She also took the vacuum’s specs, features, price point and ease of use to give an in-depth and accurate judgement of its value to our readers. Here at The Spruce, we want to ensure we fully stand behind every product we recommend and that when we say something is the best, we mean it. You might have noticed The Spruce shark pet hair vacuum Approved badge next to the products on this list. Every product with this badge has been rigorously tested in person and carefully selected by our expert team of lab testers and editors. In most cases, we buy all these products ourselves, though occasionally, we get samples provided to us directly by companies.
Note that the brushroll cannot be easily removed for cleaning so the ability to reduce hair wrap will make brushroll maintenance easier. This 2-in-1 vacuum and mop robot from Shark is by far one of our favorite models from the brand. We’ve had the opportunity to test it in a variety of real-world settings to understand its performance completely.
The Kenmore – Elite has the best suction power of all the vacuums we’ve tested — even 5% better than the new motor design in the Apex — pulling minus 23 kilopascals of air pressure. That makes it excellent for getting dirt out of floor cracks and picking crumbs out of your couch. We came close to recommending the Dirt Devil Razor Vac Plus UD70350B for anyone who wanted to take a chance on a cheap vacuum cleaner, but we decided not to. It cleaned well in our tests, it’s comfortable to use, and it comes with a good set of tools. But like with other cheap vacuum cleaners, the cost of replacement filters ($20 per year) makes it a bad deal. Even if you skip those, we read many reviews about it wearing down (or just breaking) after about a year.
Canister vacuums are popular in Europe, and upright vacuums are overwhelmingly more popular among American homeowners. This shift probably comes down to a difference in floor plans, with spread-out wall-to-wall carpeting floorspace favoring uprights versus the bare floors and staircases of old-world architecture. Choosing a canister vacuum without a powered carpet head was tricky, since the bare-floor cleaning that these vacuums are best at isn’t particularly complicated.
Most large and midsize cities have at least one, but it’s worthwhile to check the service map before you buy a Miele so that you don’t end up having to drive 90 minutes to a vacuum shop if you need service under warranty. We also have another guide to help you figure out which type of vacuum is the best fit for your home. And build quality is excellent with all the tools locking securely when attached with a “click”.