Product Test
Steve Hole puts products through their paces
Steve turns his attention to handheld cordless vacuum cleaners which are ideal for car cleaning duties.
For this test we gathered a whopping 25 of the darn things before narrowing it down to the top eight. This means that all of the contenders are devices that we’d be happy to own and use. If you do a casual search via Google you’ll be awash with these things. I tried all sorts from little portable ones to dedicated car vacs to fullon domestic ‘sticks’ that have the ability to be able to be used as a portable handheld.
In recent years things have moved on quickly in the vacuum cleaner world. First of all, cordless has opened up all sorts of possibilities especially with the introduction of more powerful brushless motors. ‘Form Function’ is a phrase that is bandied about by vacuum manufacturers and that basically means ‘versatility’ in that a stick floor vacuum cleaner can change quickly to a pet or car handheld.
The likes of Dyson broke the mould when it came to styling. Twenty years ago, all uprights looked similar as did the drag behinds. One thing that hasn’t really changed too much is the basic principle of how these things work. The first vacuum cleaner as we know it has a slightly convoluted story, but here goes...
The vacuum cleaner was a natural development of the manual vacuum cleaner, invented in 1860 by Daniel Hess, but commercialised in 1890 by a French designer who invented the ‘Baby Daisy’ that was actually built in the UK.
The carpet sweeper was invented by Melville R Bissell in 1876 but productionised in 1883. The motorised solution was almost cracked by American John S Thurman in 1898 but his device – a pneumatic carpet renovator – blew rather than sucked.
Soon after, another US designer, Corinne Dufour almost nailed it with patents for two blown systems, the second of which was the first to use an electric motor. Next came a race between UK designer Hubert Cecil and American cleaning company owner, David Kenney, who was definitely the first to coin the term ‘vacuum cleaner’ but his device was a huge thing that weighed 1800kg and was horsedrawn and powered by steam. He called it ‘Puffing Billy’ after the steam locomotive of 1813.
Birmingham-based Walter Griffiths is said to have developed Thurman’s idea by 1905 with his ‘Griffith’s Improved Vacuum Apparatus for Removing Dust from Carpets’ and it was definitely portable, operated by bellows and even had various nozzles that could be attached to it.
Cleveland, Ohio-based James Kirby unveiled his ‘Domestic Cyclone’ cleaner in 1906 and his brand is still producing Kirby Vacuum Cleaners today.
The game really changed however in 1907 when another Ohio resident, department store caretaker, James Murray Spangler designed the first portable elect
