Karcher VC6 Cordless

Light and easy to use, the Karcher VC6 Cordless is a nice vacuum cleaner to use. It’s quite expensive, considering the lack of tools and, in my tests, it didn’t clean as effectively as much of the competition. At this price, there are better alternatives.

Introduction

Better known for its range of wet and dry plug-in vacuum cleaners, the Karcher VC6 Cordless is the company’s brand-new general-purpose cordless vacuum cleaner.

It’s lightweight, super easy to use and has removable batteries. Overall power lags behind the competition a little and, at this price, there are better choices.

Design and features

• Huge Boost button
• Removable batteries
• Light and easy to hold

You can tell a Karcher product from its bright-yellow finish, and the VC6 is no different. Bold and colourful, this is a cordless vacuum cleaner that stands out from the crowd.

It’s a nicely designed vacuum cleaner, too. Although there’s a trigger to operate the vacuum, there’s also a switch to keep the power permanently on. That’s a handy combination: trigger for smaller jobs and permanent power for those bigger jobs.

For when you need more power, there’s a massive Boost button at the back. Tap this once to turn the mode on and tap again to turn it off.

Around the trigger is a finger guard, making the VC6 pleasant to hold and easy to direct. In fact, this is one of the most comfortable cordless vacuum cleaners that I’ve used.

In addition, it’s also one of the lightest at just 2.6kg. That makes this cordless cleaner easy to shift around or even clean up high around ceilings.

The battery is removable on this vacuum cleaner, so you can easily swap it out should you find that it’s not holding its charge as well in the future.

Regular charging is via the wall-mounted dock. This works in a similar way to the dock provided with the Dyson V15 Detect: drop the vacuum cleaner into place, and it starts to charge automatically. Neatly, the dock also has space to hold the accessories, although there’s no accessory clip for the vacuum cleaner’s wand to carry them around with you.

In the box, Karcher provides a floor head, a dusting brush and a crevice tool. That’s the minimum I’d expect to get, but it feels a bit mean considering the price of this vacuum cleaner. I’d like to see a mini motorised tool or upholstery brush. Optionally, you can buy a car accessory kit and a soft brush.

The floor head isn’t an anti-tangle model, so you’ll have to cut hair away from it from time to time.

It does have a set of LEDs on the front, which help it light up the area you’re cleaning. I found this particularly useful for cleaning under furniture, as I could see what I was doing.

The 0.8-litre bin is a good size for a cordless cleaner. It can’t be removed from the vacuum cleaner, but the bottom flips open for easy emptying, and the filters can be fully removed for easy cleaning underwater.

Karcher does sell a filter cleaning tool (£28.99): you put the filter into the tool and attach this to the vacuum cleaner, insert a new filter into the vacuum and then use suction power to remove dirt.

Performance

• Struggles a little on normal power
• Works well on pet hair
• Cleans well on hard floors

I started by measuring the Karcher VC6 Cordless’ raw power in AirWatts, which is a combination of suction power and airflow. On its standard power setting, I measured 35AW, and on high power 173AW, which is very similar to that of the Shark ICZ300UKT, although a chunk behind the Beko VRT95929VI. 

Raw power is one thing, but cordless vacuum cleaners need quality heads to agitate dirt to allow for pick-up. Here, I was left a bit underwhelmed. With my carpet test, I sprinkled a teaspoon of flour onto the floor; then I gave the VC6 a pass through the mess forwards and backwards. After one go, there was still quite a trace of dirt left behind. 

Upping the power to the Boost setting and tackling the bottom of the mess gave better results.

Next, I moved to the hard edge test, sprinkling flour up to the skirting board. On standard power, the result wasn’t very good, and there was a lot of mess left behind.

Using Boost picked up most of the mess, although there was a trace of dust left right by the edge of the room that I needed to use the crevice tool to remove.

Combing cat hair into my test carpet, I found that the Karcher VC 6 could easily remove it on its standard power setting.

Finally, I went to the hard floor test, sprinkling a teaspoon of rice onto the floor. A single pass through on standard power was enough to remove the mess without any grains dropping back out onto the floor.

Battery life is around 50 minutes on standard power, although this drops when on Boost. Given that, in my tests, the Karcher VC6 needed multiple sweeps to clean an area on its standard-setting, a single charge wouldn’t go as far as on the Shark ICZ300UKT. 

Measuring the Karcher VC6 Cordless at 64.4dB on standard power and 68.1dB on Boost, this is one of the quieter vacuum cleaners that I’ve tested.

Latest deals