no bells and whistles that picks up dog fur..

Thanks for all the feedback so far everyone

Keep it coming!

Hi There!

I work for Vorwerk Kobold and I just wanted to clarify the idea of having Kobold Parties as a way to own your own Kobold.
There are three ways to own a Kobold, you can pay for it by chq or credit/debit card. You can use our budget/finance plan or you can join us as an advisor.
Once you have completed training and been given your demo set, all you need to do is book parties with friends/family and once you sell 5 full systems and you have effectively earnt your demo set, its yours to keep (you will also earn £500 for those 5 full systems). You then have a choice to continue working as an advisor, demonstrating to friends and family using the party plan idea to build your own little business in your own time and earning excellent commission along the way!
I hope this helps make things a little clearer and hope you enjoy reviewing the Kobold xxx

Hi

I have been following this thread with more than a hint of "i've so been here before". My mum had one of these machines about 30 years ago, all green and all singing and dancing. She ended up giving it to me because she " just couldn't work it all out". Well,never to look a gift horse in the mouth i gratefully accepted ownership. Within a week it was locked away under the stairs having attempted to dry clean my carpets with this yellow foamy bashing,thumping rollers.What a nightmare. My husband found the new addition,extracted it from under the stairs and sat for an hour reading the user manual. Coming home from a girlie night out,walking through the door admittedly half drunk,i was met by a lovely fragrance,a grinning hubby and a very clean living room carpet.From that day the vk121 was and is in constant use albeit now on it's last legs. A point i want to make is this. Sometimes change is difficult and our typically british attitude is such that if it's complicated it's too much like hard work. Well our house is a large 3 bedroom with carpet EVERYWHERE and i have to admit they look fantastic. My mums little flat was tiny and looking back,bless her soul i can see how it may have been just a bit too much for her. I will be completely honest and say that if my husband had not bothered to read that instruction manual while i was out that night the vorwerk would have stayed under the stairs,but now in all honesty i am dreading the day it picks up it's last dog hair and goes fooey and dies. Expensive, hell yeh.But once you get the hang of these machines and embrace the change from typical vacuum cleaners your carpets and furnishings will love you for it. Got to say i am liking the look of the new "space age" machine but hoping to get a few more years out of my old girl god willing. Happy weekend.

I read the instruction manual. I mastered the machine. I was superbly happy with the results. But I stand by the fact that it is a cumbersome over designed beast. And I'd rather put up with slightly mucky floors and spend the huge amount of money on gin.

~ Do you think the Kobold VK200 will save you time?
In short, no. My favourite feature, mopping and vacuuming at the same time, is negated by the size of the vacuum and number of attachments. I can keep my broom and Bona mop in the kitchen, but the vacuum has to be stored farther away. It also takes more time to use the necessary attachments.

~ Did you think that the vacuum was powerful?
I was a little disappointed here. My DC decided to empty a box of cereal onto the carpet, which I decided would be an excellent test. The Kobold instantly got jammed up and then ground the cereal into the carpet. My Miele picked them up no problem.

~ Did you think the vacuum was easy to manoeuvre?
In some places, yes. I liked the automatic change from hard floor to carpet. On one of my carpets, the Kobold seemed to pull too hard when on the Auto setting, but I could just turn the power down to low and then I could manoeuvre it. But being an upright vacuum, it just can't get under furniture the way a cylinder can.

~ how did the demo from the Vorwerk rep go?
Very good, very thorough. I found out that 3/4 German households own one!
What were you the most keen to try out? The vacuum and mop in one, never heard such a thing!
~ how were the instructions in the box? I found it all fairly intuitive tbh so I've not looked at the instructions much
~ what did the demo cassette bag show after the first use - are you surprised by how much has been picked up? Yes very, especially as I had just hoovered Looking at it not that surprised though, it's very modern & clean looking. Its quiet but the brushes on the bottom look extremely sturdy, and its very very sucky!
One thing I'm slightly worried about is the hose being a different head - will I be bothered to do the floors of a room & then go round again with the hose for the edges & cobwebs?? I have a Henry at the mo so I can do both

I've had my lovely Vorwerk for a week now and have packed it all up to give back to dean.

~ Do you think the Kobold VK200 will save you time?

Yes, if i just need to do a quick vac. It was really easy to use this way and didn't take up much room in the hallway ( I hid all the bags and attachments under the stairs!)
It didn't really save me time when I used the mop attachment but i really liked the mop/vac combo and think that would be the attachment I use the most after the regular vac.

~ Did you think that the vacuum was powerful?

Yes, it worked really well on my rugs and carpets. Made them look really clean and we all loved the fresh smell! My daughter was very pleased with her sweet smelling room after I cleaned it! It also worked well on my hard floors downstairs.

I cleaned all the mattresses! First time ever!! They smell so fresh and clean now it's definitely something we'll do every couple of months!

I dry cleaned a really grubby rug in my daughters room, it can up fluffy and clean and smelt lovely!

~ Did you think the vacuum was easy to manoeuvre?
Yes, I liked the way it tilted and twisted. I liked the adjustable handle and I'm quite tall. It was light and really easy to manoeuvre round the house!

Thanks mumsnet Kent and Dean for letting me try out the vorwerk! I was very impressed at how it cleaned my filthy carpets. If I win the lottery I'll buy 2 😀

Just spent an hour writing my 1 week review then when I went to add photos the blimmin MN app crashed and it all disappeared here we go again...!

Do you think the Kobold VK200 will save you time? Yes, in terms of the vacuum & mop in 1 function especially. I've got hard floors throughout downstairs & to vacuum & mop at the same time blew my mind! The vacuum got up crumbs, dog hair & general crap no probs & the mop cleaned throughly. In the kitchen mopping is usually not enough I have to get a scourer on the grout for dropped coffee granules etc but holding this for a few seconds over the stain removed it. The mop vibrates which I quite enjoyed (felt like one of those vibrating workout plates for my arm

Did you think that the vacuum was powerful? Incredibly so. It has 4 strength settings that can be changed easily with your thumb on the handle. I like max the most as it's satisfying thinking about the embedded dirt coming up. Also really like switching down to soft & going over a rug, the rug doesn't get sucked up or move about. Handy.

Did you think the vacuum was easy to manoeuvre? Yes it is very swivelly (sp?!) & easily flat enough to go under sofas, tv table etc. It's narrow enough to go around the table & chairs, loved that.

The hose head is separate & has its own cable so the head has brushes in it which I've never seen before. So doing the sofas & stairs for instance is like lifting a normal hoover on to it iyswim. There's various attachments one of which is an extendable arm which means you can stand in the middle of a room & vacuum the ceiling & coving quickly! Also there's a flat extension that goes right behind the radiator

I used the carpet cleaning head & it brightened them up lovely. It didn't get rid of old stains but doubt anything would touch 10 yr old wine stains tbh. Makes me want to get new carpets so I can start from zero & keep on top of stains easily.

The mattress cleaning head was used on teen ds fusty boy smell room worked a treat.

I wasn't a massive fan of the hose attachment simply because you either have to lay it down or carry it in one hand which could get heavy. That said, it was very satisfying.

Reasons I would buy this:
If I had a new home/carpets & wanted to keep it spotless
If I was very house proud. Using this felt like a special deep clean to me but of course for others that may be standard.
For the general look of it, it's very stylish.

But I won't for now because it's very expensive and my house is old, tired, stained & scuffed already I wish I could keep the vacuum/mop in one that's a stroke of genius. Oh and the flat radiator hose, love it. Bye bye machine from the future, you have spoiled me, maybe one day!

Separately attaching photos this time!

The hose head with its own cable supply which rotates the brushes

The mop/vacuum in one head. The pads go in the machine

I think that's pretty sleek & stylish

The quick change strength settings on the handle

Update...

~ Do you think the Kobold VK200 will save you time?
It would definitely save me time with the mop/vacuum function. I found this part really easy to use and much quicker than my current steam mop. I would also say that due to it being more powerful, it would get my house cleaner, quicker!

~ Did you think that the vacuum was powerful?
Definitely! You can really feel the suction when using it, especially on the highest setting.

~ Did you think the vacuum was easy to manoeuvre?
Yes it was gliding over my laminate floors smoothly and I could manoeuvre it easily on the carpets too.

~ please share a photo!
Have shared a photo of the Kolbold where he lived for the week at the top of our stairs (!) and the bag that was abused during the week cleaning all our floors and mattresses for the week. There was still room in

Dean is coming to collect my Vorwerk tomorrow so thought I'd better answer the questions!

Testers - please share below your first impressions

~ how did the demo from the Vorwerk rep go? What were you the most keen to try out?

It was quick and easy to understand. Dean decided to just give me the main upright, the mop/vacuum cleaner and the handheld attachment to try. That was perfect

~ how were the instructions in the box?

To be honest, I didn't need to read them. Dean had explained everything really well and I'd used all the features while he was here.

~ what did the demo cassette bag show after the first use - are you surprised by how much has been picked up?

We didn't do that so I don't know. I'm impressed after a couple of days though.

~ Do you think the Kobold VK200 will save you time?

Yes - I have a non-shedding (ho ho ) dog and a very long haired fluffy cat and tiled floors. Being able to vacuum AND mop at the same time is a brilliant time saver

~ Did you think that the vacuum was powerful?

Yes, the adjusting itself for different surfaces was alarming at first but it worked really well.

~ Did you think the vacuum was easy to manoeuvre?

Yes. It is quite heavy with the mop and upright vacuum cleaner but when you turn it into a giant handheld, it's much lighter than it looks and very well balanced. Long cord was really useful too

Will upload some photos

Dean came this morning with my vacuum

~ Demo was very informative and clear and didn't take too long as I didn't get all the attachments mentioned upthread. I've got the regular hoovering bit, the bit that cleans and hoovers at the same time and the upholstery attachment. Definitely the bit I'm looking forward to trying the most is the bit which cleans at the same time as hoovering.

~tbh I haven't had to look at the instructions at all as I've remembered everything I've needed so far that dean told me and I don't have as many attachments others have had to need to remember what they all do. I do have the instruction manual if needed though which seems very thorough.

~picture attached after a minute or so in the sitting room. Dean said it didn't look too bad (phew) but considering it wasn't long that it was used and the carpet was pretty good already it had a surprising amount of detritus.

~other photo is of the hard floor cleaning cloth after using in the kitchen, dining room, hall, and bathroom. The green one is the before . It was very easy to use the hard floor Hoover/cleaner in one tool and did a good job in picking up.

Will update in a week once I've been using more.

Ok Testers! Here are the last set of questions to answer:

~ What are you overall views on the vacuum cleaner?

~ Would you recommend it to other people with similar floors to you?

~ please share a photo!

What are you overall views on the vacuum cleaner?
I absolutely loved it and I miss it!

Would you recommend it to other people with similar floors to you? Yes I would (and I have already).

please share a photo! Unfortunately my iphone decided it needed a factory reset when I downloaded a new iOS the other day so I think I've lost all my photos. If there's some in icloud, I'll upload them

~ What are you overall views on the vacuum cleaner? I really liked using the Vorwerk Kobold, it was fab to use as a vacuum cleaner. I did have a struggle changing the pad on the vacuum/mop head, but I'm sure it would be a breeze with practice (my husband had no problems with it) I did find the use of the mop quite heavy to control.
Overall I was really impressed by it

~ Would you recommend it to other people with similar floors to you? If you had plenty of money, I'd definitely recommend this. It's a great piece of kit.

~ please share a photo! Sorry- on my laptop and photos are on my phone. I'll try later.

Thanks for the opportunity to try out the Kobold Vorwerk.

What are you overall views on the vacuum cleaner?
Beautiful looking, very efficient and effective, would love it in a cylinder version.
So many bits and pieces with it, probably wouldn't use all of them. Very fiddly to change and wet the pads in the floor cleaner.
However hugely expensive, would take me two months wages to buy it.
~ Would you recommend it to other people with similar floors to you?
Only if you have a huge house, a lot of money and a cleaner.
~ please share a photo!

~ What are you overall views on the vacuum cleaner?

I loved it, mainly because of the strong suction, it felt really good to get down deep!

~ Would you recommend it to other people with similar floors to you?

Yes definitely

The vacuum has gone back so I can't share more photos- the only ones I took are in my previous post

~ What are you overall views on the vacuum cleaner?

I really liked it. It was great to manoeuvre and I was impressed with the level of cleaning on everything I used it on. I don't think my house is really enough to justify it though. However, if I had a bigger house or a child with strong allergies I'd be very tempted to get one!

~ Would you recommend it to other people with similar floors to you?

Yes - just if they had more of them!

~ Do you think the Kobold VK200 will save you time?

The main area I think it would save time is on hard floors with the vacuum and clean attachment as it would save me having to hoover and then clean after as two separate processes. I was dubious whether it could do ba th jobs well but it surprised me and was better than I had expected.

~ Did you think that the vacuum was powerful?

It didn't make a lot of noise or feel like it was dragging the carpet up like my dyson does but this was very deceptive as it worked very effectively and I was very pleased with how powerful it was.

Will update with last questions soon.

~ Did you think the vacuum was easy to manoeuvre?

Yes, it was easy to manoeuvre, especially on hard floor where it was easy work to move it around.

~ please share a photo!

Hopefully have attached. I don't know how clear it is but there's a before and after of the kitchen floor with th cleaning attachment. You can see the floor is nice and clean afterwards (wet but not that wet, so I can still walk on it fine and it dried quickly). It picked up the bits right near the edge of the unit.

~ What are you overall views on the vacuum cleaner?

Ok, I actually made notes whilst using to refer to to answer this . Overall I found it a great vacuum cleaner. As I mentioned previously, I didn't have all the attachments so I used the main hoover, the mop and vacuum in one, and the upholstery attachment. I found it very easy to use and lighter to carry than I was expecting. It was thoughtfully built (e.g. The handle to carry it which I used up the stairs) and you can even play at ghostbusters with a detachable strap to carry it around on (I ain't afraid of no ghosts!). It had a lovely fresh smell when I was using it too. It adapted very well automatically to different floor surfaces (you could tell by the variation in noise it had adjusted) although one of my dyson attachments does this too (albeit a lot less high tech as you have to click a button depending on which floor type you're on. This does it all fully automatically). It coped very well with a glitter spillage using the vacuum attachment on carpet, but not quite perfectly with some glitter on the hard floor when using the vacuum and mop in one.

Over the course of a week I didn't even vaguely fill one vacuum bag, which I was pleased with as I must not have that must dirt in my house and you wouldn't spent a fortune changing the bags all the time.

It had an exceedingly long cable, which is great for people with very big houses unlike me but for me the cable did get in the way a bit.

When using the vacuum and floor cleaner tool the cloth for the cleaning bit washed very well and was very effective. The same cloth lasted to do my hall, dining room, and kitchen with no trouble. The floor was damp but not wet like mopping would make it. I used the branded cleaning solution Dean gave me which did a good job but it didn't leave my floor looking shiny like my usual floor cleaner does, it gave a matte finish, so if I had the machine I'd use my own cleaning solution, but that's just personal preference.

I liked the upholstery attachment having the option to suck up nooks and crannies and working on upholstery. It worked very well.

I was surprised when Dean told me (I may get the exact stats wrong) 1/3 of German homes and 60% Italian homes have one of these machines (under another brand name I forget). I asked him when he collected the machine if they had a cheaper version or if they spent this much on the machine and he said it was the same, so clearly our foreign relatives think clean floors something worth spending money on investing in a good machine!

And investing is the word, because I think if you got one of these it would last a lifetime. It's the kind of thing I think you get serviced and repair as required rather than buying a new one as soon as it doesn't work.

I miss it already :(

~ Would you recommend it to other people with similar floors to you?

If they had the budget then I'd certainly recommend it.

~ please share a photo!

Photos previously posted.

Thank you mn

Final part of the review

1. Overall view - I think it is a lightweight cleaner which would suit some people but not everybody. I found it not to be as efficient in picking up dirt as my current vacuum cleaner so would not buy one myself however I can see that other people might like it. I like the simplicity of one tool for one job I.e. Vacuum cleaner, mop, hand held etc rather than one machine with lots of attachments.
2. Would I recommend it? Unfortunately not - it does not suit my needs so couldn't really recommend it.

What are you overall views on the vacuum cleaner?

I really liked it! I was impressed at how clean it got my floors and Iiked all the different attachments. It looked very sleek and high tech.

~ Would you recommend it to other people with similar floors to you?
I would, but I think my house is too small to justify such a big purchase. If I had a bigger house with more carpets to clean I would definitely consider buying one.