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.