Bosch Athlet BCH6AT25AU (White)

Replacement battery costs more than the vac – I'm sooo angry, my dad passed away and I have inherited his bosch athlete vac so it has sentimental value, it only vacs for around 3 minutes so I rang Bosch to enquire about a replacement, well, it's built in so that will cost you between $400 and $500 dollars the eude lady said..how can they justify this..bet they don't tell customers when they are buying this vac that the battery will cost more than the vac...disgusting. Show details

Great suction power, but often have a short battery life – My first Bosch Athlet cordless vacuum cleaner was amazing. Very strong suction, picking up everything and leaving my carpet looking great. Unfortunately it stopped working after 10 months. The battery had died. Luckily it was still under warranty so I got a replacement from Bosch- free of charge. When the battery goes - it’s useless as the battery… Read more

is built-in. My friend found herself in the same situation. I have had my current one for 3 years and it hasn’t missed a beat. It’s such a great vacuum cleaner, so I hope it’s battery holds out a few more years.

I love this stick vacuum – It is so light and has fantastic suction on both tiles and carpet wouldn’t buy anything else Show details

Great Vacuum. Will replace with my current vacuum in a heartbeat – First impressions definitely did last. The vacuum was easy to assemble, I was able to do so prior to reading the instruction manual. The first charge was completed overnight. I first used the vacuum up stairs using Turbo (level 3) on the carpet and Level 1 on the tiles in the bathroom, it was used for a total of 15 minutes before needing to be… Read more

charged again. I was very impressed with the suction of the vacuum, I was amazed at how much this vacuum did pick up (human hair, dust and sewing threads) and was very easy to maneuver around furniture. The vacuum was very quiet on level 1 and louder on Turbo, not any louder than a regular vacuum. The second time the vacuum was used was downstairs, it was much lighter than our regular vacuum and easily carried downstairs, the vacuum was used on tiled floors and a shaggy rug, the vacuum was used on Turbo (level 3) on the rug and 1 on the tiles, the rug came up excellent, once again impressed with the suction picking up (pet hair, play doh, dust), the vacuum very easily cleaned the tiles on level 1. The dust bin did need to be emptied twice upstairs and once down stairs during use, where our regular vacuum may have only needed to be emptied once, in saying this it was very easy to remove and empty, I do suggest having the canister in the bin when removing the filter prior to emptying as this part can be quite a messy job. All in all a great vacuum and highly recommended.

Fantastic vacuum cleaner – Purchased the Bosch cordless vacuum from The Good Guys for $199. It has 3 speeds & transitions well from tiles onto carpet without a change in the dials. The battery life is quite long compared to other makes & brands. The machine is relatively lite in weight & moving it around into tight spaces is easy. It's bagless which is cost effective & has… Read more ·  1

washable filters that can also be replaced after heavy use. Charging from zero to full does take a few hours, this is the only down fall I've found since purchasing it.

Serious construction failure – After 3 years of use, cracks appeared at the top, just below the hand grip. I sealed the cracks with a strong glue. After 4 years there was more and more play in the place where the top attachment is placed. This became dangerous and I had to seal it with epoxy kit again. Obviously, the engine is too heavy for the far too light plastic… Read more

construction. I payed for 5 years of warranty but the insurance company told me that I was not covered for cracks in the frame. They explained me that the cracks could have been caused by improper use.....

An engineers review - DONT buy this – Ive both owned and repaired one of these, and others like it. The Athlet has two fundamental flaws, unacceptable on an expensive machine: 1) The batteries cannot (practically) be replaced. Cordless vacs work the batteries hard, especially on the higher settings. So it's perfectly normal for batteries to loose capacity or fail after a few years.… Read more

That's not specific to Bosch. But by making the batteries non-replaceable Bosch have guaranteed this will only last a few years. 2) The handle snaps. This is a heavy machine with a thin plastic handle. It will snap at the top, rending the vacuum useless. You may be able to glue it together for a short time, but the internal wiring in the handle will soon break. Very poor design.

It is an impressive machine initially.... but it wont last. Dont waste your money and pollute our environment. Get a machine with a user-replaceable battery - added bonus, you can have a spare battery charged ready if the vac goes flat half way through your house.

Battery lIfe POOR – I have owned this vacuum for three years now. In almost every respect this is a well designed product. Nevertheless, the lithium batteries have started to die. I was quite happy to replace them but found out that this is next to impossible which means an otherwise perfect appliance needs to go to landfill!! I amoungst many others detest this… Read more

needless waste. BOSCH makes quality products, so I am disappointed that they don't stand behind the products they sell. I tried to ring them but found their Australian number had benn disconnected?? I think this shows contempt for their customers, so I will never purchase a Bosch product again.

trash, battery dies within a few mins - worthless – had for nearly 2 years, started off with a battery life of about 15 to 20 mins on high used on floorboards and occasionally carpet. now barely lasts 2 minutes after a full overnight charge. have cleaned and maintained it, the battery is just trash. for the price i paid 2 years ago, its pretty disappointing! dont waste your money! Show details

If I could give it less I would – Two years out of a Bosh stick vacuum purchased from Havey Norman only to find it is impossible to buy a replacement battery. Sorry, I found one supplier on the internet an Australian company and this is from their website. 12027242 BOSCH STICK VAC BATTERY ASSY 25.2V *PLEASE CONTACT STATEWIDE PRIOR TO ORDER Part Number: 12027242 $574.95 No more Bosh products for me. Show details

Waste of money – I've had the same issue with battery life. If on the highest setting it only holds charge for about 1min then dies. Even though the battery indicator would have 3/4 full it dies after 1min. Started out being great... best suction in a stick vac I've had but the battery issue has turned me right off Bosch now unfortunately. Mostly used on tiles and very low profile indoor/outdoor carpet Show details

Battery dying... AGAIN! – EDIT: After writing this review Product review gave me the option to give Bosch an opportunity to reply prior to posting.. very disappointed to say I have heard nothing from them despite giving them plenty of time to respond... This is my third Bosch athlet vacuum! 1st - cutting out and was replaced under warranty 2nd - dropped down to 3 mins… Read more

in less than 1 1/2 yrs.. again replaced under warranty 3rd - down to three minutes in only just over 1 1/2 years even though the majority of the time was only used on timber floors and I'm careful about always cleaning filters...

So now I've resorted to sweeping floors and only use the vacuum for a short burst to suck up the dust pile ... When its new its a great vacuum but at this price point I think I'm justified in having a reasonable expectation that it would last longer. As other reviews have indicated this is obviously a common issue..... and worst still the batteries aren't replaceable ...here we are banning plastic bags but think nothing of being a throw away society when it comes to appliances ...surely Bosch can do better than this

Charge lasts 20mins – The vacuum on full charge lasts about 20 mins in my one bedroom flat. For longer cleans it just doesn't cut it. The suction is great when its charged. I only purchased it 6 months ago. For a $300 vacuum I would have expected a bit more. You also need to buy the attachments for an extra charge of around $70. As the vacuum doesn't fit under… Read more

furniture due to the motor and cylinder being at the bottom of the vacuum it makes it a pain to try use the extra attachments. Very disappointed.

Irreplaceable Battery?? – We bought the Bosch Athlet from Harvey Norman in the late 2016 and have used it on carpet, tile and timber flooring. Thought it was fabulous product for the first year or two!! The use on carpet is a bit hard going, but given the vacuum is only for spot cleaning, I could put up with the exertion. Like many other reviewers on this site, the battery… Read more

has slowly given up and now, the vacuum will only last for 3-5 minutes on a full charge. After contacting Bosch, I was provided with a new charger, but this was no help. I was happy to buy a new battery, but was told this really wasn't an option. Wish I had of known that when I was shopping for a new vac!! Don't bother with this product.

Terrible – I actually came to this category of cordless vacs because I am completly fed up using my Bosch. It was absolute disaster for us. I was hoping to shop around for a decent replacement. And here I see 4 stars for the same model - I do not know how it is possible. Our one has multiple issues: - glitchy button from the beginning, does not work every… Read more

time, super annoying - shuts down sporadically, even after just few seconds on smooth hardfloor. - battery capacity detoriated really quickly, it is getting flat after 10 min of use - after 1 year of light usage the brush started giving very loud rattling noise, though I do not see any apparent defects - looks normal but gives horrible noise. I am pretty sure that I will be more happy with ANY vac I will buy to replace this vac. Never Bosch again - how Bosch could lower its standards to sell this stuff?

Snapped handle - only 2 years old – This Bosch Athlet worked well enough on carpet and hard floors, but recently, in the course of normal use, the handle snapped completely, just below the switch near the top of the handle, rendering it unusable- and I suspect, irreparable. Very disappointing for a quality brand like Bosch. No response from their website after several days. Show details

Be warned – We bought the Bosch Athlet 25.2v in 2015 and yes; it does do everything that Bosch claims to do… for the FIRST TWO YEARS! After that, its battery power starts to drain. It’s been five years since we bought it, and we can literally get only FIVE MINUTES worth of power before it needs recharging. I’ve checked online for negative reviews of the… Read more

product—which I now wished I had done before—and lo! What do I find? Lots of customers reporting the same thing, which was something the positive reviewers somehow forgot to mention!

Worse, as the battery is physically built into the unit, you cannot buy a replacement, which means the whole machine must be thrown out, even though all the parts work perfectly.

Now I get that it comes with just a two-year warranty, and that as it is battery-operated you would expect some decrease in power, but for $449 I expected something more than lasting for less than a decade. If I had known that I would be spending that much to get just two years of full use and after five years it would be worthless, I would not have bought it.

Moreover, we have owned heavily-used workhorse vacuum cleaners that have lasted for twenty years, albeit on cord, which makes this situation even more infuriating. Finally, we’ve been supporters of Bosch products for over thirty years (microwaves, dishwashers, cooktops, washing machines), so that makes their failure for this product truly disheartening.

My suggestion: Be warned about being in love with it before the relationship leaves you broken-hearted.

Sensor light flashes after only a few minutes – This vacuum does perform well, however in the past couple of months the sensor control light has been flashing red after only a few minutes of use. I'm vigilant about cleaning the filter so I'm at a loss as to what can cause this fault. And it's only a little bit short of two years old.  Show details