Sobering...
AEG - good from experience? A résumé after not quite 2 years.
At the end of March 2019, I decided on the FX-9 cordless vacuum cleaner - I wanted to treat myself to something, above all the luxury of not having to constantly struggle with a cable while vacuuming and dragging it.
After a good 1.5 years I come to the following test result: sufficient.
Unfortunately, my device has been to the repair service for the second time. I find this fact alone, in fact, terrifying enough. I expected a lot more from a device that has such a high price and comes from the well-known manufacturer AEG. My old "0815" vacuum cleaner was never being repaired and is still running after 8 years - luckily! Because AEG obviously seems to assume that you have a second device anyway, because in the time when the device in need of repair is absent you are simply left to your fate and can probably suffocate in dust bunnies if AEG has its way. But only by the way.
The first damage to the device was interesting: the vacuum cleaner could no longer be charged because it no longer remained in the required position in the charging cradle. It always tilted slightly forward and lost contact with the spring contacts. The error itself started a little more than a year after purchase.
In some cases (initially) the loss of contact did not happen immediately, but only after a few minutes, which was the stupidest case, because then you did not notice that the vacuum cleaner was no longer charging and you then had no device ready for use the next time you vacuumed . However, the situation got worse and worse until it was basically no longer possible to charge the device at all. That was the reason for the first repair.
At the time, the description of the fault in the repair was as follows: hose defective, sealing gasket defective. Parts renewed.
This description made me so puzzled that I once again asked the service department what one has to do with the other, mainly because I didn't notice any damage to these two things and I could hardly believe that something was broken should. I did not get a real explanation ... However that may be - to this day it is a bit difficult for me to understand that an allegedly defective hose leads to the device no longer being able to charge - but the vacuum cleaner actually charges reliably again since the repair , So I came to terms with it, because my problem was basically fixed.
Only 3 months later, at the end of November, the second damage: out of the blue, the latching hook, with which you can lock the body on top of the bar, broke off. Only when I had the damage did I look at the construction again in detail and unfortunately have to say: that was definitely preprogrammed and it was foreseeable that this would happen - at least if you use this function regularly. And since this function was one of the main reasons for buying it, I use it of course. The locking hook is unfortunately only made of plastic and is obviously not really designed to last long - at least not if you use it regularly. Judging by the tone of the service employee, I was by no means the first customer who called because of this damage - that also gives me pause.
Certainly the following assertion is easy to say, but I am actually someone who takes great care of all property, even especially with objects of use, because I want to have something from them for a long time. However, in my opinion, a commodity has to be designed in such a way that it lives up to its name, and unfortunately that is not the case with the locking hook. All in all, I find this very disappointing after only 1.5 years of using the teat (1x per week).
So far for now. The 2 damages within a good 1.5 years alone are not exactly what I expected from this household appliance, which is not exactly cheap.
Finally, however, I would also like to add my everyday experience report. In the meantime I've come to the point that I would like to swap the device for a conventional vacuum cleaner again and there are the following reasons for this:
the battery performance drops noticeably overall. I currently live in a 72m ^ 2 apartment - minus furniture, etc., you might actually get 65m ^ 2 in it that needs to be vacuumed. At first it was not a problem, but now I can only manage it with a single charge with good luck - that means: don't suck in all the little corners thoroughly, then it'll just work. Meanwhile, the vacuum cleaner always runs on AUTO and not on maximum suction power, otherwise it would end much faster. Sobering…
The suction power itself - at the time extolled that it was far better than that of a vacuum suction device - is not bad in principle (floors etc.), but the bottom line is that it cannot keep up with my old vacuum cleaner, at least not in some situations. The best example of this: the dust between the radiator fins is nowhere near as well sucked in by the FX9.
One point that bothers me the most, after having had enough practical experience, is the fact that with the FX9 you are not able to adequately vacuum under the couch because you cannot pull it out long enough and the body then limited in terms of range under the couch (perhaps AEG should better include a maximum range when promoting this function). There is no problem with a standard vacuum cleaner with a long hose on the pole, because you can easily get to the wall behind the couch.
The also highly touted function of being able to pull out the hose if necessary or sucking with the body locked at the top and the rod extended has not been thought through to the end. With the first variant, you may have to put your hand into narrow spaces, e.g. between the bedside table and the wall, and ultimately your own arm is not long enough to reach the last corner and with the second variant, on the other hand, it can quickly happen that the bar is too thick and you can't get into the narrow spaces again. Here, too, the classic standard vacuum cleaner with a long and flexible hose does significantly better in terms of practicality.
The roller brush from the furniture attachment keeps stopping for some inexplicable reason and you have to switch the vacuum cleaner off and on again every time so that it rotates again. That's just annoying, especially because you sometimes don't notice it right away. In the meantime, however, I know the sound well enough to know whether it is still turning or has already stopped again.
The capacity of the standard dust container is also insufficient in my opinion. Visually it is still far from the maximum, but the suction power has already decreased so drastically that you no longer get satisfactory suction results. I put this dust container in the closet and don't use it anymore because I don't want to have to empty the container 3 times each time I clean the apartment. Fortunately, I also have the allergy-free version with a small dust bag - and fortunately the suction power is good until just before the bag is filled to the maximum.
All in all: AEG - good from experience? More like “A real Glump!”. A device like this will definitely never come into my house again. I prefer to fight again with the cable and dragging behind it, but overall I have a better, more comfortable and, above all, suction result in narrow corners and under the couch.
