Cordless vacuums

[Kram]

Looking at the tool and vacuum brands and cant help noticing the available products are a bit poo. I want one for cleaning saw dust, leaves etc out of my car after work or tip runs, or messy stuff in the boot. It would be a 50-70m extension to use mains and not practical.

As an example the latest Makita CL004, adds a powered brush and doubles the price against the CL003. Our cheapy Lidl one has a powered brush..

My XGT leaf blower motor is roughly 1350w on full power.
The XGT vacuums seem to have motors only a pathetic 350w or so, I cant see any that are better?

The lidl one works but the suction is poor and goes down rapidly as the battery is weak. Listed as 140w.

I'd like to get one that has ~600w-1kw and comparable to a mains vacuum, of course that will have a shorter run time, but I have lots of batteries so thats no problem. The area Im cleaning is small, but dont want it to take all day.

ProjectFarm had a comparason video that showed they are all pretty similar with a knockoff Milwaunkee and genuine performing about the same.

If you have one, what do you use?

 

[MattF]

Two guesses as to what brand mine are.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-gas-18-v10-l-34ltr-sec-18v-li-ion-coolpack-cordless-l-class-dust-extractor-bare/488tj

 

[Kram]

German tools dont interest me, but atleast they specify the power input innthe manual. 260w, brushed motor in that one, so not going to perform as I want.

 

[fizzy]

Two guesses as to what brand mine are.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-gas-18-v10-l-34ltr-sec-18v-li-ion-coolpack-cordless-l-class-dust-extractor-bare/488tj

Gas?
Is it gas powered? Or does it suck up gas?

 

[Jack Pattenden]

Looking at the tool and vacuum brands and cant help noticing the available products are a bit poo. I want one for cleaning saw dust, leaves etc out of my car after work or tip runs, or messy stuff in the boot. It would be a 50-70m extension to use mains and not practical.

As an example the latest Makita CL004, adds a powered brush and doubles the price against the CL003. Our cheapy Lidl one has a powered brush..

My XGT leaf blower motor is roughly 1350w on full power.
The XGT vacuums seem to have motors only a pathetic 350w or so, I cant see any that are better?

The lidl one works but the suction is poor and goes down rapidly as the battery is weak. Listed as 140w.

I'd like to get one that has ~600w-1kw and comparable to a mains vacuum, of course that will have a shorter run time, but I have lots of batteries so thats no problem. The area Im cleaning is small, but dont want it to take all day.

ProjectFarm had a comparason video that showed they are all pretty similar with a knockoff Milwaunkee and genuine performing about the same.

If you have one, what do you use?

Do you have a battery / system preference?

Makita's brushless offerings are great but not cheap. They've got a backpack vacuum that's perfect for the car in their LXT system, the DVC261. Great machine but not cheap at all.

 

[winchman]

I have a DC7 Dyson with a battery adaptor to use Milwaukee batteries cant fault it

 

[Craig-SM]

I have a Milwaukee 18v, M18-VC2, Wet & Dry vac, no fancy powered brushes etc but never needed them either even If I do have big hairy Alaskan Malamute that likes to give his fur generously. Run time on a 5ah battery is around 25mins and with the current 9ah battery I have no idea as it just seems to keep going. I assume Makita will do something similar and having the wet function is a lot more useful than I thought it would be. No idea of power rating but it's not sucking air through the size of blower tube but a Vac hose so completely different.
We have a cordless Shark vac that has the powered brushes but again for cleaning the truck out and other general clean ups it remains in the house. Also have a Festool which is used for big DIY cleanups and on the power tools.

 

[Kram]

No idea of power rating but it's not sucking air through the size of blower tube but a Vac hose so completely different.

Power is directly related to how much suction and under 300w is not very good. Based on 25 mins thats ~200w motor and likely a cheapy brushed dc motor.

When its not being used in car it will be used for house, particually stairs and upstairs with a wide powered brush type thing, so more power the better.

 

[Craig-SM]

Looking at the tool and vacuum brands and cant help noticing the available products are a bit poo. I want one for cleaning saw dust, leaves etc out of my car after work or tip runs, or messy stuff in the boot. It would be a 50-70m extension to use mains and not practical.

You changed the criteria. Sounds like you just need a cordless domestic vac such as Dyson or Shark as it will be used mainly indoors than cleaning the car out.

Personally I’d go for separate vacs. One for car and DIY, the other for domestic

 

[Kram]

Nope, The critera is a cordless vac which isnt poo. When I've spent over £2k on a premium cordless system, 200-300w tools are considered poo.

Would you use a drill, chainsaw, grinder, circ saw or any other tool with a 200-300w maximum cheapy motor?

I am not expecting a decent 600W-1kW rated vacuum to be cheap, but preferably one would exist!

 

[Craig-SM]

I’m not entirely sure where you get the power is the deciding factor. As far as I’m aware it’s air flow that creates a powerful vacuum and the motor is only part of it as filtration, hose diameter and length all have an affect.

As for other power tools I don’t always go for the most powerful. If I want to drill a hole I don’t go for the big SDS drill unless it warrants it, usually it’s the 12v drill that does 90% of drilling I need. Same cleaning the car, I use the one that’s does the job and is small enough to get in the nooks and crannies whilst able to lift dirt and dog hair away with ease. If I want to clean the house then the Shark corded vac comes out not because it’s more powerful but it has special brushes and combs for picking the dog hair up but they’re too big to get in the nooks and crannies of the car.

 

[Fazerruss]

If its for your car why not get an average cheap mains vacuum cleaner and a decent sized power inverter. Run it off your car battery. Depending on size just run the engine at same time so battery doesn't go flat

 

[MetalMonkey]

Nope, The critera is a cordless vac which isnt poo. When I've spent over £2k on a premium cordless system, 200-300w tools are considered poo.

Would you use a drill, chainsaw, grinder, circ saw or any other tool with a 200-300w maximum cheapy motor?

I am not expecting a decent 600W-1kW rated vacuum to be cheap, but preferably one would exist!

One word. Runtime.

1kw vacuum would last but a few minutes on a battery.
They don't exactly last a long time with a 200W motor!

I can't see a situation where you would run a cordless chainsaw or a circ saw on full load for 30 minutes non-stop.

Most tool brand cordless vacuums are designed to do primarily one of two things -1) quick tidy up of the job site, and/or 2) dust extraction when coupled to a power tool.
The light duty stick vacs fall firmly into (1). They are fine for what they are. Some are fairly anaemic, others are better. You trade off suction power for things like cyclones etc.
The bigger beefier machines for (2) also work perfectly fine for their use case for the most part.

They aren't supposed to be a substitute for a corded vacuum. They are purely for convenience.
Even cordless vacuums designed for home use from the likes of Dyson are only 200-300w
You also have to be aware of Air Watts vs Actual Watts.

I have a Hikoki 36V stick vac, its better than the little Bush cordless vac I have.
Neither are anywhere near as powerful as a Henry, which sucks (or doesn’t) compared to my 1hp 4" dust extractor.
Horses for Courses.

 

[Mark 5]

Nope, The critera is a cordless vac which isnt poo. When I've spent over £2k on a premium cordless system, 200-300w tools are considered poo.

Would you use a drill, chainsaw, grinder, circ saw or any other tool with a 200-300w maximum cheapy motor?

I am not expecting a decent 600W-1kW rated vacuum to be cheap, but preferably one would exist!

IMO just purchase a Dyson Stick, animal rated, battery adapter and use your own batteries.

For your intended use a V10 upwards and look for decent 2nd hand, almost all Dysons are pretty easy to service yourself.

 

[Keithmac]

We have Gtech K9 Mk2 hand held, it has a power brush and works well, not a 1kw motor though unfortunately.

You need to make a petrol powered vacuum cleaner by the sounds of it..

 

[TEO]

Two guesses as to what brand mine are.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-gas-18-v10-l-34ltr-sec-18v-li-ion-coolpack-cordless-l-class-dust-extractor-bare/488tj

I have the Bosch one too, it's ok, it'll never be as good as the nilfisk mains vac but portability means that it's there when I need it at a job site.

 

[MattF]

That's what it boils down to with battery vacs; Portability. I'll always use the Numatics over the Bosch, given the choice.