Cordless Vacuums

Cordless Vacuums

A cordless vacuum is bought for the thirty seconds it saves, not for its specification, and the machines that get used are the ones that live on a wall bracket by the door rather than in a press. Run time is the figure most often misread: the headline number is measured on the lowest setting with a non powered head, and the realistic figure on a carpet setting with the brush bar spinning is usually a third of it. A removable battery changes that equation completely, because a second battery doubles the machine without doubling the price. Look next at whether the wand detaches to leave a handheld, since stairs, car interiors and sofas are where a cordless earns its place over a corded machine. Anti hair wrap brush bars matter in any house with pets or long hair, as they cut the hair as it wraps rather than leaving you to do it with a scissors. Bin size is small on every stick vacuum by design, so an auto empty base is worth considering if emptying a cup after each use is the thing likely to annoy you. Weight at the wrist, not total weight, is what determines whether the machine is comfortable overhead on stairs and ceilings.

Shark accounts for most of this range, through the Stratos, PowerPro, PowerDetect and Detect Pro lines, with anti hair wrap and flexology bending wands across much of it and auto empty bases on the upper models. Dyson covers the premium end with the V8 and V11. Samsung adds the Jet series, and DeWalt supplies the 18V site machines that run on the same batteries as the rest of the tool range. See more in Vacuum Cleaners.

A cheap cordless vacuum is the compromise most worth avoiding at full price and most worth taking at a reduced one, because what separates the value machines from the good ones is run time, brush design and whether the battery comes out, none of which change when the price does. Prices are live all year, so see what is reduced now on vacuum cleaners on sale.