Bosch cordless vacuum cleaner ad cleared following complaint by Dyson

Dyson has failed to convince the UK’s advertising watchdog that rival Bosch misled consumers over claims about the “infinite” runtime of its cordless vacuum cleaner.

Bosch’s UK website claimed that its cordless stick vacuum cleaner, called The Unlimited, had a “continuous” and “infinite” runtime, explaining that an exchangeable battery pack and quick charger meant one battery could be charged while the other was in use.

The website read: “Under 60 minute charge time with quick charger. Compared to other manufacturers’ communicated charge times of cordless sticks in the UK market.”

Dyson complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that the claims “continuous runtime” and “infinite runtime” were misleading.

BSH Home Appliances, trading as Bosch, said the ad was clear that the ability of the product to offer “continuous” and “infinite” runtime was because it was supplied with two batteries, so one could always be charging while the other was in use.

They added that during independent testing, the batteries were interchanged seven times, which resulted in a total runtime of approximately 235 minutes, or nearly four hours, before the test was terminated – an “extremely long period of time in the context of the usual time taken to vacuum the average home”.

The ASA said consumers would understand from the claims “infinite” and “continuous” runtime that they would be able to use the vacuum cleaner continuously without it running out of power by alternating between batteries and using the product on normal power mode.

It said: “Because the advertiser demonstrated that the vacuum cleaner could be used continuously without it running out of power, we concluded that the claims ‘infinite runtime’ and ‘continuous runtime’ had been substantiated.”

A Dyson spokeswoman said: “Dyson always takes action when we believe consumers are being misled.

“We will continue to challenge our competitors on this and are reviewing the options available to us.”

Both Bosch and Dyson released their latest cordless vacuum cleaners on to the UK market last year, with Dyson announcing it was so confident in its model that it would no longer produce corded vacuums.