Black & Decker's stick vac can't rise above the pack

Hi, I'm Andrew Gebhardt for cnet. Today I'm taking a look at the Black & Decker 36 volt lithium stick vac with oral technology. It's all right. All right, I suppose a few more details. Would be pertinent. This is a mediocre stick vacuum. There's not a whole lot that's terrible about it, there's not a whole lot that's great about it. It's a little bit overpriced at $300, not disastrously so but $300 is a lot to pay for something that's mediocre. So in terms of optimized run time, the battery life here runs about 20 minutes. Again, that's fine, not bad, not great. It does keep suction well from beginning to end, but with good cordless vacs that's becoming more and more common. Black and Decker does have a handy little display here of LEDs showing you how much battery you have, and, you know, dipping as you get closer to empty so you know when it's time to recharge. But recharging from empty takes a long four hours. Out of the box, it's easy to assemble. Again, it stands on its own, and yet, it's light and maneuverable. I kinda thought it'd be a nice combination of being sturdy like an upright, while still having that ease of maneuverability of a stick. But it certainly does not have the power of an upright. You'll definitely wanna look elsewhere for deep cleaning your carpets. [MUSIC] It does well with large particles. And because it's light, it'll do fine for spot cleaning. But it gets pet hair completely tangled. Meaning, the links and the motor head actually cream this, in terms of performance, keeping it in the middle of the pack, in terms of stick vacuums. Let alone, upright performance. So, I can't recommend the Black and Decker 36-volt, lithium ion stick vac with ORA technology over the $180 Hoover LiNX, but the machine isn't a disaster. It's. [MUSIC] It's all right. For more check out my full review on cnet.com and all of our other appliance reviews, I'm Andrew Gebhardt, see ya'!