REASONS TO BUY
Inexpensive
Maneuverable
Solid at picking up pet hair
REASONS TO AVOID
Doesn't clean hard floors or carpet very well
Black+Decker AirSwivel Lite Review
This cheap vacuum isn't terrible, but there are far better options for the same price
The AirSwivel Lite by Black+Decker.
Credit: BLACK+DECKER
By David Wise ⋅ Senior Review Editor ⋅ November 21, 2018
Contributions From: Austin Palmer
RELATED: 10 Best Vacuum Cleaners of 2025
Our Verdict
Finishing at the bottom, the AirSwivel Lite delivered an overall uninspiring performance. This budget vacuum cleaner is one of the least expensive models we tested, but it was outperformed by some other budget models that we vastly preferred to this economical offering from Black+Decker. It is relatively easy to use and highly maneuverable — even surprising us a bit with its exceptional prowess at picking up pet hair, but it delivered disappointing results in our carpet cleaning and hard floor cleaning tests with other types of debris, severely hurting its score. It sells for a good price, but it is hard to justify spending money on a vacuum that doesn't clean carpet all that well.
Our Analysis and Test Results
This model finished in the lower portion of our group. The AirSwivel is decently easy to maneuver, but doesn't clean carpet all that well. While the price point on this vacuum is tempting, there are better budget models to consider.
The AirSwivel Lite is far from our first choice when it comes to cleaning up messes from carpeted floors.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Carpet Cleaning
This vacuum cleaner did alright at cleaning up rice from a flatter carpet, getting most of it with 2 passes and all of it with 3 or 4, but it delivered an abysmal performance on fluffy carpet. It failed to collect hardly any of the rice and crushed so much of it up that it practically made a bigger mess than what we started with.
There was a fair amount of residual rice left over after the AirSwivel made a cleaning pass.
Credit: Austin Palmer
The AirSwivel didn't fare any better with the flour, leaving tons of residual debris behind on both types of carpet, with even more remaining on the low-pile carpet than on the medium-pile carpet.
We thought this vacuum left behind more flour than it picked up on the fluffier carpet.
Credit: Austin Palmer
When tasked with picking up Cheerios, it failed to impress again, being far too low to the carpet to collect any of the cereal and pushing them around instead. Continuing a trend, the AirSwivel also delivered a disappointing performance in our oat collection challenge, leaving tons and tons of fragments behind on both types of soft floor.
The clearance on this vacuum is quite low, meaning it tends to push around larger objects, rather than sucking them up.
Credit: Austin Palmer
Ease of Use
This economical vacuum is fairly convenient and easy to use.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
This vacuum does a great job at cleaning right up to a wall and in the corners of the room, though it can leave a little bit of debris if you go straight at the wall, rather than traveling parallel to it. It performs slightly above average at reaching under furniture, able to reach up to 7.5" under our simulated sofa. However, this vacuum doesn't have a terribly impressive reach with only a 20' cord and doesn't offer any way to adjust its clearance for cleaning different floor types.
This vacuum cleaner doesn't have the most impressive reach under furniture.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Handling
The swivel head on the AirSwivel does make it fairly easy to maneuver.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
While the hose on this vacuum can only reach about six stairs, it is one of the lightest upright models we tested, making it fairly easy to carry up or down stairs. This also means it is fairly easy to push or pull across carpet, but the wheels just don't glide quite as nicely as some of the top products. This vacuum has a swivel head but still isn't the most agile, ranking about average in our test group.
Hard Surface Cleaning
The AirSwivel delivered a bit of a disappointing performance in our hard floor cleaning tests as well.
Credit: Austin Palmer
Starting off with the rice, the AirSwivel did indeed pick up a decent amount — in addition to flinging a fair amount all over the place.
This vacuum caused an explosion of rice on the hard floor.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
It did more or less the same thing with oats, leading us to conclude that we would have been better off with a broom.
There were plenty of oats flung across the room due to this product.
Credit: Austin Palmer
The AirSwivel Lite doesn't have sufficient clearance to pick up Cheerios, perpetually pushing them around instead. However, it did pick up a fair amount of flour, though there was a film left behind after the fact that it failed to pick up.
Pet Hair
This vacuum collected about 89% of the fur, comparing quite favorably to much more expensive vacuums.
This vacuum actually did fairly well at collecting pet hair, delivering an above average performance.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Value
While the Black+Decker AirSwivel Lite is on the less expensive side, it's not the best value, as other products offer much more bang for the buck.
Conclusion
All in all, this lackluster vacuum — while economical — didn't really impress us and there are other models that we liked significantly more.
—David Wise and Austin Palmer
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