Verdict

One of the most powerful vacuum cleaners that we've tested, the Lupe Pure Cordless has a smart floor head that sticks to hard floors and carpets, while maintaining manoeuvrability. The result is exceptional pick up on all types of surface, while the large 1-litre bin means that you don't have to empty it often. The Pure Cordless can convert into a handheld cleaner with hose, although the conversion process is a little fiddly, and we missed having a mini motorised tool. Price is also an issue, but if you've got the cash to spare, this cleaner performs very well.

Pros

• Lots of suction power
• Large bin
• Picks up dirt well on hard floors and carpets
• Converts into a handheld

Cons

• Expensive
• Fiddly conversion
• No motorised mini tool

Built by a couple of ex-Dyson employees, the Lupe Pure Cordless is a brand-new vacuum cleaner that promises to deliver the best suction and longevity. The company’s promise is not to invent and release new models where there’s no need, but to make sure that the product you do buy can be serviced and maintained for years to come, with easily replaceable parts.

With its smart upright design and powerful suction, the Lupe Pure Cordless gets a lot of things right. But there are some niggles in the way it works and there’s no getting over the high price, which makes this machine even more expensive than the top-end Dyson V11 Absolute.

Lupe Pure Cordless – What you need to know

• General vacuuming – Impressive suction and design make the floor head stick to carpet or hard floors, while remaining easy to push. Conversion from upright to handheld mode is a bit of a faff, though.
• Carpet test – Sucked up our test dirt, right up to the edge of the skirting.
• Hard floor test – Easily coped with our hard floor test, sucking up every grain of sand.
• Pet hair pick up – Does well on carpet, but I found it harder to shift pet hairs on a sofa.

Related: Best cordless vacuum cleaner

Design and Features – The Lupe Pure Cordless is a smart upright, but it takes a bit of conversion to get into handheld mode

• Upright design and motorised head ensure ease of use though it can be toppled
• A couple of accessories are included in the box, but nothing for pet hair
• Conversion to a handheld vac isn’t as smooth as some rivals, but still gves some versatility

A lot of cordless vacuum cleaners are built around the stick design, where you have to hold the main vacuum part, and the wand and accessories plug into the end. For the Pure Cordless, Lupe has aped the traditional upright design.

This means that you spend most of the time pushing the vacuum cleaner around rather than carrying it, which can make cleaning floors and carpets a little more comfortable. There’s also no need for a stand, as the Pure Cordless is freestanding, so you can stick it in a cupboard; it also means that you can stand it up in the middle of cleaning without worrying about the vacuum falling over.

You get two accessories in the box, with a 2-in-1 crevice tool (it has a slide-out brush), and 2-in-1 upholstery tool. Both of these attach to the clip that fits onto the main wand. It’s a shame that there’s no mini motorised tool for removing pet hair from furniture.

In upright mode, cleaning is through the main motorised floor head, which has a soft roller and brush bar to cope with hard floors and carpet alike. By default, when the power is turned on and you lean the wand back, the brush bar springs into life. You can turn it off using the switch on the main body, which may be useful for hard floors or more delicate surfaces.

It’s easy to push the Pure Cordless around, and its smart motorised head suctions itself to the floor just enough to create a tight seal for dust pick up, but not enough that the vacuum is hard to push. A bit more flexibility in the floor head would make it easier to navigate around chair legs and the like, though. It’s nice to see that the vacuum can go almost flat to make it go under sofas and other furniture.

Alongside the brush bar control are the main power button, and controls to increase or decrease power through the three modes (Eco, Normal and Max). I found the power button a little fiddly, and it needs a firm press to cut power. And, the controls aren’t particularly well placed, making you bend down to adjust them.

There’s a hose that connects to the main brush bar, which you can unclip and attach the two accessories directly to. This hose doesn’t carry power, which explains why there’s no motorised mini brush.

Being able to unclip the hose and use accessories can be handy for quickly going around the edge of a room, or reaching into a tight area. You can also unclip the entire body from the motorised floor brush and carry it around. It’s similar to the Lift-Away mode on Shark’s vacuum cleaners.

Once undocked, the Pure Cordless sits on the stick-out feet, making it freestanding. You can then unclip the main handle, and attach the end of the hose into it to give you more reach. While this mode is handy for cleaning in a car or other hard-to-reach areas, the hose is a little stiff, and it’s easy to topple the vacuum cleaner while trying to get the hose to its maximum extension. Ultimately, I had to hold both the main unit (still the best part of 4.5kg) to extend the hose and use it.

I have to say that the conversion between upright and handheld isn’t as smooth as on Shark’s cleaners, where you can quickly unclip the wand, then go into Lift-Away mode. With the Pure Cordless, there are more steps to go through converting either way.

I also don’t like the handle at the back, which has a hollow cutaway in it that leave two bits of plastic to dig into your hand. A note for the future: make this a soft, curved handle made of a single bit of plastic.

There’s a large 1-litre bin, which is far larger than on most cordless vacuum cleaners. It pulls out the back and is emptied via the flap at the button, which makes it easy to get dust out of the machine without spilling it everywhere.

There’s a washable filter in the bin, plus a washable HEPA filter underneath, the latter of which is good for allergy sufferers, keeping small particles inside the vacuum system. You can also wash out the entire bin if you want, as this contains no working parts.

Finally, there’s a removable battery, which can be charged in the cleaner or outside of it. It should also mean that you can buy additional batteries in the future to extend runtime.

Performance – The Lupe Pure Cordless is very powerful and efficient

• This is a very powerful vacuum with excellent cleaning results
• However, it’s a tad noisier than some competitors

Pure Cordless promised a lot of power for the Pure Cordless, and it certainly delivers. Using the hose, I measured the Pure Cordless at 30.33AirWatts (AW) on Eco, 61AW on Standard, and 163AW on Max. That’s the highest suction I’ve seen from a cordless vacuum cleaner, just beating the Shark ICZ160UKT.

I measured sound, taken on carpet with the brush bar turned on, at 78.5dB, 80.3dB and 83.7dB, respectively. That makes this vacuum cleaner a little louder than the competition, particularly in its Standard mode; this result is closer to other vacuum cleaners’ max or turbo modes.

It takes 3.5 hours to charge the battery, and it depletes at 15-minutes at Max power, 30-minutes on Standard and 60-minutes on the Eco setting. For most jobs, Standard setting is best, so you’ll get through most of your cleaning on a single charge, but you may want a second battery to keep going.

I tested the vacuum cleaner on a range of surfaces. First, I went with the hard floor test, spilling a teaspoon of rice onto the floor. Running through the mess on Standard power, the Pure Cordless easily picked up everything in a single pass. Clearly, the way that the head suctions itself to the floor makes for impressive pick-up power.

Next, I went with the carpet test, sprinkling a teaspoon of flour against the skirting board. A single sweep through the mess on standard power picked up virtually everything, leaving a tiny trace by the skirting board; even so, this is about as good as vacuum cleaners get.

I tested the vacuum cleaner with pet hair combed into the carpet. Standard mode got most of the mess out but a quick burst on Max got the final traces out. Performance doesn’t get a lot better than with this vacuum cleaner.

Finally, I tried to clean my sofa, which gets covered in cat hair with the upholstery brush. This time around, things weren’t so impressive, and some hair stubbornly stuck to the sofa. This is where a mini motorised brush could come in handy.

Should you buy the Lupe Pure Cordless?

For a first vacuum cleaner from a brand-new cleaner, the Lupe Pure Cordless gets a lot of things right. It’s exceptionally powerful, doing well in all of my tests, picking up all of the mess I could throw at it.

There’s stiff competition, though. The Shark ICZ160UKT is just about as powerful, but its design is neater, with Lift-Away mode making it easier to convert between upright and handheld modes; the Lupe Pure Cordless takes longer and is fiddlier for its conversion.

It’s also worth pointing out that Shark’s DuoClean head has its Anti-Hair Wrap technology, which stops hair clogging up the rollers; with the Pure Cordless, you’ll need to take the rollers out and cut away the mess.

Then, there’s the price. At £699, the Lupe Pure Cordless is exceptionally expensive. Even at the launch discount price of £499, it’s more expensive than the Shark ICZ160UKT.

For all that, the quality, suction power and large bin of the Pure Cordless make it a cordless vacuum cleaner to contend with if you’ve got the cash to spare, but a mini pet brush and slightly easier conversion between upright and handheld modes would make it perfect.

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