Suction power: 240AW | Bin capacity: 0.2 gallon | Battery life: 60 min | Weight: 6.83 pounds | Charging dock: Yes

The Dyson V15 Detect is just as impressive now as it was when it first came out in 2021. It’s our top pick because it provides the best mix of features and its suction power is remarkable. Even a few years after it’s initial release, it remains one of the best vacuum cleans out there today.

One thing that was immediately apparent during my testing was that Dyson models just have superior suction, period. That’s not to say a cordless vacuum from another brand can’t get the job done, because they absolutely can. But even in auto mode, all of Dyson’s vacuums did a better job trapping even the smallest dust and debris.

The “Detect” in this model’s name refers in part to the laser “blade” on the Fluffy Optic cleaner head. It does a great job of illuminating floors to clearly show you where the mess really is, and that goes for large debris like food and granules of cat litter, as well as much smaller stuff like layers of dust on an untouched part of the floor. But it’s worth noting that this light is only present on the Fluffy Optic head, a brush roll designed to work best on hard floors. The V15 Detect comes with a few other head attachments, including a Digital Motorbar head that automatically detangles hair from the brush bar as you clean. That’ll be better for all floor types, including carpet, but you won’t get the same illumination effect.

The V15 Detect also has a piezo acoustic sensor that recognizes the size and frequency of the particles it’s sucking up. It’ll show that information on the machine’s LCD display in a neat little bar graph. Is this information useful? Not particularly, but it’s satisfying to clock this while cleaning and see the bars increase and decrease as you move throughout your home. However, this is more of a neat perk than a killer feature; it’s not going to change the way you vacuum your home. But the piezo sensor is also involved in automatically adjusting the V15 Detect’s cyclone engine to better clean particularly dirty floors.

That automatic adjustment is separate from the machine’s three power settings: Auto, Eco and Boost. I spent most of my time in Auto mode, every so often switching to Boost in rooms where I knew I needed a more thorough cleaning. Eco mode is convenient to have if you need to conserve battery life.

But the V15 Detect, like all of the other Dyson machines I tested, really stands out for its suction power. I rarely, if ever, had to go over the same spot twice because the V15 Detect captured all of the dust and debris the first time. In my one-cat household, it’s easy to see tufts of fur on our hardwood floors and tile, but they’re basically invisible on our upstairs carpet. But it didn’t matter if I could see fur or not — the V15 Detect collected all of it. After every cleaning the bin was full and I was consistently shocked by how much cat hair was hiding in my carpet.

As with most cordless vacuums, you get a number of attachments with the V15 Detect. In addition to the Fluffy Optic and Digital Motorbar cleaner heads, hair screw, combination and crevice tools are included in the box. I particularly like the hair screw tool, which is great for vacuuming chairs and couches, and the crevice tool is handy for cleaning car interiors and other tight spaces. The docking station must be mounted to a wall, but it’s separate from the vacuum’s charger, which means you can power up and use the V15 Detect before picking a permanent place for it in your home.

My biggest gripe with the V15 Detect is that it doesn’t have a single-button start like the newer and more advanced Dyson Gen 5 Detect and Dyson V15 Detect Submarine do. You must press and hold down the trigger to vacuum, which requires constant effort. However, that’s a small price to pay considering the complete package you’re getting. At $750, the V15 Detect is a machine on the higher-end of the price spectrum that’s well worth the money if you want an easy to use cordless vacuum that will provide a truly thorough clean every time.

Battery life: 70 min | Weight: 18 pounds | Charging dock: Yes

Shark’s latest cordless vacuum, the PowerDetect, earned the runner-up spot here thanks to its strong suction power, self-emptying base and overall good value for the money. It’s not as powerful as our top pick, but it didn’t choke at the first sign of pet hair and captured most debris around my home in one pass. It automatically kicks up the motor depending on the type of flooring you’re cleaning and how much debris it detects. I particularly appreciated its edge-detection feature, which turns the power up when you’re running the vacuum over the floors next to your walls.

This Shark cordless vacuum has a “multiflex” articulating portion of its main attachment, which lets you clean underneath tables and other furniture more easily. While I didn’t have to use this too much (I’m just used to crouching down and articulating my own body while I clean), I can see how it would be useful for folks with limited mobility. The cleaner head has small wheels on either side as well, making it super smooth to roll the vacuum from room to room when it’s not actively cleaning. The built-in light on the cleaner head does a good job of illuminating the floor in front of and around you, so you can better see where the biggest messes lie.

Aside from being an all-around good vacuum, another major selling point for this $500 Shark machine is its self-emptying base. The machine will automatically recharge and empty its contents into the 2L attached garbage can when it’s set back down on the base. Other cordless vacuums have this feature, but they’re typically sequestered to more expensive models. Having one here just sweetens the deal, adding yet another perk to this midrange cordless vac. It may not have Wi-Fi or app connectivity like our previous runner-up pick, but I’m willing to bet that more people will get more use out of a self-emptying base than an app for their vacuum cleaner.

Suction power: 450W | Bin capacity: 0.15 gallon | Battery life: 40 min | Weight: 5.7 pounds | Charging dock: Yes

Tineco makes a number of cordless vacuums at various price points, but the Pure One S11 is a budget-friendly model at $300 — and it’s often on sale for less. While it was the clunkiest of the Tineco vacuums I tested, it’s still relatively lightweight. It also includes Tineco’s iLoop smart sensor, although it doesn’t have the single-button start that the Pure One S15 Pet does.

The Pure One S11 did a decent job of collecting all kinds of messes, including pet hair, but I did have to go over some spots more than once for the most thorough clean. In addition to the main cleaner head that has built-in headlights, it comes with three extra attachments that make it easy to get into small spaces.

Tineco estimates a run time of 40 minutes for this machine, and I found that to be accurate. That was just about enough time for me to clean all three floors of my house, but if you have a particularly large home, you may need to recharge at some point. Its bin size is also on the smaller side like the Pure One S15 Pet, so there’s a chance you may have to pause to empty it if you’re cleaning up big messes or you have a lot of ground to cover.

But for $300, the Pure One S11 offers a lot of value. It’s arguably best for those who live in apartments or small- to medium-sized homes, or those who just want a no-frills, easy-to-use cordless vacuum without dropping an excessive amount of money. It holds its own against pet hair as well, but that’s coming from a person who only has one cat; you’d be better off getting a stronger vacuum with a larger bin if you have a small menagerie in your home.

Suction power: 240AW | Bin capacity: 0.2 gallon | Battery life: 60 min | Weight: 8.3 pounds | Charging dock: Yes

Overkill for most, the Dyson V15 Detect Submarine will be exactly what some are looking for: a vacuum with all of Dyson’s signatures along with the ability to wash hard floors. It’s similar to the V15 Detect in power and design, but it comes with Dyson’s “submarine” wet cleaner head that has two water reservoirs (one for clean water and one for dirty) and a brush bar that does all the scrubbing. To wash tile and other hard floors, you fill the clean reservoir with water, reattach it to the head and turn on the machine as if you were just vacuuming. The built-in motor ever so slightly propels the machine in this mop mode, and as you move it around, it sucks up spills and other wet messes into the dirty reservoir while also washing the floor.

In my testing, the V15 Detect Submarine did a great job sucking up spills and a pretty good job cleaning my hardwood and tile, even in spots where there were more persistent stains (although it did take a few passes to fully suss them out). I typically use a corded steamer to wash the hard floors in my home, and while the V15 Detect Submarine doesn’t use heat and can’t quite match up to a device that does, it’s impressive nonetheless for its abilities and convenience.

After my first go-around with the machine, I was excited to use it again primarily because the process is so easy. Instead of getting my steamer out, plugging it in and fighting with its cord as I moved around, I popped the Submarine cleaning head on the Dyson, filled the tank and off I went. It’s worth mentioning, though, that I did have to fill the clean-water reservoir twice to wash the main floor of my home (roughly 800 square feet), which added a few minutes to the process. After each session, you’ll want to empty both reservoirs, clean the brush head and let the whole attachment dry. After that, I found it was ready to go again the next day.

The V15 Detect is a solid vacuum and an above-average mop, but more than anything, it’s convenient. It’s one relatively thin and lightweight device that can clean all of the floors in your home without a ton of extra effort needed on your part and with few, if any, frustrations. But as with anything, convenience comes at a cost: you’ll pay $950 for this model, and no, you can’t just buy the Submarine head separately and use it with a standard Dyson stick vac. If you only have a little bit of tile or hard flooring in your home, it’ll be difficult to justify the cost of the Submarine — but if convenience is of utmost importance and you want one cordless vac-and-mop to rule them all, Dyson’s machine is a great option.

Suction power: 230W | Bin capacity: 0.8 gallon | Battery life: 60 min | Weight: 5.29 pounds | Charging dock: Yes

Tineco’s high-end Pure One Station FurFree deserves a nod here because it was one of the cordless vacuums I tested that I wanted to use the most, and it’s arguably the most convenient option on the list. Not only does it have strong suction power and the company’s iLoop smart sensor, but it docks and charges in a self-emptying base that cleans all parts of the machine — brush, tube and dustbin — after each use.

The freestanding base is a little intimidating when you unbox it, purely because it has more parts than that of any vacuum cleaner I tested (including the Shark Detect Pro). The whole thing, vacuum included, remains relatively svelte; it was easy for me to tuck it into a corner of a room near an outlet. The vacuum itself has a single-button start and, while not quite as strong as the Dyson V15 Detect, did a good job cleaning up all kinds of messes, pet hair included. Run time comes in at 60 minutes, more than enough to clean my whole home, and it supports Auto and Max modes along with the auto-adjusting feature provided by the iLoop sensor.

The Pure One Station FurFree also supports Wi-Fi connectivity, with its mobile app showing you battery life, dustbin capacity and self-cleaning settings. But since the small screen on the docking station gives you most of that data as well, the app is just a bonus.

The biggest selling point of this cordless vacuum is its self-emptying base, which has its own large dustbin that can hold up to 60 days worth of dirt. It’s a plastic canister that takes no garbage bags, so there’s nothing to add to the cost of ownership — simply remove the base’s dustbin to empty into your own garbage can every couple of weeks and then snap it back into place. You can customize self-cleaning settings to do a quick clean (30 seconds long) or a deep clean (60 seconds), or keep it to the auto mode (45 seconds). The machine will clean itself whenever you return the vacuum to its dock, unless you manually disable this feature. I appreciate that the base automatically empties the vacuum’s dustbin during self-cleaning, but it’s also great that it uses gusts of air to clean the vacuum’s brush and tube. Lots of little particles and hair can get stuck in those parts, and with other vacuums, you’re left to clear those out yourself.

The “FurFree” in the Pure One Station’s name refers to the extra attachments that come with the machine that basically turn it into a pet-grooming tool. This will likely be more useful for dog owners, or maybe folks with more amenable cats than mine (she hates all vacuums — cordless, robot, you name it). If you’re not a pet owner, there’s a standard Tineco Pure One Station that’s otherwise an identical machine with the same self-cleaning base, but only comes with regular vacuum attachments, and costs $200 less. FurFree or regular, though, the Pure One Station is a great cordless vacuum that’s made better by its clever and convenient self-emptying base.

Suction power: 500W | Bin capacity: 0.12 gallon | Battery life: 40 min | Weight: 6.8 pounds | Charging dock: Yes

Even though we have a new runner-up pick now, the Tineco Pure One S15 remains a solid cordless vacuum cleaner. It handled all kinds of dry messes well, including pet hair, and includes Tineco’s iLoop smart sensor for detecting the amount of dirt and auto-adjusts suction power. I also appreciate that its LED display has a big ring that changes from red to blue as it sucks up all the debris in its way, and it has a battery indicator on it as well.

The Pure One S15 Pet has an unfussy design and comes with attachments that are easy to pop on and off. The main cleaning head has a headlight which does a great job of showing you exactly where the worst pockets of dirt are. And, despite its bin being a bit smaller than that on the Dyson, I never had to pause mid-cleaning to empty it.

Unlike the Dyson, though, the Pure One S15 Pet has Wi-Fi connectivity and a companion app, which is about as “smart” as any cordless vacuum gets. It’s a totally unnecessary feature, but Wi-Fi setup is pretty painless, and Tineco’s mobile app will show you things like battery level, filter status and a cleaning log. Filter status is arguably the most useful of them all, since it takes the guesswork out of figuring out when to replace it.