We help you buy the best cordless vacuum to keep your house clean and free of dust
Unless you’re willing to sweep your entire home with a broom, most households will benefit from investing in one of the best vacuum cleaners. But with such a vast array of models and types of vacuum cleaner on the market, it can be tough to figure out exactly what you need.
Should you go for a flashy cordless model or a trusty plug-in vacuum? Cordless vacuums offer the ultimate freedom to clean your whole home without being tethered to a cord, but the best cordless vacuums don’t come cheap. And while corded vacuums might seem like old tech, they’re still among the most capable and reliable vacuums around; plus you don’t have to remember to charge them.
Meanwhile, if the thought of pushing a vacuum around your home has you breaking out in a sweat, you might consider one of the best robot vacuums. These clever gadgets will zip around your floors, picking up daily dust and debris. Unfortunately, they don’t completely eliminate the need for a regular vacuum – you’ll still need one of those for deeper cleans.
In this guide, our focus is cordless vacuums. Our first pick is the Shark Stratos Cordless with Clean Sense IQ IZ862H, which is a great all-rounder that’s packed with tech and useful features but arrives without an eye-watering price tag.
If you’re on a budget, the Roidmi R10 offers basic settings but still comes with a decent selection of accessories. The design is sleek and pared back, and it’s lightweight. There are a few compromises, but when you weigh these up against the price, it’s a good lower cost option.
Lastly, the best blow-the-budget premium vacuum is the Dyson V15 Detect Absolute. This high-performance cordless vacuum combines plenty of tech with excellent suction power. We wouldn’t expect anything less from one of the world’s leading vacuum cleaner brands.
Whether or not you decide to go for one of the models above or something else, in order to figure out which is the most suitable vacuum for your home, it’s a good idea to get your head around the various specs, features and accessories on offer. So, before we delve into the pros and cons of these three models, we’ll discuss more broadly what to look out for.What to look for
Before the advent of the cordless vacuum, you could usually compare the power of vacuums simply by checking the wattage. These days, however, the suction power of a vacuum – and we’re talking cordless vacuums here – is either displayed in a variety of formats (such as Watts, AirWatts) or simply not listed at all, making models difficult to compare.
For cordless vacuums, our advice is to check out charging times and run times. Also consider a vacuum’s weight; while most cordless models have the ability to vacuum overhead, the weight of some might make this difficult.
Pay attention to the accessories on offer, as well as how a model is charged: is there a charging dock into which the entire vacuum sits or a removable battery that allows for powering up at the most convenient socket without the whole vacuum.
Most new vacuums tend to be bagless, although bagged vacuums still exist. However, not all bagless models are created equal. It’s worth paying attention to the size of the dust canister; if it’s small, it will become super frustrating having to empty it all the time.
Price is an important consideration, and varies wildly across models. We appreciate that dropping a huge stack of cash on something that sucks up dirt from your floors might be difficult to justify. However, it’s rare that super-cheap vacuums are decent enough to deliver continued strong suction that will go the distance.
You can expect to pay up to $950 / £750 / AU$1550 for Dyson’s Gen5 Detect, which is one of the newest vacuums from the brand. But for most people, this is a staggering amount to spend on a vacuum. Meanwhile, it’s possible to get a good mid-range Dyson such as the V11 for under $570 / £350 / AU$1200.
