Galaxy S7 vs iPhone 6S Trusted Reviews is part of the Time Inc. (UK) Ltd Technology Network © Time Inc. (UK) Ltd 2003-2016, All rights reserved| Get TrustedReviews' award-winning reviews and advice delivered to your inbox for free! By submitting your details, you'll also receive emails from Time Inc. UK, publisher of Trusted Reviews and other iconic brands about its goods and services, and those of its carefully selected third parties. Please tick here if you'd prefer not to hear about:Product round-up The DIY market for power drills cracked going cordless years ago, but for domestic heavyweights such as an affordable vacuum cleaner, tripping over a six-metre mains cable has been a weekend tradition for most UK households. Really, how much R&D does it take to get a good cordless vacuum cleaner? Is the wait over yet? El Reg's domestic goddess Jennifer Newton finds out. Assuming your home doesn’t have bedrooms in the double figures, going cordless may well be a realistic option, with smaller homes and urbanites more easily catered for.

Robot vacs aside, there are two types we’ll be looking at here: uprights and handhelds. Dust busting the Dyson way The tech behind the latest cordless uprights (aka stick cleaners) has improved in recent years to deliver strong suction and a battery life of up to an hour, and let’s face it, who wants to be waving a vacuum cleaner around for longer than that in one stint? That said, manufacturers are desperate to add the word “ergonomic” claiming improved manoeuvrability and ease of use. On the whole, this hold true, as these stick cleaners are lighter to use and, thankfully, easier to store. Shaking the vac market this year was the announcement of new EU regulations that demand that vacuum cleaners, as of September 2014, need to be less than 1600W. This figure will be further reduced to 900W by 2017. However, this directive won’t impact on the cordless market as the Wattage quoted on these devices is well below these ratings. Still, this raises the old question of why power consumption is still so relevant.

As the deity of vacs, James Dyson, said: “High power doesn’t always equate to efficient cleaning”. Although, some still reeling from the EU’s regulations might add that it helps. Incidentally, when it comes to power ratings on cordless vacs, a lot of manufacturers are quite shy of quoting figures, preferring instead to show battery voltage, which isn't especially helpful. We’ve five handhelds and five uprights in this round-up and we've quoted prices you should expect to pay from retailers. Kicking off with the sticks, all five on test are bagless, with washable filters, motorised brush and use Lithium-ion batteries for consistent power with no fade-out – earlier generation cordless models could suffer from this. This selection is suitable for hard or carpeted floors with dusting and crevice attachments included in all except the GTech. The now standard two-year warranty is offered apart from the Vax, which has a confidence boosting six-year guarantee. It’s the affordable designer choice that sits on a handy recharge stand looking über smart in its tungsten metallic livery and will look at home in any bachelor or urban pad.

AEG has gone for European style: that is, a vac that looks good left out to grab at any moment for spot pick-ups without effort. The suction power lacked the oomph of the Dyson DC59 and Gtech Ram (see below), but as a second sucker in the home, it’s good with 35 minutes run time, but only 14 minutes on boost mode from a charge of four hours. On test, I found more dirt and dust bunnies, however, were vacuumed up compared to other cordless makes due to the bright LED lights on the nozzle revealing the fluff and stuff below. air purifier miNoise level was average compared to all others on test with AEG saying it comes in at 73dB.central home air purifiers The ErgoRapido lays flat to get under furniture and the 180-degree swivel head made awkward navigation of furniture easier to handle than a normal upright. best air purifier grow room

And not getting too excited, but worth a mention, the brush head has been updated with a new hair-removing function on the brush roll. This ends the days of scissors at hand to cut away endless tangles that clog up cleaners. Like the Dyson DC59, it’s a two-in-one with a handheld cleaner that detaches at the flick of a button. A soft brush head and crevice tool is stored on the charger and any handheld that comes with a soft brush gets my approval. It’s needed too, as this attachment glides over electronics, especially TVs and netbooks to suck out muck without damage. AEG launched its first cordless vac 10 years ago, since then it has come a long way and at nearly half the price of the Dyson DC59, it’s a sound choice for urbanites. Capacity/Weight 0.5 litres, 2.52kg AR100 (7) - Discontinued AR20 (1) - Discontinued AR75 (1) - Discontinued Date Purchased: Jul 2016 machine is very good reviewed on Jul 25, 2016 Good value for money reviewed on Jul 21, 2016

Great Value and cheap replacement filters reviewed on May 08, 2016 Pretty Good at its job! reviewed on Mar 10, 2016 reviewed on Jan 17, 2016 reviewed on Dec 28, 2015 reviewed on Aug 17, 2015 reviewed on Dec 11, 2014 You get what you pay for 3 out of 5, reviewed on Oct 20, 2014 Good, & in an affordable cost bracket. reviewed on Sep 24, 2014 reviewed on Jul 15, 2014 a bit noisy for a bedroom. reviewed on May 05, 2014 Good price compared to most units, spare filters included Hepa filter is not the highest grade, 1 of 2 pagesThis post brought to you by Fellowes . All opinions are 100% mine. In the past few months, my family and I moved into a condo.  Our old house was the dustiest house in the world, but we didn’t have any pollutants from nearby houses.  In the condo, we are in a building that’s occupied by other people.  Although the heating/cooling system ductwork is set up so that units are isolated from each other as much as possible, I know there’s some air seeping into my unit from the surrounding ones.  

Since my daughter has asthma, I don’t want to risk having her breathing in cigarette smoke or other airborne pollutants from another unit, so I wanted an air filter for her bedroom.  I was happy to be selected to give the Fellowes AeraMax™ DX-55 a try. The AeraMax DX55 came with a simple, one page manual. The DX55 is made of white ABS plastic with a black vent on the front and black touch-panel controls.  The unit measures 20.5″ tall X 13″ wide X 7.23″ deep. Both sides of the unit have silver vent panels, as seen here.  This side, behind the control panel, is where the filters are accessed.  The other side looks similar but doesn’t have a removable filter holder. The back has a built-in carry handle, which you see at the top middle of the unit.  It also has the power switch. The DX55 has two filters.  The white filter is made of paper.  Fellowes says their ” true HEPA filter with AeraSafe™ antimicrobial treatment safely removes 99.97% of airborne particles as small as 0.3 microns, including pollen, ragweed and other allergens, viruses, germs, dust mites, mold spores, pet dander and cigarette smoke.”  

They also claim it is “extremely effective at capturing influenza virus from indoor air (based on independent testing)”.  I don’t have the flu, but I do have a head cold, so I’m hoping this will protect my family from my germs.  That’s one of the reasons I decided to test the unit in my room before putting it in Rachel’s room. The other filter is a carbon filter that is designed to remove odors and capture large airborne particulates. The DX55 is designed for medium-sized rooms up to 195 square feet.  Rachel’s room is about 130 square feet, so it’s well within the specifications for this air purifier.  I started out testing the unit in the master bedroom, which is 185 square feet, so that I could see and hear how it works. I removed the plastic from the filters, then plugged up the DX55 and flipped the power switch on.  When it first turns on, the unit evaluates the air quality in your room.  After the evaluation, the DX55 automatically selects fan speed to most efficiently clean the air.  

The unit always powers on in auto mode, but you can adjust the fan speed manually by tapping the fan blades icon (5, in the following image).  You can return to auto mode at any time by touching the auto icon, located between controls 3 and 4 in the following image. The AeraSmart Sensor (3, in the image above) shows blue (good), amber, or red (bad) to indicate air quality.  Control 4 is the Aera+ Mode; turn it on during peak allergy season to increase air turnover rate by 50% versus low fan speed setting to remove more allergens from the air. Two indicators, identified as 6 in the above image, turn amber then red to let you know when you need to change the HEPA and carbon filters. The PlasmaTRUE Technology control (7, on the above image) “creates an ionized field to help safely remove airborne pollutants.” When it first started, the AeroSmart Sensor was blue, indicating good air quality.  It selected the lowest fan setting.  At the low speed, the DX55 is whisper quiet.  I manually selected the four fan levels and found the two lowest are quiet, the third level produces a noticeable sound, and the highest level is loud.  

I think the highest level might even be too loud for my daughter to use as white noise to help her sleep, and this is a girl who sets the volume of her little white noise generator so high that it sounds like she has a diesel engine idling in her room. After checking out the sound levels, I set the air purifier back to automatic, and I left the Aera+ Mode and the PlasmaTRUE Technology modes turned on.  I find that the DX55 runs at the lowest fan speed and the AeraSmart Sensor shows blue most of the time.  I have noticed the unit kick up to higher fan speeds, usually only in the mornings.  I finally determined the cause of the early-morning air quality problems a couple of days ago.  It kicks up to higher speeds when we’re spraying deodorants and hair spray in the attached master bath. I’ve had the Fellowes air purification unit for a short time, but I thought I’d power it off and inspect the filters before writing this review.  I can’t see anything building up on the white HEPA filter yet, but I do see some lint on the black carbon filter.