The Best Home Vacuum Cleaner
The best home vacuum cleaner is a multi-functional tool that is simple to maneuver and use. The best model must be lightweight, efficient and quiet.
This model provides excellent suction for a very low cost. It also comes with an anti-hair wrap floorhead which is effective and an anti-odor puck. It comes with a large bin that is easy to empty.
1. Power
A powerful vacuum cleaner can effectively manage household debris, making it simple to keep mess under control. It should be able to clean up any mess, whether it's a pile of dog hair or a kitchen drain that is clogged. It should also capture fine dust and inhibit bacterial growth, for clean, healthy air quality. The right model depends on your budget as well as the floor type and household size. The most popular types are uprights, portable handhelds, lightweight sticks, and practical robots.
The Black+Decker Flex Vac handheld vacuum is a compact device that has incredible power. It sucks up pet hair and other larger debris effortlessly which makes it perfect for households with multiple pets or larger homes. It also comes with an easy to empty trash receptacle that will help avoid messy cleanups. The vacuum can also be used to mop, allowing users to complete two tasks at the same time.
Think about a large upright or canister corded model for households with lots of furniture. These models are equipped with more powerful motors as well as a motorized floorhead that can handle carpets that are embedded and stubborn dirt. They're also available in different power modes to provide different suction and longer battery life. It's recommended to look for a vacuum with an HEPA filter if someone in your home suffers from allergies.
2. Flexibility
The most effective vacuum cleaners can handle many tasks around the house, from dusting to deep-cleaning carpets. They are typically lightweight and easy to move. They should also come with various attachments that will meet your requirements.
If you have pets, think about the right vacuum to handle hair from pets. These vacuums typically have an exclusive brush that takes hair from the main floorhead and directs it into the dust container so that it does not block the brush roll or wrap around it.
The top-rated vacuums also have intelligent features that can integrate with your home's systems or adjust to different flooring types and levels of dirt. This is crucial for those with allergies, as these features help keep dust particles from circulating throughout the air.
Vacuums can be a bit pricey, but the best ones are available for sale a few times a year during major events such as Black Friday and Amazon's Prime Day. You can also find deals during the spring season, when retailers schedule sales to coincide with the annual spring cleaning of customers.
The life expectancy of a vacuum can vary according to the model and how you use it. However, the majority of our top-rated picks have an average lifespan of eight years. If you want to outlast your competitors, select a model with an extended guarantee.
3. Easy of Use
A vacuum cleaner must be easy to operate and maneuver, even during a lengthy cleaning session. A lightweight, compact vacuum cleaner with easy controls attachments, an enormous, non-emptying bin are all crucial. This ease of use is made possible by numerous options, including motorized power head that clean carpets and rugs better with a tall and wide floor head that can reach under furniture as well as rotating nozzles to clean corners, and LED lights which illuminate the pathway.
For instance, our top choice in this category, the Shark Stratos cordless vacuum, was easy to maneuver and used the most power from the battery during our tests. It also features automatic suction adjustment, a sleek LCD screen with a battery indicator, and the ability for users to switch between Auto Eco and Boost modes.
The Stratos also took in ground coffee, kibble and flour with ease in our tests. It also was able to handle carpets with low piles, removing sand and rice with just a few passes. It also has a soft front-facing brushroll to collect small particles and stop pet hair from spilling back out, and a stiff rear brushroll that sinks into carpeting.
The budget-friendly Kenmore Elite also has a dual brushroll design that is able to pick up messes and wet spills from hard surfaces. It's light enough to be carried up and down stairs, and around the house, without breaking the sweat. It's also easier to maintain than upright models, with an HEPA filter that is easily removable, as well as a dust bag that can be changed once full.
4. Versatility
The Levoit is a very versatile model, able of handling most cleaning tasks. It isn't equipped with the features offered by higher-end models but it does have a number of important features that ensure it's suitable for everyday 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 above floors, and a massive easy-to-empty dust container.
Its brush roll is designed for capturing and sucking up hair without wrapping bristles around it making it a good option for homes with hairy pets or humans that shed lots of hair. Its performance in standardized tests also demonstrated that it can handle various kinds of debris, including carpets with low pile and hard floors; it even managed to take out sand, rice and Cheerios from carpeting.
In addition to its versatility in its use, the Miele Flex Vac has an impressive amount of power for an electric vacuum cleaner. It was particularly effective in collecting pet hair. It also took larger particles such as cereal, although it struggled with more caked-on debris, such as car dirt. It also has a wide range of attachments, including an electric power nozzle that makes quick work of pet hair and dirt on upholstery.
5. Battery Life
A quality home vacuum is one that can run for at least one hour without needing to be recharged. For a cordless model, that's important because it allows you to take on cleaning tasks without stopping and begin again.
Our top choice, the Shark Stratos Cordless Vacuum is a great choice, with a long battery life and impressive debris removal. The three cleaning modes it has - Eco, Auto and Boost assist in regulating the power level, so you can continue cleaning longer without draining your battery too quickly. The vacuum features a sleek LCD screen that displays the status of your battery, how much time is left, and whether there is a clog.
This model is perfect for families with pets as the no-tangle brushroll can effectively remove pet hair. It also is very effective in tackling dirt and dust. However, it is unable to pick up fine particles like flour from floors that are hard and cannot remove coffee grounds from carpeting.
Tineco Floor One S7 Pro can also handle wet spills. It's a bagged vacuum but has features such as an iLoop sensor that can detect dirt and stains; self-cleaning, which dry the brush roll; better edge cleaning that gets into corners and along baseboards and a battery that can last for 40 minutes, which is more than any other model we've tried.
6. Ease of Cleaning
The best vacuums make cleaning up messes easy. The Levoit LVAC-200 is a light, compact vacuum cleaner that's also powerful. In our tests, it pulled everything from kibble and ground coffee to dog hair. Its dual brushroll design collects pet hair and other debris without spilling it out or wrapping it around the cleaner head, which helps it stay free of obstructions. The motorized tool can be used to get rid of pet hair embedded even from difficult-to-access areas.
Another standout is the Shark Stratos Cordless, which effortlessly handled pet hair as well as other debris in our standard tests. Its main floorhead has a soft front brushroll that captures fine dust and debris, while the second floorhead with hard bristles is able to penetrate deeper into carpeting to catch larger dirt. The dust cup is large and easy to empty.
If your home is carpeted, you should consider an upright or full-size vacuum that has beater bar for longer cleaning sessions. Choose a versatile wet-dry vacuum that can tackle both floors and messes made by food or water, such as the Miele C3 Cat and Dog or the Henry Hoover. These vacuums can take care of all kinds of household debris, from small crumbs to bigger messes. They also provide more advanced features than the handhelds listed in this list.