Levoit LVAC-300 cordless vacuum review – as somebody who's spent more than 200 hours testing vacuums, I'm impressed

Levoit is becoming a more common household name, with their range of vacuums, purifiers and fans offering strong performance without unnecessarily high prices.

I've tested a few of their goods in my time as Homes & Gardens' home tech editor, and I like what I've seen so far. So, I was excited to get my hands on the new Levoit LVAC-300, the brand's latest cordless stick at a low-to-mid price point.

I've spent more than 200 hours testing vacuum cleaners, so I put the LVAC-300 through its paces in our test center, a local pet shelter and my own home to find out if it's one of the best cordless vacuums.

Levoit LVAC-300: Specifications

• Buy the Levoit LVAC-300 for $299.99 at Amazon.

Levoit LVAC-300: Setup

The Levoit LVAC-300 arrived in one of the smallest boxes I've seen for a vacuum cleaner. It was compactly packaged, with each component wrapped in soft plastic to avoid scratching; however, sadly, the packaging was not biodegradable.

It took around three hours to charge the battery from 36% to 100%. Otherwise, the only setup required was to attach the wand and floorhead. It's a small vacuum that can stand up by itself, meaning it's easy to store the vacuum without taking up much space.

Included are a dual crevice tool and dusting brush, a mini motorized brush (one of the best vacuum attachments for pet hair), and a wall mount if you want to be able to charge the vacuum off the floor.

Levoit LVAC-300: Design and features

The Levoit LVAC-300 uses a multi-surface floorhead, similar to the best Shark vacuums that use one floorhead to avoid you swapping it out when cleaning different floor types. It's Levoit's third-generation floorhead, using anti-tangle rollers to avoid hair wrap.

It also has different suction modes: eco, auto and turbo. I love seeing this feature in cordless vacuums because it helps to adjust suction power when moving from hard floors to carpets. It's one of the many reasons why the best Dyson vacuums work so well.

I tested the airflow for each suction mode using an anemometer. The LVAC-300 generates 7.1mph, 9.6mph and 12.3mph in each mode, respectively. That's about the same range as the Dyson V8, Dyson's entry-level cordless stick. Also similar to Dyson and Shark, the LVAC-300 has lights on the floorhead to illuminate hidden dust on the floors.

The vacuum HEPA filter actually surpasses official HEPA standards by being able to capture 99.99% of particles as small as 0.3 microns (HEPA filters only need to be able to capture 99.97%). This is great news for anybody who, like me, suffers from allergies, as a HEPA filter can trap almost all common household allergens.

Its 60-minute runtime is what you'll find across most cordless vacuums. As that's a maximum runtime, you'll get around 40 minutes in auto mode using the floorhead or mini motorized attachment, or 12 minutes using the same setup on turbo mode.

What is the Levoit LVAC-300 like to use?

Overall, the Levoit LVAC-300 is an easy, light and agile cordless stick, with relatively strong suction and a straightforward design. Plus, I tested it in a local pet shelter and the brushroll never wrapped with hair.

I tested it across hard floors, carpets, rugs, and upholstery, and for the price, this is a great vacuum. It isn't as groundbreaking as some of the more expensive and best Miele vacuums, for example, but as a low-to-mid-range cordless vacuum, I was impressed by its cleaning ability.

I tested the noise levels using the DecibelX app and it averages around 60.5 to 68.9 decibels, which is a little quieter than other cordless vacuums (they tend to run at 65 to 75 decibels).

It's easy to use, with the power and suction mode buttons sitting right where the thumb goes. And as the vacuum stands up by itself and can be reclined using your foot, you can comfortably use it with one hand, keeping the other free for moving items such as cables and furniture.

And as it can lie completely flat, it's easy to reach under sofas and other furniture:

However, annoyingly, the vacuum always starts on eco mode when you power it on. So, if you're doing quick bursts to clean different areas without using up the battery, you have to press the cleaning mode button each time to get to the standard suction.

It's definitely one of the best lightweight vacuums I've tested, weighing just over six pounds. But because of the handle's design, it can be a little unbalanced when using it in handheld mode. The battery sits at the end of the vacuum unit, so it's slightly harder to lift compared to the other best handheld vacuums I've reviewed.

It also wiggles around a bit when moving across bumpy or textured floors, such as thick carpets or hardwood. This isn't a major issue, though, as the suction seems consistent compared to when it isn't wobbling.

This is also owed to the lightweight materials used, and the LVAC-300's gentle floorhead is great if you're looking for one of the best vacuums for hardwood floors.

• Buy the Levoit LVAC-300 for $299.99 at Amazon.

Levoit LVAC-300: Flour and sugar test

I tested the Levoit LVAC-300 in our dedicated test center using a cup of flour and sugar. This is an effective visual test to see what the vacuum leaves behind and whether the mess gets stuck in internal parts. Flour and sugar are also great proxies for dust and dead skin.

On hardwood and linoleum floors, the LVAC-300 was able to pick up most of the mess minus leaving some residue between the wood panels. Using turbo mode I was then able to clear the rest of it. This is pretty good performance for a vacuum at this price.

Interestingly on carpets, the LVAC-300 performed similarly on eco, auto and turbo mode. Slight residue was left behind on all of them, but when it came to vacuuming up the main bulk of it, eco mode was pretty much as effective as the rest. It might not be the best vacuum for carpet that we've tested, but it still did a decent job.

Levoit LVAC-300: Pantry test

I tested the Levoit LVAC-300 on carpet, linoleum and hardwood floors using a cup of cereal and lentils. This is to test how well the vacuum can handle larger debris, particularly the cereal which is often too large for a vacuum to suck up.

On hard floors, this is where the LVAC-300 let itself down. It was only able to push the debris forward – hardly any was vacuumed up. This occasionally happens as not all vacuum floorheads are wide enough to vacuum large pieces, so then the test becomes vacuuming with just the wand.

It was able to vacuum everything once I removed the floorhead, but I had to hold it closer to the cereal and lentils compared to others I've tested. Stronger vacuums like the Dyson V15 Detect can pull pieces in from an inch or two away, but the LVAC-300 had to be almost touching them.

On carpet, the performance was much more impressive. The higher friction meant that the cereal was able to be crushed down into pieces that the LVAC-300 could vacuum, and in just a single forward-and-backward pass, the mess was almost entirely gone.

A few cereal pieces fell out of the brushroll after vacuuming, but then it was easy to pick them up again after. No flinging around debris, no major crumb leak, no need to get the attachments out.

Levoit LVAC-300: Pet hair

I tested the Levoit LVAC-300 in a local pet shelter, Bristol ARC, to see how well it can vacuum cat and dog hair, as well as the messes you'd find in a busy environment with high foot traffic.

When looking for the best vacuums for pet hair, you need strong suction and anti-tangle brushrolls to avoid hair wrap. The LVAC-300 mostly meets that criteria, and when I tested it on hard floors, the vacuum picked everything up in 1-2 passes without getting anything tangled.

On low-pile carpet it did well too, especially considering the size and price of this vacuum. It picked up most hairs in two passes, and if you slow down the lights show if there are any left.

On a thick, entrance mat, it didn't manage to vacuum very much. Quite a few hairs were left behind, but I will say that it's incredibly rare for a vacuum to be able to completely clean this tricky surface.

Larger vacuums like the best upright vacuums perform much more effectively when it comes to carpets, and you can often feel the vacuum suctioning itself to the floor as you clean. There was very little suction attaching the LVAC-300 to the carpets, but surprisingly it still vacuumed a decent amount almost every time.

Levoit LVAC-300: Attachments

The attachments work exactly as described. The crevice tool could clear flour and sugar from edges right to the corner where the floor meets the wall.

And when vacuuming pet hair from upholstery at the pet shelter, the LVAC-300 could clear all fur from a sofa in a few repeated passes on turbo mode. On thick upholstery, it still did well but left a few hairs behind.

Levoit LVAC-300: Cleaning & maintenance

I love how the LVAC-300 blows minimal dust upwards when emptying it. Press the button and the dustbin's contents descend, and in the multiple times I had to do this, I never got dust back in my face. It's perfect when avoiding overfilling your vacuum.

It's also super easy to take apart and clean, with almost every component able to be cleaned or rinsed. And as I already mentioned, the fact that the brushroll never wrapped with hair means you can clean the vacuum less often.

A removable sticker on the dustbin gives some general guidance when maintaining your vacuum: clean the felt and foam filters once a month, and replace them once every three months, and clean the HEPA filter at least once a year.

Our guide on cleaning your vacuum filter shows you the best ways to do this.

How does the Levoit LVAC-300 compare?

The Levoit LVAC-300 costs $349.99 at full price at Amazon, but is often on offer for around $299.99. After thoroughly testing it, I think this is a reasonable price when you consider how well it cleans and the few snags holding it back.

But for $100 more, you can buy the Shark Cordless PowerDetect, a more powerful and nimble vacuum that performed better on tests. It folds at the wand, too, for easier cleaning under furniture without straining your back. Or, the Dyson V8 has stronger suction power, but a shorter runtime and fewer cleaning modes.

If you look outside of the world of cordless vacuums, the Shark POWERDETECT Upright is often on offer for the same price as the LVAC-300. It's a bigger, bulkier vacuum but one that outshines the LVAC-300's cleaning performance in every way, and even leaves a fresh scent behind as you clean.

Should you buy the Levoit LVAC-300?

The Levoit LVAC-300 performs well at a modest price point. We've tested other cordless sticks that perform better than this, but at this $300-350 price, there aren't many I'd recommend over this.

It cleans hard floors and carpets well, but can struggle a bit with large debris on hard floors, and it won't clean everything from carpets. But for regular cleaning, and perhaps with the help of the best robot vacuum, this could be all you need for spotless floors and easy, lightweight cleaning.

• Buy the Levoit LVAC-300 for $299.99 at Amazon.

How we test vacuums

At Homes & Gardens, we have a dedicated and thorough procedure of how we test vacuums. At our test center, we test various substances on three floor types (carpet, wood, linoleum) to recreate real-life circumstances.

I tested the Levoit LVAC-300 over two weeks in our test center, a local pet shelter and my own home.

Next, browse through our tested picks of the best Dyson alternatives for more excellent cleaning without the high price point.