The Best Handheld Vacuums

This lightweight, 3-pound hand vacuum is specially designed to target pet hair and does exactly that. A powerful motorized brush attachment lifts pet hair from a myriad of surfaces, including fur embedded in fabric and carpet; a super-skinny crevice tool sucks debris from in between cushions; and a flat, wide attachment works well for surface upholstery vacuuming. Like most other handheld vacs, you press a button on the top to disconnect the bin, and the filter sits on top to easily lift out and clean.

In the first go, which lasted about 15 minutes before running out of juice, I was able to pick up over three canisters filled with just dust and hair. The only issue I have with this is that the crevice tool would often get stuck in the vacuum attachment connector, and it took a lot of muscle to pull out to change attachments.

This vacuum means business. It’s very similar to our other Ryobi pick, but has a mini motorized beater bar that’s excellent for hair, a crevice tool, a dust brush, and LEDs for increased visibility while cleaning. (See? Powerhorse.) Like the other Ryobi model, it sits on a rechargeable 18-volt battery with a charging indicator light and easily attaches and detaches to the end for less bulky charging. As an added bonus, the battery is compatible with other Ryobi tools.

The crevice tool worked great for hard-to-reach places and the brush was gentle enough to brush and vac debris (it worked excellently on my air vents). The mini motorized beater bar packs a lot of power and the head pivots to keep extra close to various surfaces and angles. The cover of the beater bar can be opened with a small slotted tool (I used a coin), and the brush slips out for even easier cleaning. I used the vacuum on concrete to suck up cat litter, fabrics with pet hair, carpet with pine needles, and even tough items like wood chips were sucked up without issue.

The Worx 20V Cordless Cube Vac is my favorite vacuum I’ve tried for cleaning the car. The handle and hose design make it easy to hold the body of the vacuum in one hand, with your thumb over the power button to control it, while using the hose in your other hand to reach all the tiny crevices in the car. For me, that’s every crevice around my son’s car seat and the ground of the seat in front of it. You could also easily place it inside the car and vacuum around with the hose, too, which can extend up to three feet. The base of the vacuum also has two spots for its two attachments, a crevice nozzle and brush attachment, so you can easily add on an attachment and then store it away without having to walk away from your car cleaning session.

While it has a fun square base, it doesn’t have a massive dustbin, though I found it plenty to vacuum a sedan car full of sand. The battery life also promises only 10 to 25 minutes of range, depending on whether you’re using the high or low-speed setting, but again, I found this more than enough for two car vacuuming sessions in a sedan. —Nena Farrell

This handheld device is basically a Swiss Army knife. It can deflate and inflate, and it has an air duster to tackle dust and debris (on top of its vacuuming power). The nearly dozen included attachments simply stick into the opening. The small vacuum is insanely light at 0.85 pounds, has two modes (eco and turbo) controlled by pressing a button, and comes in a compact carrying case for its attachments (including two different chargers and replacement filters). As another bonus, it was surprisingly simple to twist out the filter to empty and clean.

I liked the air dust feature, and the inflate/deflate would be very convenient for something like a camping trip because the device is so small and lightweight, but it generally was not super quick to inflate or deflate. For the vacuum, it has a wider floor and carpet attachment and a long suction crevice tool with an attachable brush. I didn't think the carpet attachment was as powerful as some on the list, but the longer attachment has become my go-to for sucking up cat litter in crevices and cleaning fur and dust from blinds, fan slits, and the like.

This hand vacuum from Shark is made for pets, but it’s great to use for all kinds of things in a household of a cat and a toddler: spilled Cheerios or kibble, scattered litter, various dirt in the car, drywall dust after installing a new curtain rod, the list goes on. It’s powerful and works well for everything I’ve tried it for. The only downside is how short the battery life is, but I’ve still managed to vacuum small messes several times throughout the week before needing to charge it again. —Nena Farrell