2022.07.26

Make car cleaning easier – skip the cord!

Sure, you can clean the inside of your car with a "regular" vacuum cleaner, provided you have an electrical outlet nearby, but it's undeniably easier to do it with a stick vacuum cleaner.

Last year, approximately 830,000 vacuum cleaners were sold in Sweden, and the vast majority (just over 60 percent) of them were traditional floor vacuum cleaners with a bag. Bagless floor vacuum cleaners accounted for approximately four percent of sales and one in a hundred vacuum cleaners sold was a robot.

The vacuum cleaner category that stands out from the crowd in two ways is the rechargeable stick vacuum cleaners, which both increased the most in sales (+22.9 percent in value compared to 2020, while vacuum cleaners in total increased by 8.2 percent) and were the only category where the percentage increase in value was higher than in number, which means that the trend is that people buy more expensive models of stick vacuum cleaners, which accounted for just over one in four vacuum cleaners sold last year.

Cordless stick vacuums were previously used by most people mostly to pick up crumbs and the like, but they have become increasingly powerful and today they can do much more than that. That's why many of them are now also suitable for cleaning the car!

Stick vacuum cleaners that are more powerful than ”regular” vacuum cleaners

An example of this is the new Triflex HX2, which was launched in June as the most powerful vacuum cleaner from Miele – cleaning performance compared to a Miele Complete C3 floor vacuum cleaner (SGEF3) with STB 305-3 Turbobrush (dust pick-up from carpet and hard floors with cracks, fibre pick-up from carpet), according to IEC628852.

Miele states that the Triflex HX2 has 60 percent more suction power than its predecessor (HX1) thanks to a new digital efficiency motor, Multi Floor XXL electrobrush and Vortex technology. Like its predecessor, the HX2 has a 3-in-1 design, which means it can be used with the suction unit itself – which Miele calls the PowerUnit – on top. This is suitable, for example, when vacuuming under furniture or close to the floor, for a lower center of gravity and smooth vacuuming of floors, as the vacuum cleaner can also stand upright without support, which is practical for short breaks. The third design is to use only the PowerUnit itself, which is ideal for removing crumbs from the breakfast table or cleaning the car.

The electric brush automatically senses different surfaces and on hard floors reduces speed to save energy, which in turn extends battery life. The motor on the Triflex HX2 works in the same way - the motor power is increased or reduced depending on the type of floor.

The battery life is stated to be 60 minutes and some models are sold with dual batteries – which means 120 minutes of vacuuming.

Miele announces that the HEPA Lifetime filter removes 99.999 percent of all dust particles and even filters out allergens.

More information about the Miele Triflex HX2 and HX1 can be found at here.

Vacuum and wet mop at the same time

In May, Philips Domestic Appliances presented a new 3-in-1 cordless stick vacuum cleaner that both vacuums and wets – the Philips AquaTrio Cordless Wet & Dry Vacuum 9000 Series – and which, thanks to its unique AquaSpin technology, is said to capture dust, dirt and bacteria better than any other.

The product can be used in three ways – with the main unit as a handheld vacuum cleaner in, for example, the car or sofa, as a stick vacuum cleaner and as a stick vacuum cleaner that also wet-mops.

Now you don't have to lug around a heavy bucket of reused, dirty mop water, Philips announces, explaining that a constant flow of clean water and two ultra-soft microfiber brushes, rotating at high speed, ensure that every part of the floor is hygienically treated with only clean water.

”Philips AquaTrio Cordless offers consumers the most complete, hygienic cleaning solution to clean all types of floors, and much faster. After years of development, I am proud that this innovation is reaching consumers around the world, allowing them to clean their homes quickly and efficiently,” says Henk Siebren de Jong, CEO Philips Domestic Appliances.

Philips Domestic Appliances has added an automatic post-cleaning mode, which cleans the entire appliance and brushes in four minutes. Battery life is said to be up to 45 minutes – in vacuuming mode – or 90 minutes with an extra battery (sold as an accessory).

Philips AquaTrio Cordless will be available in Germany on July 1, and in Sweden (as well as Norway and a few other countries) after the summer.

More information is available in English. press release here. In Philips Swedish homepage At the time of writing, there is no information about the Philips AquaTrio Cordless, but it will likely be available at launch.

Consider the environment when washing your car

Nowadays, most people wash their cars in self-service car washes or automatic car washes, although there are still some who wash their cars in the garage driveway or on the street outside the house, which is usually no longer allowed. But regardless of where the washing takes place, one should think about the environment when choosing washing products. Turtle Wax, for example, offers two degreasers that are eco-labeled with the Nordic Ecolabel – Degreaser Nordic Ecolabel, which removes light dirt and is suitable for use in spring and summer, and Micro Power Degreaser, which also removes coarse dirt and can be used all year round.

Those who wash on the street, under the pretext that they are not using any environmentally hazardous cleaning agents, might want to think about what they are washing away from the car – there are probably some substances that you should not send to the street drain...

//Ola Larsson