Now, it is noisy, as you might expect a super-powerful vacuum to be, so we don’t recommend cleaning while trying to have a conversation. However, if you’re looking for a versatile vacuum to spot clean around your home, your car, and your garage, it’s a great pick. 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, which we described as a “little hug,” making this pick easy to store and space-saving.
That’s not surprising; few companies have more experience making cordless handheld vacuums, since they pioneered the product back in 1979. Handheld vacuums are a diverse group, with some models designed for the awkward angles of a car’s interior and others purpose-built for pulling pet hair off carpeted stairs or upholstery. Others bissell handheld vacuum serve as “snack vacs,” allowing for the quick pickup of spilled cereals and countertop crumbs. You’ll find one of BISSELL’s handheld vacuum cleaners are a convenient alternative to a full-sized vacuums when it comes to smaller everyday tasks. Best suited to smaller vacuuming tasks on rugs and carpets, upholstery and car interiors.
The Shark CH951 is a general-purpose hand vacuum, but its design seems ideal for cleaning staircases. That’s because it’s lightweight at under 3 pounds and it has an easy-grip shape that’s comfortable to hold as you make your ascent. Since it’s cordless, you won’t have to drag a cord up and down your steps, making it easy to maneuver.
Overall, the Bissell Cordless Hand Vacuum is an excellent cleaning tool to have at your disposal, especially if you have pets and accident-prone kids. When we brought in the Christmas tree this season, we scattered quite a few pine needles all over. Unfortunately, the needles quickly clogged the tube, and the suction disappeared.
It earned perfect scores in five of our seven performance evaluations, including in carpet, bare floor and large debris pickup tests. Because of its lightweight design, long battery runtime and array of tools, this hand vacuum is great for clean-up in your car, especially in between and under seats. The Good Housekeeping Institute Cleaning Lab has a long history of testing vacuums to find the best ones on the market, from canister vacuums to robot vacuums to upright vacuums. The Max Flex Handheld Vacuum looks like a mad scientist shrunk a full-size vacuum, thanks to the extendable hose that wraps around the unit when you don’t need its full length.
At the end of the day, this wallet-friendly vac is a great marriage of quality and value, and it gives you plenty of power at a reasonable price. Check out our other reviews of the best pet hair removers available on the market today. Lynn Redmile (she/her) is a contributing product reviews analyst at the Good Housekeeping Institute, where she’s been evaluating beauty, textiles, home, pet and cleaning products since 2012.
In other words, you can use this one-handed—like a regular handheld vacuum—or two-handed, extending the business end up to four feet away. The dirt bin is suitably oversized at 17 ounces and empties easily by unclasping one clip. It’s also washable for easy cleaning with a three-stage filter that’s designed to keep dust from escaping. The Max Flex includes a flip-up brush for dusting, a long crevice tool and a pet hair brush for cleaning fur and other stubborn debris from upholstery. This Hoover is a little powerhouse, with an onboard crevice tool that makes it easy to clean hard-to-reach places, like in the corners of your stairs, that full-size vacuums have a hard time getting to. Our experts rated it highly on pickup of small and large debris on both carpets and bare floors, but not so great for battery run and charge time (with a ONEPWR 20V battery).