Beldray Airgility Max vacuum cleaner review: A feature-packed bargain

Best Prices Today: Beldray Airgility Max

$185.39

British brand Beldray (try saying that after a few Bellinis) became famous for their ironing boards in the 1960s and now make all sorts of practical household items, including a floorcare range that stands out for its affordable price.

We test Beldray’s cordless cleaner, the Airgility Max, which you can get in the UK for under £90.

Note that if you’re reading this review from the US, the model available there (see on Amazon) comes with a motorized pet tool which drives up the price.

Although the higher price makes it less appealing, the extra tool makes it much more useful for anyone who wants to use this vacuum on upholstery – the model we’re testing doesn’t have an upholstery cleaning head. appropriate furnishings. In the UK the equivalent model is the Pet Max (get it from Beldray), and it’s £10-20 more than the Airgility Max.

Design and build

• stick and handheld
• Only has one additional cleaning tool
• Replaceable battery
• Headlights

The Airgility is a modular vacuum cleaner, which can be used as a stick or a handheld. It’s black, with either rose gold or platinum accents, depending on which colorway you choose. If you need to store your vacuum in sight, it’s a better option than many vacuums twice as expensive.

The cleaning accessories that come with it are bare bones. Besides the main cleaning head, there is a second tool/brush combination that can be attached to the end of the wand to zap cobwebs from the ceiling or to the main unit to clean gaps and tough spots.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

However, the crevice tool has a small cleaning area, so it’s not very useful on large upholstery surfaces – if you used it to remove pet hair from a couch, you’d be stuck there forever.

In the box you will also find a cord and plug, and a spare washable HEPA filter.

But the Airgility makes up for its lack of accessories with some really nice features.

It has a removable 2.96V battery. You’ll get (up to) 50 minutes of cleaning time before it needs to be recharged and you can purchase a second battery to recharge and swap out for just £29.99 from Beldray. We found the battery life held up well in our test.

The battery display is simple but easy to read, consisting of three bars that flash when the battery is depleted. These are also mode-specific – you might find that you only have one bar in boost mode, but two as standard.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

The only problem is that three bars doesn’t provide a very accurate measurement, but once you get to the last bar you know you’ll have to hook it up pretty neat.

The battery takes around 5.5 hours to charge, which is too long to be ideal but won’t be a problem if you invest in a second battery.

When you start vacuuming with the main head, you’ll notice it lights up with five LEDs to illuminate dust and hair in your path. These aren’t as bright as some competitors and notably less effective than Dyson’s green laser, but are still sufficient to aid in vacuuming in a dark room or dark corners.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

It also has a large 1.2 liter dustbin – comparing very favorably to the 0.75 liters of the Dyson V15 Detect – which is easy to empty via a button at the base and has no corners for dust and the hair lodges, although it wraps around the filter center.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Inside there is a removable and washable HEPA filter. Like any bagless vacuum, its usefulness for people sensitive to dust has to be balanced by the fact that when you knock it over in the trash you inevitably create a little cloud of dust.

The Airgility also has a convenient storage mode, so it can be stored upright and takes up minimal space.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

These are features you’d expect to see on a much more expensive vacuum. You get what you pay for with the Airgility Max.

Performance

• Two cleaning modes
• Handy
• Can push larger debris

The Airgility has a comfortable grip and a trigger type switch. Fortunately, it is not necessary to hold it down during use. Press the button once for standard cleaning mode and twice for boost. The third press turns it off, which means there’s the slightly annoying need to go into boost mode before you can turn it off.

It feels light to use although at 3.5kg / 7.7lbs it’s actually quite a bit heavier than the flagship Dyson V15 Detect. Its lightweight feel is likely due to the vacuum supporting much of its own weight and having four wheels on its base (two large ones in the back and two tiny rollers in the front) that make it move effortlessly across the floor.

It is very maneuverable, with a twistable adjustment on the main head that allows it to turn well. It can’t quite lie flat, but you can go a long way under sofas with it.

It picks up hair and dust well, but when it comes to larger debris – like kitty litter – on hard floors, it tends to push the bits out before it sucks them up, so you can find yourself sawing back and forth to get everything.

It’s good for removing surface dirt on carpets but, while Beldray doesn’t say how strong the suction is, I doubt it’s strong enough to pull ground-in dirt out of deep-pile carpets.

The brush roll tangles with hair quickly – as do the small wheels at the front that help give it its maneuverability. It was easy to get the brush roll out and cut the hair, but you’ll have to do this regularly as the fibers compress quickly when the hair is wrapped around them and won’t be very helpful. The small wheels were much harder to release and took a little time with nail scissors.

The Airgility Max is a good all-around vacuum, but you’ll need another vacuum for heavy-duty jobs and upholstery.

Price and availability

At £89.99 from Currys or Amazon, this is a bargain buy that performs well compared to other cleansers at this price.

Price plays a big part in our recommendation here and unfortunately in the US it’s not as affordable. But it does come with the pet tool, which you could use as a dedicated upholstery cleaner and that would give it a lot more versatility. You can buy it on Amazon.

Verdict

Overall, for a budget model, the Beldray Airgility Max is impressive. Throughout this review I’ve compared it to the Dyson V15 Detect, which is unfair as the V15 costs several times as much as the latter, but it’s a useful quality benchmark and the Airgility Max did well resisted.

When it comes to features – such as its headlights, replaceable battery and large, easy-open bin with washable HEPA filter – the Airgility Max packs a lot for its price. The only thing it lacks for everyday use is a dedicated upholstery cleaner. The crevice tool is just too small and most of us don’t want to use our floor heads on beds and couches.

It won’t compete with heavy-duty vacuums like the Henry, and as such I wouldn’t recommend it for thick carpets or homes where regular deep cleaning is needed. But for smaller homes and light jobs, it’s a great buy.

To see our top-rated vacuums, check out our roundup of the best vacuums we’ve tested.

Specifications

• Battery: 2.96V battery
• Cleaning time: Up to 50 minutes
• Charging time: 5.5 hours
• Weight: 3.5kg/7.7lbs