Black+Decker Furbuster AdvanceClean+ Review

Tough Messes

With their small stature and limited power, we don't expect handhelds to be able to tackle messes of the same scale as a full-sized vacuum. But that doesn't mean we don't have standards. If I buy a handheld vacuum, I want to know that it can erase the evidence of the breakfast burrito I spilled in my car, or the cookie ingredients I knocked off the counter. To that end, I scattered oatmeal and mini-wheat cereal over car upholstery, couch cushions, and hardwood and set to vacuuming.

I gave each vacuum 20 seconds on each surface to do its best (or worst). The Furbuster, for its part, was a standout. On the car upholstery, I eliminated all the oats in less than the 20 allotted seconds, a rare 100% clean. On couch cushions, I decided to try the motorized brush roll and found that, although the action of the brush roll flings some debris ahead of the vacuum, it ended up achieving another near-perfect clean by the end of the allotted time. There were hints of oat dust left in the depressions of the cushion, but I think they could be easily eliminated with another couple of passes.

With the larger mini-wheats, the Furbuster hit a stumbling block I saw in many of the handhelds I tested: its nozzle is only just wide enough to admit the cereal. If a mini-wheat was sucked up in the wrong orientation, it could block the nozzle, and I'd have to flip it manually before it could be sucked up. While I still achieved a decent clean, I don't think this vacuum could tackle debris much larger than this relatively small cereal, and, depending on your intended uses, that might present a problem. Personally, I feel confident that the Furbuster could take on anything I'd ask of a handheld vacuum.

Hard-to-Reach Areas

One of the great perks of handheld vacuums is their ability to get into the nooks and crannies a conventional vacuum might struggle to access. Between couch cushions, beneath car seats, inside drawers, under ovens… there's a plethora of out-of-sight, out-of-mind areas in our homes, vehicles, and garages where dust and debris can pile up.

To assess each handheld's ability to clean those tough, tight zones, I used cardboard to create a false ceiling 1.25 inches off the ground, a gap size similar to those often found between ovens and kitchen floors or beneath car seats. Then, for good measure, I tested each model on a window slide, a good proxy for gaps that are tall but narrow. I used oats and coffee grounds for both tests, and I found that the Furbuster, while a little bulky as handheld vacuums go, did a pretty decent job.

The built-in crevice tool extends an additional 9 inches, giving you some serious range under the right conditions. In practice, though, the shape of the nozzle means that to achieve a good seal, your angle of approach has to be just right, and this can be tough in tight spaces with a relatively large body. This problem applied to both tests, but because the suction on this vacuum is quite strong for a handheld, I achieved a decent clean under the false ceiling and a near-complete clean on the window slide.

Dusting

One of our primary criteria for a good handheld vacuum is the ability to deal with dust. Such a light material might seem like a low bar to clear, but it's a fact that dust is present in any home or car, and it's the only mess that makes itself: no matter how tidy you otherwise are, dust will need to be dusted. To evaluate each model's dust capacity, I charged a smooth plastic surface with static electricity, sifted flour over it, and cleaned it with each vacuum. Flour mimics dust with particles ranging from under 1 micron to 300.

Then, because dusting isn't limited to flat, open surfaces, I sprinkled coffee grounds along a windowsill and the corner of a baseboard, and looked at how each vacuum handled small debris in a more confined and irregular environment.

I used the Furbuster's fixed nozzle, rather than the motorized brush roller, for the dusting test. I'd initially worried that the lack of bristles on the nozzle's edge might make dusting difficult, but I was pleasantly surprised: this vacuum cleaned up the flour quickly and almost completely. It left a fine film of flour on my testing surface, but that was the case with almost all the handheld vacuums we tested. And in my baseboard and windowsill test, I was even more impressed. This vacuum felt extremely capable, and more powerful than many of the other models I've tried.

All in all, I thought this vacuum would be a great choice to tackle heavier dust accumulations. But because the nozzle doesn't have bristles to protect surfaces from its hard plastic edges, I probably wouldn't use it to dust anything fragile or aesthetically valuable. Baseboards, door frames, windowsills, beams, countertops… absolutely! But antique wood furniture or first edition books… maybe not.

Battery Life

All handheld vacuums are limited by battery life. Batteries are both heavy and bulky, so manufacturers have to strike a balance between a product that can be wielded by hand, and one that will have decent power and run time. To test battery life, I run the vacuums until they die, then see how long it takes for the battery to recharge (spoiler alert: some handhelds have a pretty terrible ratio here; think 14 hours of charging for 15 minutes of run time).

The Furbuster performed far better. Without using the motorized brush roller head, I got nearly 17 minutes of run time on the high or “powerboost” setting. It's enough to knock out a quick clean in the car or most of my furniture. The battery recharged in 3.5 hours, meaning I could split a clean into two sessions on the same day if I felt ambitious.

I also loved the three-tiered battery gauge on the back of the vacuum, which lets you know when you're running low so you can plan accordingly. If you're dealing with lighter messes, you could get more run time on the low setting. Conversely, if you need to use the motorized brush roll, your battery life will be shorter. All in all, the Furbuster offers a good ratio of power to weight to battery life.

Convenience

Convenience is subjective, but there are a couple of factors we think are universally important in a handheld vacuum purchase. Our criteria are bin size, ease of cleaning, weight, and the attachments that come with the model. Some of these may feel more important than others to different purchasers, so we've taken careful note of all of them.

The Furbuster has a larger-than-average dustbin at 0.68 Liters. This is big enough that I really felt I could tackle any mess I would reasonably choose a handheld vacuum for. But the best thing about the dustbin is that it's incredibly easy to clean: you just find a trash can, push a button, and all of your mess falls right out. It's one of my favorite features of this vacuum. Some handhelds require filters to be fished out by hand every time they're emptied, and that makes cleaning feel like even more of a chore. With the button feature, I really don't even consider cleaning the vacuum as an extra task.

At 2.7 pounds, the Furbuster is one of the heavier handhelds in our testing lineup, but I didn't find that it was heavy enough to create fatigue while I used it. However, if weight is a concern, or if you know you'll be doing a lot of overhead cleaning, it might be worth considering a lighter option, like the Shark Wandvac.

I felt that the motorized brush roll attachment was a huge asset to the Furbuster, massively upgrading its ability to remove pet hair and to agitate debris out of carpet. I also liked the extendable crevice tool, although, as I noted in the compact space section, it can be hard to find the right angle to use it at full extension. Finally, I loved that this vacuum can sit flat and upright on a table. It makes things feel more tidy if I set it down in the middle of a clean, or leave it out to charge.

Pet Hair

Pet hair is one of the most stubborn common messes and often an Achilles heel for vacuums. It's an important testing metric for that exact reason: not everyone has to deal with pet hair, but if you do, you want to know what works. We test our handheld vacuums on 0.5 grams of real pet fur, spread onto a textured fabric that's similar to car or couch upholstery.

The Furbuster, true to its name, absolutely crushed this test. The only handheld vacuum that performed better was the Bissell Pet Hair Eraser, and the difference was more a matter of speed than of quality of cleaning. The Furbuster eliminated all but a couple of the pet hairs within 30 seconds. It was so easy to clean the pet hair that I immediately wanted to take this vacuum home and lend it to my dad, who has a large and furry dog and a backseat to match in his car. There were a couple of pet hairs entangled in the brush roll, but nothing I felt was out of the ordinary, or particularly burdensome to remove.

Should You Buy the Black+Decker Furbuster?

When I started testing the Furbuster, it became apparent pretty quickly that it was a great all-around pick. If you're looking for a handheld that balances power and performance with ease of use, this is the one for you. This is even more true if you're a pet owner. If you know you'll be cleaning truly large messes, but you still want some of the maneuverability of a handheld, take a look at our favorite Cordless Stick Vacuums. But if you want to quickly and easily get rid of most messes with the ease that comes with a handheld vacuum, the Furbuster won't disappoint.

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