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Handheld Vacuum Cleaners

Handheld vacuum cleaners are best used in three main ways:

• As a portable means of cleaning in the home, car and workplace
• To reach areas that you’d find awkward to reach with a conventional cleaner
• For small cleaning jobs that need to be done quickly.

Due to their small, portable size, handheld vacuum cleaners are great for cleaning hard to reach places, such as car seats. Features that were only previously available on larger models are now being incorporated into handheld vacuum cleaners, such as wet/dry cleaning, cyclonic technology and HEPA filtration, so you will still get great results.

Cordless models allow you to move more freely when undertaking cleaning jobs but battery life is only around 25 minutes on the best models and charging your handheld vacuum cleaner from scratch can take up to 24 hours. Therefore, it’s a good idea to recharge your vacuum cleaner after each time you use it.

Mains-powered handheld vacuum cleaners have stronger suction power than battery-powered models, which can come in handy when dealing with pet hair, which is particularly difficult to remove. If you have pets, look for a model of vacuum cleaner with a rotating brush head, as these are more effective at removing pet hair.

On the down side, however, a handheld vacuum cleaner is compact, so its capacity won’t be comparable to that of a standard cleaner. Handheld vacuum cleaners also tend to be less powerful than standard models and have less suction power.

Brands that have a good range of handheld vacuum cleaners include:

• Black & Decker
• Dirt Devil
• Dyson
• Electrolux
• Hoover

Further Information

If you are interested in buying a handheld vacuum cleaner online, visit our Where to Buy section, which includes details about some of the leading suppliers and their policies on postage and packing, delivery, returns and refunds.

You can find out more about some of the different brands and models of vacuum cleaner available in our Brands and Top Models sections.

For hints and tips on what to look for when choosing a vacuum cleaner, visit our How to Choose page.

To find out about some of the different accessories that you can get to go with your new vacuum cleaner, visit our Accessories section.