We talked to experts about how to shop for vacuums when getting rid of pet hair is your main concern. They shared tips for narrowing down your options, which we used to recommend a handful of corded vacuums, cordless vacuums, handheld vacuums and robot vacuums across budgets. Neumann also recommends purchasing a vacuum with an automated brush roll. Automated brush rolls spin while you’re vacuuming to pick up pet hair quickly on fabrics, while no-spin brushes only rotate as you manually push your vacuum along the floor. The benefit of automated brush rolls is their ability to pick up pet hair quickly on fabrics, but they can be too harsh for hardwood or tile floors, he says.
Meanwhile, the Tineco Pure One S11 is the only cordless vacuum in the top 5 of our sand tests that retails for less than $500. At a price of $400 (or less, if you catch a sale), it offers a high level of performance at a strong value relative to the competition, which is a large part of the reason why it’s our top recommended cordless vacuum. Sucking sand out of carpets like those is a real challenge — most of the vacuums we test can’t even remove 80% of the stuff when all is said and done. If you have thick carpets like those in your home, it’s definitely worth a look. Designed for hard flooring, it shines a green laser out onto the floor as you clean, making it easy to see dust and other small bits of debris otherwise hard to spot with the naked eye. It isn’t much help under strong indoor lighting or sunlight, but it’s still a nice, unique feature that we found helpful as we cleaned.
Kenmore’s canister vacuum has a two motor system to provide extra powerful suction, according to the brand. Its swivel head helps you maneuver around furniture and it has a built-in telescoping wand that extends up to 10 feet to help you clean small spaces. The vacuum has a 28-foot cord and the motorized brush head lifts grime off surfaces while preventing hair from tangling around it. You can turn the rotating brush head off while cleaning hard floors and store the included attachments inside the vacuum.
BISSELL is an American manufacturer of vacuum cleaners and floor care appliances. They offer a diverse selection of vacuum cleaners, ranging from compact handheld cordless vacuums to bulky corded uprights and everything in between. Most of their offerings are somewhat budget-friendly and use bagless designs, meaning that recurring costs tend bissell cordless vacuum to be pretty low. That said, quite a few of their more compact offerings struggle with clearing bulky debris, while their bigger corded uprights generally feel somewhat cheap. Our team of CNET experts, editors and lab technicians has been testing vacuums in a smart home and testing warehouse located in Louisville, for over 10 years.
If your vacuum doesn’t have an anti-tangle brush head, you’ll likely have to clean it frequently in order to keep it functioning properly, Mehmetoglu says. Eureka’s upright bagless vacuum makes cleaning your floors and carpets effortless. Best of all, you won’t have to stop too often to empty out the canister — the extra-large canister can hold over four liters of dirt. All you need is to give it a rinse with warm water and let it air dry. They fit right on the vacuum, so you don’t have to worry about misplacing one when you need it most.
In the end, does a high-ticket vacuum clean that much better than a low or mid-priced vacuum? The width of the test bed is proportional to the vacuum’s nozzle width, which we measure ourselves. We also use nozzle width, plus the flooring type, to calculate the soil density for each test, per International Electrotechnical Commission guidelines.
Regardless of which type of brush head you’re using, be sure to check it for collected hairs or fibers, which can twist around bristles and spinny pieces, reducing their efficiency. Even so, Dyson vacuums consistently test well, and they often come with unique features like dust-revealing lasers and auto-adapting brush rolls that are the result of the company’s years of in-house research and iterative design. Eureka and BISSELL vacuums occupy a similar budget-friendly niche, and offerings from each brand tend to have strengths. When comparing like-for-like models, BISSELLs usually have a wider array of convenience features, while Eurekas offer superior debris pickup performance.
As you can see, the Dyson V15 Detect is our top overall cleaner in these sand tests, but note that the Samsung Jet 90 actually outperformed it by a considerable margin on thick, plushy mid-pile carpet. Consistently cleaning your vacuum is important to maintain its performance over time, and that’s even more the case when dealing with pet hair, Mock says. Doing so helps prevent clogs and ensures that the vacuum is working at its maximum capacity. She recommends cleaning the vacuum’s filter and brush rolls after every use, and emptying the dustbin or bag as soon as it gets full — not doing so weakens suction power. Be sure to read the manufacturer directions on cleaning your specific model, too.
The Dyson and Tineco models we tested each offer two years of coverage, as does the Samsung Bespoke Jet, though Samsung only offers a single year for its Jet 75 and Jet 90 cleaners. The Dyson and Tineco models all have bin volumes of about 0.6 liter, which is fairly common across the category. Our alternate budget pick, the Moosoo XL-618, has double that capacity (1.3 liters) so you’ll need to empty the bin less often.
Both types of vacuums can deliver a deep clean on both carpets and bare floors, but a canister vacuum is usually easier to control. Upright vacuums are one unit on wheels and typically can only move in one straight direction. A canister vacuum consists of a long handle with a cleaning head attached to a canister on wheels. It gives you more freedom to move around and roam without having to carry around the entire unit as you clean. Most vacuums will start losing power when the filters need cleaning or replacing.