There was me thinking that a vacuum cleaner was a vacuum cleaner. Wrong. The missus recently got a VAX Blade 4 Dual Pet & Car cordless vacuum and I have to say it is brilliant.

I initially felt it expensive at a penny under 370 quid but you can find deals around if you search and you also get a handy attachment ‘toolkit’ worth over £50. This includes a mini-motorised pet hair tool, and a handy flexible hose

Very cool that you also get two 4Ah battery packs – or what VAX describes as their ONEPWR system – meaning they fit other VAX cordless cleaners – and they claim you’ll get up to 45 minutes of continuous running time per battery and Carol reckoned that was about spot on. There are three levels of power controlled by a button on the handle and such is its power capability you don’t automatically have to have it on the more powerful boost mode (‘boost’ not ‘beast’ by the way!) although I find the little headlight very funky and useful for darker places.

I’ve been lugging around one of our old vacuums for car cleaning duties and I keep tripping over the cable and it usually wants to either roll down our sloping driveway or thud into one of my car’s doors! When I used the VAX in car mode (you basically remove the ‘stick’ part and main roller assembly) I couldn’t believe how well it got rid of the remains of a garden clippings trip to the tip.

Whereas I normally struggle to get rid of the remnants of leaves, twigs and gawd knows what else, the VAX Blade 4 handled it easily.

I find it pretty quiet and the brushless motor (VAX calls it Coreä Controlled) is very powerful. The little mini-motorised pet tool works great when teamed up with the flexible hose tool in the car. Even though I haven’t got any pets it made light work of the usual sort of detritus and dust that always ends up in our cars.

Even better is that it weighs just over 3kg and I even find myself doing the vacuuming indoors now. Well recommended. More from www.vax.co.uk ENDS.