Verdict

The Vax ONEPWR Blade 4 Pet does all of the things that the original Blade 4 did well: it's powerful, easy to use and the removable battery means that you can swap out and carry on cleaning. This model is a touch more expensive, but overhauls the floor brush with an antimicrobial coating and adds in a motorised pet tool for dealing with furniture. If you're after a well-priced vacuum cleaner and have a home with pets, then this is an excellent cleaner.

Pros

• Powerful
• Well priced
• New tools add flexibility
• Swappable batteries

Cons

• Doesn't stand up by itself
• Base model has few tools

With the move to its new ONEPWR battery system, the Blade 4 was one of my favourite vacuum cleaners of this year. Now the company is back with the Vax ONEPWR Blade 4 Pet, which adds an extra tool for dealing with pet hair plus a redesigned floor brush with antimicrobial protection.

With the same basic ergonomics and power, plus the new additions, the new model of vacuum cleaner gives that bit extra for those with pets. There’s also a Blade 3 Pet version available, although I think that the small price increase to get the extra power that the Blade 4 Pet offers is worth it.

Vax ONEPWR Blade 4 Pet Design – Light and easy to use, with the addition of the new powered pet brush

• Uses the same design as the other Blade vacuums: lightweight and easy to push around
• There’s an antimicrobial coating on the brushes to protect you from germs spread by your pets
• You get lots of tools, particularly if you buy direct from Vax

Externally, the Vax ONEPWR Blade 4 Pet looks like the standard Blade 4 with a new paint job. This new model has an attractive blue trim to it that makes it stand out that bit more, plus the word ‘pet’ and a fancy logo on the wand.

Vax hasn’t touched the rest of the design, which is good news. The main vacuum unit is the handheld part at the back, which can be used with the wand attached or in handheld mode for close up work. It’s well balanced and comfortable to hold in either position with a large handle.

On the top are the controls, including a power button, the boost button and a control to toggle on any motorised brushes connected. Vax has also put a set of three LEDs that show the current battery level: all lit is full, and the lights extinguish as the battery is used up.

You can also use the button on the back of the battery to see the charge status, although this one has four LEDs; it would be nice if Vax could have standardised.

The 0.6-litre bin unclips and lifts out of the vacuum, where it can be opened from the bottom to empty, and from the top to pull out the filter assembly. This makes this one of the easiest vacuum cleaners to empty and makes it easy to clean everything. Just be careful when clipping the bin back in place, and make sure that it’s locked in tight.

With this model, you get the same crevice tool and dusting brush as with the standard Blade 4. There’s a handy clip to attach the crevice tool to the wand, so you can carry it around. And, you get a wall mount clip for the main vacuum cleaner for storage. It’s a shame that there’s not more storage on either the wall mount or vacuum cleaner.

There’s a motorised floor head, too, although this one has been updated and the bristles have an antimicrobial coating to prevent the growth of bacteria and fungi.

Using the vacuum is just as easy as with the regular Blade 4, with the floor head nimble enough for getting around furniture, although a bit more movement on the brush head joint would have been nice. With the brush bar turned on, the floor head also has LEDs that light up where you’re cleaning, making it easier to see if you’ve picked up everything.

New to this model is the motorised pet tool, which is a smaller powered head for picking up pet hair from furniture and pet beds. It’s a great addition for cleaning stairs, too, particularly those with carpet. Just make sure that you hold the brush at the right angle to get good contact with the surface that you have to clean. It’s a shame that this brush isn’t available as an optional accessory for existing Blade 4 or Blade 3 owners.

Buy direct from Vax and you’ll get the Cordless ProKit 2, which is worth £49.99. This has a fabric bag for storing the additional tools: the extendable and flexible crevice tool, extending hose, and upholstery tool with a clip-on stiff brush. It’s a really neat set, particularly with the hose attachment, as these tools let you get into tight and hard-to-reach areas making the Blade 4 Pet a great cordless cleaner for any job.

Performance – Efficient, quiet and powerful but now with more flexibility

• An efficient and powerful vacuum cleaner, happy on carpets and hard floors
• New mini tool is excellent at cleaning sofas
• Replaceable batteries help you keep cleaning for as long as you need

I tested the Blade 4 Pet with a waterlift meter and anemometer to measure its performance in airwatts (AW). On standard power, I measured it at 24AW, rising to an impressive 135.7AW on turbo power. As a comparison, that puts this cleaner a little behind the Dyson V7 Absolute on lower power, but the Vax Blade 4 Pet has more suction on turbo.

Performance is the same as with the Blade 4. On carpet, a sprinkle of flour was spread right up to the skirting board. A single pass through on standard, with the brush, turned on, got most of the mess, bar a small clump; switching to turbo got most of the rest, and the crevice tool finished off the pickup.

On hard floors, I used a teaspoon of rice, With the brush turned off, a single sweep picked up all of the mess, although turning the cleaner off resulted in a couple of grains of rice falling out. It’s nothing that a quick burst of the turbo mode couldn’t fix.

Cat hair combed into the carpet was removed with ease, using the vacuum cleaner in its turbo mode. For this test, I had the motorised brush bar turned on.

I then tested the new pet tool on a sofa where the cats love to sleep. Once I’d got the angle right, I cleaned up the fabric with the brush turned on and the Blade 4 Pet set to standard mode.

With its brushless motor, the Vax ONEPWR Blade 4 Pet is quite quiet. I measured it at 78.8dB on standard power upping to 83.1dB on turbo, which produces a higher-pitched sound.

This model ships with the largest battery in the OWEPWR range, a 4Ah model. With the regular setting, you can get up to 45 minutes on a charge, dropping to just 12 minutes in turbo mode; use the latter mode sparingly. I think, on average, that you’ll get around 30 minutes from a charge, which is enough to clean at least a floor.

As you can swap out the batteries, you can keep going if you have other batteries, either bought new or from other tools in the range.

Should you buy the Vax ONEPWR Blade 4 Pet?

This new vacuum cleaner costs £40 more than the regular Blade 4, so it all comes down to whether or not you have pets. If you don’t, then the pet tool would still be a good addition, as it’s great for stairs, but I’d save the £40 and buy the original version. If you do have pets, then the Blade 4 Pet gives you all of the same qualities as the original cleaner, plus the extra pet tool and the antimicrobial coating. That makes it well worth the extra money and makes this a brilliant vacuum cleaner for those with pets. For those that want something a bit bigger with a bit more power, check out my guide to the best cordless vacuum cleaners.

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