I’d be lying if I told you that I knew I would be reviewing a handheld vacuum for a technology website. Let alone a vacuum meant for cars. Then 2020 happened and here I am putting words together to share with AndroidGuys my review of the Baseus 70W car vacuum.
Having grown up in the late 70’s and early 80’s, my parents owned the OG cordless car vacuum cleaner, the Black & Decker DustBuster. While over 100,000,000 DustBusters have been sold since they arrived in 1979, the original design left much to be desired in terms of suction power and battery life. Fast forward 40+ years, can the Baseus 70W car vacuum out-suck the portable vacuum I remember as a kid?
Unboxing and Design
The Baseus vacuum came well packaged in typical cardboard packaging. Open the outer box and you are greeted with see-through plastic packing material allowing you to view the vacuum cylinder in all its glory.
Beside the vacuum, a secondary box contains accessories and reading material. Accessories include: storage bag, USB-C charging cable, blower hose, and 2-in-1 suction nozzle. The 2-in-1 attachment includes a crevice tool and brush. The brush can be slid forward or backwards to reveal the crevice tool.
The reading material consists of warranty, instructions and “More Benefits” folding card. “More Benefits” details contact information for support as well as a list of Basues’ social media presence. I’m guessing that this is added regionally since it is written exclusively in English while the other documents are presented in English and Chinese. The instruction manual was very difficult to read for my aging eyes, so luckily; I was able to find an electronic copy (PDF).
The Baseus vacuum takes a cylindrical shape. It’s designed like a slim travel mug or a slightly stocky MagLite. It’s made entirely of plastic but feels hefty and well made in hand. There is a single on/off switch located just off center. Turning the vacuum on activates a single LED light. On the opposite side of the switch is the USB-C charging port. The LED light blinks while charging and lights solid when it is fully charged.
Performance
Turning on the Baseus A2 70W Car Vacuum, I immediately notice something I haven’t heard in a very long time; a motor spinning up over a few seconds. The sound reminds me of electric ducted fan (EDF) model airplanes of years ago.
Although I didn’t tear down the vacuum to confirm, I’m guessing the motor is brushed versus brushless based on the spin-up. This shouldn’t be a dealbreaker but note that it takes a few seconds for the vacuum to maximize its sucking power.
According to Baseus’ Amazon store, the vacuum boasts a 6,000mAh battery with 18+ minutes of usage. Depending on the state of your vehicle’s interior, I’m guessing that the dust cup volume is more likely to be the limiting factor versus battery life.
Click here to watch videos of the Baseus A2 Car Vacuum in action.
But does it suck? The Baseus 70W car vacuum is advertised at 5,000 Pa (pascal) of suction power. Since I’m not familiar with suction measurements, I spent a fair amount of time trying to determine how this vacuum compares to something I’m at least qualitatively familiar with.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any information on Dyson or Shop Vac brand vacuums and their respective suction ratings in pascals. I was able to find that the Dyson offers 270 air watts of suction power but without a conversion to pascal readily available, I wasn’t able to quantify differences.
In my research, I found that a decent vacuum should at least be able to hold its nozzle on a wall when turned on. To be fair, this was referencing canister or upright vacuums that you would typically use to clean your whole house. In my unscientific experiment, the Baseus was not able to hold itself to the bottom of my hand when the dust cup is in place.
Baseus A2 Car Vacuum Cleaner
Remove the dust cup and it is able to suspend itself. I removed the filter from the dust cup and placed that over the motor and Baseus could still suspend itself, but barely.
I couldn’t find comparisons for suction power but Baseus vacuum advertises itself as both a sucker and a blower. So how well does it blow? I was able to convert 5,000 Pa to about .73 PSI, a measurement I’m at least sort of familiar with. After attaching the blowing hose to the Baseus, I attempted to blow dust from my computer keyboard and monitors. Some of the loose dust was displaced but this doesn’t compare to the canned air I use around my office which dispenses at around 100 PSI.
Conclusion
I don’t necessarily see myself carrying the Baseus 70W car vacuum in my cup holder as they suggest. More likely, I will keep it in my office where I can occasionally sweep the crumbs out of my keyboards as I tend to eat lunch and multitask on a daily basis. Gross, but it happens pretty frequently.
For me, it comes down to convenience. For $45 it’s not necessarily a significant investment. I could never see myself trying to vacuum my car’s interior as part of routine cleaning but for the occasional spill, this thing would be super handy to have around.
Compared to the Black & Decker DustBuster of my youth, the Baseus 70W vacuum would leave it in its dust (pun intended) in terms of suction power, runtime and the ability to hold dirt. The only area I think the DustBuster might have performed better is in terms of vacuum opening. With only approximately 1.5 x .75” opening, even popped popcorn isn’t going to be able to be vacuumed up in the Baseus.
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