If you have a TV in your home that is switched on even occasionally you cannot have failed to notice this all over your screen.  It’s that time of year when our thoughts turn to all those damn dandelions polluting our otherwise perfect lawn.  So is it as easy as it looks in the advert that has been assaulting your senses.  Here at the DIY people we decided to buy one and report on it and let you have the opportunity to submit your Fiskars weed puller reviews.

First here is the Fiskars weeder advert so we all know what we are testing, there is a much more impartial video further down the page as well that is not selling the product.

So we can see from the advert that this thing is simplicity itself to use and of course you will be jumping around with delight like a fairy on steroids once you have used it a few time!  Forgive my cynicism of adverts and advertisers but I’m guessing that is not the reality for most people; however the question is whether it is really any good and what other user experiences have been with it.  The product description from the company goes like this…

“The Fiskars Weed Puller is a great invention for removing weeds, such as dandelions, from the garden. The tool is easy and comfortable to use: no digging or bending down is required and no chemicals are needed. The Weed Puller’s deep-reaching stainless steel claws grab the weed’s root from multiple directions to pull it out of the ground. The ejection system allows a clean and efficient result.

Features

• Deep-reaching stainless steel claws grab the root from multiple directions
• Leverage point from the ground level
• Ejection system helps to release weed after pulling
• Removes weeds without the use of chemicals
• Comfortable working posture, no digging required”

Buy From Ebay

Fiskars 7870 Uproot Lawn Garden Grass Weeder Weeding Weed Puller NEW - Current price: $49.99

Fiskars Weed Puller Guaranteed BRAND NEW JBUK - Current price: $48.69

Fiskars Uproot Lawn Garden Weeder Weed Root Puller Grass Clean Safe Back NEW - Current price: $45.95

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Fiskars Weed Puller Reviews

So we bought ours from Amazon.co.uk for £31.74 (RRP £39.99) and used free standard delivery, express delivery is available for a cost of £5.95, there are some cheaper sellers on Amazon now but that’s what we paid.

First impressions straight out of the box were that it was nice and lightweight although felt well constructed.  It feels like a well balanced, well make product, it is constructed from hardened aluminium with the teeth being made of stainless steel for strength.  There is some plastic however that made me think it might be a bit flimsy, however in use this proves not to be the case, overall a very well put together piece of kit.

Does The Fiskars Weed Remover Work?

The short answer is yes it does but as usual with some variance from the promoted version of events.  It definitely makes light work of weeding and speeds the whole process up immediately, what seemed like 2 or 3 hours work was done in less than half an hour and with no bending or stooping to talk about making it suitable for just about everyone to use.  There is no real strength requirement as the claws do grip the weed very well and other than a bit of wiggling the leverage provided by the foot step is enough to extract all but the toughest of weeds.  A word of warning both very dry and extremely stony ground would make this process difficult and probably impractical for most people.

In open ground it is simple to position the claws, push into the ground and remove the offending weed, it is well designed so you can get weeds right up close to walls or paths but for those really tight to the wall you may have resort to a little manual digging.

Call me a simpleton but with the weed pulling so easy the best part was the release of the weed into the waiting bag, the release action is like that of a pump action shotgun which made me smile every time I used it.  I even acted out a little as i approached the rubbish bag before letting loose with the pump action .

The Bad Bits

Holes in the ground; believe it or not when you remove the weed it leaves behind a hole in the ground where the weed used to reside.  This seemed obvious to me but if you spend any time on gardening forums and retailers sites it appears many people do not expect to have holes left behind. When you pull a weed with the Fiskars weed puller there is a hole left behind, however it is smaller than the equivalent hole from traditional methods and should be refilled in the same way with the loose dirt from the weed roots.  I personally didn’t use that method but had a bucket of new lawn compost that i filled the holes with.  Whatever way you do it I do not see this as a negative of the product but rather a law of physics or some such thing.

Poor weed pulling; some talk has been about the failure of the tool to pull ‘proper’ weeds like dandelions and docks etc.  Well I can report in my test using the leverage technique above I successfully extracted a dandelion with roots that were almost 8 inches in length.  Of course there will be some that it cannot cope with that have longer and more stubborn roots.  This problem was exacerbated on very dry and hard ground so my suggestion is to only use when the ground is reasonably soft, let’s face it when the ground is extremely hard you wouldn’t get the trowel out for weeding deep tap roots anyway.

Summary

I loved this product; despite hating weeding I found it a great aid to the job making it a super fast and successful endeavour.  However this is not a huge breakthrough in weed removal, it just does what we always have done with a trowel more elegantly, and with a greater degree of success.  The speed with which you can go and pull weeds of all kinds is phenomenal and its best selling point for me closely followed the ease of use regardless of the ability of the user.

Could anything be done better? Yes as always but this is pretty close to being as good as it can be, my main wish would be for a version with slightly longer claws to allow it to deal with longer rooted plants with more success.  about 30% of the long established dandelions i used it on snapped at the root and the longer claws could reduce that further.

Have you got one? Do you want one?  Want to leave a review or comment? we would love to hear from you..

Some UK stockists of the Fiskars weed puller are…

Amazon.co.uk from £28.99

Argos From £29.99

Homebase From £29.99

And in the USA..

Amazon.com from $28.49

Submit a review of the Fiskars Weed Remover by clicking the button below..

What detergent can I use with the Karcher window cleaner?
Simply use any detergent you wish. Karcher of course supply their own and suggest that you use theirs, however there is actually no reason to restrict yourself to that particular detergent. Your own choice is fine as long as it is liquid.

What else can I clean with the Karcher window vac?
It is perfect for shower cubicles, tiled surfaces of any kind and any kind of sealed surface like laminated tables.

How long does the Karcher rechargeable window vac take to charge?
Karcher state a 2 hour recharge time for the WV50 and our review findings tend to support that result, reviews from around the web also seem to suggest that this time is accurate.

How do I empty the Karcher window vac?
Emptying the vac is simplicity itself, just remove the small rubber bung in the tank and pour it straight down the drain. You can see it working in this video.

How does the Karcher window vac work?
It is essentially a hand held vacuum designed for fluid rather than dust, the thing that makes it work so well is the seal the head gets against the surface of the glass allowing it to dry the window completely with just one pass.

Where can I buy the Karcher window vac?
Take a look at our buying guide for more details but you can find it in just about any high street retailer or on their websites. Just be sure to read our buying guide first.

What is the best price for the Karcher window vac?
Well there is no real definitive answer to that but the best price we have found here in the UK is from
Screwfix Direct at £49.99. Of course there may be opportunities for cheaper deals at eBay.

Buy From Ebay

Karcher WV50 cordless window vac and smaller 170mm suction head attachment - Current price: $129.61

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“As far as we can determine nearly all of the negative reviewers had purchased their products from online sources other than Karcher or Amazon and those that did so via Amazon did so through a marketplace seller (not from Amazon themselves). on further investigation these sellers appear to be selling returns or ‘A’ grade or ‘B’ grade electronics”.

First a quick explanation of what these grades are, graded electrical appliances are graded as A or B, A grade are considered perfect and should be complete in every way, some retailers call this ‘open box’ stock as that is the only thing that has happened since they received the item., however B grade covers a vast range of not perfect products but can be ideal for some people. Generally B Grade products would include ex-display, end of line or customer returns that are complete and ‘as new’, they should be complete with instructions, accessories and more importantly the manufacturers warranty will still be valid. The problem is that for some retailers (unscrupulous?) this will also cover stock that I would consider ‘C Grade’ such as products that have been returned by a customer as faulty but it has been used, damaged goods and with some sellers even refurbished is considered ‘B Grade’.

What we found in our research for the main review was that people who were leaving bad reviews regarding battery life and poorly performing accessories were people who, when asked where they bought it from had bought it from said they had bought it from places most of us would not consider mainstream retailers. Ebay is prime suspect here but also Amazon marketplace was mentioned at least once, the way to avoid this is simple, apply the same rules as you do in the off line world. Would you buy this appliance from a street market trader who was selling them at half the retail price? You may be tempted but if you did you wouldn’t really be surprised if it was faulty or damaged in some way. Same applies online, although at least with Amazon marketplace you have the security of their customer service behind the product and returns are not a problem.

To buy from eBay, Amazon ‘MarketPlace’ or some other online retailer that you do not recognise then ensure you do your homework, make sure they explicitly state somewhere in the sales page that they are setting official merchandise and not graded or returned items. Note however that you only need to worry about Amazon marketplace sellers not Amazon themselves, if the item is supplied by Amazon it can be trusted, however if buying after clicking where it says ‘available from these sellers’ then please take 5 minutes to read the sellers profile and feedback before buying. Ebay is exactly the same, ensure you read the feedback for the seller you are considering and preferably about the same product, the images below show you how to make sure that Amazon are the supplier.

We love Amazon and eBay here at the DIY People as they certainly push prices down for consumers so please don’t think we are ‘warning you off’ either of those market places, quite the opposite but you need to know how to shop successfully at these places. We know 95% already know this but we get enough questions about it that it should be made clear.

As for the other buying guide question of where to buy the karcher window vac?

UK Retailers	Price	US Retailers	Price
Amazon.co.uk	£47.99	Amazon.com	$69.46
	£50 ish – Variable	Tyler Tool	$79.99
Argos	£59.99		$79.99
Screwfix Direct	£69.99

We have received a number of common questions about the window vac which we will be addressing in the next post..

When it comes to cleaning windows everyone has their own idea or system that is simply the best way to have shiny clean windows with no messiness or having any streaks left behind, the Karcher window vac puts them all to shame especially when it comes to simplicity and ease of use.

Most systems for cleaning your windows to a streak free finish follow the same lines, the windows are washed using some form of water and detergent mix and then either wiped with a rubber blade or dried in some way or another. Lots of methods exist for keeping then streak free, adding vinegar to the water, lemon juice is another favourite, drying them with newspaper rather than a cloth is another often mentioned way of maintain the clarity of the glass. The problem with all these systems is not that they do not work but more about the complexity and general inefficiency of the whole process add to that the fact that you can spend as much time clearing up the mess you have made as you spent cleaning the windows and it all becomes a bit of a burden.

Karcher Window Vacuum

The Karcher window vac changes all that as it is simplicity itself in use and how it works, it does away with the need to have different cloths or newspapers for drying and it completely removes any mess involved, no drips or smears just perfectly clean and smear free windows every time, so how does it work?

It is actually simplicity itself, basically it consists or a rechargeable cordless handheld vacuum designed to suck the dirty water off your windows into a containing tank eliminating the dripping of dirty water associated with wiping surfaces. This vacuuming action as opposed to the traditional wiping action ensures the windows are hygienically clean without leaving streaks or smears. See the video below to see how simple it really is.

Buy From Ebay

Karcher WV50 cordless window vac and smaller 170mm suction head attachment - Current price: $129.61

(Product data is refreshed every 10 minutes, approximately.)

The vac itself is extremely comfortable to use due to its lightweight nature making for easy working without effort even for people who have moderately restricted motion, the small and lightweight nature of it also means that it is easy to store and does not require a lot of storage space which is very important to a lot of people.

With the unit being cordless and lightweight you might expect the battery life to be an issue but our own findings here and the experience of users reporting both here and on other sites is unanimously that it is not a consideration. Our unit here runs very well for over 30 minutes on a full charge (which takes about 2 hours) which is more than enough time to do an average houseful of windows and doors. The stated running time by Karcher is 20 minutes which is less than we actually get but still ample for most household’s needs which basically means that there is no sacrifice of usability for the convenience of cordless operation.

The bad bits.
We do not see these problems with our machine, however these are taken from our reviewers and various other reviews from product users elsewhere. There seems to be three recurring complaints about the Karcher window vac, one is about the battery life one about the water reservoir and one about the accessory pack, we will deal with each one individually here.

Battery life
Karcher claim a battery life of 20 minutes of usage on a full charge cleaning around 10-15 windows, our own experience is of about 30 minutes of usage. Some people seem to be finding that the battery life gets nowhere near this and having spent a lot of time researching this we think we know why that is. As far as we can determine nearly all of the negative reviewers had purchased their products from online sources other than Karcher or Amazon and those that did so via Amazon did so through a marketplace seller (not from Amazon themselves). on further investigation these sellers appear to be selling returns or ‘A’ grade or ‘B’ grade electronics. These are generally considered to be as good as perfect but with potential problems like missing instruction booklets or packaging in the case of A grade and some minor faults or marks in the case of ‘B’ grade. Our impression is that these products have been sold as perfect but have manifested the battery problem, this is entirely based on our own observations and those of literally hundreds of user reviews around the web.

Water reservoir
The complaints around the water reservoir tank are that it is simply too small, we would agree with that sentiment but also understand that a larger tank would impede portability and add weight as the tank filled. In our opinion we think that Karcher have got this about right in balance, emptying the tank is not difficult, it does not require the removal of the tank or any other complex operation and the pay off in portability and comfort is without doubt a price worth paying.

Accessories
The Karcher window vac (WV50) plus comes with additional equipment which includes a detergent spray bottle with a cleaning cloth that fits to the top to make the cleaning part easy and a one handed operation, in our model this works just fine although we have since dispensed with it and use an independent spray bottle and cloth. There are a number of complaints that the bottle does not fit securely into the cap and will fall out on occasion spilling water and detergent everywhere as the open top bottle hits the floor. We can find no evidence of this being only from suppliers that may be selling sub standard (although legitimate) products and seems like it may be something that should be dealt with. Our suggestion is that if this worries you then do not buy the ‘plus’ version of the vacuum but stick only to the basics and get the vacuum alone, this does not affect how it works in anyway and in fact we dispensed with the bottle and attachments pretty quickly anyway.

The battery charger
We disliked the battery charger immensely, having what amounted to a plug, cable and connector we felt was a bit rubbish, some of us felt it would have been better with a cradle type of charger that the unit sat in to recharge, perhaps the unlikely possibility of a water spill means they were not allowed to use such a unit, we don’t know but will give that as a possibility. The other option is to have the battery external a bit like a cordless drill where it can be removed from the unit to be recharged, this allows for the possibility of having additional batteries so one can be charging whilst the other is in use extending the usage time by double if not more – Are you listening Karcher?

Summary

The Karcher Window Vac (WV50) is an outstanding piece of kit and a game changer for cleaning windows. The finish gained by using this product is without doubt as perfect as you can get and out performs any other system we have tried between us here, in fact it is better than the way most professional window cleaners leave your windows (I have long suspected window cleaners deliberately leave at least one smear on every window they clean just to show they have been!).  It allows you to get those perfect results quickly, easily and conveniently with its cordless power and simple design making it a breeze for anyone to use. There is no dripping of dirty water and the user has no contact with the dirty water and streaks on the finished window become a thing of the past.

The WV50 can be used for more than just windows, it can cope perfectly with..

• windows
• rooflights
• tiled walls or surfaces
• mirrors
• glass surfaces like tables
• shower cubicles
• any flat solid surfaces (non porous)

Do you own a Karcher window vac or have you bought one because of this review?
Let us and other potential purchasers know what you think of it by either leaving a comment below or by posting your own review, just click the ‘comment’ or ‘Submit a Review’ button below – it only takes a minute…

UK Stockists of the Karcher window vac…

Buy it on Amazon from £45.00

Buy it from eBay – £45.00

Buy it from Argos £59.99 – Currently Out of Stock 26/04/2012.

Buy it from Screwfix – £49.99

all links go direct to product pages.

If you need any more info, check out this video courtesy of youtube.com.

UPDATE – June 2013

Just wanted to clarify a point that has been emailed to us several times and has been mentioned in the reviews and comments below. The water reservoir is removable so you can wipe over the whole machine and in theory you can clean the inside of the water tank by filling it through the inlet our outlet holes, giving it a shake then empty via the rubber bung outlet. This is not ideal by any stretch of the imagination for cleaning the vac water tank but it is possible. We felt that people were saying the water tank is not removable when it clearly is as can be seen in the first of the videos in this post.

Hope that clarifies the situation for anyone wondering

Submit a review of the Karcher window vac (WV50) by clicking the button below..

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