Vacuum cleaner on the brink?
There's no need to panic about how much it's going to cost to replace or upgrade your house-cleaning essential right before the busy (and expensive) festive period - not with the Black Friday sales now here.
Yes, the year's biggest discount bonanza has arrived. If you're watching the pennies, then this weekend is the time to tick off everything on your shopping list, from Christmas gifts and decorations to home essentials like household appliances, new furniture, laptops and, of course, vacuum cleaners.
From major players like Shark and Dyson, and futuristic robot devices that will do the hard graft for you, the market is packed with vacuum cleaners to consider (hot tip: get one with a mop feature to do two jobs at once). With brands slashing prices like there’s no tomorrow, it would be rude not to invest in a discounted model to ensure your home is as clean as can be, avoiding salty comments from Christmas visitors.
Before we show you what's on offer, some Black Friday housekeeping first.
What vacuum cleaner deals are there?
Brands like Shark, Dyson, Henry Hoover, VAX, Miele and more have slashed their prices this Black Friday and Cyber Weekend - some up to 50 per cent. See the best of the deals below.
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Best Robot Vacuum Black Friday Deals
eufy L60 Robot Vacuum Cleaner
It's about time those robots started earning their keep. Robot vacs, once the future, are now here, ready and waiting to clean your floors with just a few simple commands. It uses laser navigation and edge cleaning to leave hard floors and carpets spick and span.
Buy now £159.99, Amazon
Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro 2-in-1 Self-Empty, Self-Refill & Self-Clean Robot Vacuum & Mop
Shark’s vacuums are some of the best out there. This robot, in particular, is one of the most advanced on the market. It self-empties debris in the docking station, self-refills with water after mopping and even self-cleans the mopping pad. You’ll never have to lift a finger.
Was: £799.99
Buy now £549.99, Currys
Samsung Jet Bot+ Robot Vacuum Cleaner
Samsung’s appliances never disappoint – robot vacuums, included. This time, it’s the Jet Bot, which features powerful suction, a self-empty station and in-built floor recognition for carpets and hard floors. Get it while it’s £300 off.
Was: £700
Buy now £399.00, Samsung
Kärcher RCV 5
While you’ll need to fiddle around with this device to connect it to the internet, and set up maps and program schedules, once it’s up and running, it will make the chore of cleaning a breeze. It charges up in 230 minutes and then has two hours of run time. Not content with just scooping up dirt and grime, there’s a 240ml water tank tool for the mop function to take elbow crease out of your regular clean-up jobs.
One thing to note is that the charging base needs to be plugged into a socket that has 50cm on either side and 1.5m in front of it that is completely clear - but other than this potential issue with space and the need for WiFi connection and downloading the app, it’s intuitive with a dual laser system that prevents it bumping into obstacles. It can navigate around and sense where there are stairs or items as small and flat as cables.
The slimline design makes it ideal for reaching under furniture like sofas and beds.
Was: £549
Buy now £399.00, Currys
Roborock S8 Robot Vacuum Cleaner with Dual Brush
The robot offers superior levels of suction and can detect different types of terrain, moving from hard floors to rugs and carpets seamlessly. It's an excellent choice for homes with pets, able to collect dust, bacteria and hair without tangling thanks to a movable solid rubber brush.
Laser detection and cameras stop it from bumping into furniture, even if you schedule a clean in low light conditions. Like all robot vacuums, it can be controlled via an app but also by voice command too, offering the ultimate convenience. And it comes with a removable and washable mop too!
While the mop is removable, you don't need to manually insert the tank each time you want to mop. Leave it in the machine and it will automatically detect if the surface needs mopping (hard floors) and will hover if it finds carpet and rugs. You can leave it to get on with the task at hand without switching between the mop and vacuum functions.
Phew, consider that all bases well and truly covered.
Was: £499
Buy now £299.00, Amazon
Best vacuum deals for Black Friday
NUMATIC Henry Xtra HVX200 Cylinder Vacuum Cleaner - Red
Best for: large capacity, dust-free emptying
This is a souped-up version of the familiar, much loved Henry vacuum. The Xtra promises to collect even more stubborn dirt and hairs from both hard and soft floor surfaces. It also has a massive nine litre capacity.
If you are worried about allergens, the Henry Xtra has a two-stage filtration system, trapping the dirt inside a large capacity HepaFlo bag, which is easy to empty with a self-seal tab that traps the dust inside the bag. This does give it the edge over bagless models, as you don’t get that classic cloud of dust when emptying, nor the ick of having to stick your hand inside to pull out the dust and hair.
The main cleaning head can be used for hard floors with the brushes down and carpets with them up. It comes with extra tools to make light work of cleaning, including the AiroBrush that helps remove ground-down dirt from your carpets, lifting dust, dirt and hairs from deep in the carpet fibres and also a specialist hard floor tool that is designed to give good suction power on floorboards, laminate surfaces and tiled floors in kitchens and bathrooms.
It has, of course, both crevice and dusting tools for hard-to-reach places and the upholstery tool can not only be used for your sofas but also for stairs and your car, too. The nozzle is ideal for vacuuming dead skin cells from your mattress - just don’t look in the bag afterwards!
Henry is not tiny, so be sure you have a cupboard or cabinet for storage (tools can be stored on board) and it’s pretty heavy so make sure you’re happy lifting 8kg.
On the plus side, the cable is a really decent 10 metres long and as mentioned, the capacity is huge – over double some of the other models we tested.
Was: £180
Buy now £130.00, Argos
GTech HyLite 2 Lightweight Cordless Vacuum
Weight: 1.5kg
If you’ve got one tiny cupboard to store all of your household appliances, then you’ll love this clever vacuum. The biggest selling point of this cleaner is that it’s small enough to fit in a drawer when broken down. The telescopic handle opens so it can stand in upright mode, then pop the pieces apart and store them away when not in use. Plus it’s one of the lightest vacuums on our list, at 1.5kg, this slick little dustbuster will breeze through your home with ease.
To get started, let the rotating brush bar do all the hard work, simply push the vacuum forward to suck up crumbs and debris, and pull back to gather any embedded dust in the carpet. After 20 minutes of runtime, the lithium battery will need to be recharged, but a handy LED indicator will remind you when the charge is running low.
This vacuum uses a bag which will need to be replaced and emptied, so if you prefer a bagless vacuum with a dust bin then this might not suit you. If replacing a bag doesn’t phase you, then this is a light and efficient little machine that’s ideal for those with limited storage space.
Was: £149.99
Buy now £74.99, Amazon
Vax Blade 4 Pet and Car Cordless Vacuum Cleaner
Pet hair has an irritating way of working itself over all surfaces, from the sofa to the car. Get your home and motor looking clean again thanks to VAX Blade which uses powerful suction to scoop up dirt, hair and other grime. It's now 45 per cent off the RRP.
Buy now £155.00, Amazon
Shark Stratos Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner with Anti Hair Wrap Plus
The Shark Stratos Anti Hair Wrap Plus Pet Pro Cordless Vacuum [IZ420UKT] box makes big promises, not least a cleaning time of up to 120 mins (that’s if you buy the version with the spare battery and use the vacuum only in eco mode).
There’s also DuoClean – Shark’s integrated system which features two brush rolls in one head (one soft, one bristled) and anti-odour technology. The detail of some added flexibility in a stick vacuum is an exciting notion for a cleaner as reluctant as myself, as well as the pledge that this has Shark’s “best ever hair pick-up”.
Was: £349.99
Buy now £179.10, Amazon
The Capsule Vacuum Original bundle
Save more than £160 on the price of this Capsule vacuum cleaning bundle which comes with upgraded accessories to clean large spaces and awkward spots The cleaner features a powerful 70W motor brush head complete with a set of headlights so you don’t miss a single speck. Sold with a two-year warranty.
Was: £332.97
Buy now £169.99, Capsule
MIELE Complete C3 Active Cylinder Bagged Vacuum Cleaner - Petrol Blue
With incredible suction powered by 890W, Miele’s C3 makes light work of housework. It comes with a HEPA filter to capture 99.9 per cent of fine dust and allergens that become airborne when cleaning and comes with a range of nozzle attachments to see to practically any job.
That said, the hardworking floorhead works across most surfaces although there is a special one to use on parquet flooring. Instead of on the vacuum’s body, the control buttons sit in the handle, making it easier to switch between programmes.
And when it comes to programmes, this baby is loaded with everything from soft furnishings and curtains to rugs and hard floors with an additional silence option for cleaning quietly.
Was: £349
Buy now £249.00, Currys
Tower VL60 Nimblevac
Best for: Budget brushless
Costing a penny under one hundred pounds, the VL60 features a nicely capacious 750-litre, bagless dust tank that’s nice and easy to empty, and features two power settings, the first for everyday mess removal and the second, beefed-up for more ingrained floor filth. It also, perhaps surprising for the low price, features anti-tangle technology – an absolute boon for those with shedding pets/housemates/spouses with long hair.
It also comes boosting a brushless motor, something which offers higher electrical efficiency and greater torque-to-weight ratio than “brushed” alternatives, which all sounds a bit Top Gear, but the upshot is that the VL60 can achieve more with less and also enjoy a longer working life, so it’s a win-win-win.
Running up to 35 minutes on a full charge and the lower power setting, a stainless steel HEPA filter captures and contains 99.97 per cent of particulates down to 0.3 microns in size, keeping allergens out of your air.
Light too at 2.3kg, the Tower VL60 comes complete with a wall mount, brush tool for furniture and a crevice tool for, well, tooling your crevices, obviously.
Was: £100
Buy now £75.00, Argos
Henry Quick!
Best for: Facing floor filth with full-confidence
You’ve got to love a Henry. I mean, it has a face, so it’s the law. Famed for being short, squat, smiley-faced trundle-arounds that are often the vac of choice of professional cleaners in offices up and down the country, the latest iteration of Henry has seen him go cordless and transform from a short, squat, smiley-faced floor-sorter caterpillar into a tall, slim, buff butterfly.
This is the Henry Quick!, available in red, white, grey or pet-hair-specialising blue, the smiling face is still in place, but now this powerful cord-free cleaner supplies superior suction, dust compaction to make full use of the cavernous 1-litre capacity quick-release pods inside, each featuring multi-layer filtration and a Dust-lock Seal, to ensure not a spec spills out.
Alongside the expected On and Off button, upfront you’ll also find a Power Boost button for when dirt has been well and truly ground underfoot deep into your loop pile, plus a Power Brush button for truly targeting the stubborn stuff.
Offering an epic run time of up to 60 minutes, the Quick! also charges at a hyper-rate, going from 0-100 per cent in just 150 minutes and, the cherry on the icing on the cleaning cake, Scent Capsules are available to pop in the top to leave your house smelling fresh, even if, after 60 minutes of intense vacuuming, you do not.
Adding extra convenience, a 2-in-1 Combi Tool swaps in for sweeping up on higher surfaces, a Crevice Tool helps you reach those otherwise inaccessible nooks and crannies, and a very handy LED headlight ensures you never miss a bit.
Add in an easy clean brush bar and a wall dock with accessory storage built-in, and the lean, mean Henry Quick!, currently on offer down from £300 to £200, turns tedious toil into something to, ahem, smile about.
Was: £299.99
Buy now £199.99, Amazon
Dyson Gen5 Detect Absolute
Save hundreds on Dyson's Gen5 Detect model, which is in the brand's Black Friday sale this year. The powerful cordless vacuum comes with a suite of accessories so you can access every nook and cranny. It also boasts an incredible run time with up to 70 minutes of run time from a single full charge.
Was: £749.99
Buy now £569.99, Dyson
NUMATIC Henry HVR160 Cylinder Vacuum Cleaner
The most friendly-looking vacuum cleaner on the market, Henry is a fixture in homes across the country and for more reasons than its smiling face. The cylinder vacuum cleaner packs a serious punch with suction power, the AiroBrush turbo head and a specialised filtration system.
Was: £159
Buy now £119.00, Currys
When is Black Friday?
It always takes place on the very last Friday in November. This year Black Friday officially began on November 29.
When does Black Friday end?
The event isn't limited to just a single day, though it may have started out like that many decades ago. Now you can expect discounts to run all the way until Cyber Monday on December 2.
Why is it called Black Friday?
The catchy moniker has many origins, but we like the one that relates to leaving your finances in the black, not the red. It underscores the heavy savings there for the taking.
