Review: Lupe Pure cordless vacuum cleaner
*Lupe has now gone out of business. So you might try to get hold of a second-hand Lupe. We reviewed the Lupe vacuum cleaner in 2022, bought one, still have one, use it daily and like it. It's got unusual looks and doesn't take up much space.
The Lupe cordless cost around £699. It certainly stands out in terms of looks - its body is penguin-like and reminds me of those little robots they have in Japan that keep elderly people company. But it's not a household robo pet, it's a cordless vacuum cleaner. And having used it for a couple of months, I can vouch for it: it cleans fast, it cleans well. And it has a washable Hepa H13 filter, a battery you can replace and its parts can be replaced - which the makers say means Lupe is a sustainable product which should last for ..well, presumably a good decade or two.
This is our original review of the Lupe and we stand by our words two years on.
For vacuuming carpeted floors, the Lupe cordless is excellent as it has a much stronger suction motor than many of the less expensive cordless cleaners - which I've also found lose potency after a few weeks to be honest. The Lupe, on the other hand, does feel substantial, and I would say by my yardstick for judging vacuuming efficacy, which is the Miele cat & dog plug in, it cleans as well. It's a very manoevreable machine, and I love that fact that the suction head goes right up to skirting boards/kickplates, so you don't always need to get out an attachment to clean along those boundary lines. One minor irritation is if your floors haven't been cleaned for a while, you'll find the waste bin on the back of the machine does fill up quickly, given that max level sign is about halfway up, so you do have to keep stopping to empty it.
The floorhead sits flush with the floor, though you do sometimes have to repeatedly push it flat with your foot which can be annoying. But once flush, it really does a terrific job cleaning both carpeted and hard surfaces, moving effortless between the two. We have a rubber floor in our kitchen which gets covered with crumbs and lord knows what throughout the day. The Lupe sucks it all up in an instant.
I would buy the Lupe for its hard-surface cleaning powers alone because it's such a joy not to have to keep getting out the dustpan and brush, nor trogging upstairs for the fairly heavy Miele plug in. Cordless vacuums are also invaluable for cleaning tiled bathroom floors as well as wooden halls. We live in the upper maisonette of our dwelling and the common parts downstairs hall is wooden. No one ever cleaned it, I'm ashamed to say, but I do now vacuum it every other day because it's so easy to take the Lupe downstairs and it does the job in no time.
The machine
FIrst thing to note is the Lupe is not a stick machine. It comes in a box so you have to assemble its parts but that's very easy and intuitive. Bits you need to press to separate/join parts are green and the on/off/boost button are on the front and very obvious. The main parts of the Lupe are its floorhead and the penguin-like body which slots on top of it. When you're doing hand-held jobs such as cleaning stairs and sucking cobwebs etc off the ceiling (surprising how much cobweb matter was living on my ceilings..) you take the penguin off the floorhead, the handle out of its hole and you attach the flexi hose to the handle...well it's all very obvious when you use it.
One of my big bugbears with cordless cleaners has been their pretty much uselessness when it comes to cleaning carpeted stairs. The Lupe however cleans stairs ALMOST as well as the Miele. That said, you do need to fire up the boost button for stairs to get sufficient suction, as well as getting into nooks and crevices, and that means the machine will run out of power in about 20 minutes, as opposed to the 60-min run time you get with a fully charged battery when not using the boost function. Charging time from flat is about 3 hours but if you use it in short bursts, just recharge it for 30 minutes so it's always topped up.
Portability
Its looks really do grow on you, and it's slender so doesn't take up much space at all. It has a carry handle and is perfectly liftable with one hand. The nice thing about the Lupe is it is a proper sturdy vacuum cleaner that's always ready to grab and go. It's a godsend for lazy people who can't be arsed to get the plug-in hoover out since it's really no bother to run Lupe around the floors.
Would I buy one?
I can't imagine being in a position to spend £600 or £700 on a vacuum cleaner so I assume it's aimed at high net worth individuals... Were I to be an HNWer I think on balance I would buy one because the Lupe Pure Cordless is a very good vacuum cleaner. Really good. It's easy to assemble, easy to use, easy to charge, it doesn't lose power, its tools are very good (eg the tool for vacuuming sofas and fabric covered surfaces) and its clearly a well-engineered, well-made piece of kit. So overall marks out of 10: 8.99
