Dad’s short answer: Corded for most people. Spot cleaners need sustained suction to extract properly, and a cord gives you that for as long as you need it. Cordless is worth it specifically for cars, stairs, or a house where finding an outlet is genuinely annoying.

Why corded is the default

Extraction is a suction job, and suction is what a battery struggles to sustain. A corded spot cleaner delivers the same pull on minute ten as it did on minute one, which matters because getting a stain fully out usually takes more passes than people expect.

Runtime is the other half. A bad pet accident isn't a two-minute job, and a cordless unit that gives you fifteen or twenty minutes can leave you waiting on a charge in the middle of the mess.

These machines are also used near the floor, where outlets are, so the cord is less of an imposition than it is on a vacuum.

When cordless genuinely wins

Cars. There's no outlet in a driveway without running an extension cord, and detailing a car interior is one of the best uses for a small spot cleaner.

Stairs, where dragging a cord is awkward.

Large homes where the stain is always three rooms from an outlet.

If you buy cordless, treat runtime and charge time as the two specs that matter, and expect somewhat less extraction power than the corded equivalent. That trade is real — it's just worth it if grab-and-go is the point.

Dad’s Take: Corded unless you're cleaning a car. Extraction needs sustained suction, and that's the thing batteries are worst at.