9 Accessories & Attachments To Upgrade Your Makita Vacuum Experience

Makita is mostly known for its power tools and is a common name around the jobsite and in home workshops. If you've spent any time in home improvement stores or doing DIY projects at home, you're probably familiar with their drills, jigsaws, angle grinders, lawnmowers, pressure cleaners, chainsaws, and other wireless power tools. What you may not know is Makita also makes vacuums for cleaning up dust and debris both at the worksite and at home.

Makita offers a range of vacuums including standard uprights like grandma used to use, portable backpack vacuums for cleaning larger spaces (and for cosplaying as a ghostbuster), canister vacuums, low-profile compact vacuums, and automatic robotic vacuums. No matter what you choose, they're all wireless and run on Makita's standard power tool batteries, interchangeable with Makita's more than 275 products.

There are vacuums for just about every situation from at-home dust management to cleaning up big projects, and for everything else there are attachments and accessories. These are some of the best.

The most powerful vacuum in the world is only as good as its hose. Many vacuums offer additional hoses which extend your reach for cleaning out of the way places in your home or workspace. In addition to giving you some added reach, the vacuum hose from Makita ups the ante by putting vacuum control buttons in the palm of your hand.

Compatible with both the DCL500Z and the DCL501Z Makita Cyclonic Canister vacuums, the appropriately named vacuum hose with buttons puts the vacuum controls at the hose handle position so you don't have to reach back to the vacuum main unit. When using it, you can switch between suction modes in real time without needing to stop what you're doing. It may not make a huge difference during everyday at-home cleaning, but could shave serious time off bigger jobs.

It's worth noting that the vacuum hose with buttons was recently removed from Makita's list of available accessories and currently shows as discontinued on the Makita website. That said, the hose (model number SH00000034) remains available from other retailers. You might even get lucky and catch it on sale as Makita rolls out whatever will eventually replace this hose option.

When using and storing a Makita backpack vacuum, hose straps are an absolute must have. Whether you've got one vacuum stuffed into a hallway closet or you're running a worksite with several vacuums, unwieldy hoses can be a real problem. Loose hoses can get damaged more easily and tangled hoses are an unwelcome chore. Keeping your hoses neatly stored will extend their life and save you from a headache or two.

Velcro straps are a low-tech solution, but a good one. A hose strap is a pretty straightforward vacuum accessory, no one is reinventing the wheel here, but it can make your vacuuming experience a little more user friendly.

Makita's velcro hose band is designed with a keyhole to attach to the side of the LXT Brushless 1/2 Gallon HEPA Filter Backpack Dry Vacuum and an adjustable velcro strap for holding your hoses in place. While Makita's standard size vacuums are all cordless, like the rest of the company's product lineup, it's useful for easily storing hoses between jobs and keeping them out of the way while you're moving through the work environment.

Robotic vacuums are a convenient alternative to a historically hands-on chore, but only if they're doing what you want them to do. This Makita remote control, powered with a couple of AAA batteries, lets you control your Makita 18V X2 LXT Brushless Cordless Robotic Vacuum from up to 65 feet away.

The vacuum itself is considerably larger than most of its competitors, it can clean for about 3 hours on a full charge using Makita's standard batteries, and it can handle big jobs. Some users have noted that it does better on hard surfaces like tile, linoleum, and wood than on thick carpet. Like other robotic vacuums, Makita's autonomous vacuum has buttons on the top but can also be controlled remotely for added convenience.

Using the remote, you can pause and resume vacuuming, set a timer, trigger a location beacon to find your missing vacuum, and select from two different cleaning patterns. In Random mode, the vacuum turns in a different direction anytime it encounters a wall or other obstacle. In Pattern mode, the vacuum moves in straight lines, back and forth, travelling from one side of the room to another. With the remote, you can control everything from the comfort of the couch.

Makita's 40V max XGT Cyclonic 4-Speed HEPA Filter Compact Stick Vacuum runs for about an hour on a full charge, using Makita's standard 40V max XGT batteries, and captures over 99.9% of particles 0.3 microns or larger, according to Makita's testing. Dust and debris get pulled up through the vacuum and into a filter at the handle. Every so often, however, you have to take the filter apart and clean it by hand or replace it.

The cyclonic vacuum attachment slots just between the vacuum's handle and post, slightly extending the reach of your vacuum and greatly extending its cleaning capacity. With the attachment integrated, an estimated 90% of dust and debris gets diverted into an easy-to-empty chamber before it ever reaches the filter.

Trapped dirt and dust can be easily discarded by detaching the cyclonic chamber and emptying it into the trash. Using the cyclonic attachment not only makes emptying your vacuum easier, it also extends the life of your vacuum filter significantly, by reducing the amount of debris that reaches it. The cyclonic vacuum attachment comes in black or white, to match your vacuum's color. It's a little bit of an investment up front, but it'll reduce the frequency of filter replacement by as much as 84%, according to Makita.

Whether you're using a compact stick vacuum at home or a more robust backpack vacuum for cleaning offices and other large spaces, the Makita six-inch upholstery nozzle expands your device's cleaning capabilities. Like all nozzles, it works by altering the size and scope of airflow at the vacuum's entry point.

Each nozzle is designed to create a specific type of suction, for getting into corners or cleaning uneven surfaces. The six-inch upholstery nozzle creates a narrow band of suction which is smaller but more powerful, capable of pulling dust, dirt, and debris from within upholstered surfaces.

The narrow profile fits neatly between couch cushions and into other tight spaces for pulling crumbs out of nooks and crannies. In addition to all your sofas and chairs, you can also use the upholstery nozzle to clean carpeted stairs, clean dust and dust mites out of mattresses, and clean other upholstered surfaces. The nozzle slots directly onto the end of your existing hose without any moving parts for ease of use.

When it comes to vacuuming, most of the time you want as much power as possible for sucking up dirt buried deep within carpet fibers. Sometimes, however, you need a lighter touch. A shelf brush works by combining the suction power of your standard vacuum hose with the gentle touch of soft bristles.

The Makita vacuum shelf brush is 3.75 inches wide and compatible with Makita's line of compact stick vacuums and backpack vacuums. It attaches and detaches easily so you can switch back and forth between your normal hose, shelf brush, upholstery nozzle, and any other attachments you have.

The soft-bristled shelf brush is designed to gently flow over and into uneven terrain, like a toothbrush. As the name implies, it's designed for cleaning shelves but its uses are more versatile. It's good for cleaning drapes, windowsills, lampshades, blinds, and fan blades. You can also use it to clean decorative items, mantles covered in family photos and vacation trinkets, or get into the nooks and crannies of computer keyboards. If you're looking for a deep clean of your home or workspace, the shelf brush is one of the best tools at your disposal.

When using Makita's 18V X2 Backpack Vacuum model XCV09, you want your wand to be just the right length — not so long as to be unwieldy, but long enough that you can reach the floor comfortably without crouching. Using two of Makita's 18V LXT batteries, the vacuum runs for nearly two hours on normal setting or about half an hour on max power.

The vacuum connects to the operators back via a harness of padded shoulder straps and a waist belt with multiple adjustment points for optimal comfort. A flexible tube rises from the top of the backpack vacuum and connects to a rigid aluminum tube ending at the vacuum head. That metal tubing lets you get under desks and other furniture to clean the floors while keeping a comfortable posture. Still, sometimes you need just a little more reach.

Made of aluminum, the telescoping extension wand extends your vacuum's reach by 22 inches when collapsed and 36 inches when extended. The wand extends easily with a release button and creates a narrow band of suction for squeezing into tight spaces, perfect for reaching between appliances, into high corners, and getting into other hard-to-reach spaces.

While Makita's job site charger and radio doesn't attach to your vacuum, it is the ultimate accessory and command center for big jobs. All of Makita's tools, including the vacuums, use the same power tool batteries. If your batteries die in the middle of a big job, you might end up in trouble. Makita's Bluetooth job site charger and radio runs for up to 18 hours with Makita's 18V LXT 5.0Ah battery.

It's capable of recharging your Makita batteries in as little as 80 minutes to keep the work flowing, compatible with the 12V max CXT and 18V LXT lithium-ion batteries. In addition to providing recharging capabilities for your vacuum and power tool batteries, the site charger and radio features a Bluetooth connection for broadcasting music and other audio.

Two 3.5-inch speakers, one on each side, blasts your favorite tunes and an IP 64 water and dust resistant rating means it can survive the harsh conditions of an active home or a job site. On top of a Bluetooth connection, the radio features a radio tuner for picking up radio stations with a collapsible antenna. You can also directly connect an MP3 player or other external device using the radio's aux port. There's even a bottle opener for cracking open a cold one when the job's over.

If you've got a big job ahead of you, keeping cool can be a real challenge. Makita's UV resistant fan jacket uses the standard Makita power-tool batteries to power a built-in fan with three air flow modes. You can set air flow to low, medium, and high, plus a turbo mode for ultimate cooling. You can keep the fan spinning on high flow for up to 12 hours using Makita's 18V LXT 5.0Ah battery. The jacket's power source also accepts 18V compact lithium-ion batteries.

The fan mounts to the lower back of the jacket while the battery clips to the pants or pocket using a belt clip. A cuffed waist with elastic helps keep the jacket tight at the waist, while the cuffs are left loose to allow warm air to escape. If the worksite gets too hot, you can convert the jacket to a vest by removing the zip-off sleeves to increase air flow. By contrast, if it's cold out, you can remove the fan and battery and use it as a standard jacket.

For added convenience, the jacket features a device pocket at the chest and the power source features a USB port for charging your mobile device. An opening in the device pocket lets you run a charging cable to keep your phone charged up all day. The jacket can be washed in a standard washing machine — provided you remove the fan and power source first.