Our favorite, the Hoover ONEPWR Cordless Handheld Vacuum, has shockingly powerful suction, a large dust bin, and a tapered nozzle to target crevices and other hard-to-reach spots. Here are the best handheld vacuums, backed by our testing. The Hoover ONEPWR Cordless Handheld Vacuum is our favorite because it’s cordless and easy to use, has a large dust bin, and has powerful suction on various surfaces. If you’re looking for an appliance for a quick and efficient cleanup, this is the vacuum for you. It was the star of our vacuum testing, earning a 5-star rating for setup, maneuverability, and ease of emptying, and an almost perfect score for effectiveness. It sucked up all the debris off of every surface, completed our living room obstacle course with ease, and was even able to efficiently vacuum a car cup holder and baseboard, thanks to its tapered nozzle. When it came time to empty the large dust bin, our tester noted that the process “truly couldn’t have been easier,” thanks to a one-button release. On top of its easy-emptying feature, the handheld vac features a washable filter, making it practical to maintain. The long-lasting, interchangeable battery is also a feature you will love. Part of the ONEPWR series, this vacuum uses the same type of lithium-ion battery used to power other small appliances from Hoover, like stick vacuums and leaf blowers. Charge the battery, and it’s ready to use with any ONEPWR cleaning tools. Just keep in mind that this powerful battery adds a little weight to the vacuum. This model is one of the pricier models on our list. Still, its impressive performance makes it a worthwhile investment if you’re looking for a reliable, powerful dustbuster for your household. Price at time of publish: $99 Dimensions: 6.5 x 16.5 x 5 inches | Weight: 3 pounds | Cord Length: Not applicable | Battery Life: 14 minutes | Bin Volume: 0.4 liters The flexible, 4-foot hose also allows you to vacuum upholstery, stairs, and vehicle floor mats with ease. The hose wraps around the motor when not in use, in what our tester described as a “little hug,” making this pick easy to store and space-saving. In addition to standard included attachments like a crevice tool, this vacuum comes with a pet hair tool that was amazingly effective at sucking up hair during our tests. When you’re not vacuuming, you can place the whole vacuum on its included charging base, which has spots to hold the nifty, useful attachments. Now, the vacuum is certainly a bit noisy and could be tough to hold a conversation over. However, we still had room for more debris at the end of all our testing, which makes us believe you could complete several messy tasks around your home without having to make a trip to the trash can. All in all, the vacuum passed our tests with flying colors, so it was also deemed worth your money—even if you can’t track down a coupon. Price at time of publish: $125 Dimensions: 14.88 x 10.68 x 6.5 inches | Weight: 3.2 pounds | Cord Length: Not applicable | Battery Life: 20 minutes | Bin Volume: 0.44 liters At only one and a half pounds, you’ll be able to tote this vacuum all over your home with ease while zapping any small messes along the way. When you’re through with your quick cleanup, you’ll also enjoy how the dust bin is easy to empty, and the whole process is mess-free. Now, for its small size, this pick is a little bit noisier than you’d expect it to be. However, it’s so powerful, so that’s not a dealbreaker. The only thing we’d change is the fan placement. At certain angles, the vent can blow out air that scatters debris like hair and flour that’s light. For the price, we’ll take this minor inconvenience, though. Price at time of publish: $27 Dimensions: 13 x 3.5 x 3.5 inches | Weight: 1.52 pounds | Cord Length: Not applicable | Battery Life: Not listed | Bin Volume: 0.1 liters The Shark WANDVAC measures about 16 inches long and includes a crevice tool with bristles, as well as a multi-surface pet tool. When tasked with capturing pet hair from upholstered surfaces, the bristles of the crevice tool did an excellent job of sweeping up the hair before the powerful WANDVAC suctioned it up. The multi-surface pet tool is nice to have, but it didn’t dramatically increase effectiveness. All in all, our product tester gave this pick a 5-star rating for effectiveness and maneuverability, though. Plus, the vac easily empties into the garbage can with the push of a button. Keep in mind that its dust cup is rather small, so you may have to empty it several times, if you’re vacuuming a larger area. “After just a few minutes of use, I had to empty it, which is partly a reflection of the amount of pet fur in my home. But it’s also due to the fact that the dustbin is really small. It probably holds about half a cup of compacted dirt, if that,” our at-home tester said. Like all cordless picks, battery life is also a key consideration. The WANDVAC battery runs for almost 10 minutes before calling it quits, which was a significant downside—but not a deal breaker—for our tester. Price at time of publish: $130
Dimensions: 16.5 x 2.5 x 2.4 inches | Weight: 1.4 pounds | Cord Length: Not applicable | Battery Life: 9.5 minutes | Bin Volume: 0.78 liters Our testers were surprised at how much power this tiny vacuum packed. It excelled at our tests on hardwood, medium, and high-pile carpet. It only took a few extra passes on low-pile carpet to pick up all the debris. The crevice tool attachment helps take this small vacuum to the next level by allowing you to get into cup holders and around obstacles. The only debris that this vacuum really struggled to pick up was long hair, which is couldn’t agitate enough to fully remove from the carpet. It also comes with a USB charging cable that makes this pick flexible for quick clean-ups in your car or home office area. The only real downside is the fan placement. When held at certain angles, the fan blows air out of the back of the vacuum in a way that can scatter some debris. Luckily, the powerful suction will suck any scattered debris right back up. Price at time of publish: $42 Dimensions: 2.75 x 12.6 x 3.62 inches | Weight: 1.37 pounds | Cord Length: Not applicable | Battery Life: 12 minutes | Bin Volume: 0.1 liters Our tester’s one concern with this vacuum was its emptying style. While the dust bin button efficiently separates the bin from the motor of the vacuum, you have to remove the filter before dumping the bin’s contents into a trash can. Our tester said they’d prefer if they didn’t have to remove the filter, as it could be easily forgotten upon reattaching the pieces together. Aside from this extra step in the emptying process, our tester loved this vacuum’s large dust bin capacity. They also pointed out the vacuum seemed to work best when following the stitching or grain of the fabric for cleaning upholstery. While this vacuum may not have any revolutionary attachments or technical features, our tester said it was well worth its price tag and thought it handled pet hair very well. Price at time of publish: $80 Dimensions: 16 x 4.5 x 5 inches | Weight: 3 pounds | Cord Length: Not applicable | Battery Life: Up to 17 minutes | Bin Volume: 23.7 ounces It was able to capture hair, Cheerios, and popcorn kernels even on high-pile carpet. The vacuum earned a 4-star rating for effectiveness, only being docked for pushing around the cereal on the low-pile carpet and missing some debris that was ground into the carpet, and a 4.5-star rating for maneuverability, as it was pretty easy to navigate it around living room-inspired obstacles. We were especially impressed with how quickly you can access the handheld vacuum for spot-cleaning. It’s built into the handle of the stick vacuum. When removed, you’ll find a convenient storage spot for attachments. This vacuum proved to be lightweight and easy to empty. While the dust bin fills up quickly, the filter is also washable. Price at time of publish: $130 Dimensions: 22 x 8.3 x 6.5 inches | Weight: 5.84 pounds | Cord Length: Not applicable | Battery Life: 30 minutes | Bin Volume: 16.9 ounces At the end of the day, this mid-priced vac is a great marriage of quality and value, and it gives you plenty of power at a reasonable price. The battery life is short. It took exactly 12 minutes for the vac to die in our tests, which isn’t ideal for deeper cleans. There is no battery life indicator on the vacuum itself, so it can be difficult to gauge how much power you have left when using the vacuum. However, you’ll appreciate that it’s lightweight and has a cordless design. It’s easy to carry around your space, even after a full day of doing chores. Price at time of publish: $44 Dimensions: 7.5 x 13.5 x 5.5 inches | Weight: 2.11 pounds | Cord Length: Not applicable | Battery Life: 12 to 15 minutes | Bin Volume: 31.8 ounces We gathered insights on each vacuum’s maneuverability around our living room-inspired obstacle course, and on the ease of emptying their bins. We also tested each model’s portability by holding each one above our head during use to see how tiring it was. During all of the testing, the vacuums were also rated on their noise levels. Some picks were also tested at home and were put through real-world environments and situations. They were rated on the same attributes as the vacs in The Lab. Our editors and writers took the testing data and additional research and boiled it down to the handheld vacuums we believe are the best.

Other Options We Tested

Dyson Humdinger Cordless Handheld Vacuum: This model is one of the priciest handheld vacuums to buy, and it failed to earn high enough marks in our testing to justify the expense. The form factor of the Humdinger is impressive out of the box. It required virtually no setup and was easy to hold. It included attachments that are robust for a handheld pick, like a mini motorized tool with a rotating brush bar. However, it fell short in cleaning up debris from four types of flooring and only earned a 3-star rating for its effectiveness. It required multiple passes to clear the debris, and our tester was most frustrated when it only seemed to work when moving backward. It spewed some of the larger debris and was also hard to empty, requiring our product tester to manually remove gunk from the dust bin. While it features HEPA filtration, it is hard to recommend, since this handheld vac wasn’t effective when put to the test in The Lab. Bissell Pet Hair Eraser Handheld Vacuum: While this tiny vacuum may look like it cannot tackle much, our tester said that it did a fairly decent job of capturing pet hair. Our main concerns with this model are about its dust bin capacity and cord length. Unlike its cordless counterpart, which is our best-for-pet-hair pick, this Bissell vacuum has a 16-foot power cord, which greatly limits its cleaning capabilities for large homes. Our tester said this vacuum’s pink rubber nozzle was also not effective at picking up hair or larger messes like dog kibble. This vacuum also has exhaust fans on either side of it, which dispersed the pet hair that needed to be cleaned up. Even though this is a very affordable handheld vacuum, we believe there are more powerful options on the market that may also be more accessible to users with mobility issues or larger homes.

What to Look for in a Handheld Vacuum

Weight

Using a handheld vacuum is a hands-on process, requiring you to lift, turn, push, and pull to clear debris from floors, furniture, stairs, car upholstery, and more. As a result, the weight of the vacuum can become quite noticeable if you’re using it for an extended period of time, or holding it overhead. That is why you want to consider a model that’s fairly lightweight. The weight of a handheld vacuum mainly depends on its size and battery. An average handheld vac weighs around three pounds, but more compact versions weigh as little as one pound. Our best lightweight pick, the Bissell AeroSlim Hand Vacuum, weighs just 1.3 pounds but still manages to pack a punch in suction power. The trade-off is that lightweight, handheld vacuums may have small dustbins that require frequent emptying.

Battery Life

Cordless handheld vacuums offer the convenience of power on demand, with no need to plug into an outlet. However, battery life is a major consideration, as you don’t want your unit to quit on you in the middle of a cleaning task. Average battery life for cordless vacuums is around 10 minutes, with some models lasting a little longer, and others dying more quickly. You should also pay attention to the charge time of a cordless handheld vacuum, which can vary from a few hours to up to 10 hours. If you’re searching for long battery life that will help you complete lengthy tasks efficiently, consider a model with interchangeable batteries. Our best splurge pick, the Shark WV201 WANDVAC Cordless Handheld Vacuum, has a shorter run time at 9.5 minutes and a long charge time, which is a slight downside to its otherwise impressive performance. What this handheld vacuum lacks in battery life, it makes up for in suction power and its one-touch emptying feature.

Included Attachments

Attachments add to the versatility of a handheld vacuum, though they tend to be limited in variety, compared to a full-size vacuum. At a minimum, look for a crevice tool that extends the reach of the vacuum into narrow spaces, such as between appliances or next to the legs of a table. Some of the other attachments that might be useful include an upholstery brush for pet parents or a flexible cleaning hose to provide greater reach when deep-cleaning your car. 

HEPA Filter

Caroline Blazovsky of My Healthy Home has more than 20 years of experience in helping people improve indoor air quality. She has completed multiple certifications and is a certified Healthy Home Specialist through the National Environmental Health Association, and she notes that HEPA filtration and effective dust capture are key for deep cleans and dust reduction in a home. HEPA stands for “high efficiency particulate air,” and a HEPA filter removes 99 percent of dust, pollen, mold, bacteria, and other small particles. Blazovsky explains, “Handheld vacuums typically do not have proper filtration like a regular-sized household vacuum.” She recommends a HEPA filter, along with a sealed system to prevent dust and allergens from being able to recirculate back into the air.

Why Trust The Spruce?

To determine the best handheld vacuums, Erica Puisis—a writer for The Spruce since 2017, who has a specialty in large and small appliances—considered the features of every model tested in The Lab and at home by our product testers. To understand the use of these vacuums in keeping a healthy home, Erica interviewed indoor air specialist Caroline Blazovsky of My Healthy Home. Each of the models recommended has a washable dust bin, and many offer cordless operation. Marisa Casciano is the senior commerce editor for appliances, cleaning, and organization for The Spruce and has been in The Lab for our vacuum tests. She has first-hand knowledge of how our vacuum tests were both developed and performed. Before conducting lab testing, she scoured brand and retailer websites and considered price, verified customer reviews, features, and design when selecting the models to test. She took into account the latest technology and real-life cleaning situations, and she found where models both excelled and fell short, alongside The Spruce’s team of product testers.

What Is Spruce Approved?

Here at The Spruce, we want to ensure that we fully stand behind every product we recommend, and that when we say something is the best, we mean it. You might have noticed The Spruce Approved badge next to the products on this list. Every product with this badge has been rigorously tested in person and carefully selected by our expert team of lab testers and editors. In most cases, we buy all of these products ourselves, though occasionally we get samples provided to us directly by companies. No matter how we procure products, they all go through the same tests and must meet the same strict criteria to make the best-of cut. We also pride ourselves on transparency and will always let you know if we received a product for free.