REASONS TO BUY
Motorized brushroll
Easy-clean dustbin
Relatively strong battery life
REASONS TO AVOID
Slightly bulky
Struggles in tight areas
Black+Decker Furbuster AdvanceClean+ Review
With powerful suction and the tools to tackle pet hair, this handheld packs a high-performance punch
Credit: Matt Lighthart
By Rachael Lamore ⋅ Senior Review Analyst ⋅ April 8, 2025
Contributions From: Zora Thomas
RELATED: The Best Handheld Vacuum of 2025
Our Verdict
A handheld vacuum that can take on everything from dust to pet hair is a tall order, but the Black+Decker Furbuster delivers. It comes with a motorized brushroller engineered specifically to erase the evidence of your furry friends and a built-in crevice tool that gives easier access to hard-to-reach zones like the spaces between couch cushions or under car seats. Its suction power (excellent by handheld standards), allows it to dispatch pretty serious messes with ease, and its unusually large bin not only accommodates those messes, but can be emptied with the push of a button. And with nearly 17 minutes of battery life, this is one of the longest-lasting handhelds we've tested. To fit all this performance, Black and Decker had to bulk this model up a little, and the Furbuster isn't as petite as some alternatives, but we still feel it's an excellent handheld vacuum, with exceptional all-around performance in all but the tightest spaces.
Our Analysis and Test Results
We run all our handheld vacuums through a series of rigorous, true-to-life tests to determine where each one shines.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
Tough Messes
The Furbuster, for its part, was a standout. On the car upholstery, I eliminated all the oats in less than the 20 allotted seconds, a rare 100% clean. On couch cushions, I decided to try the motorized brush roll and found that, although the action of the brush roll flings some debris ahead of the vacuum, it ended up achieving another near-perfect clean by the end of the allotted time. There were hints of oat dust left in the depressions of the cushion, but I think they could be easily eliminated with another couple of passes.
The Furbuster's motorized brush roll is great for pet hair, but it can fling larger debris ahead of your vacuum path. This vacuum still achieved a good clean on couch cushions.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
With the larger mini-wheats, the Furbuster hit a stumbling block I saw in many of the handhelds I tested: its nozzle is only just wide enough to admit the cereal. If a mini-wheat was sucked up in the wrong orientation, it could block the nozzle, and I'd have to flip it manually before it could be sucked up. While I still achieved a decent clean, I don't think this vacuum could tackle debris much larger than this relatively small cereal, and, depending on your intended uses, that might present a problem. Personally, I feel confident that the Furbuster could take on anything I'd ask of a handheld vacuum.
Hard-to-Reach Areas
The Furbuster's built-in crevice tool can help it get into tight spaces, but it's ultimately limited by a somewhat cumbersome body and a steep nozzle angle.
The built-in crevice tool extends an additional 9 inches, giving you some serious range under the right conditions. In practice, though, the shape of the nozzle means that to achieve a good seal, your angle of approach has to be just right, and this can be tough in tight spaces with a relatively large body. This problem applied to both tests, but because the suction on this vacuum is quite strong for a handheld, I achieved a decent clean under the false ceiling and a near-complete clean on the window slide.
Dusting
I used the Furbuster's fixed nozzle, rather than the motorized brush roller, for the dusting test. I'd initially worried that the lack of bristles on the nozzle's edge might make dusting difficult, but I was pleasantly surprised: this vacuum cleaned up the flour quickly and almost completely. It left a fine film of flour on my testing surface, but that was the case with almost all the handheld vacuums we tested. And in my baseboard and windowsill test, I was even more impressed. This vacuum felt extremely capable, and more powerful than many of the other models I've tried.
The Furbuster left a sheen of flour on my testing surface, but overall, I thought it was a capable duster even though it didn't have any bristles.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
All in all, I thought this vacuum would be a great choice to tackle heavier dust accumulations. But because the nozzle doesn't have bristles to protect surfaces from its hard plastic edges, I probably wouldn't use it to dust anything fragile or aesthetically valuable. Baseboards, door frames, windowsills, beams, countertops… absolutely! But antique wood furniture or first edition books… maybe not.
Battery Life
Without using the motorized brush roller head, I got nearly 17 minutes of run time on the high or “powerboost” setting. It's enough to knock out a quick clean in the car or most of my furniture. The battery recharged in 3.5 hours, meaning I could split a clean into two sessions on the same day if I felt ambitious.
A 3-stage battery gauge is a helpful tool.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
I also loved the three-tiered battery gauge on the back of the vacuum, which lets you know when you're running low so you can plan accordingly. If you're dealing with lighter messes, you could get more run time on the low setting. Conversely, if you need to use the motorized brush roll, your battery life will be shorter. All in all, the Furbuster offers a good ratio of power to weight to battery life.
Convenience
The Furbuster has a larger-than-average dustbin at 0.68 Liters. This is big enough that I really felt I could tackle any mess I would reasonably choose a handheld vacuum for. But the best thing about the dustbin is that it's incredibly easy to clean: you just find a trash can, push a button, and all of your mess falls right out. It's one of my favorite features of this vacuum. Some handhelds require filters to be fished out by hand every time they're emptied, and that makes cleaning feel like even more of a chore. With the button feature, I really don't even consider cleaning the vacuum as an extra task.
This handheld is super easy to clean! Just find a trash can, push the button, and give it a couple of pats if it needs a little encouragement.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
At 2.7 pounds, the Furbuster is one of the heavier handhelds in our testing lineup, but I didn't find that it was heavy enough to create fatigue while I used it. However, if weight is a concern, or if you know you'll be doing a lot of overhead cleaning, it might be worth considering a lighter option, like the Shark Wandvac.
The Furbuster is a little heavy for a handheld at 2.7 pounds, but not heavy enough to feel inconvenient.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
I felt that the motorized brush roll attachment was a huge asset to the Furbuster, massively upgrading its ability to remove pet hair and to agitate debris out of carpet. I also liked the extendable crevice tool, although, as I noted in the compact space section, it can be hard to find the right angle to use it at full extension. Finally, I loved that this vacuum can sit flat and upright on a table. It makes things feel more tidy if I set it down in the middle of a clean, or leave it out to charge.
The Furbuster comes with a motorized brush roll and a built-in crevice tool, both of which upgrade the vacuum's capabilities.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
Pet Hair
The Furbuster, true to its name, absolutely crushed this test. The only handheld vacuum that performed better was the Bissell Pet Hair Eraser, and the difference was more a matter of speed than of quality of cleaning. The Furbuster eliminated all but a couple of the pet hairs within 30 seconds. It was so easy to clean the pet hair that I immediately wanted to take this vacuum home and lend it to my dad, who has a large and furry dog and a backseat to match in his car. There were a couple of pet hairs entangled in the brush roll, but nothing I felt was out of the ordinary, or particularly burdensome to remove.
The Furbuster's motorized brush roll head takes on thick layers of pet hair with ease.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
Should You Buy the Black+Decker Furbuster?
When I started testing the Furbuster, it became apparent pretty quickly that it was a great all-around pick. If you're looking for a handheld that balances power and performance with ease of use, this is the one for you. This is even more true if you're a pet owner. If you know you'll be cleaning truly large messes, but you still want some of the maneuverability of a handheld, take a look at our favorite Cordless Stick Vacuums. But if you want to quickly and easily get rid of most messes with the ease that comes with a handheld vacuum, the Furbuster won't disappoint.
From the kitchen to the car, this vacuum exceeded our expectations of a handheld.
What Other Handheld Vacuums Should You Consider?
The Furbuster is our Editor's choice for a reason: we think it's the best handheld vacuum, all-around. But there are plenty of other options that may be better for your specific needs. If pet hair is your one and only priority, you could save 20 bucks by opting for the Bissell Pet Hair Eraser instead. And if you balk at spending $100 on a handheld vacuum, you could forego the Furbuster and opt for one of Black and Decker's cheaper options. The BLACK+DECKER HHVI315JO42 can handle dusting and light messes at $50.
Side-by-Side Comparison
Compare Black+Decker Furbuster AdvanceClean+ versus top competing products:
—Rachael Lamore and Zora Thomas
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