Soniclean VT Plus review: Soniclean tries to shake up the vacuum game

The Soniclean VT Plus is a simple-looking $200 vacuum cleaner that claims it can outperform Oreck, Dyson, and Shark. The ace up its sleeve is "sonic-cleaning technology," which comes by way of a bar adjacent to the brushroll which vibrates 200 times per second. Like an electric toothbrush, which buzzes the plaque right out of your gums, this vacuum promises to buzz the dirt right out of your carpets.

7.0

Soniclean VT Plus

The Good

The Soniclean VT Plus managed to keep up with more expensive vacuums in our performance tests, with several perfect scores to its name.

The Bad

The dated, plasticky design lacks any real features aside from "sonic cleaning technology," which we suspect might not actually do that much.

The Bottom Line

With decent performance and a price of just $200, this vacuum might make sense for value-minded minimalists, but you'll need to look elsewhere for something more modern or feature-rich.

$200 isn't a bad price for a middle of the road vacuum, and it's a great price for one that's actually capable of performing as well as vacuums like the Dyson DC65 Animal and the Oreck Touch , which both cost significantly more. In our tests, the Soniclean more or less did just that, putting up performance scores that left me pleasantly surprised. I can't say that I'm a fan of the dated, feature-less design, but for raw cleaning power from a lightweight, affordable unit, I give the Soniclean VT Plus a passing grade.

Shaking things up with the Soniclean VT Plus (pictures)

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Design and features

The Soniclean VT Plus sports a skepticism-inducing, faux-futuristic design that makes it feel less like the vacuum of tomorrow and more like a relic of the early '90s. It's an aesthetic that just seems blatantly inauthentic given how basic the build is. There's no pivoting neck for easy maneuverability, no unique engineering touches, no high-end design flourishes. It's a very simple, very dated build that's been designed to look fancier than it actually is.

Still, the design gets some things right. At just over 11 pounds, the Soniclean is noticeably lighter than the Oreck and Dyson models I mentioned before, along with the comparably priced, tank-like Electrolux Precision Brushroll Clean . All three of those weigh in at over 17 pounds.

Part of the reason this vacuum is so light is because it doesn't have a whole lot of extra stuff on it, or in it. Inside, there's just the disposable, HEPA-filtered bag -- the Soniclean only comes with one of them, which seems a bit cheap to me. Additional eight-packs cost $25 and are supposed to last you about a year.

Below the interior bag, you'll also find a slot for a linen-scented air freshener. Like the bags, you get one of these with the vacuum, and if you like what you smell, additional eight-packs cost $20. I certainly didn't mind having it in there as I cleaned, but I doubt that I'd feel compelled to buy additional ones after it ran out.

You won't find any extra cleaning attachments on its backside, or even a wand. From a practicality standpoint, this comes in handy when you're trying to lie the Soniclean flat to the ground and store it under your bed, but it still might feel a bit too sparse by modern standards.

The settings are sparse, too. The power button is conveniently located on the handle and clearly labeled with foolproof lettering. Click it once for hard floors, twice for carpets. That's it. There are no other settings to play with, no other buttons to press, nothing else aside from the latch to release the vacuum from its standing position. If you're looking for something feature-rich, look elsewhere. Minimalists, however, might be justifiably thrilled with this thing.

Of course, the Soniclean's true marquee feature is right there in the name: sonic cleaning. Flip the vacuum over, and in addition to the brushroll, you'll find a strange, blue bar. This is the part that vibrates as you clean in carpet mode (it turns off if you click back into hard floor mode). Soniclean claims that this vibrator helps its vacuum agitate dirt out of your carpets.

Then again, every vacuum is designed to agitate dirt out of your carpets, typically via the little brushes that spin through the carpet fibers. I wanted to see what set sonic agitation apart.

For a rough approximation of the vibration's intensity, I held a glass of water directly against the Soniclean's spinning brushroll, then directly against the vibrator bar. The brushroll had next to no effect on the water, but the vibrating bar sent steady, Jurassic Park-style ripples across the surface. Clearly, those vibrations produce a different effect than you'll get with just a brushroll.

Performance and usability

We ran the Soniclean through our usual barrage of vacuum tests to see what sonic cleaning technology brings to the table (or in this case, to the living room floor). Using multiple runs to clean up multiple kinds of debris across multiple types of surfaces is a laborious process, but it's one that gives us a lot of data.

We started with pet hair, straight from a local groomer. Just 0.2 ounces of the stuff just about leaves our test surfaces coated with fluff, which is just enough to see distinct separation between the various vacs we use to clean it up.

As you can see, the Soniclean did a terrific job in this test, putting up perfect scores across the board. It wasn't the first perfect pet hair run we'd seen -- the Dyson DC41 Animal Complete pulled it off last year -- but still, it's an impressive accomplishment.

I was also pleased to find relatively little hair clogged in the brushroll after each run, which indicates a brushroll that efficiently moves things up and into the bin. Despite having a relatively small motor, the Soniclean definitely also has a good bit of "cling" to it as you clean, especially as you pull it backward.

Cheerios, 1 oz. (percentage picked up)

Soniclean VT Plus 88 100 100Oreck Touch Bagless 92 97 95Dyson DC65 Animal 80 100 100Electrolux Precision Brushroll Clean 93 88 90

Next up was our Cheerio test, and again, the Soniclean finished right at the top of the pack, putting up perfect scores on both plushy, mid-pile carpet and tighter-knit, low-pile carpet. On hardwood, it picked up an average of 88% of the cereal, and did a good job of not scattering or crunching up the remaining 12% too badly. That speaks to a design that might hold a greater number of thoughtful engineering touches than I initially gave it credit for.

What about the sonic cleaning? I doubted that the vibrating bar was doing very much to help with pet hair or Fruity Cheerios, but with smaller, dirt-like particulates, it seemed reasonable that it would play a larger role. Soniclean rates their sonic cleaning feature by testing out especially tiny particles, claiming that your mileage may vary with the bigger stuff.

Sand, 2.5 oz. (percentage picked up)

Oreck Touch 99 83 91Dyson DC65 Animal 99 65 79Electrolux Precision Brushroll Clean 97 59 64Soniclean VT Plus 90 62 66

As it turns out, it was with the smaller stuff (sand, to be exact) where we saw a dip in performance. Among the four vacuums tested for this review, the Soniclean put up the worst average scores with the stuff.

These numbers weren't bad, per se -- it finished in a virtual tie with the well-reviewed, more expensive Electrolux Precision Brushroll Clean, a vacuum which also features dramatically more suction. Perhaps it was that sonic cleaning making up the difference.

With this in mind, I tried vacuuming sand out of the carpets with the Soniclean set to hard floor mode -- where the vibrating bar remains off. Without vibration, I saw no noticeable decline in performance, and in one test, even saw the Soniclean pick up slightly more sand than it had when the vibration was turned on.

All of this leads me to believe that the sonic cleaning feature is probably at least slightly gimmicky, and not something that really adds all that much to this vacuum's standard cleaning power. Fortunately for Soniclean, that standard cleaning power actually looks halfway decent in its own right, especially keeping in mind that some of the competition it went up against costs considerably more.

It's also worth noting that, in addition to being more genuinely feature-rich, those other vacuums will also offer you more in terms of usability. Despite being heavier vacuums, a ball-mounted Dyson or a twist-and-go Oreck Touch will both be vastly more maneuverable than the Soniclean, which features a non-pivoting neck that's only capable of tilting up and down.

Conclusion

The Soniclean offers enough value for consumers in the US that I think it merits consideration. I wasn't a fan of the design, both in terms of the way it looks and in terms of the construction's plasticky feel, but the performance scores managed to overcome my initial impressions and leave me pleasantly surprised.

This vacuum isn't a status symbol like the Dyson DC65, and its sparse set of features fall far short of what you'll get from something like the Oreck Touch . But those both cost a lot more than the Soniclean, which managed to keep up with them in terms of cleaning power. If that's all that matters to you (and it you're looking to save a little money), then Soniclean might be of interest -- but keep in mind that you'll need to factor the costs of replacement bags into the price. For something comparably priced but more focused on features, check out the Electrolux Precision Brushroll Clean , which you can currently snag on Amazon for $200.