How well does the Bosch AdvancedVac 20 Wet & Dry Vacuum clean hard floors and carpet?

Bosch’s AdvancedVac 20 offers plenty of cleaning versatility and features, so we wanted to put it to the test with the ultimate wet and dry vacuum examination. It was tested on carpet, rugs, parquet, tiles and in the garage with a range of heavyweight tests.  Since the Bosch uses the same filter for both wet and dry flooring, there’s very little prep to do when swapping between wet and dry cleaning.

Over old parquet floor with plenty of gaps between the blocks, we liberally sprinkled our regular mix of talc and carpet freshening powder. We ensure the test powder was dusted hard up to the skirting edge. One slow pass gave a solid result on the main open floor, albeit with a little residue visible deep in the cracks and close to the wall edge. Still, a very respectable result and a couple more passes over the area cleared the remainder.

Hard floor test: Dirty hard floor (left) vs Clean hard floor (right) – move slider to compare

We continued using the Bosch over a range of hard flooring throughout the house. Thanks to wheels on the floor-head, it glided over parquet, tiles and laminates with ease, feeling extremely light on the arm. The hose is long enough to tow the cleaner around without it lifting, although its ultimate cleaning reach from any one plug socket is limited by the short mains cable.

Moving onto carpets and rugs, the Bosch continued to impress. Our large red rug hosts an assortment of dog hair, crumbs and day-to-day debris, but none of it posed any real challenge for the Bosch. The area looked great after a few passes, although the brush feels very stiff when pushing it forward due to suction stick-down. Leaning the floor-head back a little by tilting the handle closer to the floor helps in such instances, but it wasn’t overly onerous.

Out in the garage, the Bosch found its natural home and continued to impress. It did a great job at pulling in militant cobwebs, pieces of brick rubble and wood chippings. The auto switch-on with power tool attached to its plug socket is a genius addition if you have the vacuum connected to a chop saw or sander vent. The mode is optional, and you can switch on/off as usual with a power tool connected as well.

The AdvancedVac 20 lived up to its Bosch power tool colour scheme and was simply brilliant in the garage. Plus, the blower mode was handy for blowing out light debris and leaves. The short cable is likely to frustrate if you have a large workshop or garage, but that’s not too difficult to solve DIY-style with an extension lead and in-line connector.

How well does the Bosch AdvancedVac 20 Wet & Dry Vacuum cope with pet hair?

We were pleasantly surprised with its pet-hair busting abilities, which compete favourably with many standard vacuum cleaners with animal-based names and purported talents. On the carpets and on the sofa, it pulled in our dog’s hairs well; very few of them became stuck in the bristles of the brush. Considering this machine doesn’t have the mechanical assistance of a rotating brush bar, it showed pedigree-level pet abilities.

Pet hair test: Dirty carpet (left) vs Clean carpet (right) – move slider to compare

How well does the Bosch AdvancedVac 20 Wet & Dry Vacuum cope with wet spills?

Thanks to the advanced wet/dry filter system, switching over to liquid spills is as easy as removing the dust bag. We did note that either as a result of a leak from the bag seal or by permeation through the bag itself, the interior of the plastic bin had plenty of dust. Some dust will always get through and escape the bag, but the bin seemed a little dirtier next to many bagged wet and dry cleaners we’ve tried after such tests. Of note, talc is much finer in grain size than typical household dust, so we do force this test to a degree.

With the bag removed and the rubber blades neatly clipped into the floor-head, the Bosch is ready to get wet. On heavily riven tiles it slurped up a large glass of water rapidly. Just a few passes over the area gave us outstanding pick-up, and the area dried in minutes. Although you’ll still have to lift up the machine indoors to empty the water into a sink, the drain cap does make life easy. We just sat the machine on the side of the sink and opened the cap.

Wet test: Wet floor (left) vs Dry floor (right) – move slider to compare

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