AEG QX9 Review
A clever cordless upright that turns into a handheld cleaner
Verdict
Striking to look at, the AEG QX9 is both a handheld vacuum cleaner for smaller jobs and an upright vacuum cleaner for bigger ones. It’s capable of cleaning well, although I did find that often I had to use the High power setting to get the best results. If you’re looking for flexibility, this cleaner is a good choice – but it’s expensive, and a traditional cordless stick cleaner will cost you less and clean as well, if not better.
Pros
- Flexible design
- Great selection of accessories
- Neat charging dock
Cons
- High power setting required to clean well
- Expensive
Availability
- UKRRP: £349.99
- USAunavailable
- Europeunavailable
- Canadaunavailable
- Australiaunavailable
Key Features
- TypeThis is a cordless upright cleaner that turns into a handheld cleaner
- Battery lifeYou can get up to 55 minutes of runtime from a single charge
Introduction
It isn’t often that you’ll find a cordless vacuum cleaner that adopts a completely different design to its rivals, but the AEG QX9 does this. It’s both an upright cordless and, thanks to a pull-out middle section, a handheld model, too. It delivers the best of both worlds in a single, neat package.
Exceptionally well built and, dare I say it, stylish, the AEG QX9 does everything it can to stand out on form. However, performance on all surfaces could be better, and this model has a lot of competition at the price.
Here, I’ve reviewed the Animal edition of the vacuum cleaner, but there are cheaper models available that come with fewer accessories.
Design and features
- Looks fantastic
- Clever pull-out handheld
- Lots of accessories but no onboard storage
As far as vacuum cleaners go, the AEG QX9 is super stylish. With its bowed metal frame and open design, this vacuum cleaner looks very different to any of the models I’ve reviewed in the past.
It’s a 2-in-1 cleaner, with a pull-out handheld unit, converting quickly from an upright to a spot cleaner. This design can save you space, since you won’t necessarily need to invest in a separate handheld cleaner, such as the Hoover H-Handy 700. Pulling out the handheld section is easy enough, and you can do this while the vacuum cleaner is sitting on its floor charger.
In handheld mode, you can attach any of the accessories included in the box. The Animal comes with a dusting brush, crevice tool, stiff brush and a motorised pet tool, which is ideal for sofas and stairs.
What you don’t get is a lot of reach, since there’s no wand with this model. As such, cleaning around ceilings may become a struggle with only the handheld unit at your disposal.
There’s a single power button on the handheld vacuum, which simply turns the vacuum cleaner on and off. Plug the vacuum cleaner into the main body, and you also get a power control button, which provides a choice of three modes: Low, Normal and High.
In upright mode, the cleaner has a motorised floor head, which features a set of LEDs on the front that help you to see the area you’re cleaning. It’s great for the poorly-lit corners of your home. While this head doesn’t have anti-tangle tech built-in, it does have a Brush Roll Clean option. Press this to lower a blade over the brush roll, and tangled hair will be cut away and sucked into the cleaner. This is certainly a neater solution than having to cut away any mess yourself.
There’s a relatively small 0.3-litre bin in the handheld section. This lifts off the front of the cleaner, and you pull out the rear filter to empty the bin. That results in a wide opening for tipping out dust, and it’s fairly easy to do without spreading mess everywhere.
There’s a secondary filter at the rear of the vacuum cleaner. Both filters should be cleaned regularly to keep the vacuum cleaner operating at peak efficiency.
Performance
- Works well with pet hair
- Good battery life
- Often needs higher power settings
I gauge the power of a vacuum cleaner by measuring the suction in AirWatts (AW) from the front of the nozzle. This lets me compare the raw power of each vacuum cleaner – but here, I wasn’t able to run all of my tests. Since the nozzle is on the handheld section of the cleaner, which only runs the standard power mode, I could only measure performance on the lowest setting. Here, the cleaner managed 40.97AW, which is low-level power for simpler jobs.
Fortunately, I also put all cleaners through real-world tests. Starting with the carpet test, I sprinkled a teaspoon of flour onto the floor and then gave the AEG QX9 a single pass through on its standard setting. As you can see from the results, the mess was largely collected from the centre of the carpet, but there was plenty of flour dust remaining towards the edges of the floor head.
Next, I finished off cleaning using the High setting for the top strip and the Low setting for the bottom section. As you can see, the High setting picked up everything; the Low setting left quite a bit of mess behind.
Next came the tough edge test, with flour sprinkled right up to the skirting board on carpet tiles. Running the vacuum cleaner along the skirting on standard power showed that the AEG QX9 struggled, leaving behind a lot of flour.
I ran over the area again with the cleaner on High power and the cleaner picked up all of the flour, right up to the edge.
Next, I combed cat hair into my test carpet to see how it would cope with pet mess. I ran over the patch with a single pass of the cleaner on standard power. Here, the vacuum and its brush roll did an impressive job, pulling out the cat hair easily enough.
Finally, I finished with the hard floor test, sprinkling a teaspoon of rice onto the floor and giving the AEG QX9 a pass over on standard power. Here, the cleaner left a clean path through the spill.
Yet, when I picked up the cleaner having turned it off, some grains of rice fell back out. Using the crevice tool, I removed them, and a burst on High power also prevented this from happening.
I didn’t find the vacuum cleaner too loud: 63.5dB on Low, 64.9dB on Normal and 67.2dB on High. That’s very quiet for a cordless vacuum cleaner, particularly on the highest setting.
Battery life is pretty good, too. On the lower setting you can get up to 55 minutes, but this drops to 25 minutes on the more useful standard setting, and just 15 minutes on the High setting. Recharging the AEG QX9 takes four hours.
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
If you want a handheld vacuum cleaner and a regular cordless model, then this gives you the option of both in one neat package.
This vacuum cleaner is quite expensive for what it is, and you can get better deals if you opt for a more traditional stick cordless cleaner.
Final thoughts
I love the design and flexibility of this vacuum cleaner; no other model is quite like the AEG QX9. It’s capable of cleaning well, although I did find that I had to frequently use the highest power setting to get the best results.
My main issue with the AEG QX9 is that it’s quite expensive. For less, you can buy the Beko PowerClean Cordless Vacuum Cleaner VRT94929VI, which performed better in my tests and offers a wider range of accessories. If you’re after something completely different, check out my guide to the best cordless vacuum cleaners.
How we test
We test every vacuum cleaner we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as our main vacuum cleaner for the review period
Tested for at least a week
Tested using tools to measure actual suction performance
Tested with real-world dirt in real-world situations for fair comparisons with other vacuum cleaners
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FAQs
Price and range of accessories is the main difference; you can also buy this vacuum cleaner in multiple colours.
It comes with a floor-standing docking station into which the vacuum cleaner plugs in.
Full specs
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.