Anyone bought a portable vacuum?

Yes I have, I purchased a G Tech and I also have a Dyson and I am very pleased with both of them. The one thing I now use everyday is the old fashioned Bissel carpet sweeper, it is fantastic. I hardly ever use the vacuums now.

I bought one recently and it does as good a job as my old faithful Dyson. I bought a Bosch which works as both a cordless upright cleaner and as a small handheld unit which just lifts off the main unit. It is quiet and has a light to show up dirt. I don't have dogs so can't comment on performance with dog hair but it does a good job with human hair. My only dislike is that it needs to be emptied frequently but that is easy and worth it for the benefits of having a lightweight and adaptable cleaner.

I've got a Shark and it's great, especially for the stairs and the car. I had a Dyson previously but I prefer the Shark. It's a little bit heavier but emptying it is less fiddly.

For years, I had a Silvercrest from Lidl, it was brilliant, but eventually gave up the ghost.
I recently replaced it with a Black and Decker, it is not half as efficient.

My daughter has a Shark - but says it's heavy. My son has a Dyson (think it's called Animal ??) and wishes he had bought a Shark.

I'm looking for something lighter and have read good things about the Halo Capsule ones and also the Henry one.
The "big names" are too expensive for what I want but both of these need some sort of bag...
I went to a store to try a few for weight distribution but they had so few on display it was a wasted trip.

Someone on here recommended a very cheap one for behind our "old school type" radiators which I'm still looking at...

I bought a cheap one from Aldi to see if I liked it. That was probably 3 or 4 years ago. It is so much easier than the plug in vacuums, lighter and more flexible. Like others have said, you can turn it into a hand held at the lick of a switch. I think mine was about £50 - I never expected it to last this long!

I'm sure a more powerful one would be needed in a home with animals, but as an overall concept I think they're great.

well, you can actually turn it into a hand held at the FLICK of a switch - I didn't mean to suggest you licked it

I bought a Dyson six years ago. It has worked well but the battery is starting to go. It needs charging sooner. Admittedly I live in a bungalow, but I can hoover the entire place very quickly. I wouldn't buy a Dyson again but that's for ethical reasons

I have a Dyson but DH chose it and I don’t like it. It spits out any small pieces of grit it comes across and is not that good at picking up other stuff. It’s hopeless for the car. Better off with a brush and pan. DD has a Shark and is very pleased with it, and my niece has a G Tech and is equally pleased with it.

I've had several Dyson and just replaced with Shark. I think that the Shark is better, but possibly a bit heavier. With the Dyson you have to wash and frequently wash and change the filter which ends up being expensive. The Shark has a metal filter which just needs washing monthly. Overall they are better than having to lug a heavy vacuum.

I have a Dyson, too - the Animal one. It works great, is light weight, fun to use (yes, really!), is easy for me to vacuum the car or our RV since it has no cord, but is a bit fiddly, as someone mentioned. My DS bought a cheap copy and it works just as well. I guess you don't have to buy name brands since they are all being reverse-engineered and built by other countries for lower prices. Sharks are very good now, I have heard. I think the sucking power is the most important aspect of a vacuum. I do like Oreck a lot too.

If I were to buy one today, I would buy the Halo Capsule for Pet hair. It seems to be the very best and they give you a 30-day try, I think.

Started with a cheap one and then bought a Vax. I keep it and use it upstairs to stop hving to lug my bigger better traditional Bosch machine up and down.

For light use cleaning - like bedrooms/bathrooms it is excellent, but downstairs i find the traditional machine better.

The other advantage of the stick cleaner is that the working part can be detached from the column and use for car cleaning and similar. i would think that in 'hairdryer' mode, as we call it, it would be good on stairs, but our stairs ar uncarpetted and I just dust them down with a feather duster.

I've got a Hoover Cyclonic which looks like a coffee pot. It was recommended by several GNs at the start of the pandemic and I bought it then, so it's 4 years old. I've been very pleased with it.... excellent for the stairs or for a small spill and copes well with cat hair.

I have a reconditioned Dyson, my DD gave it to me when I was struggling with my heavy corded Dyson. I wouldn’t pay full price for one but it is so easy. Vacuuming is no longer an exhausting chore!

I have the GTech handheld one, it’s excellent. I bought it for the stairs but also use it for the car and spot cleaning spills etc

I don’t have a portable, but when we had both dog and cat I found that quickly wiping the carpeted stairs with a damp cloth before vacuuming, was a v good way to collect the hair into easily sucked-up clumps.

I use a G Tech Air Ram stick vacuum, and got a hand held one for the stairs. It is so much easier than lugging a large one around, and as it is a separate item there is no need to convert one to the other. I've found the 'easy' conversions to be anything but . the charge lasts ages, and it has decent suction (although we don't currently have pets).

Dyson vacuums are efficient, good for pet hair.

I have a Vax too - rechargeable and not too expensive

My daughter in law's sister has two large dogs and two smaller boys and swears by the Henry cordless.

Yes, I have a Shark and I find it very efficient - probably has more suction than my other vacuum cleaner which I can no longer manage.

If you have hard flooring I can also recommend Eufy, the robot vacuum! It doesn't take ALL my dog hair up, I have 2 dogs that shed a lot, but the bits it can't manage get mangled into a clump which I can then get with my hand held Shark.

Thanks everyone I chose a shark pet hair hand held one from Argos

sazz1

Thanks everyone I chose a shark pet hair hand held one from Argos

Sounds a good choice given the comments here. Hope you enjoy your new purchase.