Morphy Richards Performair 1900w Bagless Pets Cylinder Review (71061)

My old vacuum cleaner (a cheapish Electrolux 1600w bagless thing) just wasn't cutting it anymore. The small filter in it clogged up quite easily - causing it to loose suction reasonably quickly.

I decided to buy a new one, and spend some time searching. The first and obvious choice is of course the Dyson. I looked at the DC08 - however there were mixed reviews (ranging from fantastic to awful, most complains appeared to be about support or build quality, not functionality). However, the main factor for me not buying one was the price, I wanted a 'turbo/turbine' brush (spinning brushes) and to get this on the DC08 it was quite an expensive model. So.. I looked for alternatives.

I eventually found the Morphy Richards Performair 1900w Bagless Pets Cylinder on amazon. Reviews for this that I could fine were good, as is the price. Amazon took too long to deliver it to me, firstly quoting a 1-2 weeks wait, and at the end of 2 weeks emailed to say it would be another 2 weeks, so instead I got it from argos for the same price.

On opening the box, I was confused as to why there were 2 hoses. Turns out one of the hoses is designed for cleaning stairs, it's super stretchy - a really good idea. It also comes with 3 main heads - 1 large turbo head, 1 small, and 1 large standard head. The turbo heads have spinning brushes that apparently help remove pet hair from the carpet, however I found the standard head worked better for me.

It comes with 2 filters - which can be washes under warm water to clean. This means you should never need to buy new filters , they have a lifetime warranty. On top of that, as you can see in the photo (click to enlarge) there's a yellow circular bit you can turn that effectively shakes the filter removing any dust from it. You can also see a tiny little brush in the picture if you look close enough, I guess that's for cleaning the filter. The dust bin is huge (3.8 liters) which is great. Emptying the canister is very simple, remove it from the unit, take it to be bin and press a button which opens the bottom of the canister and everything calls out - couldn't be easier. Another nice feature is that the cleaner comes with little smelly tablet type things, which you drop into the canister after you empty it, so that whilst you're cleaning the cleaner emits a lemon smell, apparently good for eliminating the pet smell in your house.

The vacuum cleaner is 1900watts, so it really does have great sucking power, it had no problem sucking up a sock of mine. There's a built in tool compartment to hold the smaller tools. The metal pole is telescopic, halving it's length for storage. The cable has a bit of yellow table at the end of it to warn you're nearing it's maximum length, and a bit of red tape to tell you it's fully extended.

Overall, I'm really pleased with it, I've actually not found fault in it yet. If I do, I'll be sure to update this page.