Acer is a company primarily known for its laptops, monitors and all kinds of tech gadgets. But this year it took on a new challenge, launching home appliance brand Acerpure.
Its latest offering? The Acerpure Clean Lite Cordless Vacuum Cleaner.
Looking more like a Guitar Hero game controller than a stick vac, we were curious to see how the device performed.
The results are in, and they're not good. To say it sucked would be an understatement, and not in the way you'd expect from your stick vacuum. According to our test results, this is the worst stick vacuum to grace our labs. And for $199, that's why it's a Shonky in our books.
To say it sucked would be an understatement, and not in the way you'd expect from your stick vacuum
Acer describes the Clean Lite as ultra lightweight. And that's true, but the cleaning head is smaller than on other stick vacs we've tested, and the appliance feels flimsy. CHOICE editorial director Mark Serrels almost broke it the first time he tried cleaning with it. This stick vac could be doomed for landfill earlier than you'd hope.
A small opening and low suction makes a blockage a regular occurrence.
Flake-out failure on hard floors
Acer claims "great suction power", but we beg to differ. Our main performance test is our hard floor assessment, which checks how well a vacuum can pick up cornflakes, potting mix and flour from a hard floor.
The Acerpure completely bombed, scoring just 10%, the worst performance ever recorded in this test. It struggled to pick up anything at all, and the suction inlet got clogged almost instantly.
Whatever it did manage to pick up would fill the small bin quickly, and when the vac was switched off, debris would fall back onto the floor.
The size of the opening into the vacuum tube is quite small, but it also changes as you vacuum. Moving the cleaning head to a 90° angle completely blocks the tube, rendering the vacuum useless. It's no wonder our tester had to use another vacuum cleaner to pick up the debris the Acerpure couldn't.
It struggled to pick up anything at all, and the suction inlet got clogged almost instantly
It also scored 10% in our pet hair test, picking up very little and just pushing and clumping the rest of it. Well, whatever wasn't stuck in the wheel of the cleaning head, that is.
Surprisingly, it wasn't the worst at carpet cleaning, scoring 58% for a quick carpet clean and 62% for a thorough clean. We rate both these results as OK, but you may need a lie down after. Our expert tester Adrian Lini found the cleaning head can be tiring to move over the carpet.
The dustbin of the vacuum quickly fills up.
Corner clean amateur
Another claim we found somewhat outrageous is that it's a "corner clean expert", thanks to its arrow-shaped head that can "reach every corner, nook and cranny in your home with ease".
In our stick vac lab test, we spread sand into a right-angled corner to see how close to the corner each vacuum can reach to pick up the dirt. You'd think the Clean Lite's head would be tailor-made for the task, but don't be fooled. Somehow its ability to clean corners and edges was still rated 'poor'.
Clogged up mess
We've already mentioned that the vacuum clogs pretty quickly, but we need to talk about it some more, because it has a big impact on ease of use.
When sucking up flour from the hard floor, the filter became completely clogged and had to be smacked against a hard surface for around five minutes to clear some of it out. This was also an issue for other finer particles like sand.
In addition to this, the filter is small and awkward to clean. Given that you may need to clean the filter multiple times in one cleaning cycle, it's likely to become a nightmare chore.
The filter became completely clogged and had to be smacked against a hard surface for around five minutes to clear some of it out
Emptying the dust box also requires effort and is very messy. Isn't the idea of vacuuming to remove the mess, not create more of it?
The vacuum splits in half when you remove the dust box, so you need to open it perfectly downward over your household garbage bin, and take care to avoid dirt falling on your hands.
CHOICE expert Adrian Lini struggling to vacuum with the Acerpure cordless stick vac.
What about charging?
When you buy an appliance you'd expect to receive all the components you need to charge it. The Acerpure only comes with a USB charging cord. You need to have your own wall outlet adapter to charge it.
The cord is USB A to USB C cable, which is a generic standard charger used for many devices. It's not a fast charger, and Acer claims it takes four hours to charge the vacuum. This isn't the longest charging time we've seen, but it is at the upper end of the scale.
We contacted Acer to alert them to our findings about the Acerpure Clean Lite Cordless Vacuum Cleaner, but received no reply.
So, $199 for a product that looks and feels cheap, is outperformed by stick vacuums at half the price, and actually creates more work for you? You know where to stick that.
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