The Best Cordless Vacuums of 2019

Dyson V11 Torque Drive

The Dyson V11 Torque Drive is a no-compromise cordless vacuum. It has powerful cleaning, great battery life, and features you won’t find anywhere else. The V11 has two major features that set it apart from all other cordless vacuums: an LCD screen on the back and automatic suction adjustment.

The screen lets you know, down to the second, how much battery life you have left. This feature ensures you’ll never be caught short while vacuuming between the cushions. The self-adjusting suction is a little more subtle. When you’re cleaning, the V11 lowers or increases the amount of suction based on the type of surface you’re cleaning. This increases battery life and helps keep this Dyson from damaging your floors.

Shiny new toys aside, the V11 also aces the basics. Our testing showed that this Dyson picked up 95 percent of the dirt we laid out for it. The large debris tests also impressed us: A lot of vacuums just plows crumbs from one side of the room to the other, whereas the V11 has specialized gaps in its brush head to ensure pickup.

The major downside is that the Dyson V11 Torque Drive is expensive. What you’re getting is a vacuum that has features no other brand has; the top-tier performance is icing on the cake. However, there are vacuums with better value, providing a clean that’s almost as thorough for a fraction of the cost.

Tineco A10 Hero

The Tineco A10 Hero comes from the same people that brought us the Ecovacs robot vacuum series. It has a lot to live up to—iLifes are known for being affordable workhorses. The A10 does its robot vacuum cousins proud. And if you're worried about delving into a new brand, the A10 is covered by a two-year warranty.

We liked the fact this vacuum picked up 47 percent of we laid out for it; for the going rate, the performance is impressive. Plus, the A10 has the endurance to match our top pick, around 7 minutes on the max settings and 14 minutes on the regular. Unlike the Dyson, you can buy additional batteries and swap them in for even more cleaning time.

The A10 comes with the standard assortment of attachments including a crevice tool, a mini-powered brush, and an upholstery brush. While none of these wowed us, we like the fact that the default brush head has bright LED lights to help us spot dirt and debris under furniture.

When you combine these aspects, we consider this cordless a great value pick.

Dyson Cyclone V10 Absolute

When we first heard about the Dyson V10 Absolute, the details made us skeptical. Dyson announced that it would stop developing new corded vacuums because of how confident the R&D team was in the V10.

However, after spending time with the V10, we found the Absolute moniker to be apt, since the V10 comes with absolutely everything: a powered brush head that's designed for hardwood floors, a motorized mini brush for cleaning upholstery, a soft brush for hardwood, a combination upholstery/bare floor tool, a crevice tool, a drive cleaner head, and a soft dusting brush for computers and delicate items. They all attach to a 5.6-pound wall-mountable package, making it one of the lightest cordless vacuums on the market.

The V10 puts all these tools to good use. In our testing lab, it picked up 89 percent of the dirt we left out for it. Even more surprising, the V10 also dominated the battery tests. On the low setting, it can run for 60 minutes, perfect for day-to-day maintenance. For intense cleaning jobs, you can run the Absolute for 9 minutes on the highest setting.

The one major downside of the Absolute is that it's absurdly expensive. In fact, you could buy six of our best value pick for what you'd spend on this Dyson. Still, if you want no compromise in power or battery life, this is the cordless vacuum to buy.

Dyson V8

The Dyson V8 Absolute is near the pinnacle of cordless vacuum technology. It's one heck of a vacuum.

The V8 almost overwhelms with the number of attachments: a powered brush head that's designed for hardwood floors, a motorized upholstery brush, a soft brush for hardwood, a combination upholstery/bare floor tool, a crevice tool, and a soft dusting brush. As a hallmark of Dyson design, the handheld unit only weighs 5.6 pounds.

The brush head is made from carbon fiber and nylon. It's softer than a puppy—and infinitely more gentle on floors and better at picking up dirt. In our labs, the V8 picked up 88 percent of the dirt we put down for our tests.

On the low setting, the battery lasted an amazing 40 minutes. (The max suction setting will drain the battery in 7 minutes, though.) When you're done, its dustbin empties out dirt with the pull of a single lever on top of the machine.

If want the V10's sleek design for less, the V8 is a viable option. However, the V8 still costs twice as much as most of the vacuums on our list. For everyone else, our Best Value pick works almost as well, but costs a quarter as much.

Dyson V6

Formerly Dyson's cordless flagship until the V8 replaced it, the Dyson V6 is the cordless vacuum to buy if even your smallest messes require significant cleaning. It's as powerful as the V8, but has a weaker battery life (20 minutes on low compared to the V8's 40 minutes) and lack of a bare floors attachment.

However, the V6 does not lack for customizing options. It can be reconfigured to better clean your car, the stairs, the ceiling, the floor, and your carpets. On paper, that's all very well and good, but we found it cumbersome in practice because there's no place for the extra parts to go when they're not in use.

Shark Navigator Freestyle SV1106

The Shark SV1106 shares a number of design features with full-sized Shark vacuums, primarily the same dust bin setup and a similar Lift-Away filter system.

As a cordless vacuum, the SV1106’s performance landed it in the middle of the pack. It has admirable battery life: On its carpet setting, it lasted around 14 minutes before cutting out. But the SV1106 stumbled during the dirt cleanup test, only picking up 44 percent of the dirt we laid out for it. While that’s good for how affordable this cordless is, you can spend a few bucks more and get much more powerful suction.

Prolux Ion

Prolux is best known for its professional cleaning equipment, and the company put its knowhow to use to create the Ion. Our tests showed that the Ion’s battery lasts about 20 minutes while cleaning. While cleaning our carpets, the Ion picked up around 45 percent of the testing dirt we laid out for it.

Those test results put this cordless in the middle of the pack. We really liked that this is a two-in-one vacuum, with the ability to act as an upright or as a hand vacuum. The hand vac tips the scales at around 3.4 pounds, so it’s a little heavy, but we appreciate that it has the capability.

Tineco A11 Master

The Tineco A11 Master stands as the best of what the company has to offer. It’s like an affordable Dyson V8—like the V8, it has two different brush heads, one for carpet and one for hardwood. So if you ever find dust sticking to the floor, its specialized brush head may be just the ticket. Beyond the floor, the A11 has tools for cleaning under and around furniture, which we appreciated.

Aside from having more tools, the A11 also comes with two batteries. During testing, the two batteries gave us about 14 minutes of cleaning power on the highest setting.

The downside is that while the A11 apes many of Dyson’s features, it can’t match its power. It required four passes to get our testing area clean while the Dyson V10, for example, needed only two.

Kenmore Elite 10441

When it comes to vacuums, Kenmore makes some of our favorite models. This time around, the storied company wowed us with its new cordless duo: the Kenmore Elite 10441 Complete and the 10440 Quick Clean. The Complete comes with an additional brush head that specializes in carpets, while the Quick Clean should only be used on bare floors. We also found that the Complete has a telescopic arm to give you that extra reach, should you need it.

We liked its 13-minute battery life and the fact that it picked up around 45 percent of the dirt we laid out for it. The Quick Clean was in strong contention for best value model, but it has a relatively high price and it’s heavier than most of the models in this roundup. However, if you like the vibe of Kenmore's canister vacuums, you'll love these two Elite vacuums.

Oreck POD BK51702

The Oreck BK51702 PODS is the only bagged vacuum in our roundup. The titular POD is a self-sealing bag that traps dirt and odors, ensuring you never have to touch any mess when emptying. Plus, an LED light on the back tells you when it’s time to change the bag out. The PODS do add to the cost of owning this vacuum, which is already on the pricier side. However, the BK51702 did well in the majority of our tests.

The battery proved to be the best one we’ve tested, thus far. On its max settings, the Oreck ran for over 20 minutes. Not even much-vaunted Dysons can do that. While cleaning, the Oreck fell in the low end of the pack. It picked up about 28 percent of the dirt per pass, so expect to run the vacuum over an area three or four times to get it spotless.

The reason the Oreck didn’t claim a top spot is that it tips the scales at six pounds fully loaded, hampering its mobility. We also think the bagged concept is too niche and expensive. Households who have issues with allergies will benefit from not having to deal with dust or dirt, but most people can handle emptying their cordless vacuum into the trash. If you want an American-made cordless with a solid three-year warranty, the Oreck BK51702 is worth checking out.