Should you buy an Anko stick vacuum from Kmart?

Stick vacuums make it easy to do a quick whip around when the floor needs some attention. Got stairs? A stick vac makes cleaning them a million times easier. Vacuum taking up too much space? Stick vacs stand upright; some even attach to the wall. And as for cleaning power – our testing has found that stick vacs are now just as good as the corded type.

While some of the most expensive models of stick vacs from LG, Samsung and Dyson cost more than $1,700, the ones we’ve tested from Kmart range from $99 to $189. So, you might be wondering – can I get the convenience without the huge price tag?

Not the bargain you’d hoped for

While there are some Kmart products we love and recommend, unfortunately with its stick vacs it’s a case of you get what you pay for. All three of the Kmart models we’ve tested sit near the bottom of our test results.

The best stick vac we’ve tested gets an overall score of 89, but the best Kmart vac gets just 67. Interestingly, the more you spend on a Kmart vac, the lower its score.

The cheapest – the $99 Anko 2 in 1 Cordless Stick Vacuum – is the one to go for if you’ve decided you’re going to get a Kmart one. It’s terrible along edges and around corners but it doesn’t have the same problems with its head getting stuck on carpet like the other two we’ve looked at. Our testers noted both the $139 Anko Cordless Stick Cleaner and $189 Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner were sometimes hard to move smoothly.

Yet, while the Kmart stick vacs aren’t great, you could do worse. There are more expensive Makita and i-Vac models we’ve given even lower test scores to.

We give Kmart stick vacs an “average” score for reliability, based on what consumers told us about how long they last in our latest appliance reliability survey. They get a “terrible” score for brand satisfaction, along with Black & Decker and Hoover.

These stick vacuums are much better buys