Levoit Aero Cordless Vac
Pros
- Did great at picking up cat hair and litter from carpet and hardwood floors with nearly 90% overall pickup
- Docking station charges and self-empties into a large 3.5-liter bag
- Brush roll never tangled during vacuuming
- Includes a good number of attachments and tools
Cons
- Shark Clean & Empty offers similar functionalityor and slightly better performance at a similar price
- 35-minute tested cleaning time is on the short side
I vacuum almost every day because I live in an old prewar apartment with three cats that seem to think shedding is a hobby. I’ve used a Dyson, Shark and even a cordless vacuum from Ryobi, a power tool company. All three of them have the same problem — they have a bagless dustbin so when it comes time to empty it into the trash, the dust simply gets everywhere, no matter what you do.
I’ve been testing Levoit’s new Aero cordless vacuum for over six months and it solves this problem by including an all-in-one self-emptying dock with a bagged dustbin inside. At $500, it’s about the same price as many of our top picks, including the Shark Stratos ($500) and rival Shark Clean & Empty ($400) which also has a self-empty dock and quite a bit more affordable than the Dyson V15 Detect ($750). After using it, I don’t think I can ever go back to emptying my own dustbin.
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The Levoit Aero cleaned my floors like a champ, tackling hardwood, vinyl, low-pile carpet and tile without issue.
Ajay Kumar/CNETDesign and usability are great
The Levoit Aero resembles the Levoit LVAC-300 and LVAC-200 in more than a passing way. It’s made of white plastic and has a lightweight body that weighs just 4.3 pounds for the cordless stick vacuum. It was lightweight and easy to maneuver for 30-minute or longer cleaning sessions. I didn’t have any problem getting it around furniture, boxes, angry cats and other obstacles.
The primary cleaner head comes with LED headlights that help illuminate dust, debris and especially the small granules of cat litter that often can be found scattered around my apartment. Aside from the main base station section, you get a couple of cleaning attachments, including a crevice tool, upholstery cleaner and a tube extension to access hard-to-reach areas. The main brush head and crevice tool were usually my mainstays and adequately covered most of my cleaning needs.
The Aero did a great job of sucking up cat litter near the litter box.
Ajay Kumar/CNETThe all-in-one base station allows for clean and (mostly) hands-free maintenance
The real selling point here is the all-in-one base station. I set it up in a corner of my living room and kept the Aero docked and fully charged when it wasn’t in use. It doesn’t look too bad if you’re not worried about aesthetics and the white plastic blended in quite well with my decor and color scheme. The base station comes with a 3.5-liter dust bag installed and includes an extra one in the box if you fill it up. It took me about 2 months to get the first dust bag filled up but I expect that if you have fewer pets, yours can last even longer.
It’s hard to overstate what a big quality of life improvement a vacuum with a self-emptying dustbin is. Normally, when you finish a vacuum session, you need to haul the thing over to your trash can and empty the dustbin into your trash, hoping that all the dust goes where it should and doesn’t accidentally get all over your floor. Most of the time, dust isn’t so accommodating and it’ll float around, get on your freshly cleaned floor and get breathed in, defeating the purpose of the HEPA filters that many vacuum cleaners come with.
The Aero base station charges the vacuum and self-empties it into a 3.5 liter dust bag.
Ajay Kumar/CNET
Not so with the Aero. After a cleaning session, I simply returned the vacuum to the dock, hit the self-empty button found on the top of the handle and walked away while the base station sucked out all the dust and debris, safely depositing everything into the dust bag inside. Occasionally, I did have a problem where a few stubborn bits of cat hair kept clinging to the crevices in the dustbin, requiring me to reach in with a brush or my fingers to clean it out, but this is a common issue with cordless vacuums. To date, the only manufacturer I’ve seen with an effective solution for this problem is Dyson, with its new V16 Piston Animal, which adds a lever to compress and remove dust.
To be clear, the self-emptying on the Aero isn’t automatic, meaning it doesn’t trigger every time you dock the vacuum, which is the case with some cordless vacuums I’ve tested, like the Samsung Bespoke Jet. I don’t consider this much of a downside, though, as the only effort on your part is a single button click and you can use your own best judgment to decide when the dustbin is full enough.
Powerful cleaning performance and great for pets
As far as vacuuming performance goes, the Aero is a top performer. I made it my primary vacuum for my 1,300-square-foot apartment that has a mix of hardwood floors, vinyl plank, low-pile carpet and tile scattered across the living space. Anecdotally, pickup was impressive across all the surfaces I tested it on. The main brush was able to suction up the vast majority of dirt, cat litter, cat hair and other debris that could be found on my floors. I was usually able to get most messes cleaned up with a few back-and-forth swipes across my floor.
As I’ve mentioned, I also have three cats, so I also got to evaluate its ability to pick up pet hair. Impressively, it tackled it without ever tangling, which speaks well to the anti-tangle brushroll that Levoit has incorporated into the vacuum.
In our objective lab testing, the Aero was able to pick up 95.4% of sand from hardwood floors, 86.76% of sand from low-pile carpet, and 84.47% of sand from mid-pile carpet, giving it an 88.87% sand pickup overall. These are impressive results, though not necessarily the best we’ve tested. The scores put the Aero behind our best overall, the Eureka ReactiSense 440 (97.53% hardwood, 98.53% low-pile, 92.16% mid-pile) and the Shark Stratos (97.2% hardwood, 94% low-pile, 94.4% mid-pile).
However, it comes close to matching the Shark Clean & Empty (96% hardwood, 90% low-pile, 88% mid-pile) and is in near dead heat with Levoit’s own LVAC-300 (96.15% hardwood, 89.06% low-pile, 84.38% mid-pile). Combine the strong performance with the docking station, and the Aero is a top contender.
The Aero has three suction modes and it clocked around 35 minutes of battery life during our lab testing.
Ajay Kumar/CNETThere are three suction modes, with medium and the max settings being the ones I used the most. The max setting is best for carpet and it was able to successfully pull out deeply embedded pet hair from the fibers. Battery life varied a bit. On average, I’d say that I get about 30 to 40 minutes of battery life depending on my use. This was verified by our Louisville lab, which tested battery life to 35 minutes using a test where they run the vacuum on medium suction until it’s drained. This test is performed three times and then we take the average. That’s significantly less than the 70 minutes Levoit claims the Aero should get, but I expect that’ll vary based on your use.
On the plus side, the battery is removable and you’ll always find the vacuum charged when it’s docked, so most of the time, the shorter battery life wasn’t a big deal for me.
Specs:
- Price: $499
- 5-layer HEPA filter
- Suction power: 180 air watts
- All-in-one base station: Yes
- Self-emptying: Yes
- Noise level: 77 decibels
- Weight: 4.3 pounds
- Dustbin size: 0.45 liters
- Dust bag capacity: 3.5 liters
- Dimensions: 12.4 inches length x 12.4 inches width x. 45.4 inches in height
- Other: Tangle-free brushroll with headlights, crevice cleaner, upholstery brushroll, extension tube
Lab testing scores
- 95.4% sand pickup from hardwood floors
- 86.76% sand pickup from low-pile carpet
- 84.47% sand pickup from mid-pile carpet
- 88.87% sand pickup overall
- Claimed running time: 70 minutes
- Tested running time: 35 minutes
The Levoit Aero docks and self-empties when you hit a button on top of the handle.
LevoitBuying advice: Strong performance and a self-emptying base station, but tough competition
The Levoit Aero is a cordless vacuum with strong overall performance. Its main feature is the useful all-in-one base station that self-empties and allows you to do mostly hands-free maintenance. At $500 at launch, the Aero is priced competitively compared to the Shark Clean & Empty and Tineco GoStation Smart, which both feature a similar base station.
In terms of performance, the Shark Clean & Empty has a higher overall score, especially when you look at carpet pickup and it features a brushroll with automatic adjustment, which you don’t get with the Levoit Aero. For even stronger performance at a lower price, we like the Eureka ReactiSense 440, which is our current best overall and will only cost you $180 at full price. If battery life is important to you, we like the Shark Stratos because it has minimal compromise. You get top-tier suction performance, an 80-minute battery life, and a price that’s usually in the $400 range, but it won’t come with a base station.
All that said, the combination of good performance and useful features puts the Levoit Aero in the top tier of cordless vacuums I’ve tested, and it won’t disappoint if you pick it up, especially if you have pets that shed.
