GEAR TEST

NOVEMBER 2015 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com 59

After struggling with a bulky, mains-

powered vacuum cleaner on board,

Duncan Kent checks out handheld

vacuum cleaners to see how they perform

Compact

vacuum

cleaners

Should I

choose

wet & dry?

There are not

many small,

portable vacuum

cleaners available

that can suck up

wet dirt, so options

for the yachtsman

are limited. Some

can survive damp

dirt okay, but very

few have the ability

to ingest neat water

without grinding to a halt. In my

search I found just two – the AEG

Rapido and the Waeco PowerVac

• the latter being the only one
  with real liquid capacity.
  For this reason I also focused
  on fi nding ones that are powerful
  enough to suck dirt out of the
  sort of tiny crevices you’re likely

PHOTO: DUNCAN KENT

PHOTOS: COLIN WORK UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED

to fi nd on a cruising yacht, but

without necessarily the ability to

ingest water.

What accessories

to look for?

Most models have a crevice

attachment, although usually

they’re not very long and if they

are designed to plug into the end

of the device they’re not easy to

manoeuvre into small lockers.

The ones with fl exible hose

extensions are by far the

best for this.

Some come with

wide carpet nozzles,

which, though they are

useful for big spillages,

reduce the suction power overall.

Nozzles with brushes are good for

upholstery, but they tend to push

dirt away when you’re vacuuming

up spills of larger debris, so it’s

good if they can be detached

when needed.

Finally, if you can clip or garage

the accessories into the cleaner

itself, rather than having to stow

them separately, you’re far less

likely to lose them.

Clearing up after a cereal spill is easy with a handheld vacuum cleaner

I

t’s amazing how

much dust

gathers on my

yacht. I drag

my bulky, mains-

powered cylinder

model down the

companionway steps

• putting a large dent
  in the chart table edge
  trim on the way –
  vacuum the boat, pack
  it up and take chunks
  out of companionway,
  turn around and there’s
  a bit I missed. The next week the
  dust was back again and I stupidly
  forgot about the leaky stanchion
  base and sucked up a half-litre or
  so of rainwater into the machine,
  which did it no end of good. After
  that I decided to check out which
  of the cordless or 12V models
  might be suitable for boat use.

Only the PowerVac

had a decent liquid

sucking capacity

We fi rst charged each

cleaner for 24 hours to

ensure they started fully

charged, then we spread

100g of muesli over a 1sqm

area of carpeted fl oor and

timed how long it took to

clean it all up on full power.

Then we poured the

muesli into a piece of

packaging with several deep crevices to test out

the crevice tools.

Finally we emptied the cleaners and removed

the fi lters to clean them.

How we tested them

We replicated a

boat’s hard-to-

get-to areas with

some packaging

Vacuuming up muesli was a

suffi ciently strenuous test

They come with various

accessories for different

tasks, but some come

with more than others

PHOTO: DUNCAN KENT