Cordless stick vacuums for a flat or small house: six that are light enough, and where each one charges

At 2.48 kg for the cleaner alone this is the lightest machine here, and in a flat that is the number that decides whether the vacuum comes out for a spill or stays in the cupboard until Sunday. It parks upright on its own — Hoover calls it a vertical parking position — and the wall mount is provided rather than required, which matters in a rented hall.

The head has Hoover’s anti-twist brush roll for hair, and there are three modes: Hoover quotes up to 45 minutes in Auto with non-motorised tools, 25 in Standard and 10 in Turbo, from a 22 V battery that charges in 2.5 hours — the joint-fastest charge of the six with the Henry. Motor 290 W, suction 75 air watts by Hoover’s own figure, 107.9 cm tall.

The trade-off is the bin: 0.45 litres, the smallest here, which in practice means emptying after every clean rather than every week. In a small flat with hard floors that is thirty seconds; with a moulting cat on carpet it becomes the routine. Hoover’s page does not state the filter type or the guarantee, so we do not either. One detail for the link: the Amazon listing is variant 011 of the HF522STH; Hoover’s figures are for the 001 — the same machine in a different colour code.

The Samsung answers the renter’s question directly. Its 2-in-1 charging station works as a wall mount or as a stand-alone charger on the floor — Samsung’s own words — so the vacuum has a home without a drill. At 2.6 kg net it is the second-lightest here, and it comes with the pet tool that gives the Pet version its name.

Samsung’s figures: up to 60 minutes on minimum power with a non-motorised tool, 10 to 15 minutes in high power, a 210-minute charge, an 0.8-litre bin that is fully washable, a washable micro filter behind a multi-layered filtration system it rates at 99.999 % (Samsung does not call it HEPA), 200 W of suction power from a 21.6 V battery, and 113 cm tall. It also states the number most makers avoid: 86 dB(A), the loudest declared figure in this group, and Samsung’s own honesty about the high-power run time is worth crediting.

The guarantee is a 10-year parts guarantee on the digital inverter motor — motor only, and excluding labour. Two cautions. The noise matters more in a flat with thin walls and a home office than in a house. And Which?, in its battery-life work, ranks Samsung’s replacement batteries as the most expensive of the brands it compared, so the third-year cost is higher than the others here.

Bosch’s pitch is the battery. The Unlimited 7 runs on an exchangeable 18 V, 3.0 Ah pack from the Power for All Alliance — the same battery as Bosch’s cordless drills, hedge trimmers and other brands in the alliance — so a spare bought for the garden doubles the vacuum’s run time, and a dead pack in year four is a component, not a new vacuum. One pack is included.

The rest of the specification is the quietest of the group: 82 dB(A) declared, a lifetime cartridge filter with a Pure Air membrane that Bosch cleans with a RotationClean knob rather than water — no filter drying on the radiator — and a 10-year motor guarantee. Bosch quotes 2.9 kg ready for use with the tube and floor nozzle, 3.6 kg net and 1.4 kg for the handheld unit; 40 minutes maximum run time with no mode stated; a docking station for the machine and its tools, plus a Quick Stand so it parks anywhere; a 90° flexing tube for under furniture; Eco, Auto and Turbo modes; 131.5 cm tall.

Two things to weigh. The charge takes five hours, the longest here, which is why the second battery is the real design. And Bosch’s own page prints the bin as “0.3 l dust container – 0.9 litre usable capacity”, which cannot both be true; we record the conflict and would call it a small bin until Bosch clarifies.

The Henry Quick is Numatic’s cordless stick, and it solves the flat-dweller’s least favourite job differently from everyone else: there is no bin and no filter to wash. Dust goes into a sealed 1-litre pod, and when the pod is full you pull it out and put it in the rubbish. Six pods come in the box; after that they are a consumable you buy, made from recycled material. For anyone with allergies, or a kitchen bin two metres from the sofa, that is the whole argument.

Numatic’s figures — given, it says, with the brush head off — are 3.2 kg, 60 minutes on low and 16 on high, 150 minutes to a full charge, a 25.2 V battery that detaches and charges on or off the machine (a spare is sold separately, and Which? ranks Numatic’s the cheapest to replace), 122 cm tall, and a wall dock in the box that you can ignore because the battery charges anywhere. The guarantee is three years, with a fourth if you buy direct from Numatic and register.

What you give up: the pods cost money for the life of the machine, and 16 minutes on high is short for carpet throughout. What you get is the largest capacity here and the cleanest emptying, plus the brand whose corded Henry many readers are replacing.

The Shark is the pet-hair machine. Its Anti Hair Wrap Plus brush roll is designed to remove long hair and pet hair from itself as it turns — the job that otherwise needs scissors every fortnight — and the Flexology wand bends so the head reaches under a bed and then folds so the whole vacuum stands in a cupboard. It converts to a handheld for stairs and upholstery, and Shark’s guarantee is the longest here: five years on registration, two for the battery.

Shark quotes 60 minutes in eco with a non-motorised tool, a 3.5-hour charge, a 309 W motor and a 25.9 cm cleaning path. Its page for this machine does not state the bin size or describe a dock, and the dimensions it prints (70 cm tall) are plainly the folded size, so we leave those out. The Amazon listing is the IZ400UK; Shark’s live specification page is for the single-battery Pet Pro IZ400UKT — the same vacuum with a pet tool added.

The reason it is last on weight is the reason it is here: 4.1 kg, more than a kilo heavier than anything else in the list. For a house with a dog and carpeted stairs that is a fair price for a brush that cleans itself. For a studio flat it is the wrong vacuum.

The V8 Advanced is the entry point to the brand most readers already know, and everything we can say about it comes with a caveat: Dyson’s own website refused every automated visit we made, so the figures below are from John Lewis’s product page and are marked as awaiting confirmation. They are: 2.54 kg, up to 40 minutes with a non-motorised tool, a 300-minute charge, 130 air watts in Max mode, a 21.6 V battery, 125.6 cm tall, a fully sealed filtration system Dyson rates at 99.99 % of particles down to 0.3 microns, a de-tangling Motorbar cleaner head, and a wall docking station, charger, combination tool and crevice tool in the box. Two-year guarantee — the shortest in this group.

The case for it is weight and familiarity: at 2.54 kg it is within 60 g of the Hoover, the bin empties with Dyson’s point-and-shoot lever, and the dock, tools and habits are the ones a V6 or V7 owner already has. The case against, in a flat, is the dock — Dyson gives you a wall mount and nothing to stand it on, so a renter buys a third-party stand or leans it in a corner — and five hours to charge for 40 minutes of run time.

If the brand is the point, it is the lightest way in. If it is not, the Hoover gives the same weight with a shorter charge, and the Samsung the same weight with a floor stand.