Independent buying guides
For UK homes with a mix of carpet and hard floor, choosing between a cordless stick and a robot. One buying question per guide, dated sourced figures, and a running-cost calculator that shows its formula.
Each guide answers one buying question and shows the figures behind the answer.
How to choose
The UK ecodesign rules set a dust pick-up floor for corded mains vacuums only. Battery and robot machines are excluded, which changes how you choose between them.
Photo: Jirka Matousek from Brussels Taipei Hong Kong Singapore Prague Shenzhen · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Budget and prices
What a vacuum costs to run at 26.32p per kWh: the 43 kWh ecodesign ceiling, robot dock standby, and why filters and brushes cost more than the electricity does.
Photo: ajay_suresh · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Setting up
Setting up a robot vacuum: dock clearance, thresholds and cables, a schedule that suits the house, filter intervals, recall checks and end-of-life takeback.
Photo: Dennis van Zuijlekom from Ermelo, The Netherlands · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The decisions that actually change what you end up with.
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Photo: 池田正樹 - Masaki Ikeda · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Like-for-like comparisons on the specifications that matter.
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Photo: ajay_suresh · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
What the total comes to once everything is counted.
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Photo: TiHa · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Getting it working properly the first time.
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Photo: Jirka Matousek from Brussels Taipei Hong Kong Singapore Prague Shenzhen · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
What the numbers mean in day-to-day use.
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Photo: Chico1996 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The expensive errors that are easy to avoid.
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Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Each calculator shows its formula, units and assumptions. Nothing is estimated for you in secret.
What a cross-border order really costs once shipping, duty and tax are added.
landed cost = (item price + shipping) + duty + tax, where duty = item price x duty rate, and tax = (item price + shipping + duty) x tax rate
Spreads purchase price, consumables and repairs over the years you expect to keep it.
cost per year = (purchase price - expected resale value + consumables per year x years + expected repairs) / years
Annual electricity cost from rated power, hours of use and your own tariff.
annual cost = power (W) / 1000 x hours per day x days per year x price per kWh, plus standby power (W) / 1000 x standby hours x days x price per kWh
Every figure in a guide is taken from a named source, with the date it was checked. Where a number is an assumption or an example, it says so in the same sentence.
We do not run paid product tests, we do not publish reader reviews, and we do not claim to have handled every product mentioned. Where a claim needs a lab or a long-term test we do not have, the guide says that plainly.
Photographs are free-licence images from Wikimedia Commons or Openverse, credited to the photographer with the licence named. Charts are drawn from the figures printed in the same guide.
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