Reviews – Page 87

BioLite HeadLamp 330 review

REVIEW – How many times have you needed extra light, either when working on a close project in a dark area, or, when walking or running in dim conditions? And, how many of those times did you not have an extra hand to hold the light, or, simply didn’t want to carry one with you? Those are the problems you can solve with the new BioLite HeadLamp 330. For brevity, I will simply call it the 330 for the reset of the review.

What is it?

The 330 is a wearable, USB rechargeable head-mounted lamp. It is named for its light output, a maximum of 330 lumens (lm), or about the equivalent output of an older 20 watt incandescent bulb. That doesn’t sound like much, with with today’s focused LED technology, it produces a surprising amount of light.

What’s in the box?

BioLite HeadLamp 330
USB charging cord
Quick start guide

Hardware specs

Output: 230 lm spot, 100 lm flood, 330 lm total
Lamp mount: tilting, approximately 45 degrees down in four steps
Battery: 900 mAh, 3.4 Wh Li-on USB rechargeable
Input: micro USB – cord included
Run time: 3.5 hours on full brightness, 40 hours on dim
Water resistance: IPX4 (protects from splashing water, no matter the direction)
Weight: 2.4 oz
Lighting modes:
- White flood with dimming
- White spot with dimming
- White spot + flood with dimming
- Red flood
- White strobe
- Lock mode
Power on memory: Last mode + dimming level
Beam effective distance: Flood, 16m; spot, 75m

Design and features

The 330 mounts on your head with its soft and stretchy, adjustable headband. It comes in four colors, ocean teal, midnight grey (my sample), ember red, and sunrise yellow.

The lamp is mounted up front. The power/mode button is on top, as is the tab to adjust the tilt.

The battery is mounted on the back.

The white stripe is nicely reflective.

The grey tab below the battery covers the micro USB charging port. There is a four LED charge indicator next to the port. It lights when charging, and also every time the lamp is turned on/off, showing the approximate charge in 25% increments.

The lamp sits flush on your head.

Looking at it from the side, it sure seems like the battery would make it feel back-heavy, but since the whole lamp weighs in at only 2.4 oz, I really didn’t feel it after wearing it for a few minutes.

As the 330 sits on my melon, it points up a bit. That tab above the power switch allows you to tilt it downward about 45 degrees in a four-step click adjustment. Below shows it flush on the left, one click, which essentially put the light facing forward, and four clicks, pointing the light angled toward the ground.

Setup

Setup is simple and has two steps.

Adjust the strap to fit your noggin. The strap adjusts several inches, so everyone should be able to get a comfortable fit.
The instructions say to hold the power button eight seconds to disengage lock mode, however my unit was shipped unlocked.

Operation

There is one button to control the 330. Lock mode is engaged by holding the power button for eight seconds. When lock mode engages, the red LEDs flash twice. In lock mode, when you press the power button, the red LEDs flash twice to indicate it is in lock mode. At that point, that’s all you can do, until you disengage lock mode. Holding the button again for eight seconds disengages lock mode, indicated by a single red LED flash. With lock mode disengaged, all lighting functions are again available.

With the power off, pressing the button turns the lamp on to the most recently used mode and brightness level, if applicable. Pressing the button again, turns the lamp off. With the lamp off, pressing the button repeatedly in rapid succession, cycles through the following modes:

red flood
white spot with dimming
white flood with dimming
white spot + flood with dimming
white spot strobe
off

With the power on, if you are in one of the dimming modes, pressing and holding the button will dim or brighten the lamp, ending with a single flash when it hits max dim or max bright.

Performance

The first thing I decided to try was to verify or disprove their battery claim. I elected not to go for the claimed 40 hour runtime on dim, as I expect that won’t be the mode most folks use. I opted for the high-power, 3.5 hour runtime. I turned it on in flood + spot on full brightness. Unfortunately, I was out of the room when it died, but, it was somewhere between 3:15 and 3:50, so the claimed 3.5 hour runtime seems pretty plausible. Based on that, I would expect the 40 hour claim on dim to also be plausible.

The 330 is really quite comfortable. As I mentioned, I really didn’t notice it after wearing it for just a few minutes Because the strap is adjustable, you can get a secure, but not-too-tight fit pretty easily. The lamp also doesn’t move. which would be a great asset for a runner. For what it’s worth, that isn’t me. If you see me running, try to keep up, as there is a reason…

I took the 330 outside after dark and took some photos. Note that the exposure on all these is exactly the same, so the photos show the relative difference in lighting. I set the exposure to show the light pattern without blowing out the photos too much. What that means is that these photos go dark more so than the light actually did to the naked eye. But, if I exposed for that dim light, the majority of the photos would just have appeared to be all white, so they wouldn’t have been too useful.

Flood mode produced nice, even light over a wide area. This is only 100 lumens, and it nicely lit the entire area in front of me for a good 25-30 feet with extended visibility out to 45-50 feet.

I then dimmed the flood light to its lowest setting. As you can see, it was quite a bit dimmer, but while this doesn’t show it, I could still see some detail in the grass.

I then did the same thing in spot mode. There is a pronounced bright area in the middle, illuminated with 230 lumens, and a quick fall off to the sides. The bright spot really lit up the area 20 feet or so out. If I looked up more, I could get a good view 50 feet or more out. They claim a 75m illumination range with the spot, which might be a bit generous, but the spot did a good job sending out the light. More importantly, it will make you visible to others for a long, long way.

In dimmed spot, we again see the middle illuminated with light fall off to the sides.

Finally, I tried flood + spot. There was a noticeable increase in lighting to the sides when compared to the spot alone, thanks to the wide diffusion from the flood. But with only 100 lumens of flood and 230 lumens of spot, you have to look closely in the photo to see the additional side lighting.

Of course, in dim mode, the spot is the only thing visible in the photo, but there was a nice, wide spread of the dim light to my eye.

I did not attempt to photograph the red flood. Red lighting preserves your night vision. I see this as a great tool for darkroom users (are there many of these still out there?), pilots flying at night or doing nighttime aircraft inspections, and backyard astronomers. Being able to effectively light your workspace while keeping your night vision intact is invaluable.

For obvious reasons, I also didn’t photograph white strobe mode. The strobe uses the spot, and is terrifically bright at 230 lumens. For daytime walkers or runners, this would provide a nice attention-getting flash to make you more visible in a high-traffic areas.

What I like

Great, comfortable fit
Nice selection of lighting modes
Powering on brings back the last used mode and brightness
Light goes where you look
Light doesn’t move or bounce when you’re moving
Good battery life

What needs to be improved

Personally, I would like to be able to change modes without turning the lamp off, but that’s a minor quibble
The tilt tab makes it a little difficult to use the button when wearing the 330, but I expect that will become easier with more use

Final thoughts

I really like the 330. I can see using this for nighttime walks with my honey, or when working on some of the stuff I have plugged in behind other stuff, where it is always too dark to see what I’m doing. When I was in college and developing my own black and white film and prints, this would have been an awesome tool. The same is true back when I was flying for fun. Doing a pre-flight aircraft check in the dark would have been so much easier with the 330. Still, with its comfortable fit and multiple modes, I expect this will get a lot of use.

Price: $49.95
Where to buy: BioLite.com or Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by BioLite.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Flashlight

BioLite HeadLamp 330 review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 16, 2019 at 11:00 am.

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Bezalel Prelude Portable Wireless Charger review

REVIEW – The struggle to keep your phone battery is real, and while there are many portable power options out there, there are quite a few with wireless charging as an option. One of the more unique entries into this niche is Bezalel’s sleek Prelude wireless charger, a portable battery pack that sports a sticky surprise.

What is it?

The Prelude Wireless Charger is a small, portable battery pack that can be used to wirelessly charge Qi-enabled devices. It can also be used as a more conventional battery pack, charging nearly any device through a USB cable. Bezalel’s optional phone cases incorporate magnets that help to center the phone over the “sweet spot” on the wireless charging area.

The charger/case combo is handsome, at least.

What’s in the box?

Prelude Portable Wireless Charger 10W
USB Type-C Cable

Hardware specs

Qi Wireless Technology
5.6 Ounces Weight
12V / 1A Wireless Input (Voltage/Amps)
DC 5V / 9V, 12V ; 18W USB-C Input (Voltage/Amps)
DC 5V / 1A, 9V / 1.2A, 12V / 0.9A Wireless Output (Voltage/Amps)
5V / 2A, 9V / 1.67A, 12V / 1.5A USB-C Output (Voltage/Amps)
5000mAh Battery Capacity
4.4″ x 2.6″ x 0.63″ Dimensions

Design and Features

This review will be split into two parts, since I received a phone case from Bezalel to test out along with the charger. It’s worth noting that this case is optional and does not affect the functionality of the charger, save for one minor detail which I’ll get into below.

The Case (mini-review)

I received a bonus phone case with my review unit. The case itself appears to be a rather basic black rubber phone case, but hides a secret: an array of magnets that helps the phone automatically center over the charging spot. The magnets aren’t strong enough to keep the charger attached to phone, but merely prevent it from sliding around and losing connection.

The cutouts are pretty spot-on, but the material is easy to scratch up.

Aside from this magnetic auto-centering capability, it’s a pretty basic phone case. It has a good fit, hard plastic/rubber matte finish, felt inside, and offers a decent degree of protection from drops and scratches. The finish on the back is pretty easily scratched, and the button covers on the side are rather hard to depress. It’s also worth noting that the speaker and charging openings on the bottom of the case had a sharp edge. I usually hold my phone with my pinky supporting the bottom, so the lip of those openings was resting uncomfortably against my finger.

Also worth mentioning, the charger is right-side-up with the USB port at the bottom of the device. This means that if you want to keep the charger on your nightstand or desk, the wire will dangle forward instead of neatly toward the back. Why not just turn it around and place the cable in the back? Well, the case’s magnets are oriented so that it centers only while the phone and the charger are both right side up. So every time I had the charger’s port pointed away from me, I had to turn my phone around so it would center correctly.

Outside of a few magnets, it’s a pretty standard case.

It’s a minor quibble, I know, because I feel like this charger is primarily made for portable use. I think the charger cable would be better situated at the “top.”

All in all, their custom case is decent, but it only marginally improves the functionality of the wireless charger.

The Charger

The Bezalel Prelude itself is a combination of a standard portable USB charger, a Qi-enabled wireless charger and supports charging while the unit itself is charging. It’s made for both 7.5W fast wireless charging for iPhones as well as 10W fast wireless charging for Android phones.

Here’ the “charging” side where you place your phone.

The construction itself is solid and extremely portable, about the size of a deck of cards made of smooth, black plastic. There aren’t any buttons on the charger, it’s activated by giving the device a little shake, illuminating a logo and battery life indicator.

The battery capacity is 5,000mAh … for comparison, my iPhone XR battery is 2,942mAh. So the Prelude could charge my phone about 1 1/2 times, and, for the record, I noticed that I did get about this amount of juice out of the unit.

I appreciated the versatility of the Prelude. For instance, you can use it to: – charge your wireless device – charge any device over USB (provided you have the proper adapter, the Prelude only has a USB C port in it) – plug it in to a USB power source like an AC adapter or computer and keep it on your desk as a wireless charging mat

One of the most unique features is the micro-suction surface. Underneath a thin, magnetic cover lies a surface that sticks to very smooth surfaces, but not too porous surfaces like fingers or cloth. This is, of course, the same side that you would place against your phone to charge it wirelessly. So you can press this suction surface to the smooth glass back (or similarly-surfaced phone case) and the Prelude will remain in place. Sure, there is now a thick, awkward hump attached to your phone, but it can continue to be used while your phone’s battery is being charged.

Removing the magnetic cover reveals the sticky micro-suction surface.

Using it in this way makes the charger sort of feel like a temporary bulky charging case. But instead of a hard-to-remove case, with the Prelude it’s just one quick peel and your phone is back to its normal, thin self.

The suction surface sticks to most smooth materials and does a fair job of staying put.

Another interesting feature is the fact that the Prelude can be charged wirelessly by placing it “upside-down” (logo side down) on top of another wireless charging mat.

I mostly preferred to use the Prelude as a portable wireless charging mat, placing it on a desk or table and letting it trickle charge my phone while I streamed music to a Bluetooth speaker. Lately, I used it to keep my battery charged while running my Dungeons and Dragons app for a 5-hour session. Worked like a dream.

For the most part, it did everything I’d want from a portable battery, without the mess of extra cables.

What I like

super portable
micro-suction surface with cover sticks is clever
dual-functionality as a wired or wireless charger
charger can itself be charged wirelessly!

What needs to be improved

would prefer USB A port for better compatibility
charger attached to phone is awkward to hold
there are cheaper options that do most of what this does

Final thoughts

Outside of a couple of very minor annoyances, I found the Prelude wireless charger to be a solid solution for keeping your phone’s battery topped off, particularly because of the micro-suction surface that turns it into more of a temporary charging case. However, the price may be a bit much for what you’re getting. And I would give the phone case a pass unless you really like the idea of auto-centering magnets.

Price: $69.99 (plus $19.00 for the optional case)
Where to buy: You can pick up the Prelude Wireless Charger directly from Bezalel’s website.
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Bezalel. You can find out more about their charging products on their website.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Batteries and Chargers

Bezalel Prelude Portable Wireless Charger review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 16, 2019 at 9:00 am.

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Audioengine A2+ speakers add another + by going wireless

NEWS – In 1982, Thomas Dolby released the prescient album, “The Golden Age of Wireless.” As it turns out, Dolby was a bit ahead of his time, because NOW is truly the golden age of wireless. Just look at all the products that are wireless—even older speakers have been reborn minus the cord. Case in point: Audioengine and their new A2+ Wireless speaker.

Based on the venerable A2+speaker, the A2+ wireless version is the last in Audioengine’s powered-speaker lineup that’s gone wireless. Audioengine may have been a bit late to the wireless party, but you gotta hand it to them. They waited until Bluetooth had become mature enough so wireless music could be appreciated with little to no compromise in sound quality.

The A2+ wireless speakers are hand-built with the goal of exceeding expectations in value and performance. The A2+ wireless speakers may be small, but they pack a punch, making them perfect for desktop setups and small room audio.

Custom Audioengine components are used throughout the A2+ wireless speakers: Aramid fiber woofers, silk tweeters, and built-in power amps wrapped in precision tuned, hand-crafted cabinets. The bass was teased from the A2+ with some clever acoustic and electrical design without using any digital signal processing or fake bass boost circuits.

The A2+ wireless speakers feature Bluetooth 5.0, dual class AB amplifiers, 60 watts peak power, and RCA output suitable for subwoofers. They require no network to setup, no passwords to create, no buttons to push, and are always ready to play.

Audioengine A2+ wireless speakers are available now and are priced at $269 US for the pair. Visit Audioengine for more information.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Wireless speakers

Audioengine A2+ speakers add another + by going wireless originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 15, 2019 at 12:01 pm.

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Tenergy Renair Air Purifier review

REVIEW – Clean air is really important for good health and something we don’t often consider enough. In the bay area, the recent wildfires have kept it top of mind, but we also have frequent “spare the air” days that restrict wood burning for air quality reasons. I have mild seasonal allergies, while my daughter has chronic environmental allergies so we purchased a very expensive unit for her bedroom which has worked great, but haven’t done much to address the rest of the house. Our two dogs don’t help the allergy scenario either, but they’re family so we manage. Tenergy has recently launched their Renair Air Purifier and asked if we’d like to review it, so over the last month we’ve been putting it to the test. How’s it work? Quick answer? Pretty darn well. Read on…

What is it?

It’s kinda right there in the title… The Renair Air purifier. But in short, it’s an air purifying device that uses a 3-stage HEPA filter and a negative ion generator to clean the air wherever its placed.

What’s in the box?

Tenergy Renair Air Purifier (TAP01)
True HEPA air filter (already inside the unit, but in a plastic bag)
Instruction manual, warranty card, product support info
(Images not to scale)

Hardware specs

Filter systems: True HEPA air filter, Activated carbon filter, Cathelicidin-coated layer
Efficacy: 99 Airborne particles removed
Fan and delivery: 3 speed fan, Clean air delivery rate (CADR) of 82 cubic feet/minute, 140 cubic meter/hour
Optimal room size: up to 210 square feet
Dimensions and weight: 18×8.6
Rated power: 37w w/ 6.25′ power cord
Other specs/features: Negative ion generator, night light, touch controls

Design and features

The Renair Air Purifier is a cylindrical device with a relatively small 9″ square footprint. The air intake is around the bottom and the clean air is output at the top. Tenergy has applied an asymmetric design throughout this and it makes for a fun look as well as a little bit of a scenario where it’s not completely clear where the front of the unit is unless it’s on or you can see the power cord.

The underside of the unit is where the filter is housed which you’ll see in the setup section. Here I wanted to call out the fan and the lower cavity which pulls the air through the 360º side intakes, through the 3-stage HEPA filter and up into the unit.

Tenergy has also chosen to generously apply the use of LEDs.

Let’s move on to getting the Renair up and running.

Setup

After removing the unit from the box, the setup is straight forward. Flip the purifier upside down.

Using the handle, turn the base (filter cover) counter clockwise and remove to reveal the filter.

Pull the filter from the cavity and remove the plastic bag. Applause for not increasing packaging size to have the filter outside the unit, but would have liked to see some kind of warning label directly on the unit to make sure the bag is removed before turning the unit on. (Not all of us read instructions).

Place the filter back into the unit and lock the cover into place with a clockwise turn, then upright the unit. Lastly there’s a protective film on the top of the unit you’ll probably want to remove.

Tenergy recommends 15″ of clearance on all sides of the unit for proper air intake. Keep this in mind as you decide where to place the unit.

Beyond the above set up, it’s basically turning the unit on when you want it running. The settings are all touch controls with 3-position selections for the fan and nightlight, a filter replacement indicator and individual on/off controls for power, night mode and the negative ion generator. Here’s what that looks like.

Performance

As I mentioned above, I have some mild seasonal allergies and with my daughter’s room covered I wanted to see how this unit would help in my own bedroom. Besides the obvious allergen reduction, one of the other key features listed in Tenergy’s description was odor elimination. Both of our dogs sleep in the bedroom, The bigger guy on his floor bed, and the smaller one in a crate that is underneath a massive, hide-the-crate nightstand on my side of the bed.

A byproduct of our room also being their room is that it tends to harbor a dog odor that finds you when you walk into the room. It’s most noticeable when one returns from a trip as we are otherwise effectively nose-blind at home day to day. Needless to say I was eager to see if the Renair could help in this matter as well.

When you turn the unit on, the first thing you’ll notice is the blue LEDs on the top of the unit highlighting the different controls. Unless you’re setting up this unit in the dark, you won’t realize just how bright these are. We’ll get back to that in a minute.

Every time you turn the unit on, it automatically starts at the medium fan speed. The speed select button will toggle between fast, slow and then medium again with repeated presses.

Similarly, the nightlight is on color changing by default so if it’s not your thing, press once to switch to single color and again to toggle off. In changing mode it slowly cycles between blue, green and red. Here’s a photo of what that looks like.

This feature is supposedly there to lull you to sleep, but it definitely didn’t work for me. Felt like more of a light show. Off it went.

The negative ion generator is also on by default. According to Tenergy, negative ions will attach to particles in the air allowing easier removal by the purifier and thereby further improving the quality of the air. This seems like a good thing, so I left this feature on throughout testing.

Another feature mentioned is quiet operation. This is definitely true with the fan in slow speed or the all-inclusive night mode. The medium and high speeds do kick up the operation volume a bit. I found the medium speed to be the right balance of volume and a “white noise” which helps me sleep and also keeps the dogs from reacting to any random noises from outside the house.

So back to the LEDs and night mode. The blue glow is really bright. I’m not a fan of LEDs in general, especially in the room where I sleep.

Hitting the night mode button kills all the lights, which is awesome. However, it also reduces the fan speed which kills the white noise effect I wanted. The closest option to an in-between is leaving it on medium and then toggling off the night light effect which doesn’t change any of the blue light from the top of the unit. This glow is still much brighter than anything I want in the bedroom, but everything else about the unit feels spot on.

My solution was to make a quick top cover from black gaffers tap that I lay on top of the unit to hide the lights. The touch panel is able to read presses through the tape, so I just drew the icons that I need to press. Power and night light.

So, what’s my take after a month of use? Let’s bullet it out…

On odor: I had to take a 10 day trip out of country about a week into using the Renair. I can tell you that much time away definitely resets your nose for arriving home. I’m happy to report that I noticed a significant lack of dog aroma when I opened the door to the bedroom.
On allergies: Since setting up the unit, I have not experienced any allergy related or breathing issues which I can directly attribute to the Renair as it was not uncommon for me to be stuffed up in the morning.
On noise: As mentioned, I appreciate the white noise effect and there’s rarely a night that I don’t turn it on. When I have forgotten, the dogs typically remind me as they respond to some dog howling off in the distance or the wind whipping something down the outside stairs. As a plus, that power button is well positioned at the front of the top of the unit and it’s easy to hit by feel, with the next one off being the button to turn off that accursed night light.
One month: Pulled the filter today to take a peek and it was not noticeably dirty. I’ll likely keep doing this at monthly intervals or if I suddenly notice a drop in performance.

Some additional things to know…

Filter replacement is based on an automated 6-month timer, not any kind of sensor that tells you the filter is clogged or spent. You’ll need to figure out if your particular scenario requires more frequent replacing.
Should you need to replace the filter “off-cycle” you probably won’t use the 6-month timer, but should you want to reset it… Unplug the unit, reconnect to power and without turning on… [1] press and hold “replace filter” for 3 seconds (red LED will turn on) [2] repeat for 3 seconds (red LED will turn off). Reset is finished.
It’s cool that they’ve minimized the retail packaging by nesting the filter in its compartment, but it does create a scenario where a consumer could unpack the unit and turn it on without removing the bag on the filter first. A piece of red tape or something could be used as a quick indicator that there’s a step to finish first.
When it does come time to needing a new filter, there’s a handy QR code in the manual to take you to an Amazon order page where you can currently pick one up for $23.

What I like

The 3-stage filter seems to work as intended.
The price. Significantly less than other solutions.
The volume. While quiet in slow mode, medium is a nice white noise level.
The footprint. Pretty small compared to some older HEPA units I’ve used.

What needs to be improved

Setting for all LEDs to stay off.
Setting to change defaults to your preferences.

Final thoughts

I’m really happy with the Renair Air Purifier. It has kept my sinuses clear and solved a dog odor that we’d previously only been able to mask. The unit is ultra quiet in it’s low and night mode settings and I like the white noise level of the medium setting. If you struggle with allergies, or just want cleaner air, this is a solid machine at a very reasonable price.

Price: $109.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Tenergy.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Air Filtration

Tenergy Renair Air Purifier review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 15, 2019 at 11:00 am.

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Audew Cordless Vacuum Cleaner review

REVIEW – My wife worked for a home cleaning company for a while. When it came time to buy a new vacuum cleaner for our house, she knew from experience exactly which model to buy, one that was both powerful and long-lasting. Not every job around the house, however, is a good match for a full-size vacuum. Sometimes it’s a pain to get the vacuum where it’s needed, such as the stairs or the car; other times the mess is too small to be worth the effort of hauling out the big vacuum. For jobs like these, a small cordless vacuum cleaner, like this one from Audew, is the perfect tool for the job.

What is it?

The Audew Cordless Vacuum Cleaner is a handheld, rechargeable vacuum cleaner designed to handle small messes in awkward places.

What’s in the box?

The vacuum
A removable battery and a small power adapter
Two attachments, one with a brush and one with a long nozzle
A brush for cleaning the filter
A multilingual manual with 4 pages of instructions in English.

Hardware specs

The battery is rated at 2200mAh and 300 charge cycles. This is fairly typical for Lithium-Ion batteries and should last 2 to 3 years. The manual says that the expected run time is only 20 to 22 minutes, so its best used for quicker jobs. It also says that it takes 4 to 5 hours to fully charge.

Setup

The battery is not pre-charged, so the first thing to do after unboxing is to insert the battery into the bottom of the vacuum, attach the charger, and then plug it into the wall. Then it’s time to wait; my battery took nearly 5 hours to charge. Although the battery is removable, it must be in the vacuum in order to charge; the length of the cable on the adapter is a handy 6 feet, allowing it to be put up on a table or counter while charging. While the battery is charging, there’s a red light on top; when finished, the light turns blue.

Design and features

After the blue light appeared, I promptly set out to do some vacuuming. I unplugged the adapter and pressed the on button. Nothing happened. I was suddenly concerned that I had a lemon on my hands. After a bit of experimenting, I found the trick: You have press and hold the on button for a couple seconds before it turns on. I suppose this prevents it from being accidently turned on, if it gets bumped in the closet. This is not really a problem, but it is a bit unexpected; I imagine that I’ll get used to it eventually.

Off I went on a cleaning frenzy. No nook or cranny escaped the suctioning power of my little friend, not the floor in the half bath, the space beside the fridge, the edge of the stairs, not even the floorboards along the hall. The most important question at this point in the review is obvious: Does it work? Does it do a good job vacuuming? Yes, it works, and yes, it certainly does a good job. In only a few minutes of vacuuming, I could see a considerable amount of detritus and debris in the vacuum’s dust cup, doing its best to clog the filter.

To clean the filter, I first pressed the button on top. This allowed me to detach the dust cup from the base.

I then pulled the filter out of the dust cup. Look at all the junk it captured!

I took the filter over to the trash can and pulled off all the easy to grab junk, like the hair and the yarn. Although this cleared out the vast majority of the junk, there was still some finer dirt and dust captured in the ridges of the filter.

To clean this out, I took the filter to the sink and ran water over it, just like it shows on Audew’s website.

For the really stubborn dirt and dust that doesn’t want to come out, there’s a small cleaning brush. Rubbing this back and forth a few times completely cleaned the filter. I put it on a towel and left it to air dry.

Although Audew’s website says that the filter is made of stainless steel, small spots of what appears to be rust showed up on the filter after the first washing. I think it’s better to not use water. In the following days, whenever I needed to clean the filter, I used the cleaning brush and brushed out the dirt and dust into the trash can. It’s the perfect tool for this task, and I’m really glad that Audew included this nice touch.

The mouth of the vacuum is only 2 inches wide at its widest point. This was perfect for vacuuming hard to reach places, like the floor behind the toilet and under the cabinets in the kitchen. It was not, however, a good match for vacuuming the carpet on the stairs. Although it’s light and easy to use, the small mouth meant that it just took too long to clean each stair. Perhaps if it had a wide-mouth attachment, this problem would be solved.

To test the brush attachment, I began dusting all the places around the house that don’t get dusted enough, like the top of the door frames, the desk behind my computer monitor, the windowsills, the top of the fridge, and the blinds. The light weight of the vacuum made it easy to dust these hard-to-reach places. Although it did a good job and got most of the dust, it didn’t quite do a perfect job. After dusting my desk carefully, I rubbed my finger along the top and there was still a fine layer of dust there. For most tasks, however, Audew’s vacuum does a more than good enough job.

To test the nozzle attachment with the long nozzle, I headed out to the garage to vacuum out my car. It was handy for vacuuming the floors, along the edge of the seats, and other hard-to-reach places, although I again wanted that wide-mouth attachment for the seat backs.

In order to test the battery, I charged it up and then ran it non-stop. It lasted for 20 minutes and 30 seconds, which is within the range specified in the manual. While this is just fine for small jobs, keep in mind that it’s not going to be as helpful for big jobs, like spring cleaning or moving day, where you need to use it again and again. When the battery starts to run low, it doesn’t give any visual indication; the vacuum simply turns itself off when the charge runs out. Although the battery and the filter are both removable, I couldn’t any mention of where to buy replacements, should that be necessary, neither on Audew’s website nor on Amazon.

What I like

Light weight
Easy-to-use
Gets the job done

What needs to be improved

Wide-mouth attachment
An option to buy a second battery

Final thoughts

In the end, Audew’s Cordless Vacuum Cleaner is a welcome addition to our house. This vacuum is perfect for those small jobs where it’s either too much hassle to get out your big vacuum or for those hard-to-reach places. It’s definitely worth your consideration, so long as you keep its (few) limitations in mind.

Price: $48.00
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Audew.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Cleaning, Vacuum

Audew Cordless Vacuum Cleaner review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 15, 2019 at 9:00 am.

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