LG CordZero Vacuum With All-in-One Tower Review: It Sucks

The days of massive, hulking vacuum cleaners are a thing of the past. No one wants to set a personal record for weightlifting trying to get the vacuum of the closet. This has led to a rise in lightweight, cordless stick vacuums that have all the sucking power of their larger cousins, but with none of the herniating possibility.

The LG CordZero meets this criterion perfectly. It provides lightweight but powerful cleaning and all the attachments you need to keep your house sparkling. It takes it a step further, though, with the All-in-One Tower where you store, charge, and empty the device. The All-in-One Tower takes the CordZero from a handy stick vacuum to one of the most amazing smart cleaning devices I’ve ever encountered.

The LG CordZero really sucks, and I mean that in the best way possible. It has more suction power than any vacuum I’ve reviewed in the past, standing head and shoulders above the level of cleaning provided by budget-range stick vacuums. It even exceeds similar vacs like the Roborock H7.

The All-in-One Tower provides storage, charging, and a self-emptying base

On its own, the LG CordZero is an impressive piece of technology. It has immense power for something of its size and weight and more than holds its own in comparison to similar vacuums. However, combined with the All-in-One Tower, it leaps far ahead of the competition.

One of the main complaints I’ve had with stick vacuums is in emptying the dust bin. No matter how careful I am, or how far I shove it into the trash can before I open it, my hand always comes out covered in a dusty film. If I use the vacuum to clean up stray cat litter, I prefer not to think about what else might be in that dust. The All-in-One Tower circumvents this issue entirely. When you place the CordZero back in the tower, small arms extend from within the Tower and grip the vacuum. These arms open the dust bin, and a powerful vacuum within the tower itself sucks all of the dust from the bin and down into a bag at the base of the tower.

Although LG gave no firm time estimates on how much dust this bag can hold, I did get an estimate of at least 30 days. Of course, this varies depending on the size of your home and how dirty it is (you’ll probably fill the bag up faster if you have pets, for instance), but given the size of the bag and the unique Kompressor technology, it should last a while. Even if it only lasted a week at a time, it solves the main issue I have with stick vacuums: It contains all of the dust inside it and none of it gets on my hands.

Great use of space and storage

The All-in-One Tower has two doors that swing out from either side and conceal storage areas for the different attachments. Best of all, these storage areas are unique in their shape and design — there is no mistaking which attachment goes where. This makes it easy to keep track of all of the attachments, and let’s be honest: I couldn’t tell you where all of the attachments were for my other vacuums.

The tower also opens up from the top to reveal a charging port for the spare battery. The ability to keep a second battery charged and ready to go at all times means you will always have one on hand. If you’re doing a deep clean of your home, you might need more than the normal battery life.

If you open both doors, you can access the internal dust bag storage. It’s easy to swap this bag out for a fresh one when it fills up. The doors themselves also have extra storage at the bottom. A panel can be pressed that will flip around and reveal a hook for mounting certain accessories, like the Power Mop attachment.

Every stick vacuum I’ve ever worked with has a wall-mounted base station, but it isn’t the most convenient system in the world.  The All-in-One Tower looks great and doesn’t take up too much space, with the majority of its features leaning heavily on its verticality.

The All-in-One Tower is 10.1 inches wide, 39.7 inches high, and 11.7 inches long from front to back. It requires a power source for charging, so you’ll need to place it near an outlet. The good news is that this isn’t something you will want to tuck away out of sight. The black and white design of the Tower has a stylish look that fits into most modern home décor. It’s a conversation piece, not an eyesore, and its size means it fits in basically any size home.

The CordZero has a telescoping wand and multiple accessories

I’ve focused on the Tower a good bit, especially because it adds a ton of features to the vacuum. The LG CordZero would still be one of the best picks for a cordless vacuum even without the tower, though. It weighs in at just under 6 pounds. While it’s not the lightest vacuum on the market, it’s still easy enough to maneuver one-handed.

It’s also far more versatile than other vacuums. The telescoping wand extends from 20 inches to 29 inches, with multiple measurements in between. You can adjust it to be as long as you need for the job at hand. You can also forgo the wand completely and use it in handheld mode, which is perfect for vacuuming furniture.

The attachments include the Power Floor Nozzle (your basic vacuum head for most jobs), the Power Mini Nozzle (perfect for furniture or upholstery), as well as the Power Punch Nozzle, a combination tool, and a crevice tool. I used the LG CordZero to clean in preparation for a small Halloween gathering and found that it cleaned almost every area of my home, including the hardwood floor.

One major benefit is the Power Mop attachment. This vacuum head doesn’t use suction but instead spins two pads that buff your floor in the same way a car wash shines your car. According to LG, this attachment is designed as a sort of finishing touch. It isn’t meant to mop your floor; you will still need a robot mop or a traditional mop for that job. You also can’t use anything except water in the Power Mop, and the pads need to be removed and hand-washed after each use. It’s one of the few minor flaws I encountered in my time with the LG CordZero.

I should also note that the Power Mop was damaged in shipping, so I am not completely sure it worked as intended. According to the specs, everything operated as it should. I could adjust the water level with the button on the side of the attachment, and the pads spun as I expected.

The Kompressor is the main event

The CordZero’s dust bin isn’t the largest I’ve seen, but it holds about 33.8 ounces. It does this through the Kompressor, a sliding mechanism on the side of the dust bin that compacts the debris inside the bin into a small, tight section. The Kompressor also pushes hair, string, and other small items down into the bin where they can more easily be sucked out by the Tower when you dock it.

LG recommends the Kompressor be used each time you vacuum, as it takes only a finger to press down. It makes the vacuum run more efficiently and means the All-in-One Tower’s bags can hold more debris before needing to be replaced.

It can suck the paint off a car

My floors aren’t dirty by any means. I use robot vacuums to keep the floor in decent shape, and I use a stick vacuum to touch up areas that need it when I don’t want to wait for a robot vacuum to get the job done. The floors look and feel clean.

After a session cleaning with the LG CordZero, I found myself re-evaluating my definition of clean. It pulled dirt and debris out of carpets I would have sworn were okay to eat off of. Its suction power, especially in Turbo mode, had me debating whether my carpet would stay attached to the floor. Okay, maybe that is a bit hyperbolic — but the vacuum cleans more efficiently than anything I’ve ever used before.

I used it to clean every square inch of carpeting in my home, and I find myself amazed at how much of a difference it makes. Even the air quality has improved after cleaning with the LG CordZero.

Better battery life means better cleaning

The LG CordZero has three cleaning modes: Normal, Power, and Turbo. If you’re using the vacuum in handheld mode, you can expect two hours of cleaning on normal mode, one hour on Power mode, and 14 minutes in Turbo mode.

If you are using the telescoping wand, the battery life drops to 80 minutes in normal mode, 40 minutes in Power mode, and 12 minutes in Turbo mode. Of course, these are just estimates; the attachment you use will also influence the battery life.

I found the battery lasted plenty long enough for me to clean large swaths of the house. By the time it began to run out of power, so had I. With a second battery in reserve in the top of the Tower, I never found a situation where the vacuum didn’t last long enough to finish the job (and that’s when cleaning 1,600 square feet.)

It takes roughly 3.5 hours to charge one of the batteries. You can charge them both at once: One in the Tower, and one in the vacuum while docked.

The LG ThinQ app helps keep track of cleaning and filters

An app for a vacuum cleaner? Is that really necessary? It’s a fair question, and one I’ve heard posed before. While it isn’t strictly necessary, it’s definitely useful.

While cleaning, the app will let you know which cleaning mode the vacuum is currently in, how long and how many times you have vacuumed in the month, and more.

The app can also be used to diagnose issues during operation, such as with the suction motor, the battery, or the spinning brush. It also includes a filter cleaning guide that walks you through how to clean and maintain the filter in the vacuum itself.

You can also purchase accessories from within the app, like new filters or bags for the All-in-One Tower. The app will notify you when the vacuum is done charging,

Our take

The $1,000 LG CordZero Vacuum with All-in-One Tower is the closest thing to a perfect product I’ve come across in a long time. It provides thorough deep-cleaning of my floors and then automatically empties itself when the job is done. It avoids the most onerous part of vacuuming (emptying the debris) while actually making me look forward to cleaning.

Is there a better alternative?

I can safely say that I don’t believe a better option exists. LG sells variants of the LG CordZero that don’t include the tower at lower cost, but no other brand self-empties like this. In terms of power, the LG CordZero goes toe-to-toe with models like the Dyson Outsize.

How long will it last?

After the Power Mop attachment was damaged in shipping, I worried about the build quality — but the other attachments felt strong and were able to be connected without an issue. The power prongs in the Power Mop scraped the bottom of the telescoping wand while I tried to line them up to test it, but it’s only cosmetic damage.

Even if the LG CordZero does fail, LG includes a one-year limited warranty on parts and labor, as well as an impressive 10-year warranty on the Smart Inverter Motor within the vacuum itself.

Should you buy it?

Absolutely. At $1,000, the LG CordZero Vacuum with All-in-One Tower isn’t a budget device, but it provides the most thorough cleaning of any vacuum I’ve ever used, bar none.

Editors’ Recommendations