Hands-on review: Samsung Jet 90 Pet vacuum cleaner

While vacuuming the house isn't quite my favourite chore, it would probably appear at the bottom end of my all-time top five. But since I was sent the cordless Samsung Jet 90 Pet, everything has changed - sucking up my house's accumulation of dust is now probably my second favourite domestic duty (nothing will touch my number one: laundry).

I've used my fair share of vacuum cleaners, both corded and cordless. In my experience, both can have their moments: historically I've seen better suction and performance from certain corded brands, and while such performance has lacked with some portable ones I've used, the convenience of not lugging around a giant unit with a too-short cord is too hard to pass up.

Luckily, now I can have the best of both worlds. The Samsung Jet 90 Pet does the job with grace and aplomb, combining quality suction with no cords and decent battery life. And this is to say nothing of the Cleaning Station, which I received with the vacuum, which makes emptying the dust bin so easy and clean it still amazes me. But more on that below.

Here are the key features of the Samsung Jet 90 Pet and the accompanying Cleaning Station:

Once assembled from the box (thankfully a very straightforward process), the Jet 90 Pet is ready to go.

I was pleasantly surprised when I first used it; the Turbo Action Brush only needed one or two passes over the same stretch of carpet to pick up the subtle film of dust, dead skin and hair. Even if there were particularly stubborn patches of dust, all it takes is to press the '+' button on the display, and the device shifts up a gear, which did the trick 90% of the time.

One definite plus is that the interface is exceedingly simple: three buttons - On/off, '+' and '-', the latter two used to shift from 'Min', 'Med' and 'Max' speed. The Jet 90 Pet also has a 'Wet' setting, for when you inevitably smash a wine glass on the floor after a few too many cab savs.

The interface also has a warning system, alerting you if the pipe is stuck, the battery is low, and which brush you're using.

I found that using the 'Med' setting sufficed most of the time, doing the job to my satisfaction in record time. My house isn't big, but since I started using the Jet 90 Pet, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that I've easily cut the time spent vacuuming in half (before, I was using a competent yet corded machine).

The Jet 90 Pet is advertised as having a "21.9V lithium-ion battery that delivers up to 1 hour of continuous suction", and so far I have found that to be accurate.

Even so, there's nothing worse than a cordless vacuum cleaner dying exactly when you need it - so the addition of an extra battery charging port on the charging station was handy, and more than once I've used this feature to interchange the two batteries when one ran out while vacuuming. (Note: the battery ran out mid-vacuum because I only plug in the charging station when needed for charging dead batteries, as opposed to leaving it on perpetually.)

This was the fun part. Using the actual vacuum cleaner, while definitely a better experience than I am used to, is still a familiar task. The Cleaning Station was not familiar, and solved a problem I didn't know I was annoyed by.

This component (sold separately to the Jet 90 Pet), eliminates the irritating task of emptying the dust bin directly into the rubbish, which almost always results in at least some of the dust avoiding the target and dropping on the exact patch of floor you just vacuumed.

Instead, the all you need to do is detach the dust bin from the vacuum cleaner, and place it into the Cleaning Station with the lid still closed. Suddenly, a muffled version of the noise of an aeroplane toilet fills the room, and in seconds the dust is gone, sucked into a removable bag inside the unit.

It's definitely the highlight of the whole task, somehow making the chore more worth it - in the back of your mind you know you're getting closer to witnessing the fruits of your labour getting sucked noisily into oblivion, never to be vacuumed (for the second time) again.

The charging station is perhaps the only let down - it takes up quite a bit of space when the vacuum cleaner is docked and charging - the combined footprint of the vacuum and the charging station is surprisingly large.

But it makes use of the space - as mentioned, there is a port to charge a second battery at the base of the charging station, and little nooks where you can click in the peripheral vacuum heads, which includes a small head with a brush, one for tight, hard to reach spaces, and another that doubles as a smaller version of the Turbo Brush.

Overall, the Samsung Jet 90 Pet is great, combining good suction quality with good battery life and a host of well-designed tidbits that make sucking up dust simpler and more enjoyable. It's easy to assemble from the box, easier to use, and combined with the Cleaning Station, the whole experience makes the task faster and more efficient than ever.

At around NZ$900, it's about on par with the price of other premium cordless vacuums, and its quality stands up. Combined with the $300 Cleaning Station, it can get pricey, but well worth it if you're after a satisfying, easy vacuuming (and dust disposal) experience.

In fact, vacuuming might be giving laundry a run for its money.