Whats the Best Vacuum for Carpets? Reviews by Wirecutter

Table Of Content

• Budget pick: Shark Navigator Lift-Away NV352
• The 9 Best Vacuums for Pet Hair of 2024, Tested and Reviewed
• The 12 Best Vacuums for Pet Hair of 2024, Tested and Reviewed
• Hoover MaxLife Pet Max Complete Bagless Upright Vacuum Cleaner
• A Top-Rated Budget Pick That’s Great On Rugs
• What vacuum attachments are good for pet hair?

Read more about what makes a powerful, versatile vacuum in our guide to upright and canister vacuums. If your home has lots of rugs and carpets of different piles and textures, you need a powerful, well-balanced vacuum with a light touch to tackle all of that grossness without damaging your rugs. A standard attachment that comes with nearly all vacuums, these are long, slim tools that fit into tight areas, such as behind the toilet or between couch cushions. They’re useful for cleaning up clumps of hair that may have gathered in corners of your home where the vacuum’s floorhead may not fit. The vacuums on our list include everything from handheld to canister models, and each type comes at a different price point. We tested models ranging from under $40 to nearly $1,000, but the median price of all the vacuums we tested is $240.

Budget pick: Shark Navigator Lift-Away NV352

Pet hairs find their way into every nook and cranny of your home, and different areas require different cleaning attachments. However, any attachment can do a good job of picking up pet hair, as long as the vacuum’s motor is powerful enough, says Prouty. When buying a vacuum for general household needs, it’s important to consider features like size and weight, floor settings and more.

The 9 Best Vacuums for Pet Hair of 2024, Tested and Reviewed

For a cordless vacuum option, we like the Tineco Pure One S15 Pro Smart Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner, because it has a strong suction relative to its size. Plus, it can be controlled via an app, features numerous attachments, and comes with an anti-tangle brush roll. Finally, our best overall upright vacuum cleaner is the Dyson Ball Animal 3 Complete because it’s effective at lifting deeply embedded hair from high-pile carpeting without getting it tangled around the brush roll.

The 12 Best Vacuums for Pet Hair of 2024, Tested and Reviewed

The 5 best robot vacuums for pet hair in 2024 - CBS News

The 5 best robot vacuums for pet hair in 2024.

Posted: Fri, 12 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]

The internal filter is not HEPA certified, but it’s effective—capturing 99.99 percent of particles—and easy to maintain with a quick rinse in water. The vacuum cleaner is one of the more expensive selections on our list, but it requires little maintenance and comes with a two-year warranty from Dyson. There are three power settings to choose from and with a full charge of the lithium-ion battery, the Cyclone V10 Animal has a runtime of up to 60 minutes at the lowest setting and 35 minutes at the highest.

Vacuums with “HEPA-like” filters are less expensive but often are only able to trap airborne particles as small as 0.5 microns, which makes a big difference when it comes to reducing debris like pet dander. Sealed vacuums that don’t allow any particles to escape from side vents or any other part of the vacuum are helpful for allergies, as are bagged vacuums that minimize the release of dust when emptying the dust cup. While it does have a cord, it extends up to 30 feet so it's unlikely to limit your cleaning ability. It also has LED headlights that make it easy to see into crevices and corners so you don't miss a spot. A house may not be a home without a pet, but a home with a pet often means a home covered in pet hair.

How to Shop for Vacuums for Pet Hair Like a Pro

However, I had difficulty emptying the dustbin without getting my hands dirty or inadvertently sending gunk flying outside the trash can. Your best bet is to release the trap-door mechanism with the bottom inside your trash receptacle. The Stratos incorporates Shark's odor-neutralizing technology, which adds a scent to mask odors and leave floors smelling fresher. Two testers of Shark products with the feature did not particularly love this extra or expressed a plan to purchase the replacement filters once the filter lost its scent. If you don't have any spare closets but don't want to keep your vacuum out in the open, then a large upright model might not be as good of an option as a stick or robot model. "Most people who own vacuums don't know there's a filter in their vacuum, let alone how well it performs, so having a high-quality filtration system when you have a pet is very important," Toogood says.

This pick from Hoover earned a spot in our 2023 Best Cleaning and Organizing Awards due to its strong suction, tangle-preventing brush roll and affordable price tag. It's a bagless vacuum with a larger dust bin that can hold up to 1.5 liters of debris which is especially nice since pet hair takes up lots of space. The tangle guard prevents hair up to 16 inches long from getting caught, a claim that held up during our testing. "It did a great job picking up the long hair and threads we put down without getting them tangled in the brush roll," said one expert tester. The generous canister holds up to 1.7 liters (roughly half a gallon) and was only full after cleaning an entire home (close to 2,000 square feet).

Looking for more products that have earned our BHG Recommends seal of approval? If you live in a home with more than one level, then you want to choose a vacuum that isn't too bulky or heavy for you to carry up and down the stairs. The Dyson Cyclone V10 Animal aced our lab tests when it came to effectiveness and maneuverability, and we praised the device as everything we’ve ever wanted in a vacuum. We found the vacuum a little bulky to carry one-handed, especially if you need to go up and down the stairs often. It’s only 16 pounds, which doesn’t seem like much, but because of its boxy shape and slim handle, it was quite cumbersome.

Many vacuums that aren't specifically marketed for pet hair work just fine, but the main features that qualify as the best pet vacuums are strong suction, excellent filtration, and specialized cleaner heads and attachments. In addition to picking up all of the pet hair on all of the surfaces we tested — while remaining free of pet hair tangles — the vacuum picked up almost all of the other materials on carpeting, hardwood, and furniture. The only substance it seemed to have any difficulty with was flour, but it still picked up at least 90% of the flour on each surface. The powerful Dyson Outsize Cordless Vacuum excels at picking up pet hair, has up to 60 minutes of run time, and features a large dustbin for longer, uninterrupted cleans. The Hoover MaxLife Pet Max Complete Bagless Upright Vacuum almost made our list of the top vacuums for pet hair. Though it was effective on carpet and upholstery, our testers found that it wasn't able to pick up pet hair or kibble on hard floors.

The Neato D8 Intelligent Robot Vacuum is moderately priced and capable of covering up to 750 square feet on a single charge. The D-shaped body of the robotic vacuum glides around furniture legs and also gets into corners to pick up pet hair and debris. Best Robot Vacuum For Thick Carpet And Pet Hair to Buy in 2021, As a result, animal lovers looking for the best robot vacuum for pet hair under $500 don't have a ton of options. The roomba combo j7 plus has the ability to suck up particles as small as 0.7 microns, as well as the ability to recognize and avoid pet waste. Another excellent pick that proved to be an all-time standout among the 55 total carpet cleaners we’ve tested, the Tineco iCarpet is a sleek and easy-to-use machine that exceeded all our initial expectations.

In addition to assessing the comfort and portability of each vacuum, I also put them to the test ... A fully sealed filtration system, sometimes called an anti-allergen seal, is another common feature on pet vacuums. This means the components of the vacuum are tightly sealed so fine particles can’t escape back into your home once they’ve been sucked up.

We wholeheartedly stand by our recommendation after using the iRobot at home for several months. In fact, we actually want to buy a second one to use on the upper floor of the house. This vacuum was a little louder than other models we tested, clocking in at 81 decibels on its lowest setting. Since this is approximately the same noise level as a truck on the highway, you likely won’t be able to hold a conversation in the same room as the vacuum when it’s running.

While this vacuum excels on upholstery, it's not as effective on surfaces like wood or tile floors. It eventually does pick up debris, but requires more passes compared to a standard stick vacuum. Despite this limitation, its superior performance on upholstered furniture makes it a valuable tool for pet owners.

Though the Dyson V15 Detect vacuum is expensive, it’s worth the splurge because of its lightweight design and the suite of impressive attachments it comes with. Besides the battery life, our favorite detail is that the crevice tool is built right into the vacuum and the motorized tool fits right on top, making it very easy to carry and store the attachments. The vacuum’s cord is also generously long, so we were able to easily cover a large area without stopping to find a new outlet. Plus, the detached design of the Kenmore canister vacuum makes it super easy to fit underneath furniture, like couches and coffee tables. After several months in a home with beige carpeting and a black dog that sheds a lot, this vacuum continues to deliver results but often requires the highest, loudest setting for a thorough cleaning.

On carpets and hard floors alike, the Dyson V15 picked up all of the pet hair in just one pass, and it seamlessly transitioned between floor types without the need to change settings. In addition to performance testing, each vacuum must also undergo ease-of-use evaluations that include assessing the weight, battery runtime, maneuverability and ease of emptying and using the controls of the devices. Models that are tested in consideration for our annual Cleaning and Organizing Awards are also sent to consumer testers who rate and provide feedback on the vacuum’s maneuverability, ease of use and more. Our picks are the vacuums that performed best on in-Lab pet hair tests, plus ones with features perfectly suited to tackle stubborn fur. In the Cleaning Lab, we assess how well vacuums pick up dirt and debris from carpets, hardwood, tile and linoleum flooring.