A review of the Vax H90-GA-B Gator Handheld Vacuum Cleaner

A Top Quality Vacuum at a Great Price!

For those looking to vacuum small messes on a budget, the Vax Gator Handheld could be for you. For small easy vacuuming like clearing up crumbs, ashes or stray hairs, this 100 Watt vacuum is capable. It’s lightweight too and easy to manoeuvre at just 1.2kg.

With a battery life of under 10 minutes, this cordless vacuum cleaner is for small, fast jobs that don’t require a larger machine and with the built-in crevice tool, you can even use it for tricky places like car seats. In fact, having this as a dedicated car vacuum isn’t a bad idea, especially as it’s so small and compact.

Key Points:

• 1.2kg
• Runtime: between 7 and 12 minutes
• Charge time: 24 hours
• 8v 100w
• Flip mouth for easy emptying

While this Vax H90-GA-B Gator vacuum isn’t going to win any design awards, it simply does what it says it’ll do. It’s not powerful enough to remove hair tangled into carpets and stairways but it’s good at removing crumbs and loose hairs from cars and sofas. For the price, it’s a useful little tool.

www.vax.co.uk

Although the run time is short, it’s actually not very different from more expensive handheld vacuums. This is mostly because the higher quality handhelds have more powerful suctions, requiring more battery power while this one will use less power. For small messes though, the 7-12 minute run time is just fine.

 Hygienic Dust Collection Disposal

With a drop down ‘alligator-like’ mouth, the disposal is fairly hygienic and you shouldn’t need to get your hands dirty. This is useful especially as the dirt compartment is very small at just 0.2 litres.

The precision tool is retractable for easy storage but not particularly long when you want to get into corners. With brush attachments, this isn’t good for delicate areas like desks and bookshelves but it works well on chairs and sofas. Loose pet hair can be picked up by the Vax Gator with easy, for pet hair embedded in fabrics and carpets however, a different method needs to be used.

For a budget machine, the lightness and ease of use is a pro but the lack of quality suction power might be more of an annoyance. This is really only for very easy messes – great if you’ve got small children who lie to eat in the car!

Pros – A Lightweight Cordless Vacuum

The handle is comfortable although the weight distribution is far forward, meaning that you’ll need to use more wrist effort to manoeuvre it around. Still, at just over a kilogram, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem for the majority of people. For those looking at very undemanding handhelds, the Black and Decker flexi is a great compromise – affordable although not budget, but is very easy on the arm and wrist muscles and good for the elderly.

The charging cable is thin and needs taking care of when not in use to prevent damage. Similar to a phone charging cable, it adds to the feeling of cheapness that comes with this overall package but again, you get what you pay for.

Cons – Long charging time

The major problem with this vacuum is that the charging time is a whopping 24 hours. That’s pretty over the top considering the usage time is around or under ten minutes. Because this kind of vacuum is good for cars, it means you’d have to remove it from your car often and then charge it for a full 24 hours – making it not particularly fit for purpose. Depending on how often you’d envisage using it, this could be a deal breaker.

Overall

While not particularly powerful on the suction side of things, this is an good vacuum cleaner for those who just like to tidy their cars up a quickly here and there, especially if pets and messy children and frequent passengers. The long charge time might be a problem but if you won’t use it often then it could be overlooked.

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