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Krapof Auto Clean Self Empty Slim Vac review
The first I heard of Kleva Range was earlier this year, when a colleague mentioned it has a heck of a lot of home appliances and kitchenware in its catalogue. As a floorcare expert, the Krapof Auto Clean Self Empty Slim Power Vac caught my attention, especially since it listed an industry-leading spec — a whopping 450AW of suction, which beats out Samsung Bespoke Jet AI Ultra with its 400AW. Other powerful cordless stick vacuums I’ve tested are the Dreame Z50 Station with 330AW of suction, while the Dyson V16 Piston Animal has 315AW.
With the Krapof (surely that’s a tongue-and-cheek take on a name?), it’s not the suction that stands out, but how compact and lightweight it actually is. The vacuum weighs 2.3kg with the floorhead attached, while the self-cleaning docking station adds just another 5kg. That’s a very lightweight package. It’s also very compact, with the appliance taking up an area of just 25.5cm x 21.7cm — about the same footprint as Samsung’s Clean Station but smaller than Dreame’s Z-series auto-emptying docks or some free-standing docks like Dyson’s.
While the Krapof Slim Vac (as I shall call it from here on in) is quite short, even for short people like me (I stand just five-feet tall), thankfully the wand is telescopic and should suit most people.
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Otherwise it’s not all that different from so many other self-emptying stick vacuums on the market. However, unlike many of them, the dock has options for you to set auto self-emptying when the stick vac is placed back for charging or trigger it manually, although the former didn’t always work during my testing, requiring me to press the Start/Stop button on top of the dock.
You can, however, empty it manually as well as directly into a bin if you wish, which could save you cash in the long run on buying replacement dust bags — just keep the self-emptying function in the dock turned off and press a button on the lower part of the dust canister in the handheld unit to lower the trapdoor.
You can also clean out the inside by twisting the top to remove and access the filter. Dismantling fully isn’t the easiest task, though, but it at least means you can maintain the vacuum well to increase its lifespan and keep it in tiptop condition.
One thing to note about the stick vacuum while it’s docked and charging is that the top display will be upside down when you stand before the appliance, but it’s fine when you take off the dock to use. So if you see the percentage sign of the battery indicator before a number like 85, assume it means it’s a 58%.
What I do appreciate about the self-emptying charging station is that it has dedicated space to store the two extra attachments that ship with the vacuum (a crevice tool and a brush) — they just clamp onto two stumps on the side of the dock’s base.
The Krapof Slim Power Vac has three suction settings, which can be accessed by pressing the +/- icon on the touchscreen when needed, but in its default Auto settings, dynamic suction sets in and the power increases or decreases depending on how much dirt the vacuum senses. The change in suction in denoted by the colour of the Krapof logo on the front of the handheld unit, going from green to blue to red as you shift from lowest to highest power settings.
Interestingly, despite claiming to have a whopping 450AW of suction, the Krapof Slim Power Vac is not very loud and, to be honest, it doesn’t even perform as well as the 400AW Samsung Bespoke Jet AI Ultra or the 280AW Dyson Gen5detect. I suspect a lot of that has to do with the overall design of the stick vacuum, which also means its disappointing performance is down to a floorhead that tends to scatter visible particles, even those as small as chia seeds.
So while it’s perfectly good for invisible dust, other household spills like cereal (even small bits of oats), tea leaves, grains of rice or other dry spills get pushed around by the edges of the floorhead (as you can see from the video below). That means you’re cleaning parts of the floor you’ve probably already vacuumed, doubling your work and making cleaning more of a chore than it really ought to be.
The scattering happens on both hard floors and carpets, so it’s really not dependent on floor type and definitely got to do with the design. Furthermore, the floorhead’s best suction is the forward motion, which is disappointing given its price tag and the fact that other models that cost about the same can suck equally well when moving front or back.
The floorhead has headlights built in, but they’re not very bright and, in a well-lit room, aren’t useful at all. Even under furniture, I didn’t think the lights helped illuminate dust but highlighted long-forgotten lost items under furniture.
Another disappointing aspect of the main floorhead is the amount of hair and fur that gets entangled in the bristles. So if you have pets, I definitely wouldn’t recommend it. That said, if you exclusively have just hard floors, a separate roller is included in the box that can be used in the floorhead to avoid bristle damage if your wood floors are sensitive, and this minimises the entanglements, but you will need to clean out the brush if you use the main floorhead as your primary cleaning tool.
This also means that your regular maintenance of the appliances increases as performance will be affected if you don’t keep the floorhead free of human hair and pet fur.
As disappointing as I may have found the scattering of dirt and the hair tangles, battery life at least is quite standard here. Depending on how often dynamic suction gets triggered, you can eke out about 35 minutes of vacuuming on the default Auto mode, but if it’s just daily dust, you can get a more with the LED floorhead attached.
This matches Kleva’s claims of getting up to 30 minutes on the ‘standard’ setting, but switch to the non-motorised attachments and you’ll get up to 80 minutes on the lowest Eco power setting.
Decent battery life, however, does not make up for the fact that this vacuum cleaner, while fine for some basic tasks, will struggle and make you work harder rather than easing the task of cleaning your floors. At the end of the day, I found it to be a frustrating experience overall and, for its price, find it hard to recommend over options like the Samsung Jet 95S or the Shark PowerDetect Clean & Empty if you really want a self-emptying option. In fact, I would even recommend a discounted Dyson V8 Cyclone and the additional purchase of the Auto-empty Dok. Despite lower suction, any of these three will offer a much smoother experience.
What surprises me even more is the number of glowing user reviews online, but the vast majority on Product Review seem to be incentivised ones, so please don’t fall for the hype.
Krapof Auto Clean Self Empty Slim Vac review: price & availability
- Only available directly from Kleva Range
- List price of AU$899 but usually discounted to around AU$649
For a stick vacuum that claims to offer industry-leading suction and a self-empty function, the Krapof Slim Power Vac is well priced even at its RRP of AU$899. However, it’s only directly sold via the Kleva Range website and is typically available with a discount that saves you AU$250.
However, given its design flaws that affect the overall user experience, even the discounted price of AU$649 is a bitter pill to swallow as you can opt for a lower-specced and more reliable vacuum for about the same price or lower.
Take, for example, the Dyson V8 Cyclone which, with its 150AW of suction feels overpriced at AU$649 and no self-emptying. However, it regularly drops to around the AU$450 mark, then add on the cost of purchasing Dyson’s Auto-empty Dok for about AU$250 and you’ll get just as good a clean with a much easier vacuuming experience for AU$700.
Shark has a lot of options too, all of which have lower suction than what the Krapof lists in its spec sheet, yet do a better job. In fact, the Shark PowerDetect Clean & Empty can be had for around the AU$650 often on Amazon, giving you a self-emptying charging dock that doesn’t even need replacement dust bags.
If I had to score the Krapof on value alone, it’d be a rather low number.
Krapof Auto Clean Self Empty Slim Vac review: specs
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Weight: |
2.3kg (with LED floorhead) |
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Dimensions (vacuum + dock): |
95 × 25.5 × 21.7 cm |
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Bin capacity: |
0.5L |
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Max suction: |
450AW |
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Max runtime: |
80 minutes |
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Charge time: |
5 hours |
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Attachments: |
Crevice tool, Duster brush |
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Krapof Auto Clean Self Empty Slim Vac review: alternatives
How I tested the Krapof Auto Clean Self Empty Slim Vac
The Krapof Auto Clean Self Empty Slim Power Vac was tested in TechRadar’s Sydney office which has large open spaces of hard floors and low-pile carpet. While regular dust suction was tested every two days on hard floors where particles are more visible then on darker carpet, I also used mixtures of various pantry staples to emulate different particle sizes. Tea from a bag is fine dust, while chia seeds are small. Along with them, I added in quick-cook oats which are smaller than regular rolled oats, plus pieces of freeze-dried raspberries.
One of my colleagues also kindly brought in fur from her two dogs for me to test this vacuum for pet households, which I scattered on both the hard floor and on the low-pile carpet in the office.
Battery tests were conducted with the main motorised floorhead with dynamic suction and without by leaving the machine running in one spot. The latter was also done using the crevice tool attached to the handheld unit.
[First reviewed September 2026]
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