Vax U89-AS-B Astrata Vacuum Cleaner

I purchased this hoover when on offer at £46.99, to place upstairs rather than carry my Dyson DC14 which had cost somewhere between £200 - £300, however so good was the suction that the Dyson moved upstairs.

I find the brush bar doesn't get clogged up like the Dyson - with my hair or the dogs.

Ok lead is not so long so have to plug in from room to room. Had it 2 years now & the plastic is deteriating, a lug that join the tubes has broken & the clip that holds it upright, but at a 5th of the price of my dyson good value for money, I would buy another & I have had dysons for years.

There’s a little history behind this purchase which might put some features in context. We have a Dyson DC1 bought for £200 about 1997. At one point its motor bearings failed due to ingress of plaster dust. I fixed them, but in the meantime we’d bought a Hoover Purepower 1700. The latter had as much suck, a longer power cable and a more flexible hose. I used some un-branded bags from Asda which burst; dirt killed the motor and Asda recompensed me with a £45 gift card with which to buy a replacement vacuum. (They’d offered to pay for Hoover repairs, but as a new motor alone would have been £60 I suggested they just give me the money for one of the machines they were currently selling)

When I looked a little closer at the spec of their £45 models, I didn’t think they’d suit, but a higher spec £60 model did, so we decided to pay the extra £15. But what Asda have on-line isn’t mirrored in the stores, as I found when I telephoned 3 local stores (and repeatedly listed to their recorded messages about seasonal opening hours!). Also, I couldn’t spend the gift card on an on-line purchase. I decided to take a look in the nearest store, and there was the Vax U89-AS-B, ‘Astrata’, on offer at £45, reduced from (I think) £60.

The box indicated it was 1800 watts – so equivalent power to the dead Hoover, but no clue about hose length. I asked for help, and a manager took a look online on Asda’s intranet. No details at all there – not even a mention: he suggested I could take it and try it, and return it if it didn’t suit.

At home I looked online myself before even opening the box. I was astonished at how many models Vax make! Unlike the other models sold by Asda, there were no reviews of this. On the vax website the specification was elaborated upon, but no mention of hose length. It’s difficult trying to make side-by-side comparisons when the same attributes are not mentioned.

I opened the box, as was very impressed at the ingenuity involved in packing all this lot in. Very small chance of me re-packing it to get refund if it didn’t suit. Some assembly required, as you might expect. Hoover’s Scottish factory wrapped up years ago; when Dyson decided to outsource manufacturing to Malaya Vax was the only remaining UK manufacturer. I’m not sure where their parts come from now, but it’s clear assembly takes place in the UK because buyers have to do it for themselves!

When complete the machine – as one would expect of a new one – has plenty of suck. The brush aperture is about 22mm from the edge of the machine at the front and sides. Interestingly it’s neither a conventional bagged cleaner, nor a cyclone, but draws air through a central filter which (hopefully) leaves the dirt behind in its clear collecting cylinder. The mains lead is shorter than either the Dyson or the Hoover; so it has to be re-plugged both upstairs and downstairs in our house, which is a bit of a pain. The hose is shorter than the Hoover – about the same as the Dyson. I suspect the reason no measurement is given is that there are actually two pieces of flexible hose involved, one rigid pipe and then either a crevice tool or a brush to go on the end. Which – after all this assembly work – only covers ten of the twelve steps of our staircase.

I’ve no idea of durability, but this machine doesn’t feel as solid as the Hoover and Dyson. My experience of vacuum cleaners is that they have a few weak spots where thin plastic breaks, and it doesn’t really matter how tough the bigger panels are. This might be thinner / lighter, but as long as it’s tough in the right places, less weight is an advantage in carrying it up and down stairs. It’s also worth remembering that at £45 it was about 25% of the cost of the Dyson and half the price of the Hoover. I wish I’d mended the Hoover instead though, because I knew exactly what to expect of that – bags and all.

Sorry I cannot comment on durability, but by the time I can they'll probably have stopped making these! I have given it 3 stars as I cannot comment on many of these service features.