Verdict

Outperforming its little brother and a fraction of the price of the high-end model, the Karcher 10 Year Window Vac Anniversary Edition is an excellent-value way of keeping windows clean.

Pros

• Excellent value
• Cleans brilliantly
• Decent battery life

Cons

• Can be uncomfortable to hold for long periods

What is the Karcher 10 Year Window Vac Anniversary Edition?

Karcher has been making windows vacuum cleaners for ten years, providing a simple way to get streak-free, dry windows quickly. The Karcher 10 Year Window Vac Anniversary Edition is the best-value cleaner yet: you get two vacuum heads, a microfibre cleaning cloth and spray, and an integrated battery that delivers 35 minutes of suction.

Effectively, you get the same benefits as with the WV 5 Premium, bar the replaceable battery, all for £50. Excellent cleaning and great build quality make this a great tool for keeping your windows, mirrors and shiny surfaces clean.

Karcher 10 Year Window Vac Anniversary Edition – Design and build quality

To highlight the anniversary edition, this Window Vac has a mostly black body, with yellow highlights; the normal range is mostly yellow with black highlights.

As with the other window vac products in the line-up, the Karcher 10 Year Window Vac Anniversary Edition comes in two main components. First, there’s the spray bottle, which takes the provided 20ml sachet of Karcher window cleaner concentrate, diluted with plain water. Replacement sachets are £4.99 for a pack of four, although you can buy a buy a 500ml bottle for £5 online, making this far better value. You fit the microfibre cloth, which is used for the initial clean of your windows.

To get the perfect finish, you need the window vacuum cleaner, which can suction up to 100ml of water into its reservoir before needing to be emptied. The body of the vacuum cleaner is tough-feeling plastic. It’s easy enough to dismantle to get the bottle out for simple emptying.

There’s a single control on the handle, which turns the vacuum cleaner on and off. It’s a little bit soft and doesn’t give much feedback; however, there’s a green light that shows when the cleaner is on and, of course, you’ll hear it.

Battery life is around 35 minutes per charge, with the battery taking two hours to recharge, via the plug-in socket on the rear. I found that the charge was long enough to make it around a Victorian terraced house with a loft conversion. That’s in line with Karcher’s claim of 105m2 cleaning area.

Karcher provides two suction nozzles (squeegees with a thin gap in them for the vac to suction up water): one 170mm narrow head for smaller spaces and a wider 280mm head. Heads are easy to pop off and switch.

Karcher 10 Year Window Vac Anniversary Edition – How well does it clean windows?

Cleaning with the Karcher 10 Year Window Vac Anniversary Edition couldn’t be easier. Just spray the window with the spray, give it a wipe with the microfibre cloth to pick up most of the surface dirt and spread the detergent.

Karcher’s window cleaning spray is excellent, making light-work of grease and dirt. I found that I didn’t need much force to clean the window, and afterwards the microfibre cloth was satisfyingly dirty.

Flicking the vacuum on, you just wipe the vacuum down the window and it suctions off the residue, leaving a clean window without streaks. Well, mostly, as the Karcher 10 Year Window Vac Anniversary Edition needs some practice. Stop too soon or fail to get the bottom of the window and the nozzles can leave some marks behind. The more you use the nozzle, the more likely it is that it will pick up a bit of dirt; this is nothing that a wipe on the microfibre cloth won’t fix, though.

Once I got used to the system, I found that my quite filthy-south facing windows were exceptionally easy to clean. Karcher’s excellent detergent made short work of the dirt, and a quick swipe with the vacuum got me perfect results. The Karcher 10 Year Window Vac Anniversary Edition was far quicker and superior to using a traditional window cleaner and a cloth, which took a lot of physical work to get clean, streak-free results.

I only have one minor complaint. At 0.6kg, the Karcher 10 Year Window Vac Anniversary Edition isn’t particularly heavy, but it’s not that well balanced and the grip isn’t particularly comfortable. I found that after using the window vac on a few windows that it became a little uncomfortable as my hand fatigued slightly. Still, that seems like a fair price to pay for the fast clean.

Why buy the Karcher 10 Year Window Vac Anniversary Edition?

Looking through Karcher’s line-up, it’s clear that the Karcher 10 Year Window Vac Anniversary Edition is the best-value product. The WV2 Plus has just a single nozzle and a weaker battery, yet it costs £5 more. The WV 5 Premium has the same nozzles and battery life but has a replaceable battery, so you can swap one out and keep working. That might be good for professionals or those with larger homes, but for most people, it’s not worth £35 more.

The other product worth a look is the Alfawise WIN660 Robotic Window Cleaner. It doesn’t quite get the same level of results, but you can tap a button and let it clean automatically. For large windows, in particular, it’s a great option.

For most people, the Karcher 10 Year Window Vac Anniversary Edition is the best way to clean windows and mirrors. For £50 you get the same cleaning performance as the WV 5; what’s not to like?

Trusted Score