Featured in this article
The Best Cordless Vacuum
Shark PowerDetect Cordless Stick Vacuum
Amazon
Best Dyson Cordless Vacuum
Dyson V15 Detect
Amazon (V15 Detect)
Best Cordless Vacuum That Self-Empties
Tineco Pure One Station 5
Amazon
Best Cordless Wet Dry Vacuum
Narwal S30 Pro
Amazon
A new vacuum might not sound life-changing. But the best cordless vacuums will not only give you freedom you didn’t know you needed, but leave your home clean and tidy in a matter of minutes with no cord unraveling or heavy vacuum dragging required. They’re especially handy for me, living in a three-story home—lugging a classic upright vacuum up and down the stairs leaves me unly to ever bother to vacuum, and I never seem to remember to take my robot vacuum onto different floors to clean the whole house. But a stick vacuum is light and mobile, making it easy to traverse all three floors and two staircases with only a little bit of sweat.
Even if you don’t have three floors, almost anyone can find a stick vacuum incredibly convenient. They do come with the caveats of battery life and a smaller canister compared to classic vacuum cleaners, but the cord-free lifestyle and lighter weight make it easier to vacuum more often in smaller amounts. Larger homes might run into issues with whether the battery can last throughout, though I was impressed with how many vacuums could survive all three floors of my townhouse.
After testing more than 20 different stick vacuums, these are the best cordless vacuums we’ve tried. My new favorite is the Shark PowerDetect Cordless Stick Vacuum ($450), which not only has impressive power, but can bend to make it easier to vacuum under furniture and low surfaces. If you’ve got room to splurge, you can upgrade to the Dyson V15 Detect ($650) if you want the best power for a cordless vacuum, or the Tineco Pure One Station 5 ($459) if you hate emptying a stick vacuum’s canister.
Read on to find out every cordless vacuum cleaner we recommend and have tested below. Looking for more cleaning gadgets? Don’t miss our guides to the Best Dyson Vacuums, Best Robot Vacuums, Best Vacuums for Pet Hair, and Best Handheld Vacuums. Looking for more information about vacuums and how often to vacuum? Catch our stories about How Often You Should Vacuum and How Long Vacuums Really Last.
Updated February 2026: The Shark PowerDetect is the new top pick, and the Narwal S30 is the new wet vac pick. We’ve also added notes on the Bosch Unlimited 10, and updated the Honorable Mentions section.
Jump to Section
- Honorable Mentions
- What’s a Cordless Vacuum?
- How Long Do Cordless Vacuums Last?
- How Does WIRED Test Cordless Vacuums?
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The Best Cordless Vacuum
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Photograph: Nena Farrell
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Photograph: Nena Farrell
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Photograph: Nena Farrell
Chevron Chevron Shark
PowerDetect Cordless Stick Vacuum
Amazon
SharkNinja
Shark’s PowerDetect is honestly a fantastic vacuum, and you’re getting a lot for the price. There are three cleaning modes, lights on both the front and back of the vacuum head to spot debris, detection technology to sense when you’re edge cleaning or when an area is dirtier than the rest, 70 minutes of run time, and a HEPA filter, and the central stick can even bend so you can vacuum under furniture without crouching on the ground. It comes with two attachments, and you can upgrade to a model with a self-emptying docking station ($400).
For the price, you’re getting a lot. It’s also a powerful vacuum that actually beat the Dyson Gen5 Detect in some of my tests, specifically with rugs. This vacuum was actually better at getting debris sand and cereal pieces off carpet than the Dyson. When it’s vacuuming over carpet, it kicks into a mode that glides over carpet and almost pulls away from you, as if the vacuum were a puppy pulling on its leash. But I d that it didn’t just get stuck to my living room rug, which the Dyson tends to do. I do the Dyson for getting cat hair out of my stairs and bedroom carpet, but if you’re more of a rug household and don’t have pets, this vacuum will be plenty for your needs.
Capacity 0.70 liter Additional attachments Crevice tool and pet hair multi-tool Power 380W Run time Up to 70 minutes Filter HEPA Filter Warranty Two-year parts warranty, five-year limited warranty WIRED/TIRED
LargeChevron WIRED
- Powerful and responsive to floor types
- Can bend to reach underneath furniture without needing to crouch down
- Does an impressive job with debris on carpets and rugs compared to more expensive vacuums
TIRED
- Only comes with two additional attachments
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Best Dyson Cordless Vacuum
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Photograph: Nena Farrell
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Photograph: Nena Farrell
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Courtesy of Dyson
Chevron Chevron Dyson
V15 Detect
Amazon (V15 Detect)
Best Buy
Amazon (V15 Detect Plus)
Dyson
Before Dyson was famous for its hair tools, it was (and still is!) famous for its vacuums. We’ve got an entire guide to the Best Dyson Vacuums, and our favorite is the Dyson V15 Detect. It’s a pricey upgrade compared to others, but not only does that come with Dyson-level air power, but there’s a sensor that counts the number of dust particles, displaying it on the LCD screen while automatically adjusting the power level for proper suction.
You probably don’t need laser beams and micron calculators, but they can be helpful if you have severe allergies. It’s also just an all-around reliable vacuum that comes with an array of handy accessories, even a wall mount for a more elegant charging setup. It’s easy to convert to a hand vac for cleaning up the couch. I was impressed by how much dust and dirt it pulled up from my carpet, especially since I regularly vacuum with the different picks in this guide. The V15 Detect has serious power if you’re looking for great, deep carpet cleaning. It works on hard floors, too, though it did feel a waste compared to how deep it cleans carpets and rugs.
Capacity 0.76 liter Additional attachments Fluffy Optic cleaner head, Digital Motorbar cleaner head, hair screw tool, combination tool, and crevice tool Power 240W Run time Up to 60 minutes Filter Whole-machine filtration Warranty 2 years parts and labor WIRED/TIRED
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- Great balance of price and features
- Green laser helps you spot dirt and dust
- Comes with a range of attachments
TIRED
- Doesn’t have an on button; instead uses a hand trigger you have to keep engaged while you vacuum
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Best Cordless Vacuum That Self-Empties
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Photograph: Nena Farrell
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Photograph: Nena Farrell
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Photograph: Nena Farrell
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Courtesy of Tineco
Chevron Chevron Tineco
Pure One Station 5
Amazon
Tineco
This Tineco option is pricey for what it is, but it addresses two of the primary issues you’ll encounter with a stick vacuum: dustbin capacity and battery life. The Tineco Pure One Station 5 comes with a large base station that you place the vacuum in. It empties the dustbin into its own much larger dustbin and charges the vacuum. It sounds a robot vacuum when you plug it in, as it sucks everything into the stick vacuum’s smaller dustbin.
The stick vac itself has three modes and a green light to show you dust and dirt that needs vacuuming. It’s supposed to have a smart sensor, the iLoop, that adjusts the vacuum’s power level based on the mess it detects, but I didn’t see it kick in even when I intentionally spilled flour and Cheerios ahead of the vacuum to try to trigger it. Still, I was happy with how well it vacuumed up that mess, and every other area in my house I used it in. The convenience of the base station makes this stick vacuum feel so easy to use—I never have to worry about the battery or where I left it, or about emptying the tiny canister.
Capacity 2.5 liter on the base station, not stated on vac Additional attachments Crevice tool Power 175W Run time Up to 70 minutes Filter HEPA filter Warranty 2 years limited WIRED/TIRED
LargeChevron WIRED
- Has a self-emptying docking station, fantastic for storage and no manual emptying every time
- Bright headlight to see dust and debris
- Nice battery life, and base station makes it easy to keep fully charged
TIRED
- Not as powerful as other vacs at this price
- Still have to eventually empty the base station
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Best Cordless Wet Dry Vacuum
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Photograph: Nena Farrell
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Photograph: Nena Farrell
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Photograph: Nena Farrell
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Photograph: Nena Farrell
Chevron Chevron Narwal
S30 Pro
Amazon
Narwal
If you have hard floors, you might be looking for something cordless that can mop as well as suck up debris. A great option is the Narwal S30 Pro. We loved the first generation, and the newest generation is just as great. There are five cleaning modes (AI mode, wood floor mode, suction mode, max mode, and quiet mode) to give you the best clean for your space or needs that day, and the clean and dirty water tanks are easy to manage. It did a good job scrubbing away stains on my hard floors, and sucked up cat food and other dry debris with ease as it went. It has 20,000 Pa of suction and almost pulls away from me as I use it, so I’m more guiding the vacuum than pushing it along my floors. It turns really nicely, making it easy to clean around rugs or furniture legs.
There’s a disposable dry debris bag you can install (the S30 Pro comes with 10; you’ll have to purchase more after that) if you want to keep dry debris away from the wet and make cleaning easier. As someone who found other designs a nightmare, I find this one virtually painless. You do want to clean the vacuum immediately so it doesn’t smell or grow mold, and you can toggle on self-cleaning mode afterward, too. My only complaint is that there is some setup to get started, and I don’t think the instructions are clear enough. I had to pull up a YouTube video (I d this one) to see where I was supposed to install the dry bag and deodorant block, since the instructions skipped the key step of which piece I had to open up. Besides that, it’s been a breeze to use.
Capacity 0.72 liter for dirty water tank, 0.79 liter for clean water Additional attachments None Power 20,000 Pa Run time Up to 60 minutes Filter Unspecified Warranty One-year warranty unless inside EU and Switzerland, which gets a two-year warranty WIRED/TIRED
LargeChevron WIRED
- Wet floor cleaner that also picks up dry debris. Great for hard floors
- Four different cleaning modes, and self-cleaning mode you can toggle on when docked
- Disposal of water and waste is easy
TIRED
- More setup steps than a regular stick vacuum
- Best with a separate disposable wet debris bag, which you’ll have to purchase after using the initial 10 included (and you have to touch the dirty bag to remove it)
- Needs to be emptied after each use
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Best Budget
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Photograph: Kat Merck
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Courtesy of Bissell
Chevron Chevron Bissell
PowerClean Cordless Stick Vacuum
Amazon
Bissell
The non-pet-focused version of our previous top pick, the regular Bissell PowerClean is basically the Fur Finder with fewer lights and a less-fancy upholstery tool. As a result, it costs $30 less. the Fur Finder, it can stand up on its own, has HEPA filtration, can convert to a hand vacuum, and features Bissell’s proprietary tangle-free brush roll. (My long hair did still get wrapped around it, but it never affected the roll’s performance and was easy to pull off.)
It only has four lights on the front instead of the Fur Finder’s six, but I still found them extremely sufficient at spotting every bit of cat litter, dust, and hair on my hardwood floors and carpets. It comes with a crevice tool; a basic, smaller upholstery tool with some microfiber strips (which worked great on velvet, not so much on bouclé); and a wall mount. Even though the PowerClean is lighter than the Fur Finder—supposedly 7 lbs. to Fur Finder’s 9 lbs., though when I weighed it on my home scale it was closer to 7.5—I still found it to be heavier than I was expecting, since there isn’t a charging station and all the charging hardware is on the vacuum itself. I also found Bissell’s listed three-hour charge and 40-minute run times to be accurate, which was just long enough to clean all rugs, bare floors, and upholstery in a 3,000-square-foot house. But I still think this hefty-feeling, easy-to-maneuver model is the best value out there under $200. —Kat Merck
Capacity 0.4 liter Additional attachments Crevice tool, upholstery tool Power 200W Run time Up to 40 minutes (on low) Filter HEPA Sealed Allergen System Warranty 5 years limited WIRED/TIRED
LargeChevron WIRED
- Cheaper version of our top pick, sans pet attachment and with a weaker headlight
- Still has good battery life
- Great value for the price
TIRED
- Felt heavy to our tester
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Best Cordless Vacuum for Pet Hair
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Photograph: Nena Farrell
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Photograph: Nena Farrell
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Photograph: Best Buy
Chevron Chevron Dyson
Gen5 Detect
Amazon
Best Buy
Dyson
This versatile cordless vac is one of my favorite products I’ve ever tested. It has multiple heads for different jobs, can be handheld- or stick-style, and is lightweight and portable while still being powerful enough to suck up dander and pet hair on all types of surfaces. It’s incredible on pet hair—Dyson claims it has the most powerful HEPA filtration of any cordless vac on the market, trapping particles as small as 0.1 microns. It even has a digital screen that tracks particle size, and during cleaning, the indicator bars rise and fall, depending on the amount of debris detected, and afterward, the screen displays the summary of collected particles.
There’s a Digital Motorbar cleaner head for carpets that has 56 detangling vanes, ensuring pet hair never gets stuck in the bar for a mess-free clean. There’s also a Fluffy Optic cleaner head for hard floors: It has a super-soft rotating material and an angled green blade of light to illuminate invisible pet hair and dust invisible to the human eye. Plus, there’s a crevice tool and a smaller hair screw tool attachment that can be used as a handheld vacuum to get pet hair in hard-to-reach places. —Molly Higgins
Capacity 0.76 liters Additional attachments Fluffy Optic cleaner head, Digital Motorbar cleaner head, hair screw tool, combination tool, and crevice tool Power 262 airwatts; 280 watts in max mode Run time 70 minutes Filter Whole-machine HEPA filtration Warranty 2 years parts and labor WIRED/TIRED
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- Dyson’s top-of-the-line stick vac with a faster motor and brighter laser to spot dust and debris
- Fantastic for pet hair
- Has a HEPA filter that Dyson says traps 99.99 percent of particles down to 0.1 microns
- Has a power button instead of a trigger
TIRED
- Louder than the V15 Detect
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Best Stick Vac and Robot Vac Combo
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Photograph: Kat Merck
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Courtesy of Yeedi
Chevron Chevron Yeedi
C12 Combination Robot Vacuum
Amazon
Can’t decide if you want a stick vacuum, hand vacuum, or robot vacuum? Get all three with this combo vacuum setup from Yeedi. The Yeedi C12 Combination Robot Vacuum combines a stand-alone robot vacuum with a HEPA-filtered hand vac with stick attachment onto a single console. It’s everything I about the Tineco above, plus a robot vacuum.
WIRED reviewer Kat Merck says this robot vacuum and accompanying app are very user-friendly. The robot vacuum does struggle if you don’t do enough pre-cleanup beforehand to move loose cords and shoes, and it doesn’t do a great job on fringed rugs and deep-pile carpet if you have that in your home. Merck found the stick/hand vacuum was handy for small messes in between robot vacuum runs, and both the robot vacuum and stick vacuum auto-empty into the same 1.5-liter dustbin. The stick vacuum also has a mop head with a fluid reservoir, but it’s awkward to use and difficult to apply even pressure. Still, it’s a handy combination of all kinds of vacuums and cleaning devices into one charging station.
Capacity 1.5 liter Additional attachments Crevice tool, dusting brush, mop head attachment Suction 10,000 Pa Run time 4 hours and 50 minutes Filter HEPA filter Warranty 1 year WIRED/TIRED
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- One-stop cleaning solution
- Has a stick vacuum with mop
TIRED
- Mop is awkward and doesn’t work well
- Not compatible with any smart home systems
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Another Great Stick
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Photograph: Luke Larsen
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Photograph: Luke Larsen
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Photograph: Luke Larsen
Chevron Chevron Levoit
LVAC-300 Cordless Vacuum
Amazon
Levoit
The Levoit LVAC-300 is a very well-rounded stick vacuum at an affordable price. The one hour of battery life is ly plenty to cover cleaning all but the biggest houses in one charge, especially if you stick to the default Eco mode. It comes with a two-in-one crevice tool and a mini motorized brush. It packs a solid amount of power and a good-sized dustbin for a cordless vacuum, and has similar specs to our favorite Dyson stick vacuum.
The 6.6-pound weight also made it fairly easy to clean the three sets of stairs in our house too. The LVAC-300 doesn’t come with a lot of extra attachments, just a crevice and a pet dander tool, but both work great and cover the basics. Another big feature is its ability to stand on its own when you need to set it down for a second. While handy, you have to be very careful, as it toppled over a number of times in my use. It’s definitely not a permanent storage solution. —Luke Larsen
Capacity 0.75 liter Additional attachments 2-in-1 crevice tool, mini motorized brush Power 240W Run time Up to 60 minutes Filter Washable HEPA filter Warranty 2-year limited warranty WIRED/TIRED
LargeChevron WIRED
- Power and dustbin capacity on par with the Dyson V15
- Nice hour of battery life
- Has a HEPA filter
TIRED
- Can technically stand up by itself, but falls often
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Honorable Mentions
We haven’t tried a vacuum yet that we absolutely hate. These ones below are solid vacuums, and in some cases are much cheaper than our top picks, but we didn’t them quite as much.
Bissell IconPet Turbo Edge for $366: Bissell’s OG stick vacuum is a popular model that’s been around for a while. It does a good job picking up hair and cat litter, and easily turns into a handheld vac too. The battery lasts a little longer, but former WIRED reviewer Medea Giordano wasn’t impressed by its Cheerio-gathering skills, and it can’t stand up on its own.
Bissell’s PowerClean FurFinder for $210: This is a great stick vacuum, and it was our previous top pick. It does an all-around good job on all kinds of flooring, comes with a nice range of accessories, and has the FurFinder tool to help with pet hair. It’s still a great vacuum, especially if you have pets, but unless you’re using the FurFinder tool frequently, you can get the slightly cheaper regular Bissell PowerClean for a similar experience.
Bosch Unlimited 10 Cordless Stick Vacuum for $699: This vacuum has six cleaning modes and can bend in the middle, but it didn’t always keep the debris inside the vacuum after I was done cleaning. It does have a 10-year warranty on the motor, which is more than other brands offer.
Black & Decker Powerseries Extreme Max for $209: The Black & Decker Powerseries Extreme Max is a great stick vacuum that’s cheaper than most others. It stands up on its own and has three power levels you can easily control on the handle, and it handled well on the different surfaces in my home. I d this vacuum a lot, but it didn’t stand as stable as the Bissell above did, and the handle felt a little plasticky compared to it and other vacuums I tested. It did have a larger-capacity dustbin, though.
Dirt Devil Power Swerve Pet Cordless Stick Vacuum for $72: We previously recommended this as a budget pick. It’s a good vacuum for the money, but there are mixed results on how long the battery will last and the build quality.
Dyson V12 Detect for $550: The V12 Detect is worth considering if you want something even slightly cheaper and lighter than the V15 (though it’s less powerful and has a smaller bin).
Eufy Robot Vacuum 3-In-1 E20 for $350: WIRED reviewer Adrienne So was stoked to try Eufy’s E20, which is a stick vacuum, handheld vacuum, and robot vacuum all in one. It’s a handy, well-designed device, but it’s only good for light cleaning.
Eureka Innova Cordless Stick Multi-Surface Vacuum for $246: This is a good stick vacuum at a reasonable price. It cleaned up a litter mat especially well, and there are specific carpet and hardwood settings. However, to suck up larger pieces Cheerios, I had to lift the vacuum up and place it directly on top of them.
Ryobi 18V One+ HP Advanced Stick Vacuum Kit for $399: This is our runner-up cordless vacuum pick for the best pet hair vacuums. It has powerful suction, cyclonic filtration, a brushless motor, an easily removable roller bar, and lights on the vacuum head to better see pet hair and dander.
Worx 20V Cordless Stick Vacuum for $250: This is a fine vacuum, but the dustbin was more difficult to clean out than those of other models I tested.
FAQs
What’s a Cordless Vacuum?
Cordless vacuums, also known as stick vacuums, are what the name suggests: They don’t need a cord to work. Instead, they have a battery you need to charge, and are designed with a battery and motor at the top with a long, thin, stickbody connecting that to the head of the vacuum. They’re much lighter than an upright vacuum, and have become popular since they’re much easier to store and move around the house. I especially love using one as someone who lives in a three-story home. Stick vacuums also can usually have the stick portion removed to transform into a handheld vacuum, though they’re much heavier than a true handheld vacuum (but the battery life is much better).
How Long Do Cordless Vacuums Last?
Overall, vacuums tend to last around five years, but that depends on the frequency with which you vacuum, and the vacuum’s build quality. Some cheaper stick vacuums might only last about a year or two though, according to Eufy, so it’s worth investing in a good-quality stick vacuum. If you’re curious what signs might indicate your vacuum needs replacing, check out our guide to how long vacuums can last. If you’re curious whether you’re vacuuming enough, check out our guide to how often you should vacuum.
How Does WIRED Test Cordless Vacuums?
The best way to test a vacuum is to use it you usually would. So, for a few months, we lived with these cordless vacuums, rotating through them to handle day-to-day messes and weekly deep cleans on hardwood floors, area rugs, and carpets. We charged them, asked our partners to use them, and even took some to a retail store to clean up after antique furniture and heavy foot traffic.
We also performed head-to-head testing, comparing how each picked up piles of Cheerios and cat litter, seeing if they blew debris around or needed several passes. We also took heaps of already matted dust and dirt from inside the vacuum bins to see how easily the vacuums could suck them back up in their thickened state.
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Nena Farrell is a writer and reviewer at WIRED. She primarily covers home and sleep products, smart home tech, gift guides, and parenting gear. She’s been a reviewer at WIRED since 2023, and before that was a smart home updates writer at The New York Times’ Wirecutter and an associate … Read More
Writer and Reviewer
TopicsShoppinghouseholdcleaningbuying guidesvacuumsrobot vacuum
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