In the market for a new car vacuum cleaner? If you’re tired of poor performance from meek-motored dust busters, Draper’s all-mighty 1600W Wet and Dry Vacuum Cleaner should provide you with the cleaning power you require.
This is a socket-powered wet and dry vacuum cleaner primarily designed for workshop and garage use. This means it won’t be much use on the go, but for a deep-dive clean of your car, garage or even home, it looks like a tempting prospect.
The Draper 1600W Wet And Dry Vacuum proved to be a very solid choice for wet and dry vacuuming but lack that final touch of refinement to be a proper all-rounder. Its performance and robustness make it better than a similarly-priced cordless vacuum, but it’s too close to a builders tool to excel as a vacuum around your home.
Verdict: Powerful suction and a rugged build make this a powerful, but slightly agricultural option
3.5/5
Draper 1600W Wet And Dry 30 Litre Vacuum Cleaner
RRP £99.90 | VIEW OFFER
Pros
• Very powerful suction
• Dependable construction
• Perfect for garages and cars
Cons
• Lacking creature-comforts
• No cable management
Specs
Bagged Yes
Cord length 5m
Power 1600 Watt
Capacity 30 litres
Weight 9.6 kg
What’s good?
It’s a powerful vacuum thanks to its 1600W motor, meaning even the largest of crumbs were incredibly easy to vacuum up. The regular floor head isn’t the best attachment we’ve found for carpet, but the brush and crevice attachments are right at home cleaning up a car interior. These heads ensured that nooks were easily accessible while that raw suction power meant that the seats and carpets were left nearly spotless with only the most embedded of hairs remaining.
Wet performance was also impressive in our limited testing. A simulated spill and the smaller floor head made light work of it, sucking it up with little fuss.
Another big plus point for the Draper is the simplicity of everything. As it’s effectively a big metal drum on wheels with a motor attached, there won’t be much to go wrong and everything has a strong, tactile feel to it. The plastic wheels may take a bit of force to secure in place, but once attached they’re secure and make the Draper easy to transport.
The simplicity doesn’t mean the Draper is barren, however. There’s a raft of attachments thrown in, including two floor heads, a crevice tool and a brush attachment. The metal vacuum is also telescopic, adding extra versatility to the Draper. Most impressively however, the Draper includes a 1300W power-through socket, effectively making it an extension cord.
What’s okay?
The Draper ships with two filters, one for wet use and another for dry vacuuming. This is a standard arrangement for most wet and dry vacuum cleaners, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a fiddly and annoying procedure to swap the filters over. The foam filter for wet work can require a little persuasion to get into place but is effective once installed. The dry filter is a cloth bag that easily slips into position.
Retailing for around the £100 mark, the Draper sits right in the middle of the domestic wet and dry vacuum cleaner scale. There are certain features that justify this price tag; the power socket, attachments and generous 30-litre capacity to list but a few. That being said, the overall fit and finish of competitors from Nilfisk and Karcher do show a lack of refinement. not an issue for your garage or car, but maybe a little too rugged for around the home.
Any downsides?
The Draper lacks a proper cable management system which means wrapping the power cord around the body is the only way of keeping the cable semi-organised. The power cable is on the shorter side at five metres which makes cord wrapping a quick affair, but this short length does however mean an extension cord will be a requirement for larger garages.
A smaller but equally annoying quirk to the Draper is the vacuum hose’s lack of flexibility. There are certain positions where the hose is so full of tension that it can pitch the cylinder up onto three wheels, not ideal for vacuuming.
Other items to consider:
Bosch Home and Garden Wet and Dry Vacuum Cleaner UniversalVac 15, RRP £109
Kärcher Wet & Dry Vacuum Cleaner WD 3, RRP £99.99
Nilfisk 18451125 Buddy II 18 Wet and Dry Vacuum Cleaner, RRP £101.76
How we tested this product:
The Draper 1600W Wet And Dry Vacuum was tested both for cleaning car interiors and use around an office. For the car vacuuming, a press car was used to test the flexibility of the hose as well as the power for sucking up crumbs and debris. The office test saw the Draper compared head to head with a Henry vacuum cleaner for cleaning concrete and carpeted floor.
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