Welcome to our LG CordZero review! We tested the LG CordZero All-in-One auto-empty model, but most CordZero vacuums are very similar, so this review applies to most other Cord Zero vacuums on the market as well.
LG CordZero’s Airflow and Suction
Starting with our power tests, the CordZero’s airflow was measured at 40 CFM; its suction was measured at 80 in of water lift. These are both fairly average results for a cordless vacuum.
LG CordZero tests
Flour clog test
The CordZero is also able to maintain the suction it does have very well because its pre-motor filter doesn’t clog easily with fine debris like Dyson’s. The LG CordZero uses multiple cyclones to filter out fine debris and drop it back down into its bin before it can reach and clog up its pre-motor filter. This is well demonstrated in our flour clog test. Only a small amount of flour passes through the LG cyclones and deposits on its pre-motor filter.
Compare this result to that of a Cess vacuum that doesn’t use multiple cyclones to filter out fine debris. The vacuum on the right will lose suction much quicker and require much more filter maintenance over time than the multicyclonic LG CordZero.
Carpet cleaning
In our carpet stress test, the CordZero performed very well. It picked up small and most large debris without issue.
Hard floor cleaning
In our hard floor stress test, the Cord Zero again picked up fine debris without issue, but it struggled picking up larger debris. Here you can clearly see how large debris gets stuck to the front of the cleaner head on the forward pass and stays stuck to the front of the cleaner head as it’s pulled backward.
Certain older LG vacuums came with, or at least were compatible with, a soft roller cleaner head which gave them excellent performance on hard floors. All of the latest LG CordZero vacuums don’t come with a soft roller, and we couldn’t find one to buy separately for them either.
Read more: The Best Cordless Vacuum List
Carpet deep cleaning
Moving on to deep clean performance, LG CordZero picked up 73% of debris in our carpet deep clean test after being pushed back and forth three times over an area of carpet embedded with fine debris. This is an above average result for this test. It’s only 7% less pickup than that of the best performers in this test.
Crevice test
The CordZero also performed well in our hard floor crevice test. It was able to pull most of the flour out of the crevice very quickly.
Review: Dyson Gen5detect
Battery life
This vacuum also offers very good battery life relative to its performance. It was tested to run for up to 33 and 1/2 minutes on medium suction, and on medium suction, it still picks up debris very well. For example, it picked up 63% of debris in our carpet deep clean test on medium versus 73% of debris on high.
The CordZero also features a swappable battery, and the model we bought for review also comes with an extra battery. This effectively doubles battery life for this vacuum.
Fog test
The CordZero surprisingly failed our debris containment test. It’s not easy to see, but in this close-up view, you can see fog seeping out of the top of the main body of the vacuum. This is a definite negative for the Cord Zero.
Hair tangling
In our long hair pickup tests, the CordZero’s brush roll didn’t tangle at all with 8-inch long hair, but it tangled with 75% of 14-inch long hair. Its 8-inch result is better than average; its 14-inch result is substantially worse than average.
Weight and control
Moving on to ease of use, the LG CordZero has a very average weight for a cordless vacuum. It’s not extremely light, but it’s light enough, and it’s certainly not heavy. It handles well, and it’s very comfortable to hold when used as a handheld vacuum as well. The Cord Zero has three buttons: a power button and plus and minus buttons to increase or decrease suction.
The power button works well enough; it keeps the vacuum powered on after a single button press. You don’t have to keep a trigger pull to keep the vacuum powered on like you do with older Dyson vacuums. A negative here is that you have to long press the plus button for maximum suction. For most applications, the vacuum’s medium suction setting is sufficient, but sometimes you’ll want some extra suction, and when you do, you’ll have to wait a few seconds holding down the CordZero’s plus button to make it happen.
Dust bin size: Another negative is the vacuum’s bin size. Its dust bin has a maximum measured capacity of only 300 mL.
Compressor: The model we tested did have a compressor mechanism, but this mechanism is only really useful to compress fluffy lightweight debris. Hard debris fills up the bin very quickly.
All in One
This negative is offset a bit by the auto-emptying functionality. The particular model we tested for this review is the LG CordZero All-in-One, which comes with an auto-empty station. You simply place the vacuum on the station to automatically empty it into a dust bag, which does dramatically increase the ease of using the vacuum. You will still need to empty the vacuum’s bin frequently because it’s so small, but you can empty it very easily with the auto-empty station.
Pros and cons
Summarizing all of the pros and cons for this vacuum, we do really like that the LG CordZero features a multicyclonic design. This design feature keeps its pre-motor filter relatively clean over time, which helps it better sustain suction over time.
Another positive is the vacuum’s performance on carpet. It picks up small and large surface level debris very well on carpet, and it deep cleans carpet relatively well for a cordless vacuum. The Cord Zero also has excellent battery life on medium suction, and it still picks up very well on medium suction. We also really like the auto-emptying feature of the model we bought for review. It makes emptying, charging, and storing the vacuum very easy to do.
On the negative side of things, we really don’t like that this vacuum doesn’t properly seal in fine debris. It also tangles very easily with especially long hair, and it has trouble picking up large debris on hard surfaces. We also don’t like that you have to hold the plus button down for several seconds to set the vacuum to maximum suction or the vacuum’s small dust bin.
Our recommendations
Moving on to general recommendations, the LG CordZero would be strong competition for top-tier Dyson and Samsung cordless vacuums if not for its performance in our debris containment test. Much of the debris this vacuum picks up it exhausts into the air. This debris then falls back down onto the surface where you vacuumed it up to begin with, and we just can’t in good faith recommend a vacuum that does this, even if it performs well in several other important categories.
