Vax Arrow Review

The Vax Arrow is arguably the most boring of all of the Vax cordless vacuums.  What you see is what you get.  There are no additional tools, and the cordless vacuum is light and fairly durable. Certainly not suitable for homes that need thorough cleans, but probably quite useful for smaller homes or apartments, or even larger properties that need a light clean more frequently.

Unfortunately the power on the Arrow isn't as good as other models from Vax.  The suction just isn't as good as what we found on the other models, and at the end of the day suction is one of the most important factors when using a vacuum. That said, the Arrow did fair relatively well in many of our tests.  

On hard floors is performed well.  High pile carpets were far more troublesome for the Arrow, but it coped OK with light debris in short and medium pile carpets.

There are very few features with the Arrow, it's a what-you-see-is-what-you-get vacuum.  It's a cordless upright, with a good battery life and lightweight chassis.  There are no additional tools available and I wouldn't recommend this cordless if you have pets that shed hair on your carpets.

The design of the Arrow is clearly done to keep the vacuum light and nimble.  We'll come onto the weight of the vacuum shortly, but it is one of the best features of the Arrow.  We were also fans of the neck of the Arrow, which pivots very well in order to navigate around the home.

At under 3kg the Vax Arrow is one of the lightest cordless vacuum cleaners on the market.  To put that into a bit of a comparison, a standard Dyson Animal upright corded vacuum cleaner is around the 8-9kg mark. Because of the light weight the Arrow can be manipulated very easily.  No struggling up the stairs, just pick it up and go.  The only downside is the shape of the vacuum.  

Other cordless vacuum manufacturers have opted for a totally new design, where the motor is at the top of the vacuum at the handle end.  This new design means the weight is distributed to nearly entirely to the person holding the vacuum - the total opposite to a traditional upright.  

Designing the vacuum in this way means that the head of the vacuum can be pointed at the ceiling and corners far easier than traditional uprights.  Two vacuums that are designed in this manner are the Vax Blade cordless vacuum and the Dyson V8, both of which we have reviewed. The Arrow doesn't benefit from this design, so even though it's very light it isn't quite as useful as a more non-traditional design.

Another great advantage of the Vax Arrow is the battery life. With a massive 45 minutes in a single charge, the Arrow certainly does hold up well. The charge time is 4 hours, which is also quite a good time, especially when you consider the 45 min run time. One thing Vax claim is that the power will remain consistent all the way to 0% battery, which is one thing that many cordless vacuums don't do.  

It's actually a very important feature that you should ensure your cordless vacuum has, as if power starts to fade you may as well stop using and recharge.  We put this to the test and hats off to Vax we didn't see a power change until around 47 minutes in, which is beyond the 45 minute claimed time.