At a glance
Expert's Rating
Pros
- Eco, auto and turbo modes
- Jointed for reaching low
- Hook for cleaning breaks
- Flexible crevice tool
Cons
- Runtime can be short
- Mount doesn’t store all tools
- Single battery
Our Verdict
Packed with thoughtful features, Bosch’s Unlimited 7 Aqua does much to justify its price tag. It offers excellent cleaning coupled with tools for every area of your home, from upholstery to hard-to-reach places. However, the mopping head feels like a handy add-on rather than half the reason to buy. It’s useful for everyday cleans but less suited to really dirty hard floors: for that, you may still be reaching for a dedicated cleaner or a mop and bucket.
Price When Reviewed
Not available in the US
For pristine floors, you could invest in a vacuum, and a separate hard floor cleaner, such as a wet and dry vacuum. Or, you could turn your attention to Bosch’s Unlimited 7 Aqua: a cordless vacuum that can suck up dust, dirt and hair with a floor nozzle before mopping hard floors with another.
This, plus a trio of tools, a hook so you can pop it onto the back of a chair rather than trying to prop up it while you move furniture around, and a 180-degree jointed hose for cleaning underneath objects, makes it ideal as a whole home cleaner.
Design and Build
- 0.3L dustbin
- 4.7kg weight
- Two cleaning heads, plus three cleaning tools
The Unlimited 7 Aqua looks every inch a robust yet nimble cordless vac: there’s a good-sized 0.3-litre dustbin at the top, and it’s fairly light at 4.7kg, the whole thing measuring H131.5 x W25.2 x D20.4cm.
In addition, while the physical size of the battery is the same as other Bosch vacuums – the battery can be swapped between several of its small appliances – it’s a more powerful 3aH (amp hours) rather than the 2.5aH you’ll find on some previous models. According to its manufacturers, this supplies 20% more energy. The battery connects to the back, while there’s a slider for power levels that can be controlled with a thumb.
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Down at floor level, the Unlimited 7 Aqua has a choice of two heads: the vacuuming one, which features a wide grooved brush bar with two sets of bristles and LED headlights, and the mopping one with two removable, machine-washable, microfibre pads and a small water tank. The pads have tags so you can peel them away.
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Performance and Features
- 40-minute max runtime
- 5-hour charging time
- Three cleaning tools
Bosch’s years of manufacturing cordless vacuum cleaners shine through in the Unlimited 7 Aqua: as well as the features above, there are several elements that make using it effortless. For example, there’s a small ring inside the dustbin’s filter called Rotation Clean, which turns to flick particles into the bin itself.
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
The trio of tools is another: a small crevice nozzle is handy for getting into corners, while the long flexible crevice nozzle is suited to reaching behind furniture against a wall, or high places. There’s also a 2-in-1 furniture brush and upholstery nozzle that transforms depending on what you’re cleaning. The tools can be stored on the charging mount, but there’s only two places for the three.
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Where it could do better is run time. While its battery is more powerful than previous Bosch cordless vacs, the Unlimited 7 Aqua’s up to 66,000rpm motor demands a lot. The maximum run time is 40 minutes – but on the Eco setting with a tool. Attach a floor head on the same mode and the run decreases to 30 minutes. You’d expect a longer duration for a hard and soft floor cleaner. Swap Eco for Turbo and the run is 10 minutes.
Considering that the battery needs five hours to recharge to full and it’s clear you’ll need a second (around £90) for several floors, or only stick to the Eco mode. In addition, like other Bosch vacuums, the battery can only be recharged when it’s attached to the machine, so you can’t charge the first while you’re using it with a second.
We tested the Unlimited 7 Aqua on hard flooring and a mid-pile carpet, using flour to represent dust and oats as larger particles of debris. For the mopping function, we smeared mustard and brown sauce on the hard floor. Pick up was good for both types of dry mess on the hard flooring, even when using Eco, although a little flour was dropped after turning off. Similarly, the pick-up was reasonable on carpet using the Eco mode, although we had to use Turbo to suck up the remaining flour.
The Unlimited 7 Aqua also picked up pet and human hair well, although this required multiple passes. Its bar is fixed, so must be ‘cleaned’ in-situ with a pair of scissors to snip through wrapped hair. We liked that we could hook the vac onto furniture as we vacuumed, and found the jointed hose easy to use.
We had less success with the mopping head, starting with finding the tank tricky to fill, as there’s only a small hole. Our food spills were larger than its pads could handle, and spread the mess around. In addition, the mop doesn’t pick up water, so the longer we spent on one patch, the wetter it became.
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
On the plus side, there was a second set of pads, meaning that when the first set was messy, we could continue. The Unlimited 7 Aqua performed better when cleaning the rest of the floor, although Eco was no match for dried-on dirt.
Price and Availability
In the UK, the Bosch Unlimited 7 Aqua is available from a number of retailers, with an RRP of £499.99. You can buy it from John Lewis, Argos (where it costs a penny more), Currys and Amazon (where it’s 99p less). It’s not a cheap buy but if you’re looking for a modular vacuum that can cope with both wet and dry cleaning tasks, it is considerably cheaper than the Dyson V15s Submarine, although that is an excellent option if you can stretch your budget.
If this isn’t the right vacuum for you, see our top recommendations in our round-ups of the best vacuums and the best wet and dry vacuums to find your perfect cleaning companion.
Should you buy the Bosch Unlimited 7 Aqua?
A mopping head might be the Unlimited 7 Aqua’s headline feature but, when there’s lots of mess to tackle, it doesn’t deliver the same results as a standalone hard floor cleaner, or a mop and bucket. We felt its floor washing function was better for little and often mopping, or whisking away a trail of muddy paw prints for example.
It does, however, perform well as a cordless vac, its design and accessories delivering an almost flawless clean, followed by an easy empty. Thought of as a multitasking vac that’s ideal for a speedy blitz, it’s a smart choice for a busy household with a mix of floor types.
