Makita XLC02ZB 18V LXT Lithium-Ion Cordless Vacuum, Tool Only

A great little utility vacuum for home, car, office, etc. It tackles the dirt of two teens, two toddlers, a cat, and two busy parents. It charges quick, and is quick to deploy thanks to its mount. The wide angle head is large enough to make this vacuum usable for large carpets, the narrow head gets into tight spots well, and the scrub brush head will pry up stubborn dust. I also like that you can take out the neck tubing to use it (with or without attachments) for small/tight areas. I even use it to suck up fruit flies before releasing them outside. We were struggling to find a vacuum that we liked, and I decided to purchase the Makita because it looked very functional. It ended up being our favorite vacuum cleaner yet, and helps us keep our kitchen and living room clean. It also makes short work of vacuuming a car. The battery charges in 20 minutes, and lasts a good amount of time between charges. We havent noticed issues with cracking, and were pretty rough on things. You do have to clean it from time to time.

Below is my review written a month or two after I bought this two years ago. I still give it four stars even though in the last month it has failed to pick anything up. When I took it apart I realized what happened. My painters had helped themselves to this vacuum and used it to pick up sanding and sheetrock dust and other debris. What you see in the photo if you enlarge it is a ton of sawdust and a bunch of pet hair. I used a real shop vac to get rid of all of the dust and hair and put it together so that it works again but I’m waiting for the cyclonic attachment for this to come on Monday to see if that helps with the filtration problem. I see in the manual that there’s a high-performance filter available for this but it did not come with mine so I’ve been using the “normal pre-filter“ and it obviously doesn’t keep out pet hair. So my advice is to either get the high-performance filter to use over the pre-filter or buy the cyclonic attachment (and you can see the reviews for it on Amazon. I will update with a description of that once I see how it works). Otherwise, this has been a real jam for me and I haven’t had any problem with cracking or battery charging or anything else. I just think Makita could’ve done a better job with filtration. you shouldn’t have to buy a separate attachment for $35 to keep dust out of the inside of a vacuum! Early 2019: I just got this, so cant review longevity. So far here are my pros and cons: PRO: Suction is fantastic! No kickback of granular things like cat litter AT ALL! TIP: Leave the head on the pile youve sucked up for a fraction of a second to give it time to get all of it into the hose. Otherwise some will be left on the floor. PRO: Battery life is great! I charged it maybe 30 mins out of the box and it cleaned my entire kitchen, family room and spots in bedroom bathroom. Still more charge left. CON: The icons on the charger are inscrutable! I still cant figure it all out but when the middle light on the bottom turns green you are good to go. PRO: the head fits in every small areas. It swivels and can run very flat. CON: The head is very small so you have a lot of moving it around compared to something like the Shark Navigator. It is more like a dust buster with a handle. PRO: Because it is more like a dust buster, you dont really vacuum the same way: you just move the vacuum over the whatever and it picks up. No continuous back and forth. PRO: Works great as a hand vac in the car and on the stairs! Does a better job than the carwash does at cleaning out salt and crumbs in the grooves on the seats! PRO: I love the on-board edge cleaner! CON: There is no way to lock the switch ON so you have to constantly hold it down. This is a ridiculous omission considering the Makita drills which do have this feature. My trigger finger would get very tired so it was on/off on/off. Such a simple thing to fix! CON: The handle where you have to grab and trigger the switch is too short by about an inch. I am 54 and have very long arms (used to be 56) so I cant imagine someone taller being able to use this without bending over. CON: I dont see how you can wall mount the charger and there are no instructions for it. You have to remove the battery from the vac and put it in the charger (tough on my arthritic hands) and leave it setting somewhere until the sound goes off. Shark Navigator has a stand that you set the vac on, it charges and you just leave it there until you need it. I find this lack of abilities in the Makita really problematic. CON: The vac doesnt stand up by itself (but neither does the Shark Navigator). SUMMARY: despite the negatives, the positives are worth it: much better suction. Cleaning the dirt cup is easy...you just rotate it a quarter turn to remove it but you do have to use your fingers to peel off pet hair, if any, and occasionally rinse it out (like the Navigator).

Do you own dogs or husband and kids bringing in dirt and grass clippings. This is the vac you need. Great to do a quick brag of dirt grass and tumble weed/dust bunnies of dog hair under chairs under end tables corners in every room where they migrate and try and hide but not from my marital This little bit of a thing is easy to grab sucks up a lot of dirt on hardwood linoleum and area rugs. I have one at home one at the vacation house and thinking of buying a third one for the upstairs bathroom for human hair and lint. Love this. My two Aussies shed constantly. This beats swiffer dusters, a broom or any other vacuum I’ve used and I’ve tried several on the market. Buy this thing easy to use empty and charge. LOVE it. Still not convinced. My husband grabs it and uses it too! It’s quick to charge also so it’s always ready to use.

Not actually light to carry, but effective and no annoying cord. Get the plastic barrel attachment. I find it strangely fascinating to watch the interior dust bunny grow, and it prompts you to keep it free of buildup.

I have a German Shepherd whose sole purpose in life is to generate loose fur. This thing helps keep her fur-drifts down between dragging out the Shark for deep cleaning sessions. The 2ah batter that comes with it is adequate, but I swapped it into my tool bag and put one of my spare 5ah batteries on this unit. The run time is greatly improved, and it seems to run at a little higher RPM with the bigger pack. Do yourself a favor and order a spare set of the cloth filters. Its a pain to clean the one that comes with it when youre in a hurry. I put the dirty ones in a zip-up lingerie bag and run them through the wash with my towels

OMG I used this vacuum for the first time at my boyfriends house and when I got home I am mediately ordered one for myself. It is the best vacuum I had ever owned and I have owned Dyson and Bissels, but this one is the best. It gets into my corners without me having to bend over it has different attachments as well. So glad I found the Makita cordless vac.

Very light and powerful East to use

Sweet little vacuum. And at ~$75.00 for the tool only, at $99.00 for the kit, makes it a great deal including the charger and battery for $25.00. Great suck value for a portable vacuum. Has enough power to gobble nuts and bolts, screws, metal items, and of course anything else. I bought one for the garage and another one for inside the house. I have a smaller super horse power shop vacuum and another larger super shop vacuum but this fills in where you need less suck and no cord. Edit Dec 2019: Soon after I bought this (purchased 2), one had a crack about 1/2 on the canister. For a cheap and easy fix, and just to be cautious I spent a few bucks on a JB Weld Plastic Stick. Wrapped a bead around it to prevent it cracking further and boom no more crack/cracking. I didnt need to, it still worked fine, but figured why not. Other vacuum is doing fine. Would buy these again. For $100 bucks, with a charger, its a steal. I know they have the brushless replacements for this; however, its twice the price for just the vacuum sans battery & charger. If the canister does break you can buy new ones for around $10 bucks. Also bought the cyclone attachment for one of them. Kinda spendy, but man makes emptying it a breeze.

First off, you should NOT buy this vacuum if: You don’t own any other Makita power tools. You expect this to be your main vacuum. You need this to clean thick carpet. Also I HIGHLY recommend getting the “199553-5 Cyclonic Vacuum Attachment” with it, so much so that IMO it should come with it and be part of the kit. I paid ~$120 (on sale) for the quick charger, 2 AH battery, and vacuum and at most would pay $150 for that kit. At ~$120, I do think it’s a great deal as the battery and quick charger alone are easily worth ~$90, so getting the vacuum for ~$30 is great. However, this is also why I say you need to have other Makita power tools, because if you have no use for the charger or battery outside of this vacuum it’s a terrible deal. I use this vacuum to clean my car and garage, and for these tasks it’s fantastic. It’s super light and with the added filter is the perfect length for me to clean the floor (I’m 6’3”) and I use it all the time to clean up random stuff like metal chippings from drilling to dirt tracked in from outside. It can clean short carpet (stuff like entry mats) very well. However, it does not clean thick carpet well as the suction isn’t super strong (at least compared to my Shark vacuum). As I mentioned earlier, I think you essentially HAVE to buy the extra filter as it allows you to use the vacuum without needing to change the main filter and it also seems to improve the suction of the vacuum as well. The added filter essentially acts as the “bag” of the vacuum and makes it much easier to dump out the collected dirt and “protects” the main filter significantly. So much so that I still haven’t had to replace it despite using it frequently and owning it for almost a year. Again I do NOT suggest this as your main/only vacuum as it’s just not up to that task, but as a second/portable vacuum this is a GREAT vacuum.

Previous reviewers that did not love this thing (excepting any who received a damaged product) must have had incredibly positive experiences with vacuums in their past. How can you not love it? A few years ago, I moved into a home with a central vac system. The adorable former owner left me a note calling the vacuum head and tubing my new best friend. Well... it was (and is) a close relationship, to be sure, but one fraught with problems. Honestly, I never want to vacuum unless I have a full hour to lug that thing around, find an outlet, constantly move outlets, and lug it back to the storage closet. Therefore, I went from happily vacuuming once a week to ... oh, once monthly, whether it needs it or not. See my difficulty here? The situation was not good. So I knew I needed something for light jobs, quick pick-ups, and the stairwells on the periphery of the central vacs range. This unit is inexpensive and well-rated, comparatively. It arrived promptly as Prime items do, and I assembled it without even taking the instruction manual out of the box. It worked immediately after assembly and I spent about 10 minutes testing it out before the partially-charged battery (like cell phones this comes with a battery that needs to be fully charged) started to dwindle. Setting off to plug in the charger, I glanced down at my unit expecting to find a little bit of fluff in the chamber but it was FULL of lint. (I know what youre thinking... DUH lady- if you only vacuum once a month! but I really did not think I had gotten so much dirt in that time- verifying the suction DOES WORK in this puppy.) Im a traditionalist, and I do appreciate loyalty, but my central vac comes out for traditional housekeeping only. This unit is my new main sweetheart. And did I mention what a delight it is to have it in the car? How I have lived so long without this gem I can only wonder. While you can buy a better stick vacuum, you cant for this price.