5 July 2023

Should you buy a standard or stick vacuum?

The pros and cons of going cordless.

Once you’re the owner of a stick vac, you might wonder how you ever put up with a standard vac cutting out whenever you ventured too far from the power socket. That is until your stick runs out of battery when you still have one room to go.

Making the change from standard to stick certainly has its pros and cons. Here’s our list of them so you can decide whether ditching the cord is the way to go.

Stick vacuum pros

Cleans just as well

Our testing shows stick vacuums are as good as standard vacuums now. Erin Bennett, our stick vacuums expert at Consumer, says the latest tests have found almost no difference in how well the two types clean carpets or pick up pet hair.

Lighter

All the stick vacs we’ve tested weigh 5kg or under. Only a few standard corded vacs are under 5kg.

No cord restrictions

There’ll be no more getting the cord tangled around the furniture legs or having to change the socket you’ve plugged it into.

Can often be used as a handheld vac

Many stick vacuums allow the motor unit to be detached from the wand, becoming a handheld vac. You can then attach different heads straight to the motor unit. It makes cleaning the car much easier.

Easy to store

The slim profile of a stick vacuum makes it easier to hide away and you can store most on the charger.

Great for small jobs

If you make a small mess, cleaning it up with a stick vacuum is easier than lugging out the standard vac.

Easy to move

Cleaning the stairs with a stick vac is a dream after doing it with a standard vac for years.

Stick vacuum cons

Dust bin size

A bin on a stick vac usually holds less than a canister or bag in a standard vacuum. We record bin volume in our stick vac test results so you can work out which one you won’t have to empty so frequently. The smallest are about 200-300ml, but the Shark models we’ve tested are 900ml and 1L.

Battery life

How much of the house you can vacuum in one charge will be down to how good the battery is. We measured battery running time on the maximum power mode and found some surprising results. The longest run time was 33 minutes with a Kmart vac. Some only ran for six minutes.

“Ryobi, Bosch and Makita all have models that let you swap out a battery with no charge for a fully charged one so you can keep on cleaning,” Erin said.

More expensive

The 10 best standard vacuums in our test all cost under $1,000, with a few under $500. It’s a different story in the stick vacs test – just three are under $1,000, and none are under $500.

Can a stick vac replace a standard vacuum?

Erin’s verdict:

“A stick vacuum can absolutely replace a standard vacuum for the average household. Their versatility and ability to clean makes them an easy choice. You just have to keep in mind you’ll need to make sure it’s charged before cleaning, and you might make a few more trips to empty the bin.”

Erin says a stick vac is a no-brainer for anyone with stairs and advises pet owners to focus on the pet hair cleaning scores we give each vacuum.

What about a robot vac?

If you want to avoid running out of charge or emptying the canister all the time, what about a robot vacuum? They take themselves back to the charger when they need it, then keep on going. And some can even empty themselves. See our robot vacuum buying guide and test results for 16 of them.