About a week before Christmas, when Mr. TheBoyandMe was completely and utterly sick of the sight of strands of tinsel all over the floor, he asked if we could get a swiffer. I gasped at him and told him that in no uncertain terms, we would not be getting such an antiquated, useless and unhygienic contraption, to just get the vacuum cleaner out and stop complaining! (He doesn't even do the vacuuming, so I have no idea what he's complaining about.)
My reticence at agreeing to one was based on traumatic flashbacks to my childhood in the early 1990s which involved one of these items:
My nan had one in '70s brown, and we had one in '70s blue and I hated them! They were noisy, awkward, dirty, didn't pick up the bits and, if you tipped it at a certain angle, they emptied the few bits that they had picked up all over your still dirty floor.
My husband slunk away having realised it was a no-go, and retrieved our cumbersome vaccum cleaner out of the understairs cupboard. Upon I realised the point he was making, but was determined not to back down!
Then I had an e-mail asking me if I'd like to review a cordless electric-powered floor cleaners. Curiosity sent me to the site, and I realised that the GTech SW20 was the 2012 version of what my mother had used, but with added extras. I giggled to myself at Mr. TBAM's reaction when I showed him and agreed to test it quite happily.
I did not realise just how clever this little device was going to be. The SW20 is a floor sweeper in the conventional sense, but with the added bonus of being electric and cordless. To charge the sweeper, it is placed onto the small, charging platform and left for up to five hours. From that, it gives an hour's worth of run time. That might not sound a lot, however I charged it three weeks ago and have used it every other day without recharging it once. It's designed so that you can leave it on the charging platform as it has an auto cut off device which allows you also to safely leave it on the stand to maintain full charge, however we didn't have a plug at the right height and out of the reach of The Boy.
"A conventional vacuum cleaner (2000 watt) used for 2 hours a week on a 0.30 tariff, will cost £300 over 5 years. Using a Gtech sweeper for the same period and tariff costs £7.80 and an energy saving of 55.5 KWh per year, per home."
So it's cheaper to use as well then?
As for my concerns about how unhygienic they are? Unfounded. The GTech SW20 has Germguard built into the handle and bin. Germguard action traps and kills over 99.9 of bacteria including MRSA, Salmomella, Listeria and E-Coli. It is also incredibly easy to clean; there's a pull out 'bin' which neatly collects all the dirt (and it gets up a lot) allowing for easy emptying and cleaning.
I did vacuum yesterday, I promise! And I had been wondering where that jigsaw piece had gone.
The other thing that I really like about the GTech is how easy it is to use. The extendable handle has a swivel motion when attached to the sweeper which allows for excellent manoeuvrability. It's so easy, even a two year old could use it:
At £69.95 it is slightly more expensive than the conventional carpet cleaner, but then there's nothing conventional about the GTech SW20 and I do think that with the money it saves, along with the time and effort, that it is worth it.
And thanks to the kind folk at GTech, I've got one for you to win!
Simply fill in the Rafflecopter form below:
I was given a GTech SW20 for the purpose of this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.
