Vorwerk Kobold VB100 Cordless Vacuum Cleaner Review

Big fans of Vorwerk here at TechNuovo, we were hugely impressed when we recently checked out the Thermomix TM6 but that’s not the only product they have on offer. In fact, they’re more into the cleaning business than the kitchen appliances, as they have a number of vacuum cleaners on sale. One of which, the Kobold VR300, we tried out last year and I remember it being a good quality cleaner, although from memory, the dirt container was somewhat small. Enough of that, we’ve now been sent the VB100, which is a cordless vacuum cleaner (non robotic), suitable for both hard and soft floorings, and retails at a cool £749. That’s alot of money, £150 more than the top Dyson V11 so let’s see if it’s worth it.

Tech Spec:
– Weight = 3.3kg
– Dimensions = shaft: 100 cm x 11 cm x 11 cm + head: 25 cm x 31 cm x 7 cm
– Filter bags 0.8L
– Maintenance-free BLDC motor fan, approx. 85,000 rpm
– Power consumption upto 230watts
– Max. negative pressure = 88 hPa
– Charge time 3 hours (life: 80% after approx. 520 full cycles)

Unboxing

Within the box, you get the cleaner itself in two parts, the shaft and the head we will call them, a pre installed battery and filter bag, floor nozzle, charging cable and instructions. You get 5 filter bags included and you can purchase another 5 pack for £18 from the Vorwerk website.

Overall the cleaner is very lightweight at just 3.3kg, it’s easy to lift and manoeuvre. It’s also relatively compact and should be easy to store within a cupboard, although there is no wall bracket to hang the cleaner if that’s your thing. It looks smart as well, sleek lines, white finish, not too many buttons and zero attachments stuck to the outside. It stands on its own but it’s a little wobbly and will fall over if knocked. It’s also doesnt stand perfectly straight when upright, which didnt help my OCD.

Set up was very easy, you just need to clip the shaft into the head and leave it to charge for three hours. There are six rows of green lights (3 pairs) on the cleaner, which indicate battery level and will also turn off when fully charged. The battery and filter bag come pre-installed.

It’s worth reading the instructions prior to use, it lists out which type of floors the cleaner is suitable on i.e it’s not suitable on a porous/delicate natural stone but it’s fine on a marble or granite.

Performance

It’s very simple to use the VB100, with only three buttons to choose from. The big green button at the top of the handle turns the cleaner on and off, with the one underneath it setting the suction power level. One white LED on the handle has a soft suction, two for medium and three for maximum suction. The default setting when turning the cleaner on each time is medium. The third button is located on the head and is large enough to be tapped with your foot. This button selects the mode for the electric brush. One LED light (default) is normal mode, two lights is turbo mode, no lights means the brush is turned off (best for deep-file carpets) and if both lights flash red, the brushes are blocked.

For context, I used this cleaner in a standard four-bedroom house, with carpets upstairs, wood flooring downstairs, have two cats (they shed a fair amount of hair) and I did my usual weekly full house vacuum clean.

Charge time was around 3 hours and Vorwerk state a running time of between 12 and 80 minutes. In reality, It’s hard to distinguish the quality of clean between the settings, unless you literally clean up breadcrumbs. I went straight for maximum suctions and turbo mode, the best possible performance and the performance was very good. However, I didn’t manage a full house clean, I only manage the upstairs and staircase itself, not the downstairs. Now I wasn’t doodling, nor did I get in all the nooks and crannies and I would agree that the 12 minutes run time is accurate on the highest settings. The next clean, I stuck with the default settings (medium suction and standard brush) and I managed to clean the upstairs, stairs and half of the downstairs, so a better run time of about 16-18 minutes and I didnt notice a huge drop in performance.

The cleaner performs exceptionally well and on those highest settings, you really can feel the suction produced between cleaner and carpet. It cleaned very well on both my carpet and wood flooring, picking up all sorts of rubbish and crumbs left behind from my children. What I did notice, that my current cleaner does, is the brush and/or the inlet, if it doesn’t collect something, it will spit it out. Perhaps my current cleaner isn’t upto to the job sometimes but I would tend to hover over something minimal, it would suck it up but then spit it out half a meter along from me. This didn’t happen to be with the VB100.

The joint between the shaft and the head is fairly smooth, it’s very easy to steer the head left and right, and I didn’t notice it get stuck at all. The grip and shape of the handle are comfortable, and it’s easy to use your foot to click and unclick the head. I did struggle on the stairs, it was not easy to get the angle and manoeuvre the cleaner in such a confined space. However, the nozzle did help to get into those tricky places on the stairs and edges of the carpet.

It can also be very quiet, I turned it right down on my wood floor as it didn’t require such an intense clean and I had no complaints from the pets or children, which was good, as they usually run away. Even at the highest settings, it was still a lot quieter than my current cleaner.

What I do like and helps maximize its usage, is that the cleaner will tell you when the filter bag is full, so no need to ever remove it before the lights on the cleaner turn yellow. When it does need changing, it’s a breeze to change and takes less than 60 seconds. The battery is also plug and play, so you can purchase a second battery and plug that in mid clean if desired.

Verdict

The Kobld VB100 is a cracking vacuum cleaner and I’d defiantly recommend it. It is more expensive than the top of the range Dyson but to me, it looks better and it’s better on performance. Now I would have liked the battery to last longer on the highest settings but I came to learn that the highest are not always required. It is somewhat annoying that you need to keep on top of your filter bag supply and ensure you get a fresh delivery before your stock runs out.

For more info and to purchase, head over to the official Vorwerk Kobold VB100 webpage.