Beldray Wet and Dry cordless hand vacuum review: a two-in-one steal

Crumb scatterings, minor spills and small puddles can be quickly and easily eliminated with the Beldray Wet and Dry cordless hand vacuum. This is most definitely a handheld device and not comparable to a cordless stick vacuum – you should buy it as an addition to your vacuuming armoury, for those small, quick-fix cleaning moments. 

When considering investing in a new tool for your home, it is always wise to weigh up whether the cost of the appliance is worth the convenience and space it'll take up. Retailing at just £34.99, cost is much less of an issue if you are considering this vacuum, which brings us down to convenience and space.

I allocated the Beldray Wet and Dry Hand Vacuum a spot in my utility room, conveniently close to the budgie cage, for nearly eight weeks to find out if it really was a useful addition to our collection of the best vacuums (we also have a robot and cordless stick vacuum). I tried to reach for it as often as possible while dealing with all the daily spills and thrills of a four-bed family home containing two hairy pre-teens, three hairy dogs and one extremely messy budgie, Rocky. Read on to find out whether it became an essential tool in the battle to keep this place habitable.

Beldray Wet and Dry Cordless Hand Vacuum Product Specifications

• Cleaning time: 20 minutes 
• Charging time: 4 hours 
• Dimensions: H13cm x W41cm x D10cm
• Dustbox size: 500ml 
• Power settings: 1
• Weight: 0.85kg

Freelance Journalist

Freelance Journalist

Linda Clayton

Linda Clayton is a professionally trained journalist who has specialised in home tech, interior design and fitness for more than two decades. She’s a fastidious product reviewer, design obsessive, serial renovator, and amateur runner. 

She was sent the Beldray Wet and Dry Cordless Hand Vacuum to test in her Devon home and find out how well it performs in a chaotic family setting, which includes two young girls, both mad keen bakers, and far too many pets. 

We are not given any compensation for our reviews, but we may be gifted the product meaning that we can test it over a greater length of time and update our reviews if required. We may receive affiliate commission for some products bought through our site.

Who will the Beldray Wet and Dry Cordless Hand Vacuum suit?

Those with young children or young pets will appreciate the wet capabilities of this convenient little handheld. It’s undoubtedly a handy addition to a main vacuum, especially if that vacuum is stored away from the kitchen. 

The water capacity isn’t terribly generous, so don’t expect to use it to empty a paddling pool or clear up after a washing machine flood. 

How easy is the Beldray Wet and Dry Cordless Hand Vacuum to set up?

Setting up the Beldray Wet and Dry Cordless Hand Vacuum is extremely simple and doesn’t really require the instruction pamphlet supplied. The box comes with a charging base for wall mounting, plus screws, the main unit and two nozzles, one for wet and one for dry.

All I needed to do was connect the power up, plug it in and leave it charging. There was a little charge in the unit, but I left it charging on the base for about four hours (as per the instructions) before I had my first go. The power light changes from flashing red to solid red when it reaches full charge. 

What is the Beldray Wet and Dry Cordless Hand Vacuum like to use?

The Beldray Wet and Dry Cordless Hand Vacuum has just two buttons, a simple slide on and off button and another to release the bin for emptying. No pointless Apps to connect or dubious eco modes. Turn it on and get cleaning. 

Admittedly it’s pretty loud in use but you’ll probably only want it for short bursts of time, and it was not unbearable, even to my overly sensitive ears. There is only one power mode but it’s powerful enough to suck up things like crumbs, dog hairs and cereal spills with ease. When used to suck dog hairs off of cushions, you can feel the pressure of the suction in a particularly satisfying manner!

How good is the Beldray Wet and Dry Cordless Hand Vacuum at cleaning?

Wet cleaning

I’ll admit to being a little underwhelmed by the whole wet use feature, especially if you want to use it for dry as well. This is because you must empty the bin completely and knock out the dust from the filter, then attach the rubber nozzle, before you can use it in wet mode. You then need to dry all the parts completely before you can use it in dry mode again. Boring.

In most cases, water spills require quick action to prevent damage or reduce the time it’ll take carpets etc to dry. By the time I’d emptied the bin/filter and applied the nozzle, I could have grabbed my microfibre mop, kitchen towel or a dishcloth and dealt with the spill far faster. Also, the bin capacity in wet mode is significantly reduced compared to dry, and you can’t risk overfilling it, or even tilting it backwards, as the instruction guide warns about the potential to get water into the “waterproof cover”, which doesn’t make sense but also doesn’t sound like something I’d want to test out! Bigger spills require multiple bin emptying and, again, a mop or cloth would potentially do the job faster.

On the plus side, the Beldray Wet and Dry does a good job of sucking up small spills and it’s quite satisfying to watch the water bubble up into the transparent bin. 

On hard surfaces I’d have done better with a mop or cloth as the surface was still too wet after vacuuming to just leave without wiping down with a dry cloth. However, it really came into its own when tackling spills on soft furnishings and rugs. This is because the suction got right into rugs and sofa cushions, pulling up the liquid from deep within the pile/foam. I’d have had to do a lot of blotting with kitchen roll or towel to get similar results. I felt quite chilled (read smug) when my dad spilled a cuppa on the new sofa. I knew I had just the tool to handle it.

Dry cleaning

Cleaning dry dust and debris is as easy as you’d expect from any small handheld vacuum. The power is pretty decent. Not Dyson decent, but far better than I was expecting for the money. I often used it to whip up the stair runner as it’s much lighter than even the cordless stick vacuum, and also found it handy for giving the car seats/mats a quick once-over after a beach trip. It was brilliant around the budgie cage, which is permanently splattered in seed husks and feathers, and also handy for getting crumbs out of the bread and baking drawers. 

I also did a little test with some out-of-date desiccated coconut to provide visual evidence of how the Beldray Wet and Dry leaves no crumbs in its wake (see above). Pretty impressive. The battery life is only 20 minutes so I wouldn’t recommend it for a full car valet or significant clean, but I never once ran out of juice before the job in hand was complete. 

Switching from the rubber wet nozzle to the longer crevice nozzle for dry use wasn’t easy because the former wedges in tight. After breaking a fingernail, I used a dinner knife to prize it off. Happily, the dry nozzle is longer, which means there is more to grab hold of and it comes out easily.

Is it easy to empty, maintain and store the Beldray Wet and Dry Cordless Hand Vacuum?

Emptying the Beldray Wet and Dry involves releasing a catch on the handle, pulling out the filter and filter housing, and then shaking the contents out into the bin. It is not hard but it takes a bit of practice to avoid chucking dust and debris everywhere. The parts are fairly small, so I found the dirt easier to contain if I held the whole unit over the bin while detaching. Yes, I did have to go fishing for parts on more than one occasion! In an ideal world, you’d just flip the bin open and empty in one manoeuvre. 

Filter cleaning should be done every three weeks, depending on usage, and is a simple case of washing it under a tap and leaving to dry. You can buy a spare for £7.99 if you want to ensure you always have a dry filter to hand. 

I’m very protective of the socket allocation in our kitchen so I did appreciate the wall-mounted charger supplied with the Beldray Wet and Dry (complete with screws), which means it needn’t clutter up the worksurfaces.

How does the Beldray Wet and Dry Cordless Hand Vacuum compare?

Several big brands make similar size wet and dry vacuums, for example Black+Decker, Dirt Devil, Daewoo and Stanley, as well as a huge array of obscure brands. 

One of the closest competitors to the Beldray Wet and Dry is the Black+Decker WDC215WA-GB Wet and Dry, which offers similar spec for a fiver more. It has a slightly shorter usage time and smaller dust box capacity, but it does come with a brush tool (perfect for cobwebs and cornicing), which was sorely missed by many of the buyer reviews I read from Beldray Wet and Dry owners.  

Should you buy the Beldray Wet and Dry Cordless Hand Vacuum?

If you are specifically looking for a vacuum that can tackle small-scale wet and dry spills, you can’t go wrong with the Beldray Wet and Dry. There are few bells and whistles but it does exactly what it says on the tin (box). It doesn’t waste any worktop space and nor will it look too ugly on the wall. I’d still mount it inside the broom cupboard though. 

The price is brilliant, and the suction equally impressive. Do keep the filter cleaned regularly to maintain power. Admittedly it’s not the smoothest when it comes to transitioning from wet to dry, and the bin emptying is a tad faffy but, overall, the Beldray Wet and Dry proved a usefully little fellow to have about our house.