What is the best cordless vacuum?
December 8, 2022 9:28 AM Subscribe
I'm interested in buying a cordless vacuum. My preferences are, I would think, standard: long battery life, lightweight/comfortable to use, powerful, hair doesn't clog it, etc. My husband previously saw a Dyson one at a friend's house with some sort of a swivel head, and he's interested in that especially. Any brands to choose or avoid (Dyson, Shark, etc.)? Any more specific recommendations (or ones to avoid) from personal experience?
I have a Dustbuster that’s not good for carpet but great if your mess tends to be dust bunnies collecting in the corners of hard flooring. I like it so much that I got two - one with this longer nozzle for the whole house and one with a shorter wider nozzle (easier to wipe clean and better for scattered mess) that’s just for the cat litter area.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 10:27 AM on December 8, 2022
posted by nouvelle-personne at 10:27 AM on December 8, 2022
We have a Dyson Stick, and it works very well on the area rugs that need a bit of extra work or a quick once-over anyplace else.
Technically cordless, but not handheld: I'll throw in a plug for the Roomba too. We got an i7 a couple of years ago and it's still going strong over. Most of the downstairs is hard surfaces and it does good work keeping the cat hairs and dust bunnies at bay.
posted by jquinby at 10:40 AM on December 8, 2022
Technically cordless, but not handheld: I'll throw in a plug for the Roomba too. We got an i7 a couple of years ago and it's still going strong over. Most of the downstairs is hard surfaces and it does good work keeping the cat hairs and dust bunnies at bay.
posted by jquinby at 10:40 AM on December 8, 2022
We were gifted this Black and Decker Stick Vacuum. The vacuum part detaches so you can use it as a handheld. I can't say that it is the best or it would suffice as our sole vacuum but for something that is light and nimble to use on the stairs and into weird corners of rooms it works pretty good.
posted by mmascolino at 10:57 AM on December 8, 2022
posted by mmascolino at 10:57 AM on December 8, 2022
I have a stick Dyson and it was a game changer for me. It’s just so easy to pick up and do a quick clean which makes it happen often rather than hauling out our more powerful corded vacuum. I was really worried when I saw that it had an 8(?) minute run time (maybe that’s on max?) but because it’s so quick and easy I don’t think I’ve ever vacuumed for more than 5 minutes and it hasn’t been an issue. I do wish we had one each for our first and second floor, but that’s just a general desire to have a an easy vacuum on each level.
We have hard surface floors and some rugs one the first floor and the Dyson handles all of them well. I don’t like shoes in the house or wearing shoes so I am particularly attentive to the crunchy feeling beneath my feet which the Dyson has really helped with.
posted by raccoon409 at 11:15 AM on December 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
We have hard surface floors and some rugs one the first floor and the Dyson handles all of them well. I don’t like shoes in the house or wearing shoes so I am particularly attentive to the crunchy feeling beneath my feet which the Dyson has really helped with.
posted by raccoon409 at 11:15 AM on December 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
I am in love with our Tineco Pure ONE.
It works great on wood floors and carpets. It is light. It is well-balanced, so it is easy to do stairs, cobwebs on the ceiling, etc.
The best part is that the vacuum head has lights on it. I don't know if this is now a standard feature of vacuums. I thought it was silly when I made my purchase, but it is actually really great. The angle of the light coming from the vacuum head makes the dirt and dust on the floor stand out. So things that are invisible with overhead light suddenly become visible and huge.
Battery life is fine for us.
I thought about a Dyson but was reluctant to spend that much. We are 100% happy with the Tineco, and would recommend it without reservation.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 11:20 AM on December 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
It works great on wood floors and carpets. It is light. It is well-balanced, so it is easy to do stairs, cobwebs on the ceiling, etc.
The best part is that the vacuum head has lights on it. I don't know if this is now a standard feature of vacuums. I thought it was silly when I made my purchase, but it is actually really great. The angle of the light coming from the vacuum head makes the dirt and dust on the floor stand out. So things that are invisible with overhead light suddenly become visible and huge.
Battery life is fine for us.
I thought about a Dyson but was reluctant to spend that much. We are 100% happy with the Tineco, and would recommend it without reservation.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 11:20 AM on December 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
+1 on the Tineco. We got it as it was highly rated on Wirecutter.
posted by chiefthe at 11:21 AM on December 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by chiefthe at 11:21 AM on December 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
I have the Dyson V8 and I am obsessed with it. I have two dogs with long fur and I have to vacuum at least twice a day. The Dyson picks up everything; I'm constantly amazed by how much dirt it pulls out of area rugs. I even got the extension kit so I can use it to vacuum fur off of the couch. It's regularly on sale for $299; I balked at the price but it's worth every single penny.
posted by anotheraccount at 11:23 AM on December 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by anotheraccount at 11:23 AM on December 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
I like the Greenworks stick. I have a number of Greenworks products (mower, string trimmer, power drill, impact hammer, etc) and they are great -- and many share batteries.
posted by terrapin at 12:11 PM on December 8, 2022
posted by terrapin at 12:11 PM on December 8, 2022
I have a Dyson from a few years ago, a V6 Total. I've been happy with it.
Battery: I believe battery life has improved substantially with the more recent models (mine gives me about 15 minutes, which is long enough to get round my house, but it's not a very big house).
Weight and comfort: I am a smallish woman with smallish hands, shoulder problems and little upper body strength, and I don't have a problem wielding it. One possible concern: I don't know if this is true of the current models, but on mine you have to keep the trigger held down while you use it, which I hear some people find difficult.
Power: Powerful enough to meet my needs, unlike the corded Hoover it replaced. It has a turbo boost which is VERY LOUD but also very effective, if you need to get something out of a crevice.
Hair: I have long hair, which wraps itself around the brush of the carpet head. It doesn't actually seem to impair performance at all, but it unnerves me, so I snip it away when I notice it starting to mount up.
A few minor gripes:
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 12:20 PM on December 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
Battery: I believe battery life has improved substantially with the more recent models (mine gives me about 15 minutes, which is long enough to get round my house, but it's not a very big house).
Weight and comfort: I am a smallish woman with smallish hands, shoulder problems and little upper body strength, and I don't have a problem wielding it. One possible concern: I don't know if this is true of the current models, but on mine you have to keep the trigger held down while you use it, which I hear some people find difficult.
Power: Powerful enough to meet my needs, unlike the corded Hoover it replaced. It has a turbo boost which is VERY LOUD but also very effective, if you need to get something out of a crevice.
Hair: I have long hair, which wraps itself around the brush of the carpet head. It doesn't actually seem to impair performance at all, but it unnerves me, so I snip it away when I notice it starting to mount up.
A few minor gripes:
- I had to replace the battery earlier this year because it couldn't hold a charge any more, but in fairness that was after about six years of leaving it plugged in and rarely discharging it fully, and hey, at least I could still get a replacement battery.
- I find it difficult to swap out the heads. You have to push a button on the... tube? nozzle?... and pull hard on the head to detach it. I think this would be a lot easier with bigger hands and/or better grip strength. However, I don't notice other people talking about it, so it's possible this is just me being particularly inept. Clicking the replacement head into place is easy enough, it's just removing the one that's attached that's a pain.
- It's got a fairly small dust container, so I have to empty it pretty much every time I use it; and as it's bagless and dust is very lightweight, I find it a bit tricky to empty without ending up with a little of the dust in the air or on the floor around the bin. Also, I usually have to actually reach in and pull at least some of the contents out, because hair, dust and carpet fluff just don't have enough weight to them for gravity alone to do the trick. This feels suboptimal. Perhaps it would be an issue for any bagless vacuum of this size though.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 12:20 PM on December 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
I have an Onson and it's terrible. It struggles to suck up dust.
posted by Liquidwolf at 1:00 PM on December 8, 2022
posted by Liquidwolf at 1:00 PM on December 8, 2022
Do you have or are you planning to purchase any other battery-powered tools in the near future? I purchased a rechargeable stick vacuum over the summer, and while Dyson definitely seems to be the best of the bunch based on everything I read (and is priced accordingly) I ended up going with a Ryobi One+ 18v stick vac for about half the price. It uses the same battery as the rest of the One+ line of tools, and since I also needed a cordless drill around the same time it made a lot of sense for me.
The thing that I really like is that the vacuum is always sitting on a wall-mounted charger. So if I pull the drill out to use for something (which is an every couple months occasion rather than a weekly one) and find that its battery is dead I just swap it with the one from the vacuum and I'm good to go. I don't think I've even used the other charger since I made the purchase.
As far as its vacuuming qualities go, it's... fine. I'm certain that the Dyson models perform better, but it works to vacuum the space I need it to vacuum, manages the cat hair without issues, and is able to cover the whole space on high-power before running out of battery. When the battery wears down like they inevitably do I have pretty good confidence that the Ryobi batteries will still be available, and if the vacuum itself breaks I'm pretty sure I can replace the entire thing minus the battery for less than $100.
posted by Jawn at 1:50 PM on December 8, 2022
The thing that I really like is that the vacuum is always sitting on a wall-mounted charger. So if I pull the drill out to use for something (which is an every couple months occasion rather than a weekly one) and find that its battery is dead I just swap it with the one from the vacuum and I'm good to go. I don't think I've even used the other charger since I made the purchase.
As far as its vacuuming qualities go, it's... fine. I'm certain that the Dyson models perform better, but it works to vacuum the space I need it to vacuum, manages the cat hair without issues, and is able to cover the whole space on high-power before running out of battery. When the battery wears down like they inevitably do I have pretty good confidence that the Ryobi batteries will still be available, and if the vacuum itself breaks I'm pretty sure I can replace the entire thing minus the battery for less than $100.
posted by Jawn at 1:50 PM on December 8, 2022
There are several videos on this subject on yoo toob that might be helpful to you—just use cordless vacuum 2022 as a search term.
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 2:24 PM on December 8, 2022
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 2:24 PM on December 8, 2022
I’m on my third Dyson. The first two ended up malfunctioning after about 6 months. But, I loved them so much, plus Costco returned the no questions asked even after 6 months. I don’t remember the models but there was issue with the attachments not coming off easily. They would just get stuck and I really struggled with them. The one V12 animal I have now over a year doesn’t have the sticky attachment issue at all, and it’s not malfunctioned yet. I can vacuum for 15 minutes on the standard setting. There is a “eco” setting and a “turbo” setting, which are great. The eco setting is used on floppy rugs so the corners don’t get sucked it. Looks like it’s on sale at Costco now.
posted by waving at 2:42 PM on December 8, 2022
posted by waving at 2:42 PM on December 8, 2022
I had a Shark at my last place. I thought it worked well for a smaller apartment with hard flooring. My biggest complaint was that sometimes I would hit the dust compartment button instead of the power button and dump the just-vacuumed dust back on the floor, which is really mostly user error but could have been avoided with a different button arrangement. As long as I didn't do that there were no issues.
posted by Dip Flash at 3:34 PM on December 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Dip Flash at 3:34 PM on December 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
I also have a Dyson - I think the V8 - and I LOVE it. Previously I'd had an upright and a canister. I have a small house (about 900 sq feet), long hair, and a cat (short hair but three layers of it and very floofy), hardwood floors with area rugs. It is so easy to just pull it out whenever I need it. I tend not to vacuum the whole house at once so battery life is not usually an issue, but I have occasionally done the whole place and as long as I keep it on the lower setting it is fine. Turbo boost does eat up the battery but I only need it for a few things.
Even though I have pretty long hair, I've never had an issue with it wrapping around the head. As ManyLeggedCreature noted, you do sometimes have to reach into the container after dumping it to help along the hair, but it hasn't been a big deal for me. My only quibble is that the spot where you plug it in for charging sits right at the base of my hand when I'm holding it, and if it gets too full it tends to spark a bit. I think newer models might have corrected this.
Definitely a game changer and worth every penny I paid for it.
posted by Preserver at 5:23 PM on December 8, 2022
Even though I have pretty long hair, I've never had an issue with it wrapping around the head. As ManyLeggedCreature noted, you do sometimes have to reach into the container after dumping it to help along the hair, but it hasn't been a big deal for me. My only quibble is that the spot where you plug it in for charging sits right at the base of my hand when I'm holding it, and if it gets too full it tends to spark a bit. I think newer models might have corrected this.
Definitely a game changer and worth every penny I paid for it.
posted by Preserver at 5:23 PM on December 8, 2022
My Dyson V8 was also a life-changer.
I particularly love the nifty charging spot, which means it has a permanent place where it lives, and charges, and is always ready when I need it - and out of the way, quietly charging when I don't.
The attachments are great, too.
posted by Shunra at 5:45 PM on December 8, 2022
I particularly love the nifty charging spot, which means it has a permanent place where it lives, and charges, and is always ready when I need it - and out of the way, quietly charging when I don't.
The attachments are great, too.
posted by Shunra at 5:45 PM on December 8, 2022
The Tineco mentioned above may be good but the cheaper PWRHERO 11 I have struggles to do much.
posted by Candleman at 1:50 AM on December 9, 2022
posted by Candleman at 1:50 AM on December 9, 2022
Check out r/vacuumcleaners. Those people are really into vacuums, and there is a lot of vacuum repair people on the subreddit.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 4:27 AM on December 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 4:27 AM on December 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
We have a V8 "Animal" and it's very good at cleaning up after our extremely hairy Great Pyrenees. Every once in a while it gets a little clogged up and you have to fish out a clump of hair, but it opens easily and usually only takes a second, and I think we probably have just about most extreme hair-vacuuming conditions you could have with this massive shedding furball.
posted by dis_integration at 7:30 AM on December 9, 2022
posted by dis_integration at 7:30 AM on December 9, 2022
We had a Dyson (V6?) for quite a while but when it finally croaked we replaced it with a Tineco Pure ONE S11 which I really, really love.
The lights on the front, the ease of emptying the canister, the ease of taking apart the filters in the canister, and the attachment that lets you clean the filters put it way above the Dyson in my estimation.
My mom currently has a Dyson something like the V10, and it's so heavy and unwieldy and she struggles with emptying the horizontal canister.
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 5:46 PM on December 9, 2022
The lights on the front, the ease of emptying the canister, the ease of taking apart the filters in the canister, and the attachment that lets you clean the filters put it way above the Dyson in my estimation.
My mom currently has a Dyson something like the V10, and it's so heavy and unwieldy and she struggles with emptying the horizontal canister.
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 5:46 PM on December 9, 2022
« Older Inexpensive Transpo Opportunities between Los... | Wifi (or other?) speakers with seamless streaming... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by extramundane at 10:16 AM on December 8, 2022