AEG QX6 Animal cordless vacuum cleaner review – an upright and handheld vacuum

The AEG QX6 Animal is unlike any vacuum cleaner I have seen before. It's a cordless vac with direct access to a handheld vac and onboard accessories, which is great for quickly switching between cleaning the floor to cleaning the stairs (for example).

As with all the best vacuum cleaners I've reviewed, the AEG QX6 Animal has been challenged with whatever gets thrown onto the floors of our home, and the general hardship which said floors endure on a daily basis. I've had it for a couple of months and used it as our main vac, which has really been a test for it. We've fairly recently had wool carpet fitted up the stairs, landing and in all three bedrooms so there's been some fluff-balls to contend with, plus my long hair, so the brush bar has been put through its paces somewhat. Crumbs and rice crispies courtesy of my daughter have also been a contender, especially for the handheld vac. It's not been an easy ride for the AEG QX6 Animal but it has been a good one to have nearby.

The AEG QX6 Animal is one of seven vacuum cleaners from the brand, and one of five in the QX6 range.  It has a similar spec to the QX6 but comes with the motorised pet nozzle, making it suitable for homes with resident four-legged friends.

Intrigued? Read on to hear how it fared with the various challenges it faced.

AEG QX6 Animal

Product spec:

• Runtime: up to 45 minutes
  Charge time: 4.5 hours
  Capacity: 0.3L
  Accessories included: telescopic tube, motorised pet nozzle

Delivery, unboxing and set up

The AEG QX6 Animal, as one would expect, arrived in a box. And a compact one at that. The branded box was inside another, more bland sort but still all the more essential. Moving on from the box talk, the packaging is a mix of plastic bags and cardboard. There was more bags to my liking in all honesty, and they can't be recycled. It was all very neatly arranged anyway and, looking at it, looked easy to clip and/ or slot together.

Set up was indeed a matter of slotting and clipping together. Floorhead to the man unit, handle to the main unit and then the handheld unit within the main unit (SUCH a good quirk). It's the handheld unit which is the powerhouse to the vac; when you unclip it you can use the handheld, as a handheld vac. There was some juice in the battery but I'm not sure how much since I decided to give it a full charge before its first use, which is usually the norm.

Now the charging really threw me. Looking at the instructions I was kidding myself that the charging cable could be plugged in to the main unit at the back; I was pulling all sorts of shapes with the vac to find the charging port. Had no such joy. This is because to charge the AEG QX6 Animal you slot it into the charging base. I only wasted 5 or 10 mins of my life figuring this out, so no biggy.

Using the AEG QX6 Animal

We've spoken about this being a 2-in-1 vac so it makes sense to share how it performs as an upright and as a handheld. Both have pros and cons, depending on your vacuuming requirements. We'll start with the upright...

Upright

It's a cordless vacuum which stands upright. Such a plus. Especially if you like to frequently vacuum and need a vac nearby at all times. I haven't come across this before and is a feature I really like.

When in use there are two modes; Plus and Minus, which can be controlled on the handle. I found I used the 'plus' mode most of the time. It's just something I feel more satisfied using, knowing its (trying) to work hard on the carpet pile to suck up dust, crumbs... all those little things our carpets endure on a daily basis. It did okay on our carpets and did take on small pieces of toast or rice cakes, courtesy of my daughter, especially on the hard floor. For the purpose of this review, though, I did give it a go on the 'minus' mode and it really struggled to vacuum our carpet, and hard floor for that matter - I didn't see or hear anything being banished to the dust bin that I can vouch for.

The dust bin where all the debris, if you like, ends up is in the handheld unit. This is small in comparison to other vacuum cleaners I've reviewed. I found I was emptying it ( almost) after each time of use. If I'd vacuumed our entire 3 bed home, stairs and all, I'd be looking at emptying it two to three times during a session. Admittedly we had new carpets laid a few months ago up the stairs, landing and in 3 bedrooms which this vac really fell short when compared to my usual vacuum cleaner (a Dyson). Arguably it was the dust bin size, clogging up and battery life which was the problem here.

That battery life is just 13 minutes on a full charge on 'plus' mode, which is on par with the best handheld vacuum cleaners. As an upright, though, there were plenty-a times when I would be vacuuming and then the QX6 Animal cut out on me. There was no drop in suction, however, although it would have been good to have a more visible flashing light on the handle or something to tell me that battery is low. Instead there's three small lights on the handheld unit to display the battery levels, which is a guessing game as to how much juice you actually have left but if you see just one light lit out expect it to cut out any minute.

The floorhead attachment is as the name suggests, for the floor. Another feature I like on this vac is that the floorhead has a light, which I know is something we're starting to see more and more of but the novelty doesn't wear off. We've managed this long without a light on a floorhead so it's not really a necessity in my personal opinion, but a really nice to have. It's particularly nice to have when vacuuming in the evenings or low light levels, under furniture, since it lights up anything that needs its attention.

Getting the floorhead to vacuum up debris from alongside the skirting is a little frustrating. It doesn't get as close to the edges as I would like, but there is the telescopic tube which will tackle this although this will make the vacuuming chore more of a mission than it really needs to be.

Handheld

The handheld came in handy when vacuuming the stairs, car and highchair in my household. The floorhead can be unclipped and the mini motorised head clipped on. It makes switching between vacuuming the floors and the stairs particularly easy, if you're doing okay for battery life. This attachment can also be used for cleaning upholstery where any resident four-legged friends reside, too, I just haven't tested this because we (sadly) don't have any pets - one child really is enough to take care of for now.

There's a separate power button on the handheld unit for turning it on and off but, as with most handheld vacuum cleaners, there is only one speed setting. And the accessories can also be used on the unit, too, which are neatly stored on board the upright unit so they're available for whenever you need them.

Good to know...

The AEG QX6 Animal has a five-step air filtration system which claims to remove 99.99% of microdust particles. There's two filters; progressive filter and emission filter. The progressive filter is a 2-layer filter which catches the bigger particles, and the emission filter will capture the finer particles like pollen, mold spores and allergens. Whilst I am unable to scientifically test this, it's some added comfort and confidence to know that the air in my home is being purified whilst I'm vacuuming.

Cleaning and maintaining the AEG QX6 Animal

The floorhead has (another) neat feature which is that it can clean the brushbar. The button on the floorhead just needs to be pressed for as long as you need. This will help to free up any loose debris from the bristles, but if you have hair or carpet fluff then you'll need to remove this with some scissors. You can't remove the brushbar from the floorhead so just be careful when freeing tangled hair from it.

Depending on your frequency of use and what you're vacuuming, you may need to give the brushbar some attention after each use. This goes the same for emptying the bin - the 0.3L isn't much.

AEG advise to clean the progressive filter once a month, and the emission filter every two months with running cold water. This will help to keep the vac in tip-top condition. Over time the filters will ware so it's also advised by the brand to replace the emission filter every year and the progressive filter every six months. This can be bought as a performance kit direct from the AEG website for £19.99.

Should you buy the AEG QX6 Animal?

I used this vac as my main one; it was my go-to for a quick vacuum and for the twice-weekly vacuum around the home. As the latter, it's not cut out to vacuum an entire home. The dust bin is far too small, battery life on plus mode (my preferred) was frustratingly lacking and suction on carpet wasn't the best compared to other vacs I've reviewed. However for a quick vacuum on hard floors, or as a handheld vac to go up the stairs or out to the car, it's really useful.

Personally, I would recommend buying this vacuum cleaner if you were in need of a second and have hard flooring predominately throughout the home. It's a good option if you're on a tight budget, too, and want to try out an affordable vac before investing more into a model which is a more long-term solution.

About this review - and our reviewer

Jennifer Oksien is our Large Appliance editor heading up vacuum cleaners, washing machines, dishwashers and, something a little different, barbecues across the Future Homes titles. She is four years into a house renovation, and has tested many home appliances and mattresses in the last few years.

She was sent this product to review at home for a few months to find out how it performs in a family home with various floor-types with varying amounts (and types) of debris. Her three-bed house has hard wood flooring and limestone tiles downstairs, and a relatively new carpet running up the stairs, across the landing and into the three bedrooms making it the perfect space to review vacuum cleaners.

We are not given any compensation for our reviews, but we have been gifted the AEG QX6 Animal meaning that we can test it over a greater length of time, and update if required.