Gtech Pro - Cordless Bagged Vacuum Cleaner. A First Look, Opinions and Review

[MVacs]

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The Gtech Pro has just been launched, and many people will be considering buying one. Today I got a look at one and I thought I'd post a few thoughts.

As I would in our shop, I'd preface any thoughts on Gtech by making sure you know that >>Gtech are slippery with their warranties and dont always honour them<< and most of the trade regard them as a >>very poorly engineered product<<. We no longer stock Gtech machines at all due to quality and warranty issues, but that doesn't stop them being of interest to people or people wanting to buy them.

So this is the new one.



You can see they are taking aim at Dyson here design wise.



With this one, in common with other manufacturers, they've gone for the detachable pole and electrically driven head.





Interestingly, Gtech have chosen to go with a bag on this model.



Bags are underrated.

Dyson's marketing team has spent many years convincing everyone that cyclonic and bagless is the way to go. And they made a bloody good job of it. So much so that other manufacturers emulate them. Everyone is obsessed with bagless, and there remains the incorrect belief that bags are somehow old hat, inefficient or a product of yesteryear.

The reintroduction of vacuum bags into to the public consciousness will probably help sales of proper vacuum cleaners (that use bags) like Sebo and Miele.

I applaud Gtech for reintroducing bags into the mainstream. Personally, I wouldn't have done it in a cordless, but there you go.

[MVacs]

The bags themselves are nothing special.



They attach to this lid as a push fit:



And sit in here:



Gtech are charging £10 for a packet of bags I hear. That's expensive for a simple bag with no tech from a manufacturer at this level in the market (Gtech are not a premium brand). However, the after-market will soon address that and cheaper bags will be on the market very soon. We will stock cheaper bags as soon as they are out.

If you remove the long pole, a second head (that looks remarkably like the shape of a Dyson mattress head) can be fitted like so:



It is inferior to a Dyson head though as the angle of the head does not adjust.



This means it must be used at a very specific angle or it will be ineffective. That is a very ropey bit of design.

In use, using the standard floor head with the pole attached, the head slides about all over the floor like cheap Chinese cordless machines do. It doesn't have the feel of a better quality cordless.

I dislike the power switch. It clicks from two angles but only works in one of them (if that makes sense). It also has two speeds.    The suggestion here being that the raw power of "max" may incline you to use the lower setting. Put it this way: I doubt anyone will ever use the lower setting.

Suction is as expected for this type of machine: mediocre. It remains to be seen if this gets worse as the bag fills up. I'd expect so, but haven't tried that.

It isn't such a tragic thing like the Gtech motorised Ewbanks that preceded it were. It has a few design elements that I think they could have tried harder on. It's better put together than the cheap Chinese and no-name cordless machines out there. But it isnt a patch on a Dyson V7 or V8. And at £250, yes it's cheaper than a Dyson but functionality, design and usability doesn't come close. Plus, its considerably less attractive than a Dyson. You'll hide it under the stairs instead of showing it off on the wall or on a stand as you might with a Dyson. Gtech know that, probably that's why it doesn't come with a wall bracket or any storage solution.

As with many cordless vacuum cleaners, customers will likely be misled by marketing that suggests these types of cordless machine can be used as a main vacuum cleaner in average households. They absolutely cannot. Unless you live in a very small dwelling with no pets and not much carpet, these cordless types of machine are only useful as a secondary 'quick whizz round' machine. Think of them as a device to quickly remove crumbs from the kitchen floor rather than remove dog hair from your Axminster. If you have lots of carpets, pets or kids, you'll need a real vacuum cleaner too.

• Will we stock them? Absolutely not. We won't stock Gtech products.
• Would I buy one? Perhaps as a whizz round machine, if it was £99, I could hide it in a cupboard and I couldn't afford a Dyson.
• Will we fix them? Oh yes. I expect we'll see the first one in the shop to be unblocked/serviced within a month or two
• Value for money? I wouldn't spend 250 of my own pounds on it. You can buy a proper vacuum cleaner for less.
• Gtech or Dyson? For my money, I'd spend the extra cash and buy a Dyson V7 or V8 instead (we have a V8 at home). There's no comparison between the two really.

[ryevac]

That's an ugly one.

[mrdyson]

I agree, a very ugly looking machine.

I'd be most surprised if they hit their sales volume targets at £250 a pop.

[dysondc16]

Gtech vacuums are sold by bissell over here in the stares. Ironically we seem to get better after sales support than gtech provides in the UK  .

If these come over here I would consider getting one, depending on price. I've always been annoyed at the lack of bagged cordless vacuums. I am fine with using a bagless machine at my family's home since I can go out to the garage and empty it, in my apartment I can't do that. I used to have my dc50 here but got rid of it since I couldn't stand emptying it.

I figure it isn't the most well built thing, but I could see myself using it a lot. I doubt we will ever get them here though with it having a bag.

[Jakesvacs]

I agree with everything said about this type of G-tech. I’ve tried the bagless version and wasn’t impressed. Like you mentioned the floor head just floats everywhere and performance wasn’t worth pushing it round. The Dyson is much much better.

[Selby]

  looks very familiar....

[Parwaz7862]

TBH I hate any cordless vacuum out there apart from the new V7 and V8 Dysons, as they really do work well! One would expect a cordless to have limited and mediocre power but the Dysons go through the rooftops

[autovac01]

I tried one out yesterday; Like the Dyson cordless, all the weight is at the top which IMHO makes them heavy to use, there is a bit of a knack to it. Bags are easy to put on and take off. Pickup on eco is designed to be used on hard floors but did quite well on the carpet.

[dysondc16]

While we're on the topic of overpriced bag-using cordless vacuums I just stumbled across this oreck today. It looks interesting, but it is almost the same price as a v8, uses bags, and appears to be dirty fan! 

http://theoreckstore.net/oreck-pod-technology-cordless-vacuum/