5 stick vacuum cleaners to avoid buying

The best stick vacs we’ve tested get overall scores in the high 80s. They’re the perfect mix of being excellent on both hard floors and carpets, easy to use and easy to repair if anything does go wrong.

But at the other end, are 5 stick vacuum cleaners that score below 60%. Unfortunately, they’re also the budget-friendly options from Kmart and The Warehouse.

Erin Bennett has been writing about stick vacuums at Consumer NZ for more than a decade. She cautions, while the prices of these 5 might be tempting, they should be avoided.

“They’re all under $200, but some of those Anko ones from Kmart are terrible on carpet. When we also take into account repairability, reliability and customer satisfaction, they end up being a bad buy,” she said. “You’d be better off spending a bit more for a vacuum that’s likely to last longer and won’t leave you so frustrated when you’re trying to clean up the carpet.”

The worst stick vacuums in our test

Score: 50


Price: $99

This is the cheapest stick vacuum in our test and the worst. While it’s not too bad on hard floors, it’s terrible at cleaning around corners and along edges. It also gets our worst score for repairability – when the battery on this vac dies, you have to throw it out.

Score: 53


Price: $109

You definitely don’t want this stick vac if you’ve got carpet – it got the lowest score, just 33%, in our carpet test. Like the 2 in 1, this Kmart stick vac is completely kaput once the battery dies.

Score: 54


Price: $189

We found this stick vac hard to use. The cleaning head was tricky to get moving, and the filter kept falling out when we were trying to empty the bin. It was also poor at getting close to edges and corners.

Score: 57


Price: $139

This vacuum’s not good on carpet either and, again, will drive you crazy when it doesn’t get close to the walls and corners.

Score: 59


Price: $125

This stick vac from The Warehouse beats the Kmart Anko models, but it’s still not a good buy. Like some of the Kmart ones, you’ll need to throw it out if the battery dies – that part is not replaceable. The stick vac is also quite noisy.

A better budget stick vacuum cleaner