Croma CRV0028 – the micro-purpose vacuum cleaner. Review on Croma CRV0029

This review is about the Croma CRV0028 vacuum cleaner.

I hate dust. I just hate touching it and I hate the process of cleaning it up. And Delhi being one of the dustiest cities being right in the middle of a desert region has one thing always – dust. I needed a vacuum cleaner and thought of buying one of those hand-held ones that doesn't take up much space and is easy to carry around.

I visited Croma and checked out some of the big brands and somehow felt Croma’s own vacuum cleaner would be good because they gave a two-year warranty on the item. People struggling to get their electronic products repaired would understand that the warranty on a product is extremely important without which gradually you end up shelling out more money than the price of the item over repairs.

So coming to the product, it more or less does the work it is designed to. But considering the amount of dust that can accumulate in the entire house, this product perhaps makes you put more effort into cleaning the filters again and again. Just by dusting a bit of space, the filter gets clogged and the efficiency of the machine reduces. So, although the product boasts of doing all the work of a large vacuum cleaner, it really isn't that effective as one. The product is quite noisy. It can be heard from outside the house when it is being used.

Power and efficiency: With a small motor, one can’t expect the product to have a lot of power, you need to go real close to dusty crevices and aim the nozzle for a couple of seconds on the dust to clean up the mess. The floor attachment is anything but annoying. Owing to its light weight you have to manoeuvre it really well to make it sweep through the entire room. Most of the time, I simply sweep the floor with a broom and vacuum up the dust. The floor attachment does siphon up dust over the area you manage to run it over though.

Durability: I am disappointed with the hose assembly. By doing some amount of twisting and turning, one would end up tearing it at certain places. The hose is of the type that has these folds in a criss-cross format to help in twirling it around while vacuuming. At places where you have the folds, the item tears over time. Most other attachments are made of plastic and I don’t have problems with that. As for the machine itself, the lock that holds the cover which needs to be removed to clean the filter has become weaker and the spring mechanism to lock it shut is not working well.

The manual claims it has 0.5 liters of dust capacity which is totally incorrect. By the time it has sucked up a few grams of dust, the filter gets clogged and the equipment only gets heated up because it is not able to drag air through all that dust. One has to repeatedly open the cover, remove the filter and clean it up. And re-installing the filter is not such an easy task. It has to be carefully positioned back into the cover. At least a spare dust filter should be given so that it can be changed instead of making one stop vacuuming, clean the filter and start again. There is ample length of electrical cable provided that seems quite helpful though.

There is a shoulder belt given as an attachment so the item can be hung on it while you vacuum. But I don’t use that because if the hoses have poor manoeuvrability, then the machine itself will have to be turned in various directions to while working with it. I have not used other attachments like the hosiery brushes and crevice brushes because they don’t seem to be very helpful. It is easier to just put your hosiery in the washing machine instead of attempting to dry clean because the machine makes you put too much work into it. The machine weights 3 Kgs and it is a strain on the arm to be continuously carrying it around. The attachments can be fixed at the back of the cleaner which functions like a blower. But I don’t see what possible purpose it can serve. One needs dust to be removed and not blown to another place.

Energy consumption: The unit consumes around 1000W as stated on the sticker pasted on it and the manuals and packaging are silent on its energy star rating. That implies this is not one of the most energy efficient products.

Looks: I wasn't so much going for the looks because this is a product to be used for cleaning dust at the end of the day. However, models like Philips have much more classier look. This product is a faded golden yellow color which isn't something that one can call elegant or classy.

Overall, I would say it is an ok product and unless you have severe infectious response to dust, you would most often use traditional methods of dusting. Using this product means doing a lot of work. The best and easiest way I would say to use it is by sweeping the floor and moving all the dust to one place and then running the machine to siphon it all in one go. But the long and short of it is that this product has poor energy efficiency, but does the work of a mini-vacuum cleaner. I understand we can’t expect it to be as good as a large cleaner.

I would have wanted better plastic quality in the extension hose pipes to enable more rough usage.