The Best Home Vacuum Cleaner
The ideal vacuum cleaner for your home is a multi-functional and easy-to-use tool. The ideal model should be lightweight, efficient and quiet.
This model provides excellent suction at a reasonable price. It also has an anti-hair wrap floorhead that is efficient as well as an odor neutralizing puck. It comes with a large bin that is easy to empty.
1. Power
A high-powered vacuum cleaner will efficiently take care of household debris and help to keep your mess under control. No matter if you have a pile of pet hair or a blocked kitchen drain, it should be able to clear the mess with little effort. It should also capture fine dust and stop the growth of bacteria, ensuring clean and healthy air quality. The best model to meet your needs is contingent on factors such as floor type, household size and budget. The most popular types are uprights, portable handheld vacuums, lightweight sticks and convenient robots.
The Black+Decker Flex Vac handheld vacuum is a lightweight device that has impressive force. It is perfect for households with pets that are multiple or houses that are large. It also comes with a simple-to-empty debris container that helps avoid messy cleanups. The vacuum can also be used to mop so that users can complete two tasks at once.
If you live in a home with a lot of furniture, it's best to think about a more durable full-size corded upright or canister vacuum. These models usually have larger motors as well as a motorized floorhead to tackle the toughest dirt and carpeting. They are also available in a variety of powers to offer a variety of suction strengths and a longer life battery. It's an excellent idea to look for the vacuum that has a HEPA filter if someone in your home is suffering from allergies.
2. Flexibility
The most effective vacuum cleaners can tackle a range of tasks in your home from quick dusting, to deep cleaning carpets. They are usually lightweight and easy to maneuver. They should also come with several attachments to suit your needs.
You should consider a vacuum that is designed to handle pet hair if you have pets. robot vacuum cleaners come with a dedicated power brush that siphons pet hair from the main floorhead and directs it to the dust cup so that it doesn't block or get caught in the brush roll.
Many of our top-rated vacuums have smart features that integrate with your home's systems, or adapt to different floor types and levels of dirt. This is particularly important for those with allergies, since these features keep dust particles from circulating throughout the air.
Vacuums can be expensive however, they're on sale during major occasions such as Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day. There are also great discounts in spring when retailers plan sales to coincide with customers' annual spring cleaning.
The life expectancy of a vacuum can be different, depending on its model and the type of use you put it through. However, the majority of our top picks last an average of eight years. If you want to be sure that yours will last longer than the other models, you should look for one with an extended warranty.
3. Ease of Use
A vacuum cleaner should be simple to use and maneuver, even during a long cleaning session. This includes a lightweight, compact body, easy controls and attachments and a large bin that doesn't require frequent emptying. Many features contribute to this ease of use, including motorized power nozzles to tackle carpets and rugs with greater efficiency as well as 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 lighting that illuminates the path ahead.
Shark Stratos, for example, is our top pick and it was the easiest to maneuver. It also utilized the smallest amount of battery power during our tests. It also has automatic adjusting suction as well as an elegant LCD display with an indicator for the battery and the ability to switch between Eco, Auto and boost modes.
In our tests, the Stratos sucked up kibbles, coffee grounds and flour with ease. It also did a great job with flooring with low pile and was able to remove sand, rice, and other particles with only a few strokes. It also comes with a soft front brushroll to collect fine particles and prevent pet hair from spitting out and a rigid rear brushroll that digs into carpeting.
Likewise, the budget-friendly Kenmore Elite sucks up wet spills and messes from hard floors with the power of its dual brushroll design, but it's light enough to carry up and down stairs as well as across the home without breaking a sweat. It's also less maintenance-intensive than most upright models, with a HEPA filter that is easily removable and dust bags that can be changed once fully stuffed.
4. Versatility
The Levoit is an extremely versatile model that can handle all cleaning tasks. It lacks many of the features offered by higher-end models but it does have several important features that ensure it performs well for everyday use: it has multiple cleaning modes that can vary suction power and battery run time (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 made for capturing and sucking up hair without wrapping bristles around it, making it a great option for homes with hairy pets or humans who shed lots of hair. Its performance in tests proved that it was able to manage a variety of debris including carpets with low piles and hard floors. It even removed rice, sand and Cheerios.
The Miele Flex Vac is a versatile cordless vacuum that also has impressive power. It was particularly effective in collecting pet hair. It also picked up larger particles like cereal, but it did struggle with more caked-on debris, such as car dirt. It has a variety of attachments like a motorized power-nozzle that can quickly remove dirt and pet hair from upholstery.
5. Battery Life
A good home vacuum cleaner is one that can run for at least an hour without needing to recharged. For a cordless model, that's important because it allows you to take on cleaning tasks without stopping and start again.
Shark Stratos cordless vacuum is our top pick. It comes with an extended battery life as well as a powerful debris picker. The three cleaning modes it has - Eco, Auto and Boost allow you to control the power level so you can continue cleaning longer without running out of battery. The vacuum features an elegant LCD screen that displays the battery's status, how much time is left, and whether there is a blockage.
This model is a fantastic option for households with pets who shed hair, as its brushroll is non-tangle and is very effective in getting rid of pet hair. It's also effective in cleaning dirt and dust however it was unable to pick up fine particles such as flour from hard floors and could not remove coffee grounds from carpeting.
If you're looking to deal with wet spills too, the Tineco Floor One S7 Pro is a great choice. This is an all-in-one model that comes with features like an iLoop sensor that can detect spills, dirt, and stains. It also has self-cleaning that dries out the brush roll. It also has better edge cleaning to reach corners and baseboards. The battery can last for 40 minutes, which is more than any other model we tried.
6. Cleaning is a breeze
The most effective vacuum cleaners make it a breeze to manage the mess. The Levoit LVAC-200 is a lightweight, compact vacuum cleaner that's powerful. In our tests, it pulled everything from kibble and ground coffee to dog hair. Its dual brushroll design collects pet hair and other large debris, without spitting it out or wrapping it around the cleaner's head which helps keep it free of blocking. The motorized tool can be used to remove embedded pet hair even from areas that are difficult to reach.
Another standout is the Shark Stratos Cordless, which easily handled pet hair as well as other debris in our standard tests. The main floorhead is a soft front brushroll that collects fine dust and debris while the second floorhead with hard bristles is able to penetrate deeper into carpeting for tougher mess. The dust cup is plenty of space and is easy to empty.
If you have a lot of carpeting in your home, you may need to consider an upright that is full-size or a canister vacuum with a beater to get a deeper clean. Choose a wet-dry vacuum cleaner that can handle both floors and messes resulting from water or food. Examples include the Miele Cat & Dog or the Henry Hoover. These vacuums can take care of various household waste from small crumbs to larger messes, and could offer more advanced features than the handhelds in this list.