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An Aldi exclusive, the Beldray 2-In-1 Cordless Vacuum (BEL01088ALFOB) is a super-cheap stick vacuum cleaner. It’s not that powerful, but at this price that can be forgiven. Think of this as a grab-and-go cleaner for smaller jobs, working in tandem with a plug-in vacuum cleaner, and you’ve got the picture. If you want more powerful cordless cleaning, look elsewhere, though.

Most cordless vacuum cleaners tend to be a lot more expensive than their rival plug-in models, down to the costs of miniaturisation and batteries. The Beldray 2-In-1 Cordless Vacuum (BEL01088ALFOB), an Aldi exclusive until stocks run out, is something a bit different: it costs just £54.99.

It feels a bit more plasticky than its high-end rivals, but for simple jobs, it works well enough and that price can’t be knocked.

While the Beldray 2-In-1 Cordless Vacuum may feel a little more cheaply made than its high-end rivals, such as the Dyson V15 Detect, it doesn’t feel fragile. Its plasticky body has an advantage: this vacuum cleaner is very light at 2.45kg. I found it exceptionally easy to pick up and move around.

The angle of the handle tends to push the vacuum cleaner down. I found this good for cleaning floors but when trying to lift the Beldray 2-In-1 Cordless Vacuum to clean around the ceiling, I felt as though I needed a bit more effort to lift it.

This vacuum cleaner has a removable battery. There’s no dock, but it’s easy to remove the battery for charging if you don’t have a cable in the cupboard where you’ll store the cleaner.

As this is a cheap vacuum cleaner, there are only two accessories in the box: a motorised floor head and a combination crevice tool/brush. The latter doesn’t have a clip to lock it into place, staying on with friction only.

It’s good to see that this tool can clip onto the wand, so you can carry it around as you get on with your vacuuming.

LEDs at the front of the floor head help light up where you’re going and it’s nice to see this on such a low-cost vacuum cleaner.

Controls are simple: squeeze the trigger once to turn on low power, again to go to high power and once more to turn the machine off. A set of three LEDs turn off one by one to show you the current charge of the vacuum cleaner.

There’s a 1.2-litre dust container on this model, which is larger than on many vacuum cleaners, and proves handy if you don’t want to empty the Beldray 2-In-1 Cordless Vacuum very often. Emptying is quite easy: the bottom flap opens up so that dirt can go into the bin.

You can also remove the filter from this access point, which helps get out any stubborn dirt. Still, it would have been better if the entire bin could be removed, as that makes it easy to give a deep clean from time to time.

You can’t expect a lot of power from a cheap vacuum cleaner such as this, and the Beldray 2-In-1 Cordless Vacuum (BEL01088ALFOB) doesn’t have a lot of raw power. Measuring it at the nozzle, I tested the cleaner’s power in airwatts (AW) – this uses both suction power and airflow. On low power, the cleaner got 22AW, which is very low, while high power jumped to 38AW, which is still a lot lower than much of the competition.

For example, the Shark WandVac System starts at 63AW, while the handheld Hoover H-Handy 700 runs at the same 63AW. Raw power is a good indicator of performance, particularly with handheld tools: the more suction you have, the quicker you can work and the bigger the bits of debris that you can collect.

For regular vacuum cleaning, the efficiency of the floor head plays an important role in performance, agitating dirt to be sucked up. To test the vacuum cleaner, I put it through my real-world tests. 

Starting on carpet, I spread an ‘X’ of flour onto my test carpet, and then gave the Beldray 2-In-1 Cordless Vacuum (BEL01088ALFOB) a pass-through (forwards and backwards) to see how much dirt was removed. The results weren’t bad given the low power of the vacuum cleaner: a lot of mess has gone, but there are clearly clumps left behind.

I then vacuumed the bottom of the mess on High power. This did well, removing the remaining dirt there. I then found that high power was enough to remove the rest of the mess, although it took a few sweeps from different angles to get everything.

I combed at hair into the carpet, then gave the vacuum cleaner a forwards and backwards pass over it. Here, it did well on low power, removing the cat hair completely.

Next, I moved on to the tough edge test, sprinkling a teaspoon of flour onto carpet tiles, right up to the skirting board. The results here weren’t as impressive. On low power, the vacuum left a lot of mess.

Moving to high power, I needed a few sweeps from different angles, but there was still some mess left at the end. This tough test was a little too hard for this vacuum cleaner.

Finally, I moved on to my hard floor test, dropping a teaspoon of rice onto the floor. Passing the Beldray 2-In-1 Cordless Vacuum (BEL01088ALFOB) through forwards and backwards, it got all of the rice on low, with the controls proving an advantage: as I had to move to high power first before turning the cleaner off, this little boost was enough to make sure that no grains dropped back out.

I found the  ​Beldray 2-In-1 Cordless Vacuum (BEL01088ALFOB) quite loud, starting at 70.5dB on low and 72.7dB on high. It’s quite a harsh sound from this vacuum cleaner, so I certainly knew when it was turned on.

Battery life is 41m on low and 25m on high in my tests. That’s more than you might think from a cheap vacuum cleaner, but the low suction helps here: the Shark WandVac System is more powerful, so lasts a lot less time on a charge.

Of course, it’s not just about battery life but how far you can clean. I found that with the Beldray 2-In-1 Cordless Vacuum (BEL01088ALFOB), I’d have to give mess multiple sweeps, whereas other cleaners would tackle the mess on one. That reduces the cleaning area, and I think of the Beldray 2-In-1 Cordless Vacuum (BEL01088ALFOB) as more of an add-on to an existing plug-in vacuum cleaner.

If you’ve got a plug-in vacuum cleaner that you’re happy with, then this could be a good add-on for smaller jobs.

If you want a cordless vacuum cleaner that can tackle tougher, bigger amounts of mess or for whole-home cleaning, look elsewhere.

It’s not particularly powerful and cleaning often takes a few more swipes than with a more powerful vacuum cleaner. This would be more of an issue if the Beldray 2-In-1 Cordless Vacuum (BEL01088ALFOB) was more expensive. At this price, such issues can be forgiven.

Rather than thinking of this as a full-on cordless vacuum cleaner for all jobs, I think it’s best compared to handheld cleaners, such as the Hoover H-Handy 700. With that cleaner, you can only tackle very small spills and the battery life is very short. Here, you can clean faster on floors thanks to the floor head, and there’s more battery life. Cleaning performance is good enough for smaller spills, but you will need a regular plug-in vacuum cleaner for bigger jobs and full-house cleaning. Not what you’re after, check out my guide to the best cordless vacuum cleaners for more.

We test every vacuum cleaner we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.

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Used as our main vacuum cleaner for the review period

Tested for at least a week

Tested using tools to measure actual suction performance

Tested with real-world dirt in real-world situations for fair comparisons with other vacuum cleaners

It’s on sale until stocks run out at Aldi.

It lasts for around 40-minutes on low and around 25-minutes on high. Recharging takes around five hours.

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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.

Founded in 2004, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.

Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.

Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.

We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.

Products tested and reviewed since 2003