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A Tower in name and shape but not in size, the T527000 handheld vacuum cleaner is a nifty and nimble asset for cleaning small spaces.
The best thing about the Tower is that it is cheap and cheerful – not many complaints can match its price. Being lightweight, small and cordless makes it especially convenient if you’re looking for something handy to clean your car with or to whip away cobwebs or dry spillages.
Where complaints are to be made, however, they’re in the department of capacity: the battery and dust tank do not last long before the Tower needs recharging and emptying. And, slightly disappointingly, the brush fitting totally nullifies the Tower’s suction.
Set up
The Tower T527000 is pretty much a turn-on-and-go kind of gizmo. If you have a fear of instruction manuals, you’ll love this: apart from the obligatory safety information (reminder: do not immerse plugs in water or hoover up your pets and children), the manual contains straightforward information on charging and cleaning the Tower. All you need to do is charge it once before turning on.
Design
The Tower is sleek and lightweight – it feels a little like a slightly oversized hand-held blender.
It comes with a storage stand that doubles up as a charging point (where it can sit with its fittings while charging or in storage) which is pretty nifty and – like the Tower – also quite compact.
Features
Fittings:
The Tower comes with two additional fittings that can be attached to its standard nozzle. The narrow ‘crevice’ fitting is super useful, allowing you to poke the Tower into different corners and underneath sofas.
The brush fitting, I’m afraid, kinda sucks. To clarify, it doesn’t suck at all: if you want to suck up anything you’ve brushed off a surface, you’ll have to remove the fitting and go straight in with the direct sucker. This makes the Tower nothing more than a glorified duster. The brush fitting, I’m afraid, will be collecting dust.
Suction:
With the base nozzle or crevice fitting on, the Tower does a good job at sucking. Having recently moved to the city from the countryside and been unable to resist continuing gardening in my tiny outdoor space, I’ve done a fair bit of potting-up inside the house recently. Watching the hoover suck up the dirt afterwards was so satisfying.
Other tasks included sucking up breadcrumbs and hair (post-homecut): both clean-ups were expertly executed by the Tower. When I broke a glass and tried to use the Tower to remove the shards, not so much – but apparently you’re not meant to use vacuums on broken glass anyway (my bad).
I was impressed by how much dirt the brush function could lift out of carpets, but as stated there is literally no suction when this fitting is on to remove the dirt afterwards.
Battery:
The battery life is not great, but probably as expected for its size. The box advertises a 20 minute run time, which is about right.
You’d think that this would make for speedy charging times, but for your 20 minutes of use you’re going to have to wait four hours until it’s fully charged. If you were on it with charging – perhaps easier to do if keeping it in a cupboard with a socket – that might be okay. But if you were caught out mid-way through cleaning, or if you’re planning to do more than 20 minutes of vacuuming in one go, then that would suck.
On the upside, an LED indicator on the Tower lets you know how much charge you have left so you can manage your expectations.
Dust capacity:
The Tower’s dust tank capacity is officially 200ml, but in reality once the filters are covered by dust (within 10 minutes of hoovering usually), the suction is significantly impeded so you’re unlikely to reach its full capacity before needing to empty the tank.
Emptying and cleaning:
It seems pretty meta to consider how easy it is to clean a vacuum cleaner – but it’s nevertheless a necessary part of owning one. An easy-open cap on the Tower’s dust tank with a quick-release button makes for a fairly smooth emptying of your dusty bounty.
For the first few days of use, it didn’t feel so easy as this still required putting your hand inside to pull the dust out. But when we figured out you could remove the whole dust chamber (tip: twist the clear top clockwise to click it out of place), that made it a lot easier. Perhaps there is something to be said for more detailed instruction manuals.
If you do remove the whole dust chamber, you can also pull out the sponge filter from the middle and give it a clean. This is super satisfying.
It’s great to not have to use dust bags – saving waste, money, and the admin of having to replace them when you run out. (Where would you even go to buy dust bags?).
Verdict
The Tower T527000 is a handy little dust-buster that won’t break the bank. It can take on cobwebs, piles of breadcrumbs and dirt, and sand in your car’s footwells – but don’t expect to be able to vacuum your whole house with it. Even if you were patient enough to try (its small size is great for tight spaces but not for bigger projects), its limited battery life and dust capacity would probably stop you.
This may be where the Tower loses points – along with an almost-useless brush fitting – but where it gains them should not be ignored. The Tower is a convenient, decent handheld vacuum cleaner that will help you get out of some sticky spots – and it’s well designed for those times when you want to clean the cleaner itself.
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Alternatives
Shark Samba
It looks like the Tower and behaves like the Tower: if you're here for affordable, lightweight and convenient handheld vacuums then the Shark Samba is also a good option to consider. But for over double the price of the Tower you get less than half of the running time, as the Shark Samba needs charging after eight minutes of use.
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Miele Triflex HX2 Pro
If budget isn't your concern (like,seriously isn't your concern), the Miele Triflex HX2 Pro gives you a lot of suction in a sleek, futuristic design – but it will cost you over £700. The Miele Triflex HX2 Pro comes with all the fittings of your dreams and is said to be quieter than many other vacuum cleaners, but if the Tower appeals because it's unlikely to break the bank... the Miele is a bit harder to justify.
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