<p><strong>Black+Decker</strong></p><p>amazon.com</p><p><strong>$109.00</strong></p><p>One member of our testing team bad-mouthed this vacuum from the moment it arrived, speaking from previous bad experiences with the unit. Well, either he got a bad vacuum back then or this device has been seriously upgraded since, because the <strong>Black+Decker</strong><strong> 20V Max Cordless Flex</strong> performed quite well in our floor-mat test. It ate up everything but large Cheez-It pieces, and it wasn't significantly louder (or quieter) than much of the competition here.</p><p>Dumping out the junk is quite simple, but there are a lot of nooks and crannies inside the machine that collect dirt, which can be a pain to empty completely. Battery life was good enough for third best in our test, and it clicked into the charging dock easily. </p><p>However, we have to knock the hose—the wraparound design looks clever out of the box, but it's actually quite tricky to get the hose to nest snugly back onto the main body, which is necessary for it to nest on its charging dock (unless you just leave it to the side). If it were not for that one struggle, the Flex would rank much higher on our list, as its performance was impressive.</p>