Gold the vacuum at an angle and slightly push the notch on the cover with a flat screwdriver, it should come out. Locate and remove the 7.5mm Philips screw holding the battery cover in place on bottom of the vacuum. However, this vacuum’s shark pet hair vacuum anti-allergen seal and HEPA filter do effectively trap dust. We independently research, test, review, and recommend the best products—learn more about our process. If you buy something through our links, we may earn a commission.
If storage is tight, you can mount the accompanying charging base on the wall. Shark’s second entry should be first choice if your home mainly consists of hard floors, as it scored full marks for pick-up on laminate and floorboards. It was also the best on test for lifting dirt from cars thanks to its lightweight design and crevice tool.
Once you’ve figured out what your needs are, you can start comparing brands. With so many handheld vacuums on the market today – corded and cordless and all running the gamut when it comes to dustbin size, suction power, battery life and more – Decker suggests figuring out your needs first. If you’re sticking to a budget, you’ll still get a good clean from the Shark NV360 Navigator Lift-Away Deluxe Upright Vacuum. This more basic Shark vacuum lacks features like a self-cleaning brush roll, but still qualifies as a quality upright vacuum, thanks to its fully-sealed system with HEPA filtration and lift-away canister option.
Still, not all handheld vacuums are powerful enough to tackle household messes, large or small. If you’re looking for a more powerful vacuum, consider our picks of the best stick vacuums or even trading up to a full-sized canister vacuum or upright vacuum. Size, weight, power and runtime are all major factors to consider when buying a handheld vacuum. To disassemble a Shark vacuum cleaner, you typically start by unhooking the hose from the body of the vacuum.
Additionally, you may choose to lightly tap excess dirt and debris from the filters into a garbage can. Some Shark vacuums are equipped with a detachable canister that adds “lift-away” functionality to the machine. This is useful if you want to do a lot of above-floor cleaning, such as removing dust or debris from stairs, ceilings, and upholstery. To make use of this feature, just remove the detachable pod, and carry the canister with you. Use the hose of the vacuum and the appropriate attachment to reach elevated areas of your home and clean them thoroughly. Anyone with long hair or substantial levels of pet hair understands the struggle that comes from a tangled brush roll.
At the nose of the vacuum is a slot where one of three cleaning tools can be inserted for a more specific cleaning style. This outstanding performer comes at a relatively affordable shark pet hair vacuum price. Its useful accessories make vacuuming easy; there’s an extension hose for reaching into awkward spaces and a pet tool to make your fluffball’s fur disappear.
If you’re looking for something comparable, you should consider a good stick vacuum, many of which can convert to a handheld vacuum—and also cost about as much as the Humdinger, but have more versatility. “Mini” handheld vacuums have recently emerged as a new category. They’re smaller than all of our current picks—most are about the size of a wine bottle—and not nearly as powerful. They’re good for midsized debris such as crumbs or coffee grounds, but they can’t easily pick up finer particles like dust or flour, and bigger debris like Cheerios fills up the small dust bin too quickly. The major benefit of these machines is that they’re easy to store on a countertop or in a bathroom or other places with limited space. We’ve found them especially convenient for quickly cleaning up crumbs on a coffee table.
At 83 dBc, the Pivot is one of the louder models we tested, but that’s acceptable for the strong suction it provides. Its frequency peaks at 550 Hz, which shouldn’t prove bothersome to most people. Real-world battery life generally matched up with manufacturers’ advertised claims. When deciding which models to test, we started by making a spreadsheet of every hand vacuum that we could find listed on manufacturers’ websites and at popular retailers. We’ve tallied up more than 167 models since we started covering this category, though some are now discontinued.
But we found the suction to be very powerful—and we thought the noise was worth the trade-off. In addition, although assembly was simple, this handheld pick needed to be charged fully before use, which took about two and a half hours. Black+Decker makes a few other 20-volt, lithium-powered handheld vacuums, including the BDH2000L.