Often the first thing people consider when choosing a cordless hand vac is its appearance. Before buying a hand vac, customers spend some time trying out the models on display in the store, choosing each one to make sure the handle is in the right place and the product is overall ergonomic. Customers are more interested in the nozzle part of the vacuum cleaner, if there is a vacuum brush. They also like that the shape of the device fits into the corners so it can clean those hard-to-clean places.
Of course, the shape and design of the product is a plus. But if you want a quality hand vac that will let you down when you need to fix it, there are more important features to look for. The most important stat you want to know about your future vacuum is suction power, and the last thing a manufacturer wants to tell you. Traditional corded vacuum cleaners that draw their power from an electrical outlet are rated according to their power in kilowatts, which is the amount of electricity consumed per second. Buying a battery vacuum cleaner is another matter. They can also have a kW rating, but for some reason there seems to be a consensus in the appliance industry that wireless devices shouldn't get a kW rating. That's why we're in cubic feet per second, or cfm, when it comes to cordless handheld vacuums. As anyone with any knowledge of physics will guess, cfm stands for the amount of air drawn into the device per second, which is indeed an objective and useful measure of the performance of a cordless vacuum cleaner.
If a handheld vacuum has a ridiculously low cfm rating, its sleek, ergonomic design won't help. Interestingly, for some wireless products on the market, there is no data on suction power. Without factual information about a vacuum's performance, buying it is a risky choice. That's why you should look up the cfm data for each cordless hand vac and compare them to find the right one.
