Samsung Bespoke Pet VS20A95823W

I bought this vacuum in December 2022, expecting it to be a solid medium- to long-term solution for cleaning my small apartment. In addition to the basic 'pet' model, I bought accessories including a second battery, additional vacuum heads, and mop attachment, hoping to complete a full clean of my small, one bedroom apartment with a single charge.

I found the vacuum to be reasonably effective, but only on the highest two power levels, and battery life was very underwhelming; after vacuuming my apartment, three-quarters of which has hard floors, both batteries were close to exhausted, so I was unable to mop on a single charge of two batteries. To clean a typical two or three bedroom house I'd guess you'd need at least four batteries just to vacuum. While the accessory carrier does incorporate a separate charger, I don't have anywhere to store this, and it's not possible to use the vacuum's base station or the carrier's power adaptor to charge a battery directly. I feel this is a missed opportunity; having one or two batteries on charge while another is in use would be far more efficient than having to use the vacuum itself as a glorified connector between the adaptor or the base station's contacts and the battery.

Despite owning the vacuum for two years, it's seen relatively little use as I sweep the hard floors often and haven't ever used the mop attachment (mostly due to the battery frustrations mentioned), so only vacuum less than once a month on average; not even enough to have replaced the bag in the base station yet. I've also cleaned the vacuum's filters frequently, and washed the washable components on average every few cycles of use. The vacuum failed after a total of perhaps 20 battery cycles; after swapping to the second battery while vacuuming a carpeted area, the vacuum failed to start, making a brief whirring noise as though a motor was trying to spin but couldn't. The power head receives power and the brushes spin, but the vacuum fails to produce any suction. After troubleshooting including removing and cleaning filters, checking for obstructions, and inspecting the main vacuum unit for signs of blockage or damage, I noted in the troubleshooting guide that the vacuum unit has an overheating protection feature which stops the motor until it cools down. I suspect this feature has failed, leading to the motor overheating and subsequently failing. Such an early life failure is poor to say the least for such an expensive unit, and demonstrates that reliance on electronic protections to address a design flaw is a poor model of risk management. If use of the provided accessories risks damage to the vacuum, a better solution would be to redesign the accessories, vacuum, or both to provide sufficient functionality without risking damage to the vacuum.

I reluctantly left this review after logging two 'callback request' support tickets on Samsung's website, hoping to get some troubleshooting advice, or at least information on paid repair or refurbishment options. Both support tickets were closed with no attempt to contact me and no explanation. Since Samsung are not willing to even discuss, I'll instead refer the matter to the Australian Consumer Ombudsman.