BLACK+DECKER 20V Max Cordless Handheld Vacuum Cleaner - Lightweight, Powerful Suction, Grey (BDH2000PL) - Perfect for Car Cleaning, Pet Hair Removal & Quick Home Cleanups

First of all, this is a pretty good design, with superior suction, and a thoughtful, user friendly design. But, as previously pointed out, when the batteries fail, Black & Decker really lets the customer down by not providing a replacement battery pack, even though it’s extremely easy for the end user to access that battery pack for replacement.But, if you’re tech oriented, you can change the batteries with a bit of work and some skills. The first issue, is getting a cell out of the pack, in order to indemnify it for purchase. They’re readily available, but you need that part number that’s printed on each cell. Also, it’s a bit of a challenge to get one out to see that number. The first thing that must be done is to take photos of the battery pack from both sides, for future reference when trying to connect the new cells together. Then, use some needle nose pliers, getting them under the metal straps that connect the cells together, and pry the straps from the cells. But, after doing so, the cells still won’t just slide out of the holder. It’s too tight. But, I used a deep 3/8 drive socket, of a diameter that was almost as large as the battery cells, and I used it, with a hammer, to drive the cells out of the holder.As I said, before I did any of this, I took photos of both sides of the battery pack for reference, so that I would be able to still see how the cells were connected to each other, after they’d been removed from the pack. Then, I inserted new cells into the pack, and referencing my photos, I connected those cells together, using bits of the original straps, and my soldering iron, to reconnect each cell.I was successful. But, I soon came across a problem that made me wish I’d never spent the money for the cells and went to all that work, as about a month later, the motor’s bearings failed, and just like the battery pack, B & D won’t sell you a new motor! I have 2 of these, but I can’t remember which one is older. But, I think it was the newer on that lost its motor. That should mean the motor failed after about 7 years.From what I’ve read in other reviews, that just may be about the most one can expect from it. Even if you can replace the batteries, it really doesn’t make sense to do so, as it cost me around $50.00 for the cells, and the whole vac is only $75! So, I only saved about $25, and I was still stuck with an old vac, who's motor soon failed! But, as I can’t find another brand that has this kind of suction and thoughtful design (& believe me, I’ve tried!), I just bought my 3rd one!It’s a handheld cordless so it’s not going to run forever, but so far I haven’t had it run out on me while using it. So easy for quick clean-ups. Includes some attached brush and extension options and the angle is adjustable, which is all great. I’ve also been using it to clean up (dry things only) while I prep my bathroom for painting and it’s been great for that as well—gets up drywall dust, bits of dried spackle, etc. Gets up long strands of hair from hard floors without getting caught or tangled when emptying, too. Very easy to empty and wash out in general. Stores small and fits easily on a countertop, and looks good there. By far my favorite handheld vacuum I’ve tried.I like this hand vacuum very much, and it is worthy of 5 stars if you understand its capabilities. With any hand vac you are working with a very narrow suction opening. It is very easy for something that you think is small enough to instead clog up the opening. So you have to open the door and remove what is clogging it. If you don’t notice this for awhile your battery will drain fairly rapidly because it is still at full power, but cannot do its job because of the obstruction. I hope one day they build one with a sensor that will beep when the filter is clogged. It is pretty loud, but i like it very much, especially being cordless.100% think this is the best hand vac I've bought. It works better than any I've ever owned. Only one downside is it's slightly hard to understand how to unfold it / empty the container the first time so read and keep the manual. But after you figure it out once, it's simple. It's expensive for a reason, the quality is amazing and it works. I can clean my entire car interior with this better and faster than dropping 5 bucks worth of quarters at the car wash.The strongest feature of this vac is its impressive suction power. It'll pick up anything that will fit thru the nozzle. There is only one reason why this vac didn't get a 5 star rating. If you vacuum up heavier granular material such as cat litter, it will 'leak' out of the nozzle when you fold it up to store it on the charging station. There's a rubber flap inside that's supposed to prevent that but it doesn't. This can be avoided by simply emptying the vac each time it's used. It's the price you pay for being able to adjust the angle of the nozzle.Worked well when it worked. Much better suction than other brands. You need to clean it pretty often (dust chamber and the filter). Filters are cheap and also washable.Biggest issue is the battery is not replaceable. It should be. After about 3 years of usage the battery dies after about 30 seconds. Opened it up and there is no way to fix it. Overall not terrible considering others, but such a waste to junk the thing when a new battery would keep it running just fine.Picks up people and dog hair, dry cat litter with no problem. Good on stairs, countertops, windowsills, cars. Good for small jobs. Easy to clean dirt holder. Only downside is the battery not being replaceable, at least easily. You get three plus years and then battery will not recharge per other online comments. Perhaps Black and Decker will adjust their manufacturing to make this possible. Seems a waste to put a perfectly good hand vac in the trash when it will still produce if you could replace the battery.I bought this one year ago after reading the rave reviews.INITIAL MONTH OF USE:I charged it as per the instructions, and was impressed by the power (yes it's a bit loud, but it's tolerable and the power felt worth it - while the power lasted. Read on....). The battery was dead before I could finish a quick dusting of my apt. I charged it again and set the timer before running it the next time, and it lasted only 8 minutes. This is useless - if you can't clean a studio apt of loose debris and require more than 8 minutes, this is not the vacuum for you. I had an older handheld prior - a Hoover that was 12 years old (therefore a lesser battery, you would think), but this Black & Decker battery had massive, very aggravating power/battery fade. You could hear an audible lowering of power around 4 minutes, and then it would continue to drop every 2 mins or so thereafter.1 YEAR LATER:It's all downhill from the get-go. It's no longer quite as powerful off the charger as it was at the beginning, and the battery fade now audibly occurs within a minute, sometimes sooner, and the suction power concurrently fades. This leaves me with less power and less time on the battery as well. For approx 11 months, the battery fade was very prevalent and you could listen to it fade it's way to a totally empty battery. Abruptly, after approx 11 months of use, the unit stops working (turns off) very prematurely and without the audible warning of the power dying down. I can turn the button to "off" and back to "on" and get anywhere from 2-12 more seconds of use at the same suction/power strength that it was at prior to cutting - but then it just turns off again. So in order to use this, I have to:- Click on (power will notably fade within seconds or minutes at most)- Vacuum as strategically as possible before it abruptly turns off (after a handful of minutes)- Vacuum turns itself off while I'm in the middle of cleaning, and so I- Repeat this cycle until I give up in frustration and put it back on the charger. Maddening.Oh, and the pivot-ability of this unit has proven itself faulty as well - it only locks in a totally straight/horizontal position, or in a [quite unusable] 90-degree position - all the nice angles in-between are no longer functional, as the hinge will not 'click' into place.IMPORTANT POST 1-YR UPDATE: Just MONTHS after writing the 1-year update, the unit now ONLY WORKS FOR 5-10 SECONDS (yes! seconds - and on a full charge!) before cutting out. You have to keep flicking the button on and off to get it to function, although it only works for 1-2 seconds at a time, and then it just doesn't respond at all to being turned on and off. It's utterly useless and inconceivably frustrating. Clearly this is not built to last.FINAL THOUGHTIf the battery lasted 20 mins (as others have claimed, and as my previous handheld lasted), I'd be in love with this machine - it's easy to hold and use, the power (at least initially) was quite good, and the pivot-ability was great (while it lasted). But the useless battery just DESTROYS this as an option. The pros do not even come close to outweighing the cons. I wouldn't believe any of the hype on this - it doesn't appear trustworthy. Something is way off with this unit.This experience has left me needing to buy another right away - so consider that this may be a temporary purchase for you - you may be buying something only to re-buy very soon (start that research!). Because of the number and nature of the problems, I've also lost faith in this brand going forward which is really, really disappointing.I must hand it to Black & Decker. The 2-year warranty is very strategic. Mine stopped functioning right around the 2-year mark and I barely used the thing. Unfortunately I didn't call them right away, and now I'm a month or two past warranty and they gladly claim they can't do anything about it, even though it technically quit working within the warranty period. Time is of the essence when you're dealing with a shameless company like B&D. Don't assume they're ethical, because they're not. And that's why I'll never buy a B&D product ever again. On the other hand, Dyson's customer support is A1 in my experience so it's clear who deserves our loyalty. Stay away from all B&D products. We know they're low quality, that's not the issue. The issue is their customer support is non-existent. Pay a bit more for a Dyson and rest assured they'll stand behind their products and explore other options in the event of any issues, even beyond the warranty period.Good while it lasted. Strong suction, easy to clean. However the battery failed after about 14 months. Charges up then lasts about 2 minutes and shuts off. Will start up straight away but last for about 30 seconds. (this will happen for about 20 or 30 try's). Have spent a lot of time trying to find a replacement battery as it is replaceable. However no luck to date. Would not recommend due battery issues.I suffered from the most commonly reported issue: the battery will just give up and die at random. I got 2 years of decent use of it (like using it 2-3x a week for 5 mins at a time). And now it won't hold more than 30 seconds charge.So bear that in mind - your affair with this half-decent piece of machinery will be intermittent and overly brief.Great little vacuum. It does the job well and battery lasts long enough for it to be useful for quick cleanup jobs without worrying about it dying.A couple of things I don't like:1. There is no warning whatsoever before the battery gets depleted, which is a problem if you usually keep it off its base (i.e. store it in a place without a power plug and charge intermittently)2. The plastic end-piece should have some sort of rubber insert on it to prevent banging and scratching hard surfaces when vacuuming with it (e.g. as usually done on central vacuum brushes).