Best cordless shop vac for your battery: Milwaukee, DEWALT, CRAFTSMAN

Start with the battery, not the vac

All four vacs on this page are sold as tool only: no battery, no charger. That is the point of a cordless shop vac for someone who already owns a drill or an impact driver on the same platform. It also means the comparison starts with one question: which batteries do you have? Batteries do not cross brands, so a Milwaukee owner's shortlist is the two Milwaukee rows, and so on. This comparison is research-based, built from the current listings and the makers' own spec pages; we have not used these vacs ourselves.

What each maker says about its batteries

Milwaukee M18. Milwaukee's battery page states that all M18 batteries are compatible with M18 tools and chargers, and, separately, that all M12 batteries are compatible with M12 tools and chargers. Both vacs here are M18 tools, so an M12-only owner would need M18 batteries to run them.

DEWALT 20V MAX. DEWALT's page for the DCV517B says the vac runs off all 20V MAX battery packs, with the battery and charger sold separately.

CRAFTSMAN V20. CRAFTSMAN's V20 battery page describes its V20 batteries as compatible with all CRAFTSMAN V20 tools and equipment, and the CMCV002B page says the vac does not include a battery or charger.

If your batteries come from another platform not listed here, check that maker's own vac range rather than an adapter: none of the maker pages above names a battery from another brand.

Tank size: what half a gallon and two gallons hold

The tanks in this table run from half a gallon (DEWALT) to two and a half gallons (the Milwaukee PACKOUT model). As a household comparison, half a gallon is half of a 1-gallon milk jug; two and a half gallons is two and a half of them. A spilled bucket or an overflowing sink fills the half-gallon tank on the first pass, while a 2- or 2.5-gallon tank takes it in one go and leaves room. For sawdust, crumbs in a car or a bench, the small tank empties often but is lighter to carry around.

For more than a few gallons of water, a corded shop vac with a 5-gallon or larger drum is the better fit; see our comparison of shop vacs for home use.

Hose and blower

Milwaukee gives both its vacs a 6 ft hose, and CRAFTSMAN states 7 ft 8 in for the CMCV002B, the longest hose in this table. DEWALT's page names an extendable rubber hose on the DCV517B but gives no length, so its hose cell shows what the listing states. Both Milwaukee pages name a built-in blower port; CRAFTSMAN's and DEWALT's pages for these two models do not mention one. If you plan to clear a bench or a garage step with exhaust air, the Milwaukee rows are the ones that name it.

Which one if...

• You own Milwaukee M18 batteries: the 0880-20 for a 2-gallon vac with a blower port, the 0970-20 if you want the larger 2.5-gallon tank and PACKOUT stacking.
• You own CRAFTSMAN V20 batteries: the CMCV002B, with the longest stated hose here.
• You own DEWALT 20V MAX batteries and mostly clean benches and car interiors: the DCV517B. For floor spills, compare DEWALT's larger 20V wet/dry vacs on dewalt.com before you buy.
• You own only Milwaukee M12 batteries: none of these runs on them, per Milwaukee's own statement that M18 batteries go with M18 tools.

What this page does not tell you

We do not measure suction or runtime, and runtime depends on which battery you fit; the makers' runtime claims are tied to specific battery packs. We do not rank these vacs. Filters and accessory fit differ by maker: check the maker's page for the filter your model takes before you buy spares.