Making vacuuming less sucky – or not. The Gtech AirRAM review

When I look at it through the eyes of a child, I can see how vacuuming is amazing.

There is a machine, that you press a button on, and magically it just sucks things up! It’s no wonder that the Wee Man loves it!

Sadly for me my vacuuming fascination wore off long ago, and these days I generally view it as just one more chore on a long list of things I’d better do but really have no inclination too. Particularly since vacuuming is a chore that has several pitfalls for me of the physical kind too – pushing around a heavy machine isn’t great for back pain and the trailing wires are just asking to be tripped over.

The Gtech AirRAM however has changed things a bit.

Firstly, it is light. Much lighter than my usual vacuum of the plug in variety, and therefore much more portable and far easier to push.

It’s also a lot smaller to store, given that the top part of the handle can be removed, and the bottom is very slimline.

And, thankfully for my unco-ordinated feet, it is wireless.

Well, most of the time anyway. I do have to plug it in to charge it up (and the little green lights n the front of it flash to show that it is actually charging) but then once the battery is ready I unplug it and away we go. Charging takes about four hours, and once the battery is charged I was told it will vacuum for around 35 minutes – which should be long enough for even a larger house.
I have this a try, and the battery lasted about 31 minutes – so pretty close.

It can’t be used while the battery is actually charging which is a a little bit annoying – it would be good to have the option. But in reality usually I am very unlikely to usually want to do more than 30 minutes vacuuming in one go so it’s not a huge problem.

It’s also possible to charge the battery when it’s not inside the vacuum unit – although then there is no indication of whether it is actually charging or not. This I found out to my peril when I charged the battery overnight, popped it back in the vacuum, pressed the switch and…nothing happened!

It turned out I had a faulty battery (these things do happen with electrical things sometimes, and it doesn’t seem like a common issue with AirRAM’s from what I’ve heard, but what I will say is that if something DOES happen to go wrong with your Gtech then the customer service is fantastic!

I called them, they were polite and helpful, and the next working day a new battery arrived at my door already fully charged and good to go.

So off I went, again.

I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of performance as in terms of wattage it’s not as powerful as our usual 2000W vacuum, but in fact the difference is not really noticeable. On carpet, it picked up pretty much the same amount of dirt, fluff and debris. On tiles and laminate, perhaps even a little more! And emptying it is remarkably easy too – I just release the bit from the top of the base, open the cover, and tip it in the bin. Then it slots right back in.

The AirRAM doesn’t have connectors like many other vacuums which allow access to edging, tight corners, the underneath of corners and cobwebby ceilings, and that is a bit of a shame. It IS lightweight but not so much that I’ll be waving it around above my head trying to evict the spiders. But saying that, it does work on edges pretty well if you turn it sideways, as the sleek design and powerful suction means that it can pick things up right to the sides of the base unit with ease. It also works well on stairs for the same reason, and it’s actually a much quicker method than my usual handheld vacuum hose attachment thing.

And of course, if you care about such things which I do, it’s far more energy efficient. In fact, it comes with a means to actually know exactly how much energy you’re using, because you can plug the battery unit into your computer via a USB connection, and see exactly how much energy you’ve used, and how much vacuuming you’ve done. That’s definitely not something my usual vacuum cleaner can tell me!

I fact, I say ‘my usual vacuum cleaner’ but I’m afraid to say that that particular machine is now languishing in a cupboard. The AirRAM now pretty much IS my usual vacuum!

An the best thing about it? It’s lightweight enough for the Wee Man to use too! And since he’s still in that ‘vacuuming is amazing stage’ I’m very happy to let him indulge himself – hooray for the AimRAM!