Keeping your car’s interior clean is much easier than it used to be, thanks to massive developments in vacuum cleaner technology. Previously, it was a case of choosing between a pathetic 12V dustbuster or lugging a corded vac onto the driveway. Nowadays, things are thankfully better, and you can get some very good vacuums for car care.
Your car is hiding all manner of detritus. Dust on the dashboard, crud on the carpets, French fries in the footwell, goop in the glovebox, and dregs in the door pockets. We haven’t even mentioned the dog hair in the boot. The fact is, you need the best car vacuum cleaner available.
Even in the relatively small world of car vacuuming, there is a lot of variation available. From easily portable handheld vacuums that lack the raw suction power to tackle big debris right up to enormous wet & dry vacuum cleaners that could refresh a car that had recently been pulled from a lake – but needs plugging in, you’ll need to weigh up your needs before buying anything. To save you time, we’ve been hard at work testing the best car vacuum cleaners and have listed our top picks below.
The best car vacuum cleaner at a glance:
The best vacuum cleaner: Henry Quick, buy now from Amazon UK
Editor’s pick: Henry HVR160, buy now from Amazon UK
The best handheld vacuum cleaner: Gtech Multi MK2 K9, buy now from Amazon UK
How we test the best vacuum cleaners
With a fleet of press cars always hanging about, complete with the crumbs, mud and spillages of everyday life, there’s neer a shortage of places in need of a good vacuum. With the car ready to be cleaned, we’ll then take whatever vacuum cleaner we have on test and see just how well it copes cleaning car interiors.
From deep carpets and crumb-covered seats to small cubby nooks and muddy boots, we’ll take each vacuum cleaner to these areas to test it thoroughly. We’ll look at performance, attachments, useful features like LED lights, and runtime as our key parameters. We’ll then try the vacuums out around our home to see how versatile they are before scoring them.
The best vacuum cleaners for car care
The best vacuum cleaner
Usually, I find that cordless vacuums lack the raw power to totally clean a car of crumbs, hair and dust. Then you add in the battery anxiety, and I’d much rather grab a trusty corded unit. The Henry Quick has turned that all on its head. That’s down to the powerful 300W motor and 70-minute runtime, two things that help make the Henry Quick a joy to run.
What tips this into the best spot for me is how versatile it is. Car-specific vacuum cleaners are often so focused on low weights and small sizes at the expense of usability. At 3.2kg with the big attachments all in place and a one-litre dustbin capacity, it’s not the smallest or lightest model, but it doesn’t struggle for this. An extra detachable handle makes handheld use a breeze, and the floor attachment works really well in stick and handheld mode.
At this price too, it can genuinely perform as the only vacuum cleaner you need, car and home included. The only area it did struggle was in the deepest and most awkward of nooks. If this had a flexible crevice tool, I would classify it as unstoppable.
Read our full Henry Quick review here.
Pros
- Immensely good suction
- Top-quality construction and attachments
- Very respectable battery life
Cons
- Couldn't quite clean the deepest nooks
- Scent boosters are gimmicky
| Dimensions | 27 x 24 x 122 cm |
| Weight | 3.2kg |
| Power (Watts) | 300 |
| Capacity | One litre |
| Run time | 70 minutes |
Editor's pick
It may not be the last word in technology; you won’t find lasers, integrated apps or other such innovations with a Henry HVR160. What you do get instead is a perfect exercise in utility and durability. It’s hard to break a Henry, even if you try, and that makes it a worthy choice for car care.
With the Henry HVR160, you get a corded cylinder vacuum with a powerful motor and a huge dust bag capacity, and it easily soaked up the worst abuse I could throw at it. There are few vacuum cleaners that feel so well screwed together or capable of sucking up a sock without killing the motor.
I particularly like the class-leading operating radius. The combination of a flexible hose and clever retracting power cord made car and home care so easy. I found the included crevice, dusting and firm brush attachments all earned their keep immediately. For nooks, dusting delicate surfaces and restoring carpet, the Henry never missed a beat.
Obviously, you’ll need to plug it in somewhere, which makes it less recommendable if you live in an apartment. It’s also hefty, but it’s still a top choice. If you’re after the best suction, build quality to rival a bank vault and a smart design for car and home, look no further.
Read our full Henry HVR160 and CarKit review.
Pros
- Dependable and rugged build
- Packed with attachments
- Excellent suction
Cons
- The body will get snagged as you manoeuvre the vacuum
- Make sure you have a power socket nearby
| Dimensions: | 32 x 34 x 34.5 cm |
| Weight: | 7.5kg |
| Power (Watts) | 620 |
| Capacity | Six metres |
| Operating radius: | 25.7 metres |
The best handheld vacuum cleaner
Rrp: $179.00
Rrp: $179.00
In practice, this powered head is an excellent addition, combing carpets and extracting fine hair that would otherwise remain trapped (and extremely visible) in carpets. The 140W motor may not be the most powerful here, but factor this in with the low weight and excellent brush head, and the Gtech never really struggled.
The runtime may not compete with the very best cordless units on this list, but the trade-off is a lower weight and smaller footprint. Besides, the 20-minute run time from a full battery should be more than acceptable for a purely handheld vacuum cleaner. This is designed for car seats and boot carpets as opposed to full rooms.
There’s more car-friendliness on offer too. The LED light is excellent for illuminating up dark areas, and the included attachments will cover all your bases. There’s a crevice tool, dusting brush and extension brush that’ll cover the main cleaning bases.
The optional Car Accessory Kit makes navigating the most annoying areas easier, but it’s a chunky cost to swallow, and you’ll capture 95% of dust without it. The scent booster in the (admittedly small) dust bin is another gimmick I’d probably forget to restock after the cartridges ran out. Still, it’s the best handheld vacuum.
Read our full Gtech Multi MK2 Handheld Vacuum Cleaner review.
Pros
- Perfectly suited to car use
- Great suction from such a small vacuum
- Multiple attachments and an LED light for convenience
Cons
- Heavier than other examples
- Optional extras really aren't worth it
| Dimensions: | 25 x 13.6 x 38.6 cm |
| Weight: | 1.5kg |
| Power (Watts): | 140 |
| Capacity: | 0.4 litres |
| Run time: | 20 minutes |
Best budget wet and dry vacuum cleaner
The best thing about the WD2 is the clever cartridge filter. Most wet and dry vacuums will ship with two that need to be manually swapped in order to suck up solids and liquids, the Karcher uses a clever cartridge that means it’ll quite happily take whatever you stick your nozzle at. This makes it both low-maintenance and really simple to operate.
Don’t expect it to be the last word in refinement, it lacks the ergonomic touches of its more sophisticated relatives. The cable management comes in the shape of the body (it wraps around it), and it’s not the quietest machine we’ve tested. But it’s stable and grounded, easy to empty out and really good value for money.
Stick it in the garage, and you’ll always have a reliable way of cleaning up debris that would render a regular vacuum cleaner dead. On both liquids and solids, the performance was great, thwarted only by a lack of brush attachment for really embedded debris.
Read our full Kärcher Wet & Dry Vacuum Cleaner WD 2 Plus review.
Pros
- No need to swap filters for wet and dry suction
- Simple and durable build
- perfect for bigger clean-up tasks
Cons
- Short power cord
- Lacks a brush attachment as standard
| Dimensions: | 13.7 x 12.9 x 14.8 cm |
| Weight: | 4.25kg |
| Capacity: | 12 litres |
| Power: | 1000W |
| Operating radius: | 4 metres |
The best vacuum cleaner for versatility
This vacuum has the potential to be the best of all words. It’s an excellent regular vacuum because it uses a beefier Henry motor for some seriously powerful suction, and ships with all the usual attachments for dusting and scrubbing carpets. It’s also exceptionally well-made, as all Numatics are.
When in wet mode, it can be used for deep carpet extraction, spot cleaning, mopping and sucking up water. It really does do more than almost any other vacuum cleaner. For covering all bases, I found it to be an undisputed champion.
There are certain drawbacks to this jack-of-all-trade product though, namely the compromised design from jamming so many features into one unit. For your money, you’ll be getting two hoses, a bucketful of attachments and some instructions you’ll probably want to keep a hold of because swapping between the different modes is a faff, to say the least. Then there’s keeping everything stored when it’s not in use, it all easily eats up one of my cupboards.
Read our full George Wet and Dry Vacuum Cleaner review.
Pros
- Very capable fabric cleaner and vacuum
- It'll clean almost any surface well
- Bank-vault construction
Cons
- A complex bit of kit
- It's heavy to carry
| Dimensions: | 35.5 x 51 x 35.5 cm |
| Weight: | 14.68kg |
| Capacity: | 15 litres, nine litres wet, six litres extraction |
| Power (Watts): | 1060 |
| Operating radius: | 26.8 metres |
The best cordless wet and dry vacuum cleaner
In my testing, it was able to easily vac up whatever we pointed the nozzle at, wet or dry. Larger debris was mostly happily sucked up, although the flexible hose did become gummed after a prolonged cleaning job. It’s not the last word in vacuuming refinement either; there’s no brush attachment and the shoulder strap needs some work. But the fact it uses Worx’s excellent battery-sharing platform really places it in a league of its own. It really is hard to find a vacuum that’ll deliver comparable cleaning power without a cord.
Even as a regular cordless vacuum cleaner, it excels at car cleaning. The dust capacity is massive, thanks to all the vacuuming components being held in the top casing, which leaves eight full litres for dust and debris. The hose was also malleable, which, combined with the wide head and crevice tool, proved handy for reaching nooks. Finally, at only 1.7kg, it'll never be a burden.
Pros
- Better cleaning abilities than regular cordless vacuum cleaners
- Easy to carry around, use and store when not in use
- The Worx battery-sharing tech is top-notch
Cons
- Usual wet and dry lack of refinement is present
- Battery anixiery does lurk in your mind
| Dimensions: | 16.5 x 12.2 x 13.8 cm |
| Weight: | 1.7kg |
| Capacity: | Eight litres, three litres wet |
| Power (Watts): | 40 |
| Operating radius: | Cordless |
Best car carpet cleaner
This device works by injecting a carpet-cleaning solution into the fabric to help break down any stains and grime, all before a powerful vacuum dries the fabric in one quick sweep. What I like most about this model is that it’s designed with pets in mind. This means it ships with the Stain Trapper Tool, a tool that hygienically lifts nasty stains and stores them for easy disposal. In practice, that meant it absolutely obliterated stains both in my car and around the home on carpet and fabrics.
Beyond stains, I found the BISSELL to be excellent for restoring lost fabric lustre. The vibrant red upholstery in my Volvo, reduced to a murky brown by years of wear, was totally transformed with a few passes of the BISSELL. The dirt it pulled out was almost black, and it left the seats looking totally new. If you’ve bought a used car or own an older one, investing in one of these will totally transform your car’s inside.
The main criticism we could find was the bulky size. Fitting a 750W motor, total tank capacity (clean and dirty) of 4.4 litres, and five metres of power cord means this isn’t the daintiest of designs. A 5.9kg weight before liquids also means it’s on the heavier side.
Read our full BISSELL SpotClean Pet Pro review.
Pros
- Powerful stain removal capabilities
- Perfect for pet owners and the mess that comes with them
- Really well engineered
Cons
- Bulky for a portable unit
- Heavier than other spot cleaners
| Dimensions: | 25 x 36 x 35.6 cm |
| Weight: 5.8kg | 5.8kg |
| Power (Watts): | 750 |
| Capacity: | 2.6 litres |
| Operating radius: | 6.5 metres |
The powerful stain removal capabilities were evident during my testing; from carpets to car seats, it did manage to lift away the majority of grime. A huge bonus feature is the self-cleaning function, which adds a layer of convenience and hygiene by flushing out the nozzle, preventing blockages and stagnant water pooling between uses.
While the SpotWash excels in its value and portability, drawbacks include its reliance on a power cord, a pain for most car owners. It also didn't feature the attachments to go toe-to-toe with the BISSELL. Overall, the Vax SpotWash Spot Cleaner is still our pick for a budget spot washer. If you don't have pets or children, it'll do a fine job.
Read our full Vax SpotWash review here.
Pros
- Excellent performance on most stains
- Excellent value for money
- Effective self-cleaning function
Cons
- Not the most powerful
- Lacking the attachments of others
| Dimensions: | 35.8 x 38.2 x 24.3 cm |
| Weight: | 3.89 kg |
| Power (Watts): | N/A |
| Capacity: | 1.5 litres |
| Operating radius: | 1.5 metres |
What to consider when choosing a car vacuum cleaner:
Which car vacuum cleaner should you buy?
The household vacuum cleaner under your stairs would do a good job, but do you really want to lug it outside to your car? Upright vacuum cleaners are designed for household carpets, rugs and stairways, not for squeezing through a car door.
That’s where one of our top vacuum cleaners comes in. We’re well acquainted with the chore of vacuuming a car using an upright and don’t want you to suffer the same miserable fate of banged knuckles and weightlifting bulky vacuums onto the back seats of a car.
We’ve found countless vacuums that’ll serve various needs with ease, from heavy-duty wet and dry vacuum cleaners that could quite easily suck up a swamp to tiny handheld vacuums for the lightest of cleaning chores. Don’t forget either that the vast majority of these vacuum cleaners could quite easily be used to clean your car too. Even better, vacuum cleaners regularly get discounted, so keep an eye out for some stellar deals.
The different types of vacuum cleaners
Wet and dry vacuum cleaners – Wet and dry vacuums are designed to be tougher and more robust, meaning you’ll be able to tackle larger jobs with no worry at all. Not to mention, it can be used on spillages safely, too, hence the ‘wet’ in the name. Owning one makes sense if your car gets partially muddy on the inside, as a good wet and dry vacuum cleaner will be more effective on the mud while keeping your regular vacuum cleaner in working order.
Handheld vacuum cleaners – Handheld vacuum cleaners are streamlined models that have done away with all the size and weight of regular vacs, making them lighter and easier to wield. As you’d expect, they’re designed for single-hand use, allowing them to reach some of the deepest, tightest areas of any car for an easier yet superior job. A handheld vacuum cleaner will be really easy to manoeuvre, freeing you up with easier movement to improve efficiency and results.
Spot cleaner – A spot cleaner works like a regular handheld vacuum cleaner but also injects cleaning product into the fabric to shampoo and deep clean the surface. Even the world’s best vacuum cleaner won’t be any good against a tough, embedded stain. For these particularly horrible tasks, one of our favourite spot cleaners will make light work of the task, breaking down the stain. For restoring tired upholstery, the localised suction power is perfect for pulling dirt out of fabrics and restoring lost piles.
What is the best car vacuum cleaner on the market?
Unfortunately, there’s no simple or straightforward answer to that question as it really depends on your circumstances and what you are looking for. Hopefully our selection above has given you an idea of what’s available and how it might suit your needs.
What vacuum do car detailers use?
There are many car vacuum cleaners available, some of which are aimed solely at the motor trade for heavy-duty use. Most professional detailers will opt for the power of a mains-operated wet and dry machine but with enough flexibility to get into awkward or tight spaces. They are also likely to use a dedicated spot cleaner for stain removal and carpet restoration. The pros will also be looking for durability as they are likely to be using their machines multiple times a day, most days of the week. Even the most ardent amateur detailer shouldn’t need that kind of robustness.
Ryan Gilmore is the Deputy Autos and Tool Editor for Parkers and CAR, specialising in car cleaning and hand tools. He also contributes to What’s The Best.
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