The Best Home Vacuum Cleaner
The best home vacuum cleaner is a multi-functional tool that is simple to use and maneuver. The best model will be quiet, light and efficient.
This model provides excellent suction for a very low cost. It also has an anti-hair wrap floorhead that's effective and an anti-odor puck. It also has a large bin and is extremely easy to empty.
1. Power
A powerful vacuum cleaner can effectively manage household debris, making it simple to keep messes under control. It should be able to clean any mess, whether it's a pile of dog hair or a kitchen sink that has become blocked. It should also capture fine dust and prevent the growth of bacterial, to ensure clean, healthy air quality. Choosing the right model for your needs depends on factors like the type of flooring, the size of your household and budget. The most commonly used types include uprights, portable handhelds light sticks, and handy robots.
The Black+Decker Flex Vac is a lightweight handheld vacuum that has an impressively powerful performance. It is perfect for households with pets that are multiple or large homes. It also has an easy-to-empty debris receptacle, which helps prevent messy cleanups. The vacuum can be used as a mop to allow users to perform two tasks at the same time.
If you live in a home with a lot of furniture it's best to think about a more robust full-size corded upright or canister vacuum. These models typically feature stronger motors and a motorized floorhead to tackle difficult dirt and carpeting. They are also available in a variety of power modes that offer various suction capabilities and a long life battery. If you or anyone in your family suffers from allergies, it's recommended for you to choose a vacuum that has a HEPA filter system.
2. Flexibility
The best vacuum cleaners can perform a variety of household chores from quick dusting, to deep cleaning carpets. They're typically light and easy to maneuver, and should also have a variety of attachments that will meet your needs.
Consider a vacuum designed to deal with hair from pets if you have pets. They usually come with a brush specifically designed to remove hairs from the floorhead and directs it into the dust container so it doesn't block the brush roll or wrap around it.
Some of the top vacuums have smart features, which integrate with your home systems or adjust for different floor types and dirt levels. This is particularly important for those with allergies, since these features keep dust particles from recirculating 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. There are also sales throughout the spring, when retailers schedule sales in anticipation of customers' annual spring cleaning.
A vacuum's lifespan can vary according to the model and the kind of use you put it through. However, most of our top picks last an average of eight years. If you want to be sure that your device will last longer than competition, look for one with an extended warranty.
3. Simple to use
A vacuum cleaner should be easy to operate and maneuver, even during a long cleaning session. A compact, lightweight vacuum cleaner with convenient controls attachments, an enormous, non-emptying bin are all crucial. Many features contribute to this ease of use, including motorized power nozzles that tackle carpets and rugs more effectively as well as a tall and wide floor head that can reach under furniture, a rotating nozzle for better corner cleaning, self-cleaning rollers and LED lighting that illuminates the way ahead.
For example, our top pick in this category, the Shark Stratos cordless vacuum, was a breeze to maneuver and used the lowest amount of battery power during our tests. It also features automatic adjusting suction and a sleek LCD display that has an indicator of battery power and the ability to switch between Eco, Auto and boost modes.
The Stratos also took in kibble, ground coffee and flour effortlessly in our tests. It handled low-pile carpet well, removing rice and sand in just a few passes. It also has a front brushroll that is soft enough to capture tiny particles and prevent pet fur from spitting out and a rear brushroll which is rigid and digs into carpeting.
Similar to the budget-friendly Kenmore Elite sucks up wet spills and messes from hard floors thanks to the power of its dual brushroll design, but it's still lightweight enough to carry up and down stairs, and across the home without breaking the bank. It's much easier to clean than other upright models too, with an easily removable HEPA filter and disposable dust bag that can be replaced after filling up.
4. Versatility
The Levoit is a very versatile model that can handle all cleaning tasks. It might not come with all the features of more expensive models, but its essential features make it an ideal choice for daily use. This includes an 8-foot hose which can reach above floors and a large dust cup that's easy to empty.
Its brush roll is made to collect and remove hair without wrapping it around bristles, making it an ideal choice for households with pets who shed hair or even people who shed a lot. The tests it passed in standardized tests also proved that it is able to take on various kinds of debris, including carpet with a low pile and hard floors It even managed to remove sand, rice, and Cheerios from carpeting.
The Miele Flex Vac is a versatile cordless vacuum that boasts impressive power. It was particularly effective at collecting pet hair. It also picked up larger particles like cereal, though it did struggle with more caked-on debris such as car dirt. It also comes with a broad variety of attachments, such as an electric power nozzle that makes short work of dirt and pet hair on upholstery.
5. Battery Life
A quality home vacuum is one that can run for at least an hour without having to recharged. For a cordless model this is important since it allows you to take on cleaning tasks without stopping to restart the process.
Our top choice Shark Stratos Cordless Vacuum, offers a lengthy battery life and impressive debris removal. The three cleaning modes - Eco, Auto and boost, help you to manage the power to allow you to clean longer without draining your battery too fast. The vacuum features an elegant LCD screen that shows the state of your battery, how much time is remaining, and if there is a clog.
This model is a fantastic choice for households with pets that shed hair, since its brushroll is non-tangle and is excellent at getting rid of pet hair. It also is very effective in tackling dirt and dust. However, it has a difficult time to remove fine particles like flour from hard flooring and is unable to remove coffee grounds from carpeting.
Tineco Floor One S7 Pro can also handle wet spills. This model is a bagged vacuum but has features like an iLoop smart sensor that can detect dirt and stains; self-cleaning that will dry the brush roll better edge cleaning that gets into corners and along baseboards and a battery lasting 40 minutes, which is more than any other model we've tested.
6. Ease of Cleaning
The best vacuum cleaners make it easy to manage messes. The Levoit LVAC-200 is a lightweight compact vacuum cleaner that's also powerful. In our tests, it pulled everything from kibble and ground coffee to dog hair. The dual brushroll design captures pet hair and other debris without spilling it out or wrapping it around the cleaner's head to keep it clear of clogging. robot cleaner can also remove embedded pet hair from upholstery, even in hard-to-reach places.
Another notable is the Shark Stratos Cordless, which easily handled pet hair as well as other debris in our standardized tests. The main floorhead features a soft front brushroll that captures fine dust and debris and the floorhead that has hard bristles is able to penetrate deeper into carpeting for more difficult dirt. And the dust cup holds plenty of space and is easy to empty.
If your house is carpeted, you should consider an upright or full-size canister vacuum that comes with a beater bar for deeper cleaning sessions. Choose a wet-dry vacuum cleaner that can handle both flooring and the mess caused by food or water. Examples include the Miele Cat & Dog or the Henry Hoover. These machines can handle all kinds of household debris from small crumbs to larger messes, and could provide more advanced features than the handhelds in this list.