The Best Home Vacuum Cleaner
The ideal vacuum cleaner for the home is a multi-functional, user-friendly tool. The right model should also be lightweight, efficient, and quiet.
This model offers excellent suction at a reasonable price, with an effective anti-hair wrap floorhead and an odor neutralizing puck. It also comes with a huge bin that is easy to empty.
1. Power
A high-powered vacuum cleaner will effectively manage household debris and make it easy to keep the mess under control. If you're dealing with a heap of pet hair or a blocked kitchen drain, it must be able to clean up the mess with a minimum of effort. It should also collect fine dust and stop the growth of bacterial, to ensure clean, healthy air quality. The best model is determined by your budget as well as the dimensions of your home and floor. The most commonly used models are uprights, portable handhelds lightweight sticks, and practical robots.
The Black+Decker Flex Vac is a lightweight handheld vacuum cleaner that offers an impressively strong performance. It is ideal for households that have multiple pets or large houses. It also comes with a simple-to-empty debris container that helps avoid dirty clean-ups. The vacuum can also 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 a good idea 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 difficult dirt and carpeting. They're also available in different power modes for varied suction strength and longer battery life. It's recommended to look for the vacuum that has HEPA filters. HEPA filter if anyone in your home is suffering from allergies.
2. Flexibility
The most effective vacuum cleaners can perform a variety of tasks in your home from quick dusting to cleaning carpets. They're usually lightweight and easy to maneuver, and should also offer a range of attachments to suit your needs.
If you have pets, consider the right vacuum to handle pet hair. They usually come with 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.
Some of the top vacuums come with smart features, which integrate with your home systems or adjust for different types of flooring and dirt levels. This is especially important for people with allergies, as these features prevent fine particles from getting recirculated in the air.
Vacuums can be a bit expensive, but the best ones are available for sale at least once a year during major events such as Black Friday and Amazon's Prime Day. There are also sales during the spring season, when retailers announce sales to coincide with customers' annual spring cleaning.
The lifespan of a vacuum can vary according to the model and the way you make use of it. However, our top-rated models last for an average of eight years. If you want to be sure yours will outlast the competition, look for one with an extended warranty.
3. Easy of Use
A vacuum cleaner must be easy to maneuver and use, even during an extended cleaning session. This means a light, compact body, convenient attachments and controls, as well as a large bin that does not require frequent emptying. This ease of use is possible thanks to numerous features, including motorized power heads that clean carpets and rugs more effectively, a large and tall floor head that can reach under furniture, rotating nozzles to clean corners, and LED lights which illuminate the pathway.
For instance, our top pick in this category, the Shark Stratos cordless vacuum, was a breeze to move and required the most power from the battery during our tests. It also comes with an automatic suction adjustment and a sleek LCD screen with a battery indication, and the ability for users to switch between Auto Eco and Boost modes.
The Stratos also took in ground coffee, kibble and flour effortlessly in our tests, and it was able to handle carpets with low piles, removing rice and sand in just a few passes. It also comes with a soft front brushroll that can capture fine particles and prevent pet hair from spilling back out, as well as a rigid rear brushroll that digs into carpeting.
Similar to the budget-friendly Kenmore Elite sucks up wet spills and dirt from hard floors with the power of its dual brushroll design, but it's light enough to be able to carry it up and down stairs and across the home without breaking a sweat. It's also easier to maintain than most upright models, with an HEPA filter that's easily removable, as well as dust bags that can be replaced once it's fully stuffed.
4. Versatility
The Levoit is a versatile model that can handle the majority of cleaning tasks. It might not come with all the features of higher-priced models, but its key features make it a good choice for everyday use. These include an 8-foot hose that can reach over floors and a large dust cup that's easy to empty.
The brush roll is made for capturing and sucking up hair without wrapping the bristles around it making it a good choice for households with pets that shed hair or people who shed a lot. Its performance in standardized tests also demonstrated that it can manage all kinds of debris including carpets with low pile and hard floors It even managed to remove rice, sand, and Cheerios from carpeting.
The Miele Flex Vac is a multi-purpose cordless vacuum that boasts impressive power. It was particularly effective at sucking up pet hair, and also picked larger particles such as cereal. However, it had trouble with more caked on debris like dust from cars. It has a variety of attachments, including a motorized power-nozzle that will quickly get rid of pet hair and dirt from upholstery.
5. Battery Life
A quality vacuum cleaner for your home should last at least one hour before it needs to be recharged. This is crucial for cordless models since it lets you clean without having to stop.
Our top choice Shark Stratos Cordless Vacuum is a great choice, with a long battery life as well as impressive debris pickup. The three cleaning modes, Eco Auto, Boost and Eco allow you to control the power to allow you to clean for longer without draining the battery too quickly. The vacuum comes with a sleek LCD display that displays whether there's a blockage and how much time you have left, and your battery status.
This model is a great option for families with pets that shed hair, since its brushroll is non-tangle and is excellent at picking up pet hair. It's also very effective at dealing with dirt and dust, although it struggled to remove fine particles like flour from hard floors and could not remove coffee grounds from carpeting.
If you're looking to tackle wet spills it is the Tineco Floor One S7 Pro is a great choice. This is a bagged model with features like an iLoop sensor which detects dirt, spills, stains and dirt. 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 that we tested.
6. Cleaning is easy
The top vacuum cleaners make it a breeze to deal with messes. The Levoit LVAC-200 is a lightweight compact vacuum cleaner, but powerful. In our standard tests, it took in everything from kibble to ground coffee to dog hair. Its dual brushrolls catch pet hair and other particles without spitting them out or wrapping them around the cleaner's head. This makes it less susceptible to blocking. The motorized tool is able to remove embedded pet hair even from areas that are difficult to reach.
The Shark Stratos Cordless is another standout, as it handled pet hair and large pieces of debris effortlessly in our standard tests. The main floorhead comes with a soft brushroll designed to catch dust and other debris. The second floorhead that has bristles that are rigid, can penetrate deeper into carpeting to tackle more difficult dirt. And auto vacuum holds plenty, and is easy to empty.
If you have a lot of carpet in your home, you may want to consider a full size upright or canister vacuum that has a beater to get a deeper clean. Choose a wet-dry vacuum cleaner that is able to handle flooring and the mess caused by food or water. Examples include the Miele Cat & Dog, or the Henry Hoover. These vacuums are able to handle a wide range of household waste, from small pieces of food to huge messes, and could come with more advanced features than handhelds on this list.