Bosch Flexxo Serie 4 BBH3251GB ProHome Cordless Vacuum Cleaner, 55 minutes runtime, White/Grey
Flexxo BBH3251GB
Bosch – invented for life.
Bosch looks back on over 80 years of vacuum cleaner experience, and more than 50 years of battery expertise. The result: innovative technology that makes cleaning your home as easy, and enjoyable, as possible. Performance, convenience, or usability, the right vacuum cleaner from Bosch exceeds even the highest expectations.
Bosch Flexxo Serie 4 BBH3251GB Cordless Vacuum Cleaner
Product Benefits include:
- Effortless cleaning for upto 55 minutes
- Integrated Accessories – All the tools stored within the appliance and always to hand
- Long Lasting & High Performance – Powered by Bosch Lithium-Ion battery technology
- Sleek and Stylish Design – With Bosch design, the self-standing cordless vacuum will integrate easily into any home
- Visible Cleaning Results – The motorized PowerBrush means the Flexxo vacuum is suitable for all floor types
Product Features
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Long run-timePowered by Lithium-Ion batteries, the Flexxo delivers a consistent performance for longer to help you keep your home clean. With a run time of up to 55 minutes, you can clean multiple rooms with ease before needing to recharge the vacuum cleaner. Its cordless design makes it simple to move around too, as you won’t have to worry about tripping over the wire or continuously switching to a different plug socket. | Integrated AccessoriesThe Flexxo makes it easier to keep your entire home clean. With an extendable crevice tool, an upholstery brush and a clip on furniture brush, you can clean far more than just your floors. For added convenience, all the tools are integrated directly into the device, allowing for full 360 cleaning to save you time and energy. | Detachable Handheld UnitThe motor of the vacuum can easily be unattached from the main body to offer a compact, handheld device. A handheld device offers a range of benefits, including ease of cleaning, and they provide a quicker solution to common mishaps which require a vacuum. |
Accessories
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Upholstery & Furniture BrushOur smart design combines two essential accessories into one, allowing users to save space. The upholstery brush has a lint-catching fabric strip perfect for coaxing dust from sofas, chairs, mattresses, and cushions. Simply slide on the furniture bristles to remove dust and other particles from more delicate areas such as lampshades or blinds. | Crevice ToolThe crevice tool gives you more reach, and nabs dust dangling from high ceilings, and corners or buried deep behind appliances. | Combined UseBoth attachments can also be clipped onto each other, to offer maximum versatility when cleaning. |
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| Colour | Night Blue | Black | Dark Night | White/Grey | Tornado Red | White |
| Run time | 40 Minutes | 50 Minutes | 50 Minutes | 55 Minutes | 55 Minutes | 60 Minutes |
| Battery voltage | 16V | 21.6V | 21.6V | 25V | 25.2V | 28V |
| Includes pet turbo brush | ✓ | |||||
| Dust container capacity (Litres) | 0.4L | 0.4L | 0.4L | 0.4L | 0.4L | 0.9L |
| Weight | 2.5kg | 3kg | 3kg | 3kg | 3kg | 3.3kg |
| Accessories included | 2 in1 crevice/upholstery tool, standard crevice tool | 2 in1 crevice/upholstery tool, standard crevice tool | 2 in1 crevice/upholstery tool, standard crevice tool | 2 in1 crevice/upholstery tool, standard crevice tool | 2 in1 crevice/upholstery tool, standard crevice tool, Pet mini turbo, additional brushbar, spare filter | Hose, standard crevice nozzle, XXL Upholstery Tool |
| Charging time | 5 Hours | 5 Hours | 5 Hours | 5 Hours | 5 Hours | 6 Hours |
| Number of performance levels | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Other key features | Converts to a handheld | Converts to a handheld | Converts to a handheld | Converts to a handheld | Converts to a handheld | Silence Motor |
| Weight: | 3.1 kg |
| Dimensions: | 18 x 26.5 x 115 cm; 3.1 Kilograms |
| Brand: | Bosch |
| Model: | BBH3251GB |
| Colour: | White |
| Colour: | White |
Stay in a flat no stairs but great for car and motorhome
Very easy to use and light weight makes stair cleaning a lot easie
It’s the lightest hover I’ve used and very powerful. Easy to empty and maintain. Very pleased with this product higher recommend if you are sick of cord hovers.
This is a lightweight vacuum and ideal as a back up cleaner. It is a bit fiddly to empty and the pull handle snaps off sometimes when trying to empty it making it a bit difficult to get the filter etc out. That said, it’s ok.
A great cordless vac so adaptable great for an oldie
Liked that it came with tools that are stored within the body of the vacuum & that it adapts to a handheld vacuum for harder to reach areas. Eg ceiling lampshades & ceiling.
Sorry good old Henry faithful, you won’t be out often. This is a superb product that works exactly how I hoped it would.
A bit heavy for me. Tricky to empty and reassemble. Very efficient and useful for ground floor but I would find it difficult to carry upstairs. Compact and pleasing to look at.
Really pleased with this vacuum cleaner.
Light and easy to use, brilliant for stairs.
Well built and sturdy unlike my previous Shark cordless which I had to return after 3 weeks. The Bosch moves well and is lightweight. The accessories are neatly packed away in the hoover. I have suction good but and there usually is a but that emptying the dust chamber can be a bit awkward. Beware not to do it against your clothes. Once dust removed fine but reattaching the chamber to the hoover was a bit hit and miss. Overall, I am pleased and would recommend this hoover.
Great vacuum cleaner, lightweight and easy to carry but the battery is charging too long for working time around 30mins. Need to charge more often to have it for longer time.
Pleased with this vacuum cleaner only downside is the dust compartment is very small
A good Hoover with all the tools inside and very easy to clea
I like this vacuum cleaner because it’s light and efficient, I have a bad back and this does not hurt it when I use it.
Five star product but the only downside is that it has to be emptied after every use.
My replacement machine is performing as I would expect. It is good. It functions well.
But I am hesitant. My original mmacine failed. The Battery would not charge.
I just hope I don’t have the same problem with the replacement machine.
The replacement was well organised. There was no hitch at all.
This picks up all the cats & dogs hair plus it’s light & easy to use. I love the Integrated tools. A brilliant idea & out of the way.
The only thing I had trouble with was sliding the furniture brush off the upholstery nozzles very stiff! But I have Arthritis in my hands, so I doesn’t help.
Easy to use every day (dog hair everywhere!) 🙂
Fast charging, nice look, doesnt take lot of soace to store. Love it!
I’ve had many cordless vacuums and this is one of the best light weight and ideal for hard floors
Good suction. Good design with built in accessories. Easy to use
The look is very smart and all the tools being hidden on board is an excellent feature. It certainly fulfils all our requirements. Have not yet tested how long battery life is.
I actually can’t get over, how useful it is. Great, long lasting battery. So easy to manage every day house cleaning. Thank u
Very good so far , very lightweight, you have to empty after every use, waiting to see if battery lasts
Really picks up dirt and crumbs with no effort. The only thing I would like is to have a bigger collection cylinder so you have not got to empty quite so often.
I wanted a strong but light suction cleaner and I am so very glad I chose Bosch Flexxo Serie/4 great little machine suction power is fantastic. My best buy ever.
Easy-to-use, quick charge rate, very flexible ( different ways to use ) especially for the stairs.
Very pleased with this vac. Light, manoeuvrable, and quite quiet. Good suction with a boost if required. I have no stairs do can’t comme
Oh my God. What a purchase.
I’ve impressed my husband, he wanted to have one with multiple function light weight cordless for the shop premises we have and quick car handheld one too and guess what it has all these functions and my husband is happily on cleaning mission.
Brilliant every bit as good as Dyson cordless ! I have both
Easy to use , length of charge good 40 mins full on .
I live in a bungalow vacuum works very well. I had one before that’s why I got another thankyou.
Stylish, lightweight, so very easy to use and the varying suction power makes it perfect for what I need it for.
Suction amazing very well designed well pleased with this best cleaner ever had!
Awesome product for 1-2 bedroom flat. Our cleaner loves it aside the standard vacuum and its very handy to clean up something quickly
We’ve used most of the high end of cordless hoover’s and the bosch wins my vote over all others.
So light weight yet amazing suction power, easy to adapt to stairs and change nozzles, love it!
Easy to use, easy to clean, this is just what we needed
Very pleased with this product. Wanted something that was light to take around the house but that also had good suction. Didn’t know which model to get as there are so many to chose from. But very pleased with this one so far. It is light good maneuverability and good results.
Nice and light to use, surprisingly powerful and the powered brush really makes a difference.
Best purchase of a vacuum ever. Lightweight easy to use and all tools are built in to the vacuum. It is so much easier than having to look for the attachments which I inevitably lose
Great suction, very versatile and light. So easy to use and can stand plugged in until next in use.
Very light, easy to use. Okay for the price. Usual Bosch quality
Does everything it’s supposed to really powerful, would highly recommend this
Lovely light weight and versatile vacuum cleaner.
Easy to use, service, empty and charge.
Great value for money.
I liked the quietness and how easy it moved across the carpets.
It’s a great product , specially when i attach and use different devices , parts that come with vacuumI cleaner I am able to clean every part of the floor m under furniture and ceilings.
I wanted a new vacuum because my old one was too heavy for me. I chose the Bosch because of the lightness of it. It is great, easy to use both as an upright but also as the hand held version .suction is great and works well on both carpet and hard services..Would recommend this A1.
I love this hoover, it has amazing suction, is really lightweight, the charge lasts ages and then doesn’t take long to recharge, in fact i’m going to get rid of my large hoovers and just use this from now on. I live in a large victorian house with 3 floors so this hoover is ideal, it’s cut an hour off my cleaning on each floor!
Not as light as I expected but I’m ok with that because it dies the job it was designed for.
Great vacuum! Specially that you can divide it and use a small part as a vacuum. Plus: all additional pieces and brushes are inside of it. So,very comfortable. Only thing to improve is power. Not such powerful as Bosch Athlet.
Exactly what I needed for upstairs when it was inconvenient to carry my current heavy hoover! Perfect for stairs, car and those little crumbs etc!
I was fearful of buying a new vacuum cleaner. I was used to an AEG stick vacuum cleaner which did not last long and went through 2 batteries in 3 years before I had to give up and buy this one. This Bosch cleaner is far better. I actually often use it on the half setting on carpets (which includes the rotating brushes working). On the full setting it lasted a full 27 minutes on carpet – more than the specification (on low setting, it says 50 minutes – but never vacuumed that long to check! It is sturdy, sits upright on its own, charged by a wire plugging into it (no cradle) and looks elegant. You can remove the mid body to use it as a hand vacuum cleaner – unlike many others. The brush and long stock are housed inside and are sturdy. A light tells you if it is charging and indicates 5 minutes to go before the batteries run out. Yes, you have to empty the dust every time (of >5 minutes cleaning or so) – but that is because it is full of dust! It also makes a satisfying pinging noise as it collects the dust. Emptying the bag could be better, but is fine. You click a button to remove the handheld unit, click another to remove the motor unit, pull a tab to remove the filter unit and then have to encourage the dust to fall off it with your fingers. There are two more filters underneath the outer one you probably should clean every few times, but are easy to access. The knack to putting back together is just putting the filter unit back in fully and not rotated before clicking on the motor unit. The underneath rotating brushes work well, but do get clogged with hair. There is no semi-automatic removal method like on the AEG, but the brush unit pulls out the side in one easy go so you can attack with scissors. It does take hours to charge. In conclusions, the battery in mine was excellent, beyond specification (just after purchase – cannot comment on in a year’s time), emptying just needs some care and it does an effective job for a small unit.
Absolutely fantastic product and very well priced . Lightweight , small, very powerful suction. Incerbly east to use. Very highly recommended
Loved this cleaner when I first used it, but emptying the dust container isn’t pleasant. The filters fill up the very small dust unit and the dirt sticks to the filter so you get your hands dirty every time. For this reason I wouldn’t recommend this product.
28/10 Update:
the extendable hose got stuck in extended position (after not much use) and when phoned Bosch was told that plastic parts are not covered by the warranty – only the mechanical ones! This seems pretty ridiculous and would be more annoyed except she agreed to replace it anyway as so recently purchased. Reduced to 4 stars!
I am very pleased with this vacuum and wanted to buy another one for my mother, however 2 months later this product is now 56 more expensive….
Fantastic product. Great suction, easy to empty and light weight. Very satisfied.
I love it! Being able to take the small hand vac section out is great too, quick to charge and easy to clean. It’s hard to get replacement filters as they take a while to dry out and I often find I need to use the vacuum. I bought some that said they would fit but they don’t so I’m still trying to find some online on the Bosch shop but they are pricey.
A great machine and so nice to be free from the electric cable!!
Perfect tool for using in our caravan. We have a Jack Russell who drops pointy white hairs everywhere. This vacuum and its tools make light work of cleaning.
Very pleased with the item, easy and easy to use.
Nothing I dislike – easy to use and hoovers up everything. Really good and light weight.
Have just switched from an old, upright dyson and can not believe the difference – we have two bundles of fluff to clean up after and this vacuum makes it so much easier. Really great purchase, would definitely recommend
Clean my whole house in between my cleaning lady comes, she comes once a week.
Battery runs out a bit quickly, especially when using the small handheld version. Otherwise great vacuum, very maneuverable.
I’m really fascinated. It’s so easy and lightweight! It’s quite hard to find a good quality hoover that is kind of affordable. This one is so worth it’s money
Fantastic product. I bought this for my cleaner to use & she loves it. I do to as I had to have ago of it.
But if you see this as a useful addition to your existing home hoovering equipment, then you’ll have it about right. It’s an excellent little device for what it is. I love it for a few reasons. It is very lightweight, as such it gets used more often. Up and down stairs all the time. We live in a little flat with stairs down to the bathroom, different stairs down to the kitchen, and many flights of stairs down to the front door. Secondly the hassle of winding up the mains wire of a regular hoover, then unwinding it, plugging it in to a different room, etc., makes hoovering a real bore. This thing makes it SO much more enjoyable. This vacuum will get used a lot more than our other one.
It’s a 2 in 1 vacuum. Aside from the obvious cool “transformers, robots in disguise” aspect, the little dust-buster it turns into will be very useful for cleaning out our van / car.
Annoyingly, the smaller dust-buster cannot get right into corners of the room. This is a real design flaw. It must be held at a specific angle, because the rectangular nozzle is tapered, and so when you hold it at the right angle to pick up dirt (which is, in itself, annoying to have to do), the front of the dust-buster attachment protrudes too far for you to actually hoover into a corner. It’s a really stupid design. Aside from that it works okay, and it won’t affect use in a vehicle because cars don’t have vertical walls with hard corners.
Hope this has helped someone!
Feels lighter and cheaper than older models but functionality is worth i
Really pleased with this vacuum cleaner. We have wanted a lightweight cleaner that could be used around the home, with the added advantage of a hand held vacuum for stairs and awkward areas.
amazing vacuum cleaner!! extremely practical and easy to manoeuvre. good suction. battery life more than enough for a carpeted 1bed flat.
The product has been really good so far, after a few months of usage.
It works well on both carpets and hard floor. The only thing I would say, the suction is not enough if you have pets at home!
I wanted a vacum I could get out quickly just to run over the floors. This Bosch cordless vacum cleaner is perfect for small areas. Its lightweight, easy to use, and great for the kids to use, so no more excuses. The suction is good, I have noticed a slight reduction as time has gone but overall relay pleased. Its easy to empty, charge and use. The container for the dirt is small and isn’t ideal for large areas, but its big enough for small floors. The vacum breaks down into a hand held as well, which is really handy, The longer end is stored in the vacum so all very compact. Overall very inpressed.
This was purchased for our daughters she found carry the cylinder machine up her stairs daunting. Although we have not seen it in use we have received delighted reports of its effective cleaning and lightweight.
Originally I was going to award the Bosch Flexxo Cordless Vacuum Cleaner three stars. Then my wife announced how impressed she was with it and I had to reevaluate my opinion.
My reasons for giving the ridiculously named ‘Flexxo’ three stars initially were its obvious flaws. Firstly its not terribly powerful. If all you want to do is suck up light dust or some spilt dry food like flour or cereal then it will do the job. If however, you’re dealing with dog hair or heavier matter like mud its pretty hopeless. It would never cut the mustard as a household’s primary vacuum cleaner.
Its also got a very small dust receptical. One quick vacuum of a medium sized room is enough to fill it, so trying to do a whole family house or large apartment would necessitate emptying it half a dozen times or more. Unfortunately, emptying it is also not simple or terribly easy.
First, if you’re using the Flexxo in upright mode, you have to remove the hand-held unit from the surround. Then you remove the dust receptical. Then you have to pull out filter, which is inserted very snuggly inside the clear plastic receptical, before emptying the latter. Then you have to put it all back together again. There’s no ‘one-touch’ emptying system that you find on other vacuum cleaners.
To further complicate the whole process, removing the filter requires a bit of gentle force, which often results in the whole filter section ‘popping out’ suddenly, pulling with it some of the material inside the bin. Its very easy, if you’re not careful to spill the carefully collected content across the floor and over yourself. In fact I’d highly recommend emptying the Flexxo outside over a large bin. Especially since you also often need to give the filter a tap against something solid to dislodge hair balls and other detritus.
So as a primary vacuum cleaner, the Flexxo is both under powered, too small and overly fiddly. On that basis I was going to give it a grudging three stars.
Then my wife pointed out that as a backup vacuum cleaner it has a lot going for it. It is undoubtedly small and light, making it easy to store and a pleasure to carry around the house. Its also quite niftily designed, with the bush and extender tools tucked away cleverly within the slim body when not in use.
If you just want to give the floor a quick once-over or the surfaces a quick dust then it does have more than enough power and the small dust receptical is less of an issue. The fact that it is cordless (combined with pretty good battery life) makes it quick to deploy. Its also quiet.
Since we received the Flexxo courtesy of the Amazon Vine program (in exchange for an honest review) its quickly become our go-to vacuum cleaner for dealing with little jobs like sucking up spilt flour or dealing with cobwebs. We still use our old and trusty Miele vacuum cleaner when the house needs a good clean, but in the time it would take just to get that plugged in to deal with a small mess the Flexxo will have completed the job.
The small dust receptical and fiddly filter still irritate me, but I have come to appreciate how useful the Flexxo can be in certain situations.
I was very impressed. It is lightweight but still powerful. I haven’t really found any drawbacks to it and I mostly agree with the positive reviews. The only possible drawback might be the expense as there are cheaper alternatives out there that are almost as good.
My first cordless vacuum! I’ve always fought shy of cordless machines for fear of low power but this fantastic cleaner holds enough power to do the two-up two-down (plus stairs) of my house more than adequately. Highly recommended.
This requires pretty much no assembly out of the box and works straight away. It is worth charging it to full before you start though. There are two parts, a hand held slotted into an upright. This is simple and intuitive to use. Emptying means pulling the handheld out though, and the upright doesn’t sit well without it installed. In use it is nice and quiet. It handles the Jack Russell fur pretty well. The suction isn’t bad, but isn’t brilliant either. The tools are useful but I find that the long reach one doesn’t click solidly and it telescopes back in on itself in use which is a bit annoying. Really the tools are only usable on the handheld version, so to use the edge tool you need to pull the handheld out and use it that way. Battery life is OK, and it will just manage to give my whole three bed bungalow a quick whip through to neaten, or thoroughly clean half of it. Overall it’s a reasonable machine, but nothing stunning. It needs better suction, the ability to use tools without switching to the handheld and an easier way of emptying.
I like it a lot and it’s done a good job, however there are a few niggles.
Things I don’t like:
It’s loud
It’s tall
It needs emptying a lot
The front bar gets clogged very easily
Realistically it’s not pet friendly
Things I do like:
The insides are easy to clean – tap washable, wipe clean, easy to put back together.
At around 3kg, it’s a really usable weight. Heavy enough to work, not so heavy that lifting is a problem if you struggle, maybe for arthritic wrists or other movements one might find difficult.
The charging cable, I love and hate. I love that it means you don’t have an annoying dock or are constrained to a fixed charging point; I hate that it’s just a loose, generic looking black charging cable. The possibilities of losing it are strong, and then you’re screwed. I couldn’t easily find a replacement part, nor can I imagine it’s cheap. Even just having the charging cable a different colour would have been helpful in the cause against not losing it.
I have to admit, I properly love the physical design. It’s like the future. And it’s white! It’s considered that it might have to be semi on show depending on your storage set up, and lets face it, it looks like the future. I love that the accessories and tools are built in to the crevices on the actual machine; no more loose bits that get lost or need an annoying separate space to never get used out of inconvenience anyway.
The most ideal application i’ve found for it is a small flat – the battery life works for this, it does really well on multi floor, and it can affordably be emptied often after every use, as realistically a small flat wouldn’t pick up much. The cordless capability of removing the handheld is really useful for cleaning the car – I have offroad parking for my apartment building and it’s just not feasible to vacuum it myself, a bit annoying considering it needs small goings over often, and having to drive out somewhere to pay for that. This massively solves that problem, as a 2in1 to my household vac.
Overall though, because it’s still got the same problem no cordless vacuum has been able to solve, ever. The battery life is grand for the first out of the box usage, but realistically, it’s half, and progressively gets worse with age and charging habits. 4.5 stars if that was possible, but i’m being harsh. I really like it, I think it’s well designed, and far better than the Dyson Cordless i’ve had for a while. But it’s still got issues, and it’s not perfect.
I’ve been testing couple similar vacuums in recent months, other ones also from Bosch and different brands as well and I must admit this one is my favourite.
First of all, it is really powerful for a cordless vacuum cleaner. It has 3 strength settings on the handle under the thumb. And it manoeuvres so smoothly!
The other thing that I love about it is the little vacuum that can be disconnected from the main part and used on its own.
And thirdly the fact it can store both of the ends (the crevice tool and the furniture/upholstery brush) so there is no need to search for them in the cupboard. Everything you need is in the hand reach.
Unlike other Bosch vacuum we have, this one has built-in battery and charges via cable charger connecting to the wall rather than have removable standard Bosch batteries. If I had a choice I would prefer the battery option but as fully charged Bosch Flexxo lasts forever, this is not an issue.
I’ve had a couple of these (my daughter stole the last one).
This is a cordless upright vacuum that had a detachable dust buster type attachment – or it’s a dustbuster with extra suction that fixes onto a larger frame. Either way, it works. It’s light, and quite nippy – the head of the frame is quite manoeuvrable so you can corner fast and get round quickly if you just want to do a bit of light cleaning.
It does leave the floor if you corner too sharply, but that didn’t take much getting used to.
It charges by plugging an adapter directly into it, rather than standing on a charge point, which I like, some might prefer a fixed point.
The real bonus is that in the arm, there are some concealed extra attachments which give the dust buster bit a couple of brushes and what’s described as a crevice tool, that also happens to be telescopic.
Cool stuff.
I think I’d prefer it not to be white, but that’s being picky.
So a really nice piece of kit. Would recommend.
Having already purchased the Bosch Athlet in the past, this new model looked to be a good improvement.
To start with it is much lighter which is great when you’re carting it about the house. This is despite the fact that it also has all of the required accessories built-in, unlike the old model which has them all separate (and awkward to store). They are kept in nifty hidden compartments on the new one.
Also you can remove a small hand-held vacuum from this one’s centre which is perfect for in the car, or on the stairs. One small downside is that the dust compartment is smaller but it’s still fine.
The Bosch Flexxo Cordless Vacuum Cleaner came in such a small box I thought there was some mistake. The unit is very neat, easily assembled and is a delight to the eye. The tools all fit within the cleaner itself, so there is no bag of bits to either forget or lug about. The business bit detaches for use on stairs and has a long nozzle (which hides within the machine) for crevices and poky corners.
The cleaner stands upright without a stand so its footprint is minimal. It works long enough on one charge for me to do three flights of stairs, the landings and three bedrooms, plus the living room and other bits. I love that there is no cord to trip over and no worry as to whether I have reached the cable limit. It is quiet in use and the suction is powerful. It picks up hairs (from a long-haired me), cotton ends (from my sewing room carpet) and those horrid bits of shredded paper that always fall out of the shredder container. Emptying the machine is simplicity itself; the roller, around which hairs and cotton binds inevitably wind themselves, pulls out at a touch for easy cleaning.
I am a bit of a vacuum cleaner freak and this one is the best of my collection. It is sleekly designed and more importantly, it works so well. Function before form, and this machine ticks both boxes. I love it.
I’m quite impressed by the Bosch Flexxo Cordless Vacuum Cleaner. It’s a hybrid of a traditional upright cleaner with the addition of a detachable, hand held cleaner held inside the handle. Fits together easily with virtually no effort and is incredibly easy to maneuver around. I particularly like that the upright cleaner will flatten out to fit right underneath the sofa. Both cleaners have plenty of suction, simple controls and are lightweight. Works via a battery, charger included, and takes around three and a half hours for the first full charge which is, unfortunately, quite a long time. In use the battery lasts for around an hour before it needs recharging. So the charging/battery life aren’t great but; my only real negative would be the size of the dust compartment which is so small it needs regular emptying. Comes complete with a few accessories, two brush heads and an extension for reaching up to the ceiling/curtains, and the handheld is easy to detach and use when I need to clean the edge of stairs or upholstery. I think this is a nippy, handy vacuum that’s nice to have around because it’s so easy to carry around the house and there’s no cable to get in the way.
This is a sort of hybrid vacuum cleaner- it’s smaller than a ‘proper’ floor vacuum cleaner, it’s larger than a typical handheld vacuum, and it promises to do the work of both. In practice it has a good stab at it- but it’s just a little bit too compromised on details like power and capacity for it to totally fulfil all the vacuuming needs of a family home.
For convenience, it scores highly. It’s fairly lightweight, I can lift it and control it with one hand, and the idea of fitting all the accessories into the handle is a smart one that I wish all vacuum manufacturers would follow suit on. Popping the central device out from the ‘proper vacuum’ frame is an easy task, as is popping it back in again. Cleaning and emptying it is also quite straightforward, after a couple of initial frowns about how to do it as personally I didn’t find that quite so intuitive.
But it does lack a little bit of oomph. It’s not the most powerful vacuum I’ve encountered, it sits somewhere in the middle. When our Vax cordless was new, I recall it had a better battery life than this Bosch currently has- though admittedly over time the batteries on our Vax have worn out a little and the life of them’s no longer what it was, an effect which I’m sure will be the same on this Bosch after a year or two.
Despite the convenience of the accessories, it’s also a little less convenient than our previous handheld vacuum for cleaning out the endless child-related and leaf detritus from the footwell of our car.
For a small space or for relatively lightweight use, the convenience of this Bosch is a definite plus and it could certainly be considering over some larger models, though I’d suggest the Bosch doesn’t have much of a price advantage at time of writing. As an option for your new family home vacuum cleaner though, this vacuum falls between two classes, and doesn’t end up being top of the class in either.
This one is an updated model or perhaps an upgraded one, as it’s a hand-held cordless model as well as an upright cordless, which is really handy – in theory. In practice, after charging to full capacity, which took 4.5hrs, the hand-held was defeated by cat hair on a sofa and cushions. A wet palm did a better job! But, when I put the hand-held back into the cradle, the suction did seem to increase.
The hoover is small and doesn’t take up a lot of space (less than a foot square floor space and the tools are stored inside the handle, which is a great feature, as I always end up losing mine or getting muddled between brands and models; I have several hoovers!), but there’s a lot of unnecessary packaging in the box, so there’s a lot to get rid of, though luckily most can be recycled. I couldn’t figure out how to put the three pieces together, even with a diagram and then realised that a screw was stopping me pushing the handle into its slot. It meant opening the tool storage part on the back of the handle, removing the small brush head, then removing the screw from the handle part, slotting the handle into the storage part and then passing the screw through from the front of the handle into the storage part and tightening it with a cross-head screwdriver. It helps if you have small hands, as a full-size screwdriver is needed, and the manoeuvring space is tight! And you need to take care not to over-tighten.
Once charged and in use, the noise is less – yay! – than with my current Bosch, but unfortunately, the suction is also less. It took quite a few tries to get my shaggy rug done, and it didn’t leave it ‘electrified’. It didn’t really like going from laminate flooring to smooth rug with a rubber edge, so I had to lift it on, though it came off the rug happily. It doesn’t do great with litter, either, which is a huge irritant, as with 2 cats, that’s the main source of mess in my house. Litter seems to scatter quite a lot in front of the hoover (maybe due to air it emits?), so occasionally I had to lift and hover it over the litter, and yes, it sucked it up. It is happy on laminate and does get into corners nicely due to the easily manoeuvrable head. And, the head once again is really tapered and low at the front, meaning that I can get it under a low-lying radiator pipe in my bathroom.
It is light and manoeuvrable and with the hand-held, it’s handy for grabbing cobwebs and for doing the stairs; you do get less suction, though. The release for the hand-held part is the top arrow, and the bottom arrow releases the bin. Due to litter dust, the filter was already quite dirty with 2 days’ use, so that’s something that will need to be cleaned regularly; it can be washed and left to dry, so you can get most of the dust out. When it’s new and when you’ve just washed the filter, suction will be pretty amazing and you’ll have to push/pull a bit more on the handle – take care to grip it mid-way down, not at the top as you push/pull, as that’s where (just where the switch is) the handle is at its weakest and has snapped on my other model. As suction decreases, it will be easier to manoeuvre.
I learned with the other model that the charging unit will get damaged if left permanently on charge, so as soon as the white battery light stops flashing and fades away completely, remove the cord from the charging port to maintain the hoover’s life. And, unlike my other model that has three power levels, this only has two. Unlike the Athlet, this one doesn’t come with a Bosch charger, which is kind of ironic as the guarantee says it won’t cover non-manufacturer chargers being used… Hmm, should have queried this with Bosch when I queried the actual guarantee!
There is NO information on Amazon or on the Bosch website re a warranty, but I called and apparently all Bosch appliances come with a 2yr-warranty in the UK (differs from country to country), which they don’t feel the need to advertise. You can register the appliance on their website, which does make it easier for when/if you have to have a repair done. Just don’t expect great customer service and don’t expect to be able to speak to anyone via the website (no Chat, no tel, simply a Contact Form), but you can ring 0344 892 8979.
I’d pay around seventy-five quid for this, based on feel, time taken to charge vs the use you get/loss of suction, on how solid (not) it feels, and how well it works. I’ve not had the full 55 mins use promised on one full charge, as the loss of suction makes me charge it again. So far, I’ve had over the 2 days, about 20 mins of use before the sound changes and you feel the suction decreasing (not counting used as a hand-held, which drops the suction straight away). Off the record, one of the engineers who fixed my current model told me that these are designed for small flats with laminate flooring, not for houses with many rooms and rugs/carpets. I think that’s true but luckily my house is pretty much all laminate and all on one floor where these hoovers are in use. Something to think about when buying.
First off, it comes compact and is quick and easy to assemble. Build is very good and looks a near cousin of my athlet. So one of my major criticisms of the Athlet are the tools. They are bulky and require wearing the vacum like a backpack to use them. Ridiculous.
This has a number of tools built in. A long crevice tool in the handle and a soft brush attachment. And the connect by removing the main body of the vacum and using it like a handheld.
This novel approach maximises the use of space but results in a few comprimises.
Firstly, the waste bin is smaller that will mean more frequent empties. Not a huge issue. Also there is no turbo mode.
In use though the suction was fine but obviously not as strong as the athlet. It has a 25.2v battery so good staying power and reasonable charging times.
As mentioned there is a handheld mode. This works well. Bit bulky for say a car but great for adding the long crevice tool and getting stuck into corners of ceilings, behind furniture etc. This works well.
The motorised brush head is a little smaller than the Athlet but also works well and the brush bar can be rmeoved for cleaning.
Overall a very good vacum that works well.
A well-built cleaner which click together solidly. Pictorial assembly instructions not as clear as they could be — words would help.
Height is 115cm which I find comfortable to use.
At 3.1 kg it is light enough, helped by it being well balanced. The motor part itself is just a fraction over 1.2kg. Light enough to allow cleaning of higher areas reasonably comfortable, again helped by the unit being well balanced.
The cleaner can stand upright when the electric brush is attached and the handle pushed forward. I found it to be quite stable in this position.
The accessories are built into the handle. A small compartment holds the furniture brush, the end of which can be slid off to give a flatter surface attachment. The wand attachment pulls out from the handle and detaches. It is 36cm long and can be extended to 56cm. Very useful in a lot of cleaning situations. Unfortunately the end of it is too thick to get down the side of my car seat.
The brush part on the electric brush head is very easily removable for cleaning, a real boon if hair gets wrapped round it. The brush head is low profile and swivels to allow access under low furniture items.
Usage time depends on which of the 2 power modes are used. It can vary from 20 minutes to around 55minutes. Charging takes about 4 hours. I had 40 minutes usage in mixed cleaning and switching between modes. Even with the low battery warning light flashing, the suction remained constant.
In use, the container is quite small, not unusual for a cordless cleaner. Emptying it is easy as is access to the very effective filter.
It does an excellent job on carpets at the full power setting, and coped better with pet hair than many mains operated machines. Also very good on hard floors at the normal setting.
It’s a relatively quiet machine, it noise is not unpleasant.
A bit surprised the charger unit is an unknown brand. I would have more confidence in it if it had the Bosch branding.
Overall an excellent cleaner.
Firstly, this is a strange device. It is a handheld dustbuster, which fits into a frame to become a vacuum cleaner. The unit has its own battery, which needs charging for about 4 hours on first use. The chamber for the captured particles is also held within the unit. Therein lies the first issue. This has a limited capture chamber and so needs emptying far more often than the Gtech, which compresses dirt into a far larger box. The next thing to compare is the run time which is 56 minutes from a 3.5hr charge. Compare this to Gtech which runs for 40 minutes. The Bosch does feel well made and robust. The box contains the charger, accessories, two brush heads for upholstery and a long extension for corners/stairs and a pet hair brush.
Once assembled it lacks the suction power of the Gtech, but it is slightly more nimble in handling. This does not mean its bad, but it just has less suction than the G Teach. Where this product is different from the Gtech, is that you can unhook the frame and just use the small unit on its own. The Bosch has a swivel head, which gets into corners that the Gtech cannot. You can use the attachments, to make cleaning easier. These are the only advantages I can see over the Gtech.
At 199, I think it is an expensive dustbuster in a frame. It cannot match the Gtech suction, but it does have some nice touches. I am not sure at this point if I would buy this myself, having already got a Dustbuster and a Gtech. If you don’t have either, then it is worth considering for its manoeuvrability. Its a good product, but at 199 it may not be the bes