UK consumers have revealed a struggle to spell after searching in their thousands for vacume cleaners, barbacues and trampilines.

More than 3,000 shoppers between January and June this year guessed that the cleaning appliance is a “vaccum cleaner”, while 2,000 opted for a “vacume” and others attempted to buy a “vacumn”, according to search data from Argos.

Almost 1,000 people searched for a “saftey gate”, 116 aimed to burn calories on a “threadmill” and 43 wanted to measure their daily step count on a “fitnit”.

The heat led to more than 100 shoppers seeking to fuel their “barbacue” with “charcole”, the retailer’s website, which attracts more than 18 million visitors each week, shows.

The word “trampoline” was also much abused, with variations including “trampiline”, “trompoline”, “trampolene” and “tramploine”.

Despite its global reach as a brand, one potential Apple customer attempted to buy an “aiphone” and more than 100 shoppers searched for an “ipone”.

Other well-known brands falling victim to a re-naming by confused customers included Duson, Rebook and Ninetendo.

An Argos spokeswoman said: “We can’t all spell perfectly, and the Argos website almost always correctly guesses what you you’re trying to find, regardless of whether you’ve made a mistake.

“Whether you want an aiphone, ipone, ifone or ipond, we’ve got everything you need.”