Product round-up The DIY market for power drills cracked going cordless years ago, but for domestic heavyweights such as an affordable vacuum cleaner, tripping over a six-metre mains cable has been a weekend tradition for most UK households. Really, how much R&D does it take to get a good cordless vacuum cleaner? Is the wait over yet? El Reg's domestic goddess Jennifer Newton finds out. Assuming your home doesn’t have bedrooms in the double figures, going cordless may well be a realistic option, with smaller homes and urbanites more easily catered for. Robot vacs aside, there are two types we’ll be looking at here: uprights and handhelds. Dust busting the Dyson way The tech behind the latest cordless uprights (aka stick cleaners) has improved in recent years to deliver strong suction and a battery life of up to an hour, and let’s face it, who wants to be waving a vacuum cleaner around for longer than that in one stint? That said, manufacturers are desperate to add the word “ergonomic” claiming improved manoeuvrability and ease of use.

On the whole, this hold true, as these stick cleaners are lighter to use and, thankfully, easier to store. Shaking the vac market this year was the announcement of new EU regulations that demand that vacuum cleaners, as of September 2014, need to be less than 1600W. This figure will be further reduced to 900W by 2017. However, this directive won’t impact on the cordless market as the Wattage quoted on these devices is well below these ratings. Still, this raises the old question of why power consumption is still so relevant. As the deity of vacs, James Dyson, said: “High power doesn’t always equate to efficient cleaning”. Although, some still reeling from the EU’s regulations might add that it helps. Incidentally, when it comes to power ratings on cordless vacs, a lot of manufacturers are quite shy of quoting figures, preferring instead to show battery voltage, which isn't especially helpful. We’ve five handhelds and five uprights in this round-up and we've quoted prices you should expect to pay from retailers.

Kicking off with the sticks, all five on test are bagless, with washable filters, motorised brush and use Lithium-ion batteries for consistent power with no fade-out – earlier generation cordless models could suffer from this. This selection is suitable for hard or carpeted floors with dusting and crevice attachments included in all except the GTech. samsung robot vacuum cleaner model sr8751The now standard two-year warranty is offered apart from the Vax, which has a confidence boosting six-year guarantee.vacuum cleaner acuario It’s the affordable designer choice that sits on a handy recharge stand looking über smart in its tungsten metallic livery and will look at home in any bachelor or urban pad. eureka forbes vacuum cleaner raipur

AEG has gone for European style: that is, a vac that looks good left out to grab at any moment for spot pick-ups without effort. The suction power lacked the oomph of the Dyson DC59 and Gtech Ram (see below), but as a second sucker in the home, it’s good with 35 minutes run time, but only 14 minutes on boost mode from a charge of four hours. On test, I found more dirt and dust bunnies, however, were vacuumed up compared to other cordless makes due to the bright LED lights on the nozzle revealing the fluff and stuff below. Noise level was average compared to all others on test with AEG saying it comes in at 73dB. The ErgoRapido lays flat to get under furniture and the 180-degree swivel head made awkward navigation of furniture easier to handle than a normal upright. And not getting too excited, but worth a mention, the brush head has been updated with a new hair-removing function on the brush roll. This ends the days of scissors at hand to cut away endless tangles that clog up cleaners.

Like the Dyson DC59, it’s a two-in-one with a handheld cleaner that detaches at the flick of a button. A soft brush head and crevice tool is stored on the charger and any handheld that comes with a soft brush gets my approval. It’s needed too, as this attachment glides over electronics, especially TVs and netbooks to suck out muck without damage. AEG launched its first cordless vac 10 years ago, since then it has come a long way and at nearly half the price of the Dyson DC59, it’s a sound choice for urbanites. Capacity/Weight 0.5 litres, 2.52kg75% more brush bar power than the V6 Cord-free vacuum.Dyson has unveiled the Digital Slim DC59 cordless and DC58 handheld vacuums. Dyson claims these have three times as much suction power as other handheld cordless vacuums. We went down to Dyson's London office to take a look at the brand new vacs.The DC59 is a lightweight and cordless vac that you can use to clean from floor to ceiling. It’ll cost you £350 – but if you decide you don’t need a full size vacuum, you can buy it as a handheld vacuum, (without the tube and motorised brush bar), as the DC58 for £230.Our video below takes you through all the main features of the new vacuums.

You can read full reviews of the latest cordless vacs in our cordless vacuum cleaner reviews. If you're not a member yet, try Which? for £1 to get instant access to our results.Update 13/8/14: we've now fully tested and rated the Dyson DC59 and Dyson DC44 cordless vacuums- read our full Dyson DC59 review to see if it hit our Best Buy gold standard.There is a new motor at the heart of the DC58/59, called the V6. Specially designed for this vac, Dyson says the motor is one and a half times more powerful than the last one, and the claim is that the DC59 'packs the same power as a mains vacuum cleaner.'When we had a look at the Dyson DC44, Dyson's last cordless vacuum, one of the few criticisms we had is that it can be tiring to hold the trigger down for extended periods of use. Dyson has now re-designed the handle and trigger to make it more comfortable to hold when you're cleaning around the home.Similar to some of the mains powered vacuums we've seen emerge from Dyson over the last year, the DC58/59 now has a second tier of cyclones, which should help it capture fine dust.