This viral car vacuum cleaner doesn’t live up to the hype
12/9/2024
Translation: Megan Cornish
It’s a small, compact, super powerful vacuum cleaner that quickly sucks up those annoying crumbs in your car – according to the advert at least. Unfortunately, the reality’s somewhat different.
My child has done it again: after just one bread roll, the whole car is covered in crumbs. Even the driver’s seat… OK, I admit, it: I’m often to blame too. When I eat a croissant, it definitely leaves a few traces.
The social media algorithm also seems to know my snack preferences well, so it regularly shows me adverts for small car vacuum cleaners on Instagram. We also have various product offers from retailers in our range, often for identical or at least very similar models.
I order the Hermex cordless vacuum cleaner, which is available for fast delivery and isn’t too pricey. There are also almost a dozen similar products in the shop.
Compact design, loud suction
My first impression isn’t that good. It arrives in a slightly dented cardboard box. The instructions are in Chinese and (poorly translated) English. The vacuum cleaner is made of cheap plastic and can be charged via USB-A charger.
Source: Lorenz Keller
When I first switch it on, I’m shocked by the noise this little vacuum cleaner makes. I measure 83 decibels. Nevertheless, I head to the car in good spirits to clean the interior. I imagine stowing the vacuum cleaner in the car and quickly and easily vacuuming up crumbs anytime I like. That’s the advantage over other handheld vacuum cleaners: the Hermex and its clones from China are really small and compact, so they can easily fit in the door compartment.
But my excitement was short-lived. I wanted to start vacuuming and noticed that an important accessory was missing – the adapter I needed to connect the two small brushes. It was annoying, but these things happen. I went ahead with the test anyway.
Source: Lorenz Keller
So, I start vacuuming. It works reasonably well. The suction power isn’t exactly what I’d have expected given the noise, but it does a good job of removing crumbs and particles from shelves and the cup holder. It also works well on the carpet in the footwell, whose rough material is otherwise tough to get clean.
After just nine minutes, the battery’s empty
As it’s so compact, I can get anywhere, even places that’d be difficult with a conventional vacuum cleaner. Larger surfaces like the floormats are difficult; it takes minutes – and, all of a sudden, the battery’s empty. When I check the specs, the manufacturer promises 15 minutes. In my case, the battery’s completely empty after nine minutes. If you’re hoping you can connect the vacuum to a power bank and keep going, you’ll be disappointed. It can draw power and vacuum at the same time, but it charges more slowly than it uses energy.
Source: Lorenz Keller
Cleaning gaps with compressed air
So, I take a two-hour break and fully charge the vacuum cleaner to try out the second function. The expelled air from the vacuum cleaner can be used as compressed air for cleaning. All you have to do is attach a funnel-shaped attachment to the back. The Hermex sucks in air at the front and blows it out at the back.
Source: Lorenz Keller
Again, the principle works well, but the design has major weaknesses. If a crumb gets caught in a gap between the cockpit components, I can easily blow it out with compressed air, but the attachment doesn’t stay on firmly. It constantly falls off, so I give up in frustration.
Awful build quality
The design is really incredibly simple: the motor sucks in the air through a filter that’s integrated in the dirt container. A small flap is designed to ensure that the dirt doesn’t fall out of the container through the suction nozzle. And that’s where I come across the next problem as soon as the vacuum stops.
The flap is made so cheaply that it immediately gets blocked by particles to the extent that it no longer closes. When I empty the dirt and try to remove the flap, it falls off completely – and I can’t reattach it.
Source: Lorenz Keller
I’ll give up and send back the vacuum cleaner I bought privately. The principle of the Hermex is fine, and I could just about live with the short battery life and the loud motor noise, as the product’s only intended for quickly vacuuming something now and then. But it’s so poorly designed and poorly made that it’s simply unusable.
By the way, the social media advert claims the vacuum cleaner can also be used for vacuum-packing and as an air pump. But that’s not the case – it’s far too weak to pump even a little bit of air into a balloon.
If you know a good, very small vacuum cleaner for the car, please let me know in the comments.
In a nutshell
Good idea, awful design
Unfortunately, the quality of Hermex isn’t good at all – and this also applies to many other identical or similar vacuum cleaners. The poorly constructed flap and wobbly accessories are so cumbersome that the car vacuum cleaner is practically unusable.
Then there’s the paltry nine-minute battery life, the loud suction motor and the moderately good suction power. At least I can wash out the filter and probably won’t have to replace it so quickly. However, it’s difficult to even find a replacement, as it has to be ordered directly from the manufacturer.
The only positive thing is the compact design, which would be ideal for cleaning in the car if the thing actually worked.
Pro
- Compact design
- Can also produce compressed air
Contra
- Poor build quality
- Short battery life
- Attachments don’t stay on
- Disappointing suction power
- Exaggerated claims
Header image: Lorenz Keller
Lorenz Keller
Senior Editor
Lorenz.Keller@digitecgalaxus.chGadgets are my passion - whether you need them for the home office, for the household, for sport and pleasure or for the smart home. Or, of course, for the big hobby next to the family, namely fishing.