Gtech Hylite Upright Cordless Vacuum Cleaner

Having any kind of decoration or building work done comes with the mess, dirt, spills, splashes and of course dust and the worst thing that can happen in the middle of all that is your hoover deciding it has had enough and is no longer going to work.  I was kindly gifted the Gtech Hylite to try and after a good 3 months of using it, I thought I would share my thoughts.

The Gtech Hylite is an upright, lightweight cordless vacuum cleaner which is described as offering an outstanding cleaning performance as well as being robust, durable and a product which needs very little maintenance.  On all of those fronts, it sounds like a perfect replacement for my former hoover, but for me, it comes with a mixed review.

I love that it is lightweight and it most definitely is durable. It is compact enough that I can store it in the kitchen drawer when it isn't being used.  It has a battery, which when charged gives 20 minutes of cleaning time, which if you live in a one-bedroom flat like I do, then that is more than enough time to complete hoovering each room.  

It is a bagged hoover, so definitely something to think about when making a purchase, even though a replacement pack of 15 costs just £12.99.  It can be put together and taken apart in a matter of seconds and cleaning the hoover is really easy to do so there is the option to use the long handle option for hoover the floors or the shorter handle option for the stairs and even your furniture and on the front of the hoover is a pair of LED lights, a feature which makes it easy to see where you are hoovering and if you are about to pick something up that could cause a blockage - elastic bands for example!

Gtech claims that the Hylite collects dirt 1cm from the ground and because it doesn't have to suck it up through a hose blockages are reduced and you, therefore, spend less time taking everything to bits to find out what is causing the issue.  The biggest issue for me is what it does actually collect to perform its role as a hoover and the simple answer is not very much.  We have two rooms which are carpeted - the lounge and the bedroom, the other rooms have either tiled floors (Kitchen and Bathroom) or a wooden floor, so we have ample surfaces for this Hylite to be tried on and I wasn't that impressed with its performance on carpet.  We have cats, so naturally, there will be pet hair on the floor, instead of hoovering it up, it almost collected it into a ball and left it on the carpet.  It didn't touch anything on the rug that we have, being a black rug you can see all kinds of dirt and things, after a good 15 minutes of hoovering it didn't look any different.  So I turned my attention to the non-carpet rooms and it did do a lot better.  Having emptied some of the dust out of my old hoover on to the wooden floor to try it, it did pick up 90% of what was to be picked up, but it still left bits that I needed to go over with a dustpan and brush.  On tiled flooring, it was a little better than the other options, but not perfect and again, I had to use the dustpan and brush to ensure the floors were as clean as they could be.  The other issue is that because it is so compact, as soon as the hoover bag is full, it obviously cannot collect anything else and it stops picking up absolutely anything at all until the bag is changed.

This hoover is clearly not going to give you 100%, it has a lot of good points which include being compact, easy to use, easy to put together and take apart, it doesn't block, it has the option of being used with a long or short handle, it is lightweight, definitely durable and comes to part enough to fit inside a bag and then put into a kitchen drawer or cupboard.

It is great for a quick once over the floors but that is where it doesn't quite hit the spot for me.  I have a busy life and don't have time to hoover, re-hoover and then go over my floors with a dustpan and brush.  So I am on the fence with how I feel about the Gtech Hylite because it is everything I want with looks, style and durability but just not quite there on the job it is there to do.

The Gtech Hylite is on sale for £199.99 here.

*this post contains PR samples and/or Affiliate Links unless indicated otherwise - you can learn more on my Disclaimer page.