LG Compressor VK9820NHB

Compressor! Quite a name! Its special skill? Compressing dust into compact bits. This has two advantages: no more dust clouds and it should be able to store more dust in the same volume.

After the Dyson, this is currently the hoover attracting most interest if the number of mails we've been receiving in editorial is anything to go by...

Whereas in Europe the Compressor (or Kompressor as it's known across the channel) is marketed in two ranges, the Elites (1400 W) and the Lites (2000 W), over here, under pressure from Dyson, just the 2000 W series is currently available.

Ease of use


With a range of 12 meters, a bin that compresses dust, controls on the arm, a Hepa 12 filter that improves the quality of air expelled, this is a serious candidate for the top of the vacuum league!


When you get hold of it, it's a bit like Lego, with buttons and panels everywhere. The Hepa filter (which you need to access from time to time) is at the back, in front of the mini bin, above access to an orangle module that you need to clean from time to time, and a second foam filter. You'll be getting the idea, all this is something of a problem in terms of maintenance: a big factor with this one.

Suction

In this test, Pierre-Jean, who I'm working with on the vacuums, produced a real rabbit out the hat. How did he manage to suck up two litres of rice in a bin supposed to have a capacity of 1.5 litres? A mystery... but it happened.

6 seconds from beginning to end to suck up two litres of dry rice: the Compressor VK9820NHB is one of the fastest.

Surface	Score
Lino
Floorboards
Carpet tile
Deep-pile carpet

Good performance with rice is often a good sign. Indeed, Compressor does better than the average on the hardest test, on deep-pile carpet. Even without a dedicated head for this usage, 3 sweeps over the carpet and it picks up the hairs we stuck down there for the test, in comparison to 5 sweeps for a lot of other machines.

These scores are however valid only for the vacuum at the beginning of the test. The filters get dirty and this product requires more maintenance than the Dyson to keep up its suction power.

Noise

75 dB in the test: it's halfway between the very noisy Dyson and the quietest bagless vacuums (70 dB).

Energy consumption

At full power and with the bin empty, the Compressor consumes 1700 watts. As it fills up this goes down: 1400 W when half-full, 720 W when full. So although LG advises you to wait until it's full before you empty it so that you get as large and compact a lump of dust as possible, if you do wait, it loses out on power...


And in case you were still wondering, high energy consumption isn't synonymous with quality. With its 1700 watts, the Compressor is somewhere in the middle of the field when it comes to efficiency. Some 1400 watt machines do just as well.

Emptying and Cleaning

The results are paradoxical. On one hand, we do like the idea of a lump of dust. 4 stars for this idea (which isn't as efficient as it could be in any case).

Emptying the bin is easy and the contents won't fly off in all directions (or at least less than the competition).


The rest of the story is less joyous however. The filters, both (the standard and the Hepa) get dirty. The Elite series does better here but, as we said above, it isn't marketed in the UK!

Just after the cocoa suction test, look what fell down onto my trousers when I gave the Hepa filter on this model a tap:


The foam filter also suffers. Weight before the cocoa test: 56 grammes. Weight after: 68 grammes. 12 g of cocoa remained in the foam, against 0 for the Dyson and the Rowenta Intensium. It even retained more than the Rowenta Silent Force with its paper filter.