Makita XCV17Z 18V X2 LXT® Lithium-Ion (36V) Brushless Cordless 1.6 Gallon HEPA Filter Backpack Dry Vacuum, Tool Only

I ordered this backpack vacuum after doing a lot of research. My house is almost all bare floors besides industrial style carpet on the stairs going to the basement. I wanted a vacuum that was cordless and considered getting a Dyson V10 or V11. Dyson claims to have twice the suction of any cordless vacuum but I read online that in the airflow tests. The V11 has 49 cfm at the nozzle and 59 cfm at the wand. The V10 had 39 cfm at the head and 41 cfm at the wand. The Makita XCV17 is rated at 78 cfm and 44 inches of water lift. The Dysons beat out the Makita in terms of suction but they move less air. The V11 has an impressive 111 inches of water lift.Ultimately I wanted a machine that could clean the entire house without having to recharge. On high the Makita is supposed to last 40 minutes with 6.0amp hour batteries and 139 minutes on low. The Dyson vacuums really fall short here. The V11 only lasts 8 pitiful minutes on high with the motorized brush. They claim to last an hour on low but that is without using a motorized head.The other problem with the Dyson vacuums is that it is poorly weighted. All the weight of the vacuum is up high many users report fatigue and the fact that you need to hold the trigger for it to work is reported to lead to finger cramping. In my search for the perfect cordless vacuum I came across the Miele Triflex.There is no information about the Miele in terms of cfm or water lift, but I tried one out in a store and was genuinely impressed with its performance at picking up crushed Rice Crispies from low pile carpet. I like how it can be configured to have the weight down low and be able to stand on its own. The battery life was also better with the Miele. On high it would last 17 minutes with the powered head and 34 minutes on low with the powered head. It could last an hour but that would would be without the electric brushed head.I didn’t think that I would want to chance running out of power and having to stop and recharge a vacuum half way through cleaning my house. The charge time for the Dyson is an inexcusable 4.5 hours. Unless you buy the higher end model ie: V11 Torque Drive or V11 Outsize the battery is built in. After some heavy digging I found that the Triflex takes a disappointing 4 hours to charge. The Makita takes only an hour to charge two 6ah batteries simultaneously and I also have four 5ah batteries in my possession.The Dyson V11 Animal which costs the same as the bare tool Makita has built in batteries, they can’t be swapped like the Miele or higher end V11 models. The Miele also positions the batteries at the bottom of the unit unlike the Dyson that has the battery in the handle and has a higher center of gravity. The top of the line Triflex for $800 includes an extra battery.I am forgetting to factor in the price with the Makita I bought the bare tool for $600 because I already have plenty of batteries and 2 dual chargers. The set with 2 6ah batteries and chargers is a lot of money. It lists on Amazon for $919. So if I didn’t have existing Makita batteries the Miele would be my top choice. The Miele batteries cost $140 each. Makita batteries vary in price but you need to buy a pair of 2 to operate this vacuum which can be a lot of money. 6ah go for about $120 each but I saw a deal around black Friday that you can get a set of two for $179. It is worth noting that Makita batteries work in over 270 different tools. Miele and Dyson only work in their vacuums.The Makita is fairly large in appearance but has a fairly small foot print. I was able to put it in a crowded closet on the floor without much effort. The Dyson and Miele vacuums have some advantage here. They can be mounted to a wall and don’t have a hose and floor nozzle to store next to them. So anyway that was my decision making process, but you may be asking how well the XVC17 performs? I could find tons of reviews for the Dysons and Mieles but little to nothing on this unit.The review:I received my Makita in a large box with minimal brown paper packing inside. It was sent UPS so I received it mid day so that was nice, I was really excited to use it! Upon opening the vacuum I noticed that there was a different crevasse tool than advertised on the Makita website and it only came with one vacuum bag (preinstalled). It is supposed to ship with pack of ten paper bags that sell for about $30. After I vacuumed the entire house I contacted Makita and they sent me out a pack of 10 bags free of charge.After the disappointment of finding out my vacuum was missing extra bags I verified that it was indeed equipped with one. The capacity of the bag is approximately 1.5 gallons so I thought I should be set for a while until my I get my 10 pack in the mail. The older model backpack vacuum (XCV10) has a capacity of only about a half gallon. Which I discovered through my testing is much too small for me. After two vacuuming cycles through the house I had filled a bag about 3/4 full. I definitely wanted a larger bag in case I decide to use this as a dust collector for my tools. The smaller model also has a lower cfm rating listed as 64 or 70 cfm. In my research I read a review for the XCV10 that as the bag fills up the suction performance goes down so having a bigger bag has another advantage.I popped in 2 fully charged 6ah batteries and put on the vacuum. It was a little awkward to put on the first time. The left strap was stuck at my mid back and I had to dig a little to find it. With a little practice it is not hard to put on. The harness is very comfortable. It didn’t feel like I was wearing a 15lb vacuum. The chest and waist straps are easy to adjust and help keep the unit secure and comfortable on your back. I quickly got used to wearing it and even forgot I had it on a few times. I don’t have a great back and the extra weight was nice for added pressure when bending down to pick up trash while cleaning.The vacuum has 3 power settings. I mostly used it on high. I did hear it pick up dust and dirt when on the lower two settings. I was able to suck up saltine cracker wrappers without it clogging. Cellophane wrappers were no problem. I got a string cheese wrapper stuck in it since it was flayed out completely but it was easy to remove. I got a small crumpled piece of paper stuck and needed a needle nose to extract it. I sucked up pennies easily and it got all but one stubborn large paper clip up from the ground. I sucked up small screws, sand, hair, dirt, and of course dust. The only other thing that got stuck was a dried orange peel. It was easy to remove. Vacuuming everything I came across like wrappers lead to the bag filling up faster than expected.It is a very quiet machine unlike a Dyson. The brushless motor sounds good and has a pleasant pitch. The unit is rated at 60db on low and 67db on high. The sound of the motor is calming to me and gets me into the zone to vacuum. A Dyson fails in this arena. On high a Dyson can be over 90db! I’m not going to wear hearing protection to vacuum a house. The high pitched noise of a Dyson vacuum is very grating and has been likened to a dental drill. I have to admit I winced slightly when first turning on a Dyson, because I was not expecting it to be so loud.The Miele I tested was pretty quiet and had a lower pitch hum than the Dyson. The Miele seemed quiet but I found with some research that it can be as loud as 80db. With the motor placed in its lowest configuration and farther from your ears it is not too bad, but the Makita I can listen to music easily while vacuuming. So for noise Makita definitely gets the win. Since the vacuum in on your back and close to your ears you would hope that it would be engineered to be quiet. It’s worth mentioning that my girlfriend was able to carry out a conversation with someone and take phone calls without a problem while I was vacuuming in the same room.The vacuum floor nozzle and telescoping extension wand are nice. The wheels are fairly large at the back and the little wheels near the front roll easily. It must be noted that the wheels are made of plastic and some reviewers complain that plastic wheels could “possibly scratch the floor.” Dyson has plastic wheels and Miele has rubberized wheels. I don’t know how you could scratch a floor with plastic wheels but it worth pointing out. The extension wand extends and retracts easily with the push of a solid feeling bi-directional slide button. I wish the button was located higher for easier operation but I don’t know if that design would be feasible.The Makita did a solid job on my hard floors. It did a good job on my low pile carpeted stairs. I have industrial carpet with a tight weave on my stairs. I don’t think the Makita would perform well on high pile carpet because it lacks a motorized head. The floor head that comes with this vacuum is too wide to vacuum stairs side to side, but I discovered that the small head that came with my XLC02ZB dust buster as well as the plastic extension tube works too. As a bonus the Makita 199553-5 Cyclonic Vacuum Attachment also works with this machine.I used the small floor nozzle from the XLC02ZB dust buster in conjunction with the cyclonic vacuum attachment on the stairs and it performed very well. I could see all the dirt I had missed with the large floor nozzle swirling around in the cyclone. The cyclone allowed me to capture dirt before the bag. The motor seemed a little more strained with the cyclone but it seemed to still have plenty of power.It is worth noting that when vacuuming welcome mats this vacuum didn’t do very well. It would really need a powered head to agitate the dirt and other debris off the mat. I ordered a non powered brush head part number 198877-6 (white round brush attachment) and tried it out on the welcome mats and had much better success. I discovered part number online 199037-3 (6 inch upholstery nozzle in white). I may order it in the future.I found that I liked using the vacuum without the hose loop more because it allowed me to have a larger range of motion. It is worth noting that you have to kneel down to get under low objects because the hose isn’t very long.I like the little remote that comes with this machine. When you turn off the vacuum it remembers what power setting you had it on. It is fairly conveniently attached near your hip and has loops for mounting it on either side of your body. It also has a light on it which I found to be pretty helpful for spotting dirt and dust in dimmer areas of the house. It was very useful in the basement hallway where I had a light bulb out and vacuuming the welcome mats at night. However I would have liked to see a battery level indicator featured on the remote. To check the status of the battery level you have to remove them.I really would have liked this machine to come with more than a crevasse tool. I think for $600 they could have included a brushed nozzle and maybe an upholstery tool. In the manual it shows there are loops for holding attachments on the waist straps, however these loops are not super accessible. The crevasse tool is not too hard to stow away because it is long. The round brush nozzle is more of a challenge to stow away. I was hoping the nozzles for my Festool Vacuum would fit but they are all too large.Throughout my vacuuming of my entire house on a single charge. I did bump into walls a couple of times when turning. This happened in narrower areas like on the staircase and on door frames. It’s just something that you need to be aware of. I knocked over a few things sitting on a table when turning. The vacuum is fairly compact but it does stick out. I am now especially careful around cluttered counters or tables when turning my body. Since the vacuum feels light it is possible to forget that you are wearing it.If you are going to use this with power tools I would recommend the XCV18 instead. I think I would need to get adapters or a different hose to use this XCV17 with tools. The XCV18 is also OSHA compliant. Even though this has a HEPA filter it apparently doesn’t make the list. The XCV18 has a cfm rating of 64. I wanted as much air flow as possible and the extension wand and floor nozzle. It looks like the XCV18 with batteries and charger is $700 so that could be good value if you are interested in a dust collector.The advantage to the Miele or Dyson vacuums is that they are bagless. After sucking up lots of paper and plastic wrappers I filled my bag much faster than expected. Since I didn’t have the 10 extra bags that were supposed to ship I decided to pull out the captured debris and dust. I was pretty gross but I guess that is what soap is for. It is worth noting that the bags have a paper gate that closes over the hole to seal the dirt in when you throw them out. The bags aren’t super cheap at $3 a piece but you don’t have to deal with the dust explosion you get when emptying a bagless vacuum over a garbage can. Its nice to just throw away all the mess. There may be a washable reusable bag option in the future like for the XCV10 but I didn’t find that and paper bags are easier on HEPA filters.In the end I’m happy with my purchase. The vacuum is comfortable, quiet, and reasonably powerful. I don’t have to deal with dragging a canister around anymore and I don’t have to go back and forth swapping outlets. Most importantly it makes vacuuming fun. I was hoping there would be more for me to vacuum by the time I was done. I ran it on high almost the entire time and had 2 bars on one battery and 1 bar left on the other 6ah battery. I didn’t keep track of time but I would estimate I spent at least a half hour vacuuming. I would definitely need two batteries to do that with a Dyson or Miele or wait 4+ long hours for a battery charge just to finish a half hour task.The following day I went through the house with the cyclone attachment and small floor nozzle from the Makita dust buster. I couldn’t wait to vacuum again and was happy when I noticed areas I missed on the previous day. I found a surprising amount of dirt in hard to reach areas of the house that the large floor nozzle missed. I emptied the cyclone multiple times. Again I didn’t run out of batteries. I ended up with 1 and 2 bars on my batteries. I guess the batteries aren’t perfectly matched.If I were to choose another vacuum I would go with a Miele it has great performance and is more ergonomic than a Dyson. It’s fairly quiet, feels well made and is also manufactured in Germany and serviceable by local Miele dealers. The brush roller is really easy to remove and overall seems well thought out especially with the 3 in one configurable design. I definitely didn’t like having that Dyson 90db screamer in my hand and it felt cheaply made. I read that Consumer Reports no longer recommends Dyson because they aren’t built well and don’t hold up over time. https://www.consumerreports.org/stick-vacuums/dyson-stick-vacuums-lose-cr-recommendation-over-reliability-issues/I expect this machine to last. The commercials for it on youtube are in a janitorial capacity. I have only had one Makita tool break and I dropped it on cement. It still worked fine but the plastic fan inside broke and rattled. I’ll leave you with this: The pleasant sound of my Makita lets me pretend I’m in the sky vacuuming with a jet pack or doing some ghost busting in my house. It makes a boring chore more fun and I don’t think that is a feature of any stick vac.One last thing, I didn’t find this vacuum to be very heavy but my 5’ tall petite girlfriend thought it was pretty heavy while holding it, but said that it was tolerable on her back. If you are a small person it might be better to get the 10lb XCV10. I tried one on at Acme tools and it was noticeably lighter and maybe a little easier to put on.A Haiku inspired by my new toy.With my MakitaI soar through the house findingDust and dirt no more.

Purchased as an alternative to a conventional household vacuum. It works well in that capacity. It's not suitable for a home full of carpet as there is no motorized carpet brush. However, for wood, concrete or tile floors, it does well. Runs for more than ample time to clean an entire 1600 square foot home without depleting the batteries on high power. There is plenty of suction for household dirt. So far, the only major criticism would be poor documentation of accessories and attachments. Makita has their own size conventions for system attachments and the haven't done the logical thing which would be to list the vacuum models that each attachment will fit. As a result, purchasing add-ons is a process of trial and error. Beyond that, a system for stowing the extension wand on the side of the vacuum would be a smart addition to the system.

I have a previous model of this vacuum, and love it. When I read that this new model had almost twice the suction, I ordered one. Either it was defective or the stated suction is wrong. It was less powerful than the earlier model. So I returned it. Then began the real ordeal. Amazon, which is normally great when it comes to returns, would not credit my account. I contacted Amazon customer service three times, and was told it would be corrected. I even received three emails from Amazon saying they would credit the return within 5 days. it never happened. After these three attempts to get it resolved talking with customer service, I finally gave up and disputed the charge with the bank. (Amazon card, but it is Synchrony bank I am now dealing with) This will take a long time as well. Synchrony has said it could take up to 60 days. Synchrony asked for documentation, which I sent digitally. They responded by saying they can't accept digital documents and I had to send photocopies by mail or fax. Ugh. Amazon, you are normally so good about returns but you sure dropped the ball on this one.

Easy to use. But not on construction work . Not enough power for suction!

After work we clean apts of dust, super quiet and compact

Bottom line is that this thing has no power. It is far less powerful than our cheaper cordless vacuums. It also has a design flaw in the neck that leads to it clogging up constantly and cleaning it isn't easy. We expected way more from Makita. Do NOT buy this until they evolve the design. Battery longevity is fine, but worthless in a vacuum that doesn't suck (actually, it does suck). Only wish we weren't outside the return window.

It is worthless. Makita, please don’t degrade the brand that I love.

It’s pretty heavy and suction good be allot better.. Makita really lags in their vacuum cleaners on suction .. truly amazing they can’t get suction:/ but it’s good for around the shop getting saw dust and being on the back.. I cut the bottom of bag and dump it out fold it twice and use 6 small paper folding clips and I can fill that bag 20 times before she starts to fall apart or getting the HEPA filter dirty.. the smaller one is so much lighter but don’t hold much but I use my smaller 1/2 gal way more