I was able to stay upright while the vacuum did all of the bending, saving my back in the process. While we recognize that an over $500 price tag definitely places this robot vacuum in a splurge category, shark cordless we think it’s well worth the investment. For busy families and homes with lots of hard flooring, it can be a time saver and offer peace of mind by removing one chore from your weekly routine.
However, the 10-pound weight does get heavy, and emptying the filter is a chore—we had to manually remove it and shake the pieces out, which proved to be an endeavor on its own. You don’t have to spend a lot to get a good handheld vacuum, as evidenced by this Black+Decker Dustbuster. dyson robot vacuum That’s not surprising; few companies have more experience making cordless handheld vacuums, since they pioneered the product back in 1979. While not a main selling point, it’s nice to know that Bissell donates $5 from each Pet Hair Eraser to the Bissell Pet Foundation.
For homes filled with nooks and crannies, this vacuum is well worth considering. There’s no continuous power button, so you do have to keep your finger on the trigger throughout use, and it can be bulky to manoeuvre, especially when used as a handheld. You’ll also have to use it on eco mode to vacuum long pile carpet, as its high power can make it hard to manoeuvre.
A digital display will update you on battery life, which proved to be accurate, and on eco mode it lasted for just over an hour. The vac comes with two batteries but note they take over four hours to charge. Carrie-Ann Skinner was formerly Homes Editor at TechRadar, and has more than two decades of experience in both online and print journalism, with 13 years of that spent covering all-things tech. Carrie specializes in smart home devices such as smart plugs and smart lights, as well as large and small appliances including vacuum cleaners, air fryers, stand mixers, and coffee machines. In the UK, it’s also available with an extra battery for £499.99 (around $700) or with a PowerFin pet hair attachment for £429.99 (around $600).
If you don’t plan to clean rugs (or at least not very deeply), you can get a vacuum that’s purpose-built for cleaning bare floors. Most of these are “suction-only” models, without a brush roll (and some of these are dirt bissell crosswave cordless cheap). But a few of them use a specialty soft-fabric brush roll to help “hug” the debris toward the intake. All that said, cordless vacuums make it so easy to clean that you may just be fine with those tradeoffs.
So it’s no surprise that it finds itself at the top of this list as well. A powerful, ultra-lightweight cordless hand vacuum for carpet, upholstery, bare floor cleaning, and more. Includes rechargeable 15.6V battery and a rubberized hand grip for comfortable handling. Use the Motorized Pet Brush to pick up embedded pet hair, and then store the vacuum on the convenient wall mount. However, the Shark vacuum does feature a flexible wand that is a real game changer for reaching under furniture. You can stop ignoring the dust bunnies under your sofa because Shark designed this vac with a hinge that gives the floor head greater reach.
Many years and many models later, Dyson remains a fixture of the category in 2023, but it’s not quite as dominant in our cleaning tests as it was five or 10 years ago. At this point, there are multiple competitors with top models that can go toe to toe with Dyson on our test floors. And as I side note, both Sharks have lights on the vacuum heads that help illuminate dirt and dust which is a feature I really like that the Dyson v10 and v11 don’t have. The Dyson v15 have a similar feature to the Sharks but it’s a bit more advanced with a laser that illuminates unseen dust and debris. I also like that the Dyson v15 and Dyson v10 Absolute have a fluffy roller head that gives them a leg-up for cleaning on hardwood floors and is gentler on them too.
Notably, battery life from the 20V Max XR Lithium Ion was not as impressive as the Milwaukee M18’s, but it was still good enough for a comfortable second in our testing. Due to its design, the small intake channel gets clogged with large particles quite easily as they try to get around the filter. Be prepared to empty it a few times if you’re tackling big chunks. Despite its relatively short battery life and high-pitched whine, the trusty Dustbuster really aced our floor-mat test. Mary H.J. Farrell is a senior editor at Consumer Reports whose real passion is for cooking and all that entails.
With all of those extra fibers for dirt to cling to, mid-pile carpet was more of a struggle, as the A11 Hero’s sand score fell to 73%, but it still nailed the black rice test, sucking up 98% of the stuff. The Shark IONFlex ultralight cordless vacuum weighs in at 8.7 pounds and does well on both hard floors and carpeting. Like the ION F80, the IONFlex features DuoClean technology, which utilizes two brushrolls to effectively clean a variety of different surfaces. The brushead also lights up to illuminate small particles in the vacuum’s path. We noted in multiple settings that it’s incredibly effective at picking up debris and pet hair. We also love that it can function as a vacuum and mop simultaneously.