I’m interested in learning about ANY products that you would highly recommend.
Right now I need a handheld cordless vacuum, ideally less than $100. My dyson V8 bricked on me.
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Sorry to hear that your Dyson vacuum bit the dust (pun intended 
). Once out of warranty, servicing is just way too costly for that brand. I’ve known at least 2 people who had their vacuums and liked them a lot… until they malfunctioned. And in both cases, after the warranty expired (just 2 years). They decided not to buy Dyson again.
As for handheld, how powerful do you need it?
Last year, I bought a VICSONIC handheld vacuum that turned out to be a pretty good product. It was sold on AMAZON. At the time, I got it for $55 using a $28 coupon. Right now it’s priced at $90, no discount, which is too high. There is another variant under a different name, called AIRWOX. Price is $60. In fact, the design looks identical. So this is probably a white-label product.
There’s another vacuum which may be better built and a little more powerful (15KPA). It’s a different brand name from the other one we own, called Nicebay (made by Whall). Looks to be based on a Shark WandVac design. It has a higher quality matte finish ABS plastic housing. What’s great is that it charges from the base and has 2 contacts on the body. So you just slide it into the holder and it begins charging. The VICSONIC and AIRWOX above needs a USB-C plug-in to charge (which can be a good thing, as no proprietary base is required–any sufficient 3A+ USB socket will do). The Nicebay feels a bit better made, though it’s more primitive in display – just LED lights instead of an LED panel. What’s nice about the VICSONIX/AIRWOX is you get a pretty accurate countdown on the battery charge level. I’ve also found that there’s no appreciable parasitic drain. After leaving idle for a full month, it lost barely a minute of time on the battery.
EDIT: The other model we have based on the Shark WandVac is by Iris Living.
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@xevious Thank you for your thoughtful answer. More power is generally good . The Nicebay has a decent deal at the moment so I will keep this in mind/cart.
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You’re welcome! Serendipity, in that I’d done some research on this earlier this year.
I edited my post and linked to IRIS Living. That’s the original brand that the Nicebay seems to be based upon. Weird how their other colors are exorbitantly priced. The list price for these should be $90 USD. The Black/Red model is listed at $80, with a $30 coupon. Not bad for $50! The good thing is that there are free returns, so you can try it out and decide to return if you don’t like it.
Btw, it looks like NiceBay is an improvement over the older IRIS Living model, providing a multi-bar LED indicator for the battery charge as opposed to LED dots.
Regarding power, the VICSONIC I bought has 13KPA. The low and high have good suction. But the high is rather noisy. Still, handvacs like this are meant for small jobs.
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I think I’ll hold off on the Nicebay as it requires the use of the charging stand and the debris capacity is somewhat small. This helps though. Still looking…
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Good topic! I’ll be following along… 
Yeah, the compatibility with USB-C is a nice advantage, if you’re going to be using the vac in multiple locations. If only one location? The charging base is fine. Ideally, it would be smart for these makers to provide both options.
The VICSONIC is 13KPA and it does have a pretty generous debris chamber. I find that on a full use session (meaning, draining down to needing a charge) rarely fills up all the way.
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Agreed! In fact I hope @Ledhead won’t mind me moving his thread into the EDC Gear for Flashlight Carriers category, which I would like to give a bit more exposure to. Generally the sort of person that actually cares about a well-designed and highly functional flashlight also puts a lot more thought into the design and functionality of other common daily-use products than the average consumer. So I’m sure we’ll get some great recommendations here and in more specific threads in the EDC Gear for Flashlight Carriers category.
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This speaker is reasonably priced and has very clean and expansive audio. A major advantage is that is has no latency on its 3.5mm input circuit, whereas the larger MaxSound Plus for some reason has really bad latency, I imagine it’s a quirk of its DSP circuit.
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Kinda my thoughts too. 
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Anybody else find they vacuum alot more since getting flashlights? Never knew how dirty everything was lol
Companies that make cordless tools make vacuums you should look at. It’s nice cuz you can have multiple battery packs and replace old ones really easy. The battery is always the first thing to go with those. I have a ryobi handheld vacuum from the early 2000’s that I still use. Kinda hard to find filters for it tho.
Shout out to:
iRobot Roombas
Still have one that’s 12-13 years old I still use. Just needed a new battery like 8 years ago. Probably due for another soon.
Michelin Pilot Sport 4 A/S tires
very grippy year round performance tire
Kirkland Dog Food
Best price for dog food thats still decent. Made by a family owned company in Missouri, California, South Carolina and Arkansas factories. They also make Diamond and Taste of the Wild pet food. Very tasty. Pair with a medium red.
Evaporust:
You take a rusty thing, put it a container filled with this stuff, take it out after some hours, and the rust gone. It’s like magic. Can just be a ball of rust, and its gone. And you can keep reusing it, it doesn’t go bad. I ran out of things to derust and it was still working. You can touch it without gloves, it’s not hazardous, the worst thing on the SDS is “may cause upset stomach” if you drink it. The item just has to be small enough to be submerged in a container of the stuff
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I’m a big believer in the Kirkland dog foods. Been feeding them for years. Kind of a good compromise between the super expensive kibble and the budget stuff. Read the ingredient labels–they read pretty good.
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Interesting 'bout the Evaporust. I’ve used Ironout for the rocks I’ve hounded but that stuff seems tuffer! I’ve used CRC products with good results in the past.
Ive used Kirkland food in the past with good results too but now they eat better than me.
When I just had one 10lb dog I’d only buy like 1 bag a year so whatever, but when you’re buying a few bags a month…I caved eventually. The Kirkland almost pays for a vacation by the end of the year lol. And it’s good stuff. No by-products, no fillers, protein as the first ingredients, and it’s cheaper than the stuff made of corn and feathers.
Evaporust is great. Just does exactly what it says on the box, you buy it once and it fixes everything forever. It goes against capitalism. You’d think Rustoleum would’ve had the CEO assassinated years ago.
Ive heard that it stops working eventually but I haven’t got that far yet, I derusted everything I had to derust. Tragically, since then I spilled the container, but it was still working right up till the end. The only limit is the rusted thing has to be small enough that it can be fully submerged in evaporust. Im thinking of filling a shallow pool and charging $1000/hour to park your car in it lol
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Battery or something with the vac itself? I just bought a INSE unit to ‘experiment’ with this kind of device. I’d say overall it trades convenience/adaptability for power.
I checked the category in Consumer’s Reports, after I bought it. 
Guess I’ll see. Battery replacement is half the price of the vac, much like most cordless tools. Batteries soldered in so not easy to replace.
I quote:
I think part of the problem with cordless hand-held vacuums is that people tend to just leave them sitting in charger bases, plugged in. I expect these devices don’t have very intelligent power management and functionality to protect battery health as much as possible. So they keep delivering a trickle charge that ends up shortening battery life in the long run.
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I highly recommend the Fenix ALB-20 titanium alloy snap hook. It is the best designed snap hook that I’ve ever ran onto. Has a built in bottle opener and flat screwdriver bit, and a very well designed strong & efficient spring closure.
I actually use mine “upside down” from the way it’s shown on the belt loop in the advertisement, so that it stays with the keys / item, instead of staying on the belt loop when you remove the keys, but it depends on what item you’re using it for. I use them for keys, small keychain style lights, and my small Fenix CL26R lantern. It’s a great item, and worth every penny. Try one, you’ll love it.
I completely agree with that. Mine has a 3-bar battery indicator so keeping it in the 20-80% range is problematic. We have an EV Leaf so I a have a wife that understands Li care.
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I’m guilty of this. I’ve got it sitting in the cradle now hoping it will somehow come back to life. I bought the vacuum as a refurb and before I learned (a little) about Lions.
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Mine sure doesn’t have an intelligent charging base. I opened it up and it’s literally just two wires from the wall wort stuck to two metal strips. There’s no circuitry in the charging base at all. It never turns off as long as it’s plugged in. The vacuum has to just stop accepting charge from it.
But I don’t think that’s the problem. The bigger problem is when people don’t put the vacuum back on the charging base.
Vacuums use so much power. Shop vacs are rated in horsepower. And it takes a lot of power to start the motor. My little vacuum with 5 generic unmarked china brand 18650s uses well over 30A on startup and runs at just under 10A. It’s not hard to see why vacuum batteries don’t last very long when you know that.
So many ways to kill the battery. Use the vacuum until it dies, turn it back on to get that last spot, dies again, let me just try to pull >30A from these discharged batteries a few more times…nope. Well the charger is in a different room, I’ll just throw it in this closet for month. Or just starting and stopping the vacuum a bunch of times. Or throwing it on the charger right after a 5min vacuuming. The charging base can’t tell those cell are 20° too hot to charge. Or let the filter get dirty and lint block airflow, pulls even more current. Or just regular operation. They have a rough life those vacuum batteries.
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