Makita has come out with a new 12V Max CXT compact cordless vacuum, LC09. The new cordless vacuum is relatively compact, and sports some neat features and accessories.
- Compact design, 13-5/8″ long
- Bagless 2-stage cloth filtration system
- 3 suction power settings
- Up to 33 mins runtime on a 2.0Ah battery
- 46 CFM max
- “Optimum design for car interior cleaning”
- Weighs 3.7 lbs with compact battery
- 500 mL capacity with a dust bag, 330 mL capacity with a paper filter
- Carrying strap
If there’s any doubt that this is designed for cleaning the inside of your car, here are the nozzles and attachments it comes with:
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- 13″ rubber crevice nozzle
- Floor mat nozzle
- Upholstery nozzle
- Soft brush
- blower attachment nozzle (with hose)
What’s also neat about the new Makita cordless vacuum is that the accessory end of the hose can tuck into the front, presumably to help keep the vacuum compact and neat for storage and transport.
The soft brush extension nozzle also has a rotating tip that can be turned to a right angle, for cleaning in tight spots and corners.
Did Makita just come out with a cordless car cleaning and detailing vacuum? Yes, and it looks awesome.
There’s no specific mention of the size of the flexible hose, but it looks to be a good length – long enough for sufficient reach, but short enough to keep things easily portable.
The vac ships with a 5-pack of paper filter bags, 194566-1. Looking at the online user manual, you can use a reusable dust bag, which has to be cleaned out when full, or a disposable paper filter. Replacement dust bags are also available, 166084-9.
I don’t quite get how they call it bagless if you need to use a cloth bag or a disposable paper “filter” (which looks like a dust bag to me).
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Price: $99 for the bare tool (LC09Z), $152 for the kit (LC09A1)
The kit comes with a charger and 2.0Ah battery, plus a carrying bag. The bare tool product images don’t show the carrying bag, and so I would presume it’s only available with the kit.
Buy Now(Bare Tool via Tool Nut) – Best price as of the time of this posting
Buy Now(Bare Tool via Acme Tools)
Buy Now(Bare Tool via Amazon)
Buy Now(Kit via Tool Nut) – Best price as of the time of this posting
Buy Now(Kit via Amazon)
At the time of this posting, Tool Nut has the best pricing.
Tool Nut and Acme are running $20 off $100+ Makita promos at the moment. So, for the kit at Tool Nut, that means a final price of $132 with free shipping.
Additional paper filter bags are $7 for 5, and replacement cloth bags are $5 each, via Tool Nut.
First Thoughts
This screenshot of my order confirmation email should give you a good idea about my first impression. I should point out that I didn’t pay $152, I paid $132 plus tax, with free shipping, thanks to the current $20 off $100+ promotion.
I don’t need that battery, but a dedicated battery for the vac could come in handy. Well, I kind of do need it. While I have a bunch of Makita 12V CXT compact Li-ion batteries already, those are attached to tool review samples. With this being a personal-use tool, it’s only fair to buy a battery for it.
I also went for the kit because I want the included carrying bag, which doesn’t look to be included with the bare tool option.
I have several vacuums that can be used to clean out my car. I even bought a Ridgid auto detailing vacuum hose kit ($40 via Amazon), and it works quite nice.
But cleaning the car can be a drawn-out hassle.
The new Makita LC09 compact cordless vacuum looks like the perfect tool. It comes with every nozzle I could think of needing, and the nozzles also look to have potential use outside of cleaning out car interiors. It might be optimized for that use, but I can see some places where I could use it to clean the crevices and hard to reach parts of certain workshop equipment.
The whole package just seems really appealing to me.
$99 seems like a good price for the bare tool and all of its accessories, and $152 seems fair for the kit version.
Part of me is thinking “why not just buy the new Makita 18V 2-gallon cordless HEPA vac and find some small attachments for it.” The Makita XCV11Z looks like a great vac (one showed up for review but I have not tested it yet), but as mentioned I’m drawn to the balanced design of the new LC09A1 kit. It looks perfect for all of the smaller car cleaning tasks.
Right now, I’ve got lots of dried dirt on the floor (on hard plastic protectors that I could remove and rinse), drywall dust in the bag, some food crumbs by the kids’ seats, dirt in their seats, pebbles on the floor…
I’d like to say that I’ll clean things up long before my new Makita cordless vacuum gets here, but it has been hard to find the time to haul out a larger vac, corded or cordless, and my box of loose Ridgid hose accessories.
Is anyone else ordering Makita’s new car-cleaning cordless vac?
Can you see any potential uses for it outside of cleaning the inside of a car? I’m hoping the brush is well-suited for air vents and fan ports.
Jared
Looks great honestly. I have the small Dewalt vacuum where the hose can be pulled out of the handle. Works great for cleaning my car – well, compared to maneuvering my full-size ridgid shop vac anyway.
I bought it primarily for that purpose, though I now fine a myriad of other uses for it (vacuumed up dirt, leaves and debris from the top of an F700 grain truck intake the other day so it wouldn’t spill anything inside the engine when I removed it).
This Makita could be even nicer. My one gripe with the Dewalt is that the hose is very short. I also don’t have any attachments.
Nathan
while I don’t personally have a need for such – I do use my shop vac and I seem to be able to get to it about every 2 weeks. which happens to be when I wash and wax the car. (non paid for plug here – I use Optimum spray wax after a wash).
but there have been times – out at ________ when I sort of wished I had a vac in the car. I know that honda sells Odyssey vans on this feature they sell. Even a cordless dust buster would help some.
But this would work well, as would nearly any other cordless tool vac. so I’m intrigued to see how well this fairs – and maybe a example pic of the device stowed in a car.
FRANK
Anything I ever bought from Makita, has needed to be fixed. Or thrown out because it was beyond repair. That’s a compact router, a hand power planer , and a pad sander…. I’m not kidding. I’ll never buy another Makita product again….
Corey Moore
I’ve always been satisfied with the tools, but the batteries are another story. I’m trying to save one of my three presently, with one already bricked. Even if I can fanangle a ghetto parallel charger before the second one bricks, I shouldn’t have to bypass charger handshakes to use my battery the rest of its life. Terrible design to have a battery that unbalances it’s own cells.
Brian A
Impressive CFM if accurate.
You should do an in depth test comparison of all the major tool brands 12 & 18v vacs.
Brian A
Impressive for 12v
Pascal
This looks good. I would buy one if I didn’t already have a 2 gallon Bosch 18 volt cordless shop vac I use for car interiors.
Its only slightly bulky but awesome because its cordless.
Altan
I had one 12V Black and Decker corded vacuum and it was too weak, it took one hour almost to clean the car properly, it is not worth it, you can take the car to the car wash next to your supermarket and while you do your shopping they can finish cleaning the car. I don’t even trust 18V or 20V cordless vacuums, not powerful enough, some Makita’s 36V or DeWALT 60V dust collector can be enough powerful, I have not tried them yet, I am waiting for 60V Toughsystem compatible dust collector, or even Flexvolt 120V version. But the good thing with the Makita’s DCV861 is that it is both cordless and corded and when you use it as corded is more powerful then. So far that is the favourite cordless vacuum for me by now.
Altan
Hi Stuart
When are we going to do DeWALT 2019 tool? 🙂
MichaelHammer
I have not had good experiences with 10.8V vacuums. They are far too weak and under powered. I look forward to reading about you experience with this new Makita vac.
Frank D
It has some appeal in as far as compactness, but will be anemic for all but the smallest dust, I fear. Maybe if it was actually bagless, and 18v.
We have a corded bagless cyclonic vacuum that detaches from the upright wheeled carpet base, that works a treat with its 25 ft cord, flex hose, house nozzles, …
For DIY messes in the van or trailer, one can’t beat the run time and suction of a corded shop vac with 20 ft hose extension. The all weather slush mats get a quick shake and pressure wash. A couple minutes of vacuuming. Done. No fiddling with small units, batteries, …
Mike
I bought the Milwaukee 18v cordless portable vac and really regret the purchase. It, and I’m sure the Makita will prove no different, can suck a fully charged battery dry in no time. When I’m doing a full job on the car the vacuum tends to run quite a while and the cordless model starts to slow down before I’m done.
Stuart
I’ve been second-guessing myself plenty, but that’s all the more reason to buy one for review.
Corey Moore
In the vein of the previous post about unorthodox tool uses, I use my 20/18v dewalt 2gal when I brush my dog. I’ll use it to spot clean weirdly placed spills from the kids on occasion, evacuated a couple clogged toilets/drains with it over the years, but the majority of its use comes from vacuuming/blowing out panels or install debris, and collecting my dogs rogue fur before it can blow away or cling to anything. Even when using the 120v cord, I’ve found it to be generally underpowered for dry material pickup of any significant size. Would be cool to see Makita or anyone else break through the apparent cordless vac performance ceiling, though.
Tim E.
The new dual battery rigid cordless full size shop vac sounds interesting for dry pickup as you mention, since it should have higher CFM numbers than the current toolbox style vacs…
RCWARD
Can’t beat a shop vac for doing your car or truck. Can’t see buying this. Maybe at 99 with battery and charger? Can’t believe it would do a great job. Another case of Compromise over competence. Sign of the times.
Al
We use these vacuums as electricians to suck a poly line through conduit. With the right hose attachment and conduit without any open fittings it’s a great option compared to pushing fish tape through long runs. The portability of the vacuum helps compared to hauling a shop vac to the very top of the ceiling. AC adapter would be a plus in case battery life is suspect
The What?
In my experience with cleaning out a work truck with a vacuum, it takes a lot longer than 33 minutes to get sawdust and other embedded construction dust out of the carpeting inside of a vehicle. That’s if you’re really trying to clean it out. This is meant for cleaning food crumbs, ashes, light dust, etc in your vehicle. It’s not meant for cleaning construction dust and debris or wood chips out of the floorboards in a work van or work truck. Metal chips are the hardest to get up. One thing about the carpeting material that they use for cars is that it does an excellent job of clinging onto particulates and debris. It’s like velcro for dirt. And it takes a high powered vacuum to clean it up. This is not a high powered vacuum that’s made for such purposes.
Altan
Good explanation!
Gordon
I have a 14gal Ridgid and a Dyson Car+Boat cordless. Neither can get sand out of carpet in one pass. The Dyson does a pretty good job with the powered beater bar. IMHO, that is the one thing that all shopvacs are missing. I’d love to see a battery powered beater bar for use with things like this Makita, the M18, and the 20V vacs.
Altan
A good tool from Hougen which works with Makita batteries:
https://www.hougen.com/Hole-punchers/76000PR/76000PR-cordless-hole-puncher.html