The Best Home Vacuum Cleaner
The best vacuum cleaner for home use is a multi-functional, user-friendly tool. The right model will also be quiet, light and efficient.
This pick offers great suction at a reasonable price and comes with a powerful anti-hair wrap floorhead and an odor neutralizing puck. It has a large bin that is easy to empty.
1. Power
A powerful vacuum cleaner will efficiently handle household debris, making it easy to keep mess under control. No matter if you have a pile of pet hair or a blocked kitchen drain, it should be able to suck up the mess with little effort. It should also be able to remove dust particles and stop the growth of bacterial, for a healthy, fresh air. The ideal model will depend on your budget, flooring type and size of your household. The most common types include uprights, portable handheld vacuums and lightweight sticks, as well as convenient robots.
The Black+Decker Flex Vac handheld vacuum is a lightweight device that delivers remarkable force. It can remove pet hair and larger debris easily, making it ideal for households with multiple pets or large homes. It also comes with an easy to empty debris receptacle to prevent messy cleanups. The vacuum can be used as a mop, allowing users to do two tasks at once.
For households with lots of furniture, it's best to consider a more durable full-size corded upright or canister vacuum. These models typically feature more powerful motors and a motorized floorhead to tackle the toughest dirt and carpeting. They're also available in different power modes to provide different suction power and a longer battery life. If anyone in your household suffers from allergies, it's a good idea for you to pick a vacuum that has a HEPA filtration system.
2. Flexibility
The best vacuum cleaners can handle various tasks around the house including dusting, to deep-cleaning carpets. They're usually lightweight, making them effortless to maneuver. They will also come with a variety of attachments to suit your needs.
If you have pets, consider the right vacuum to deal with pet hair. These vacuums typically have a dedicated brush that removes pet hair from the main floorhead and then directs it to the dust container so it does not block the brush roll or wrap around it.
Some of the best vacuums come with smart features, that integrate with your home systems or adjust for different types of flooring and dirt levels. automatic vacuum is crucial for people who have allergies, as these features can prevent fine debris from recirculating throughout the air.
Vacuums can be expensive, but the best ones are on sale several times per year during major events like Black Friday and Amazon's Prime Day. You can also find deals throughout the spring, when retailers schedule sales to coincide with customers' annual spring cleaning.
The lifespan of a vacuum varies, depending on its model and the kind of use you put it through. However, most of our top-rated picks last an average of eight years. If you want to outlast the competition, choose one with a longer-term guarantee.
3. User-Friendliness
A vacuum cleaner should be easy to maneuver and use, even for a longer cleaning session. This means a light and compact body, easy attachments and controls, as well as an ample bin that does not require frequent emptying. Many features make it easier of use, such as motorized power nozzles to tackle carpets and rugs with greater efficiency with a tall and wide floor head that reaches under furniture and has a rotating nozzle that allows for better corner cleaning, self-cleaning rollers, and LED lights that illuminate the path ahead.
Shark Stratos, for example, is our top pick and it was the easiest to maneuver. It also used the smallest amount of battery power during our tests. It also features automatic adjusting suction and an elegant LCD display with an indicator for the battery and the ability to switch between Eco, Auto and boost modes.
The Stratos also took in kibble, ground coffee and flour with ease in our tests. It handled low-pile carpet well cleaning up rice and sand in just a few passes. It also has a front-facing brushroll which is soft to hold tiny particles and prevent pet fur from spilling out and a rear brushroll which is rigid and digs into carpeting.
The budget-friendly Kenmore Elite sucks up wet spills and messes that can be found on hard floors thanks to the power of its dual brushroll design, yet it's still light enough to be able to carry it up and down stairs, and across the home without breaking sweat. It's also more easy to maintain than most upright models, with an HEPA filter that's easily removable, as well as dust bags that can be changed when it's full.
4. Versatility
The Levoit is a model that's versatile that can handle a variety of cleaning tasks. It isn't equipped with the features offered by higher-end models however, it does come with many key features that ensure it is suitable for daily use: it has multiple cleaning modes that can vary suction power and battery runtime (including Eco) as well as an 8-foot hose that can reach over floors, and a massive, easy-to-empty dust cup.
The brush roll is designed for capturing and sucking up hair without wrapping the bristles around it, making it a great choice for households with pets that shed hair or humans who shed lots of hair. The tests it passed in standardized tests also showed that it can take on a variety of debris, including hard floors and low-pile carpet It even managed to take out sand, rice and Cheerios from carpeting.
The Miele Flex Vac is a versatile cordless vacuum that also has a powerful motor. It was particularly effective in sucking up pet hair, and also picked larger particles like cereal. However, it struggled with more clogged-up debris such as dust from cars. It also comes with a broad selection of attachments, including an electric power nozzle that makes quick work of pet hair and dirt on upholstery.
5. automatic vacuum is one that can run for at least an hour without having to recharged. If you have a cordless model, this is crucial because it lets you to get your cleaning done without stopping to start again.
Our top choice, the Shark Stratos Cordless Vacuum is a great choice, with a long battery life and a dazzling debris pickup. Its three cleaning modes - Eco, Auto and Boost help to manage the power level so that you can keep cleaning longer without taking too much of your battery. The vacuum has an elegant LCD screen that displays the state of your battery and the amount of time left, and whether there is a clog.
This model is perfect for homes with pets as the no-tangle brushroll can effectively remove pet hair. It also excels in tackling dust and dirt. However, it has a difficult time to remove fine particles like flour from flooring that is hard and cannot get coffee grounds from carpeting.
If you're looking to tackle wet spills it is the Tineco Floor One S7 Pro is a fantastic choice. It is an all-in-one model that comes with features like an iLoop sensor which detects dirt, stains and spills. It also has self-cleaning that dries out the brush roll. It also offers more effective edge cleaning that can reach the corners and baseboards. The battery lasts for 40 minutes - longer than any other model that we tested.
6. Ease of Cleaning
The best vacuum cleaners make it easy to deal with mess. The Levoit LVAC-200 is a lightweight, compact vacuum cleaner that's powerful. In our tests, it pulled everything from kibble to ground coffee to dog hair. Its dual brushroll design collects pet hair as well as other debris without spitting it back out or wrapping it around the cleaner head, which helps it stay free of blocking. And its motorized tool sucks pet hair that has been embedded in upholstery, even in hard-to-reach places.
automatic vacuum is the Shark Stratos Cordless, which easily dealt with pet hair as well as other debris in our standard tests. The main floorhead is a soft front brushroll that captures small particles and dust, and the floorhead that has stiff bristles penetrates deeper into carpeting for more difficult mess. The dust cup is plenty, and is easy to empty.
If you have a lot of carpeting in your home, you may want to consider an upright that is full-size or a canister vacuum that has a beater for more thorough cleaning. Choose a wet-dry vacuum cleaner which can take care of flooring and the mess caused by food or water. Examples include the Miele Cat & Dog, or the Henry Hoover. These machines are capable of handling a wide range of household debris from small pieces of food to huge messes, and might come with more advanced features than the handhelds listed on this list.