Black & Decker Pivot Vac review: cordless, strong and real

Hand held vacuums suck-and not in the way that they should.  Their batteries are weak, they don’t feel like a vacuum and don’t produce enough suction to even pick up rogue pieces of cat or dog food. The Black & Decker Pivot Vac comes in and 18V and 20V version.  We tried out the 20V version and it has enough power to really pick things up, is surprisingly strong and does the cordless job for about ten minutes.

“What’s the big whistle daddy”, our oldest said.  It was the Pivot vac charging in the dining room.  It is aptly named because when you press a button on the handle the device pivots to where it can suck things up any angle.  This will allow you to clean the tops of book shelves, clean inside blinds easier and get just the right angle to get those elusive dust bunnies.

Once I assured my son that it wasn’t a whistle we got down to cleaning.  The Black & Decker Pivot vac can work for ten minutes of cordless pick up power.  Power, yes. It sounds like a real vacuum and can actually pick up things that other handheld cordless vacuums won’t.

In our house the cordless vac is mainly used for dog hair, leaves that were dragged inside, dog food, rice, cereal and wrappers.  It’s the quick and easy alternative to when you don’t want to plug something in, but need to get that rolling ball of uck off of the floor before your child starts to play with it.  The Black & Decker Pivot picks up all of that stuff.  It picks it up quickly and has strength to spare.

It’s easy to clean with a washable filter and dirt bowl and spins the dirt (and hair) around so that it’s much less likely to get clogged unless it is really full. At the tip of the mouth is a brush that can flip up or down to allow the device to suck up more stuff from fabric covered surfaces. There is also a telescoping, narrower mouth that lets you get into more narrow areas, which is what you need when you’re cleaning the car.

The 18V version of the Pivot will run about $42, while the 20V version will cost around$100.  Prices will vary so look about for the best one if you’re in the market for a handheld vac.

This is not a substitute for a full size vac, nor is this a shop vac.  The Black & Decker Pivot is for those small household jobs where you need to pick something up now, without lugging and plugging in the bigger machine. It’ll do the trick and then some.

 

We received product for review purposes.  All thoughts are our own.  No animals were shaved to produce the hair used in the video.  It is, unfortunately an everyday happening here.