Is the Lubluelu 202 Vacuum Cleaner the Dyson Killer We’ve Been Waiting For? Find Out Now!
8 years ago my better half suggested that we get a new vacuum cleaner to replace our venerable old Miele. Specifically she wanted one of those new fangled battery powered Dysons. My experience up until till then had been with the corded 12V car vacuum cleaners that well, sucked. So of course we got a Dyson SV03 anyway and it was actually great! Even better, it’s been giving stellar service ever since. It’s a bit battered and bruised now but the battery still seems to be as strong as ever and it still cleans as well as it ever did. The Miele is still dragged out every time we need something with the power of the national grid behind it and it can’t be beaten for raw power.
The Dyson was a revelation. On demand, ease of use, light. Vacuuming the stairs was so much easier. Dragging out the powerful but heavy corded cleaner was tedious, so it didn’t happen often. I guess this isn’t news to many, but if you haven’t tried one of these little wonders, just get one.
The Dyson is getting on though, so it’s time for a change. And so we have the subject of this review. The Lubluelu 202 vacuum cleaner. I pronounce the name Lu-Blue-Lu, they are a relatively new Chinese brand specialising in cordless vacuum technologies. They have wet and dry models, and a range of robot vacuums.
The 202 model is a stick version and has been around for about 12 months now. A cursory scan of the Amazon review section doesn’t flag any concerns. First impressions are good, the attention to detail on the products and the website is high enough to instil confidence that this is their “thing”, and not just another product of many from a large manufacturer. Spares are available on the website too, and the prices seem reasonable. It comes with a 2 year warranty.
First impressions
It’s pretty much a clone of the Dyson, a power unit attached to a cleaning head and an adjustable tube if you are cleaning the floor. It has a removable battery with a claimed 50 minute battery life on the low setting. This is more than enough, 50 minutes is a lot of cleaning for most homes. It took 10 minutes to clean our wooden ground floor and carpeted stairs. In a continuous test the cleaner ran for 22 minutes on the medium setting.
We’ve never needed to change the battery on the Dyson, but if you run your own cleaning business then having a few spare batteries on hand could be really handy. There is also 4 layer HEPA filtration, this is good because it’s not nice having all that nasty stuff blown back at you. You get a spare HEPA filter in the box. The filters can be cleaned with the brushes on the cleaning tool, and if you need to, it can be cleaned in soapy water. Dry it thoroughly before use of course. The roller brush in the motorised head can be removed and cleaned as well. Spare filters are £10 (Amazon) and a spare battery is $52 (Lubluelu).
It’s made of the usual plastics, so it will be pretty robust and hard wearing.
In terms of accessories, there’s a motorised head for wooden and carpeted floors; a long rectangular crevice tool for narrow spaces; and a brush for delicate items, curtains, and furniture. You also get a little combined cleaner and hair cutter tool, which actually shows that someone has put some thought into this design. That’s a subtle but important thing.
One nice feature is that it is free standing. It’s pretty stable when stood up and this means you have more storage options than you would otherwise have. In a corner, behind the sofa etc. It has as a cupboard mount too but unfortunately the charging cable isn’t integrated. The Dyson does do this and it’s a useful ‘set and forget’ feature, the vacuum is always ready.
You can charge the cleaner with the battery in the unit or you can remove the battery and charge it somewhere more convenient. The charger has battery management so you can’t overcharge it, however the manual advises against leaving it on charge for more than 5 hours.
In use it’s quite a bit quieter than the Dyson. It’s powerful and easy to use. It’s easy to empty, give it a sharp tap on the edge of the bin to knock out any dust, but watch out you don’t hit the battery eject button instead! It will hold about
600ml of dirt, which is enough to do our stairs on one go. This normally fills the Dyson too as it’s a high traffic area, so for our normal pet infested house it’s more than acceptable. It could do with a smaller head for cleaning on the stairs though, but you can use two hands on it to make it easier to manoeuvrer. It makes light work of it to be fair.
The floor cleaning tube is adjustable to suit your height. The cleaner is quite agile and it easily adjusted to reach under our sofas and oven. There are some white LEDs on the front, which does a nice job highlighting the pet hair on the floor, though I’m not so sure it’s very useful as I don’t vacuum in the dark.
Alternatives
There are a lot of options available these days. Shark and Dyson occupy the premium end of the market, £200-£300, and I’ve no doubt that you would notice the difference, but does the difference justify the price? At the other end sits the Lubluelu 202 at about £100 and I would say that at this price it’s a no-brainer. It does the job and it does it well.
Summary
I like the Lubluelu, it’s a good robust cleaner and it will be replacing our Dyson. As an added bonus it’s a great price too.
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