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BLACK+DECKER CHV1410L Review

This handheld vacuum from BLACK+DECKER got blown away by the rest of the competition
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Price:   $60 List | $54 at Amazon
Pros:  Convenient tool storage, does alright with larger particles
Cons:  Weak suction, poor battery life
Manufacturer:   BLACK+DECKER
By Austin Palmer, David Wise, and Jenna Ammerman  ⋅  Oct 17, 2019
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43
OVERALL
SCORE

RANKED
#9 of 9
  • Dust & Dirt - 20% 2
  • Tough Messes - 20% 7
  • Hard-to-Reach Areas - 20% 6
  • Battery Life - 15% 2
  • Convenience - 15% 6
  • Pet Hair - 10% 1

Our Verdict

Delivering a disappointingly poor performance in our tests, the BLACK+DECKER CHV1410L earned one of the lowest scores we have seen to date. It failed to pick up most of the dust, dirt, and pet hair in our tests and has a rather lackluster battery life. It did do alright with some of the harder messes and can get into some difficult to clean areas but there are far better vacuums that cost about the same.

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Our Analysis and Test Results

We measured a decent amount of airflow with this vacuum in our anemometer test but this didn't translate to an improvement in cleaning performance. While it looks almost identical to other models, something about the brush bristle seemed to make it much less effective.

Performance Comparison



The CHV1410 does an alright job at cleaning up small messes.
The CHV1410 does an alright job at cleaning up small messes.

Likes


The CHV1410L is quite good at cleaning up more substantial messes, doing well at picking up crushed oats and Little Bite Mini-Wheats. It only left behind trace amounts of oats and got all of the cereal without issue.

Some of the finer dust from the oats eluded the CHV1410.
Some of the finer dust from the oats eluded the CHV1410.

This handheld vacuum does a fairly good job of getting into confined spaces, like a window sill or around a car seat, and has a maximum reach of just over 10" under a nightstand or similar piece of furniture. The brush and crevice tools let you get into lots of places but you aren't necessarily going to be able to actually clean them with the lackluster cleaning performance of the CHV1410L.

The shape of the nozzle makes it a little hard to clean along tight corners.
The shape of the nozzle makes it a little hard to clean along tight corners.

The BLACK+DECKER is about average in weight and isn't fatiguing to carry around in a single hand for most people.


We found its integrated tools to be very convenient and it is very easy to empty the 0.61-liter bin without making too much of a mess.

It's quite easy to empty the bin of the CHV1410 without making a giant mess.
It's quite easy to empty the bin of the CHV1410 without making a giant mess.

It also registered more than 1700 feet per minute (FPM) on the anemometer, which is quite a bit more than the group average of 1300 FPM or so.

The CHV1410 struggled with stuck-on messes.
The CHV1410 struggled with stuck-on messes.

Dislikes


Unfortunately, our list of dislikes for the CHV1410L is fairly expansive. This vacuum didn't get off to a great start in our dusting test, lacking the suction to pick up the statically charged flour and simply sweeping it around instead. It took other products less than 20 seconds to clean up the same mess, while we ended up just giving up with the CHV1410L after a minute with plenty of mess remaining.

You can loosen stuck-on dirt and mud with the brush but this vacuum again fails to suck it up. The CHV1410L also did below average at removing flour from some automotive interior carpet, so there are better options out there if you are searching for a vacuum to keep your car nice and clean. Additionally, you can pretty much give up on the idea of using this to clean up pet hair based on its performance in our pet hair tests, failing to clean both a couch cushion and the same automotive carpet after we covered them in pet hair.

This vacuum severely struggled at cleaning up pet hair.
This vacuum severely struggled at cleaning up pet hair.

The CHV1410L did very poorly in our battery life test, only running for around 10 minutes before dying. Even worse, it takes around four hours to recharge.

We weren't impressed with the runtime with the CHV1410.
We weren't impressed with the runtime with the CHV1410.

On top of all that, this handheld vac is particularly loud, registering 83.5 decibels on our sound meter from an arm's length away.


The CHV1410 is an inexpensive vacuum but we were overall unimpressed with its performance.
The CHV1410 is an inexpensive vacuum but we were overall unimpressed with its performance.

Value


The CHV1410L is an inexpensive product but was outperformed by others in a similar price range, making it hard to recommend.

Conclusion


It is hard for us to find a reason to recommend the BLACK+DECKER CHV1410L, especially when there are so many other products out there that are significantly more capable. It might work well for cleaning up the occasional kitchen mess on a countertop but that's about it.

— Austin Palmer, David Wise, and Jenna Ammerman