Best cordless vacuum cleaner

When you’re shopping for a cordless vacuum cleaner, you want to know you can rely on your new tool to be up to the task of replacing the cumbersome corded vacuum taking up space in your laundry or cupboard. But the best cordless vacuums offer even more, matching or in some cases surpassing your old socket-powered cleaner.

With vacuum technology improving in leaps and bounds, the latest and best cordless cleaners offer excellent suction and an ease of use without being tethered to a powerpoint. To help you find your perfect solution, we’ve picked out a selection of our favourite cordless vacuums below with quality options for a variety of cleaning needs.

Compact, lightweight and with an impressive array of functions, the Bosch Serie 6 BCS61113AU more than lives up to the quality of Bosch’s roster of hardware. And with its DigitalSpin brushless motor, this quality cordless might already do a lot of things well but will especially appeal to pet owners. This is also true thanks to how simple the Serie 6 is to maintain and clean, with clearing the dustbin as simple as two steps of releasing and emptying. Although its battery life isn’t excellent, the availability of secondary battery packs for purchase make this much less of a concern, while the cleaner’s wall-mounted charging dock will juice up your handstick between cleans.

As a cordless vacuum cleaner that won’t break the bank or your back, the Jashen V18 manages to stand out with its impressive versatility without sacrificing suction power. Coming with a number of attachments, the V18 is an ease to use for big or small cleans, and is just as simple to maintain. Battery life can be a bit of a concern, but this is easily offset by purchasing a second battery pack and taking advantage of the wall-mounted charger between uses.

Coming from a brand with name recognition in vacuum cleaners, the Hoover ONEPWR Evolve Pet does a lot to stand out further with exceptional suction power. This makes this cleaner more than capable of achieving what it says on the tin, proving a formidable match for stubborn pet mess and with much less fuss thanks to its 1.2L bin capacity. That means it does weigh in a bit heavier than other cordless vacuums, and the handle can feel flimsy when exposed to too much of this weight. But overall the Hoover ONEPWR is an impressive vacuum, especially for the needs of pet owners.

If you’re short on space or looking to clean a tight area like the inside of your car, even the slimmest handstick vacuums can feel a little too big. But with a top-quality handheld option like this BLACK+DECKER 18V Lithium-Ion Pivot Dustbuster, finding a solution that fits doesn’t have to sacrifice on overall quality. This handheld vacuum with an eye-catching design offers impressive suction power for its size that is especially good for hard floors, with enough force behind it to even tackle challenging pet hair tasks.

The latest top-quality vacuum from the enviably consistent Miele is a flexible powerhouse capable of tackling a variety of tasks. Flexibility might be the initial selling point of the Miele Triflex HX1 3-in-1 but the biggest highlight here is the exceptional suction power. Miele is so confident in this one that it boasts the handstick is capable of retaining as much as 99.98% of fine dust, so you know it must pack a punch. Although that power comes with a price tag, there’s a lot to like here if you have the extra funds.

Makita might be best known for its power tools better suited to the shed, but the company’s vacuum cleaners are just as dependable. This Makita DCL280FZB model comes with suction power that might not match some of the more high-end handsticks on the market, but should still be more than enough for any quick tidy-ups you might have on a daily basis. It’s one of the lightest stick vacuums on the market, but notably doesn’t come with the flexibility to be switched into a handheld mode unlike some others. But with up to 38 minutes of runtime per charge and a bin capacity of 0.7 litres, it’s no less capable for a variety of daily cleaning tasks.

Bottom line

While it’s tempting to keep on using a traditional barrel vacuum, their heyday is behind them and technology improvements have allowed many cordless handsticks to match their corded cousins’ performance. Today’s best cordless vacuum cleaners give you all that suction power, plus the freedom of movement to go from room to room without tripping over, knocking stuff down or plugging and unplugging repeatedly.

To avoid all this, we’ve picked the Bosch Serie 6 BCS61113AU Rechargeable Cordless Vacuum Cleaner as our favourite because it offers excellent value for money. It balances cleaning prowess with an affordable price tag, and is a particularly good option for pet owners. Its relatively low price allows you to consider purchasing extra batteries to extend its running time, and its specialised tools let you get into every nook and cranny at home or in the car. Long story short, it makes cleaning up less of a chore. 

If, however, you can make your budget stretch, then the still relatively affordable Hoover ONEPWR Evolve Pet is a great sucker, with plenty of power for any eventuality, while the Miele Triflex HX1 is also a strong contender for your attention and we can't recommend this highly enough. If it’s small spaces that need cleaning up, then the Black+Decker 18V Pivot Dustbuster should be your port of call.

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At Real Homes, we recommend the best products to enhance your life. As expert curators, we handpick products based on quality and usefulness to positively impact your day-to-day, from cart to doorstep. We take our responsibility seriously – testing products, reading reviews, and sourcing knowledgeable outlets to ensure our selections are worthy of your time and money. We deliver detailed product overviews, balancing objective information with subjective opinions, so making the best choice for your home and lifestyle is as easy as possible.