For test vacuuming, I chose 3 types of debris:

1. ash from our woodstove,
2. some Maltese puppy hair from a recent trimming, and
3. some boat carpet.

I divided each pile into approximately equal piles for the Black and Decker Pivot and Dyson Root 6 handheld vacuums to tackle each. And then vacuumed up each pile with its assigned vacuum. Both vacuums did well, although the Dyson Root 6 did better than the Pivot when vacuuming the carpet. (I suspect this difference was due to its superior vacuum and flow rate numbers.)