The Best Home Vacuum Cleaner
The ideal vacuum cleaner for the home is a multi-functional, user-friendly tool. The ideal model will be light, quiet and efficient.
This model offers excellent suction at a low cost and comes with a powerful anti-hair wrap floorhead 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 effectively manage household debris and make it easy to keep your mess under control. It should be able clean any mess, regardless of whether it is a pile of hair of a dog or a kitchen drain clogged. It should also be able to remove dust particles and prevent the growth of bacteria to ensure healthy, clean air. The ideal model will depend on your budget, flooring type and size of your household. The most popular types are uprights, portable handhelds, light sticks, and handy robots.
The Black+Decker Flex Vac handheld vacuum is a lightweight device that has impressive strength. It is ideal for families with pets that are multiple or large homes. It also comes with an easy to empty debris receptacle to prevent messy cleanups. The vacuum can even be used to mop, allowing users to complete two tasks at the same time.
Take a look at a large upright or canister-corded vacuum for households with a lot of furniture. These models come with more powerful motors with a motorized floorhead, and can take on carpeting embedded and stubborn dirt. They can also be found in different powers to offer a variety of suction capabilities and a long life battery. If you or anyone in your family suffers from allergies, it's a good idea you to choose one that comes with an HEPA filtering system.
2. Flexibility
The most effective vacuum cleaners can tackle many chores around the home including dusting, to deep-cleaning carpets. They're usually lightweight which makes them effortless to maneuver. They should also offer a range of attachments to suit your needs.
Consider a vacuum designed to deal with pet hair if you have pets. These models usually have a dedicated brush that removes pet hair from the main floorhead and redirects it into the dust container so it does not block the brush roll or wrap around it.
Some of the top vacuums have smart features, which integrate with your home systems, or adjust to different floor types and dirt levels. This is particularly important for those suffering from allergies, since these features can to stop fine particles from circulating throughout the air.
Vacuums are expensive however, they're for sale during major events such as Black Friday and Amazon 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 varies, depending on its model and the type of use it is put through. However, most of our top-rated models have an average lifespan of eight years. If you want to last longer than the competitors, select a model that comes with a long-term guarantee.
3. Simple to Use
A vacuum cleaner must be simple to operate and use, even for long cleaning sessions. A lightweight, compact vacuum cleaner with convenient controls, attachments, and a large, non-emptying bin are all crucial. A variety of features contribute to this ease of use, such as motorized power nozzles that tackle carpets and rugs more effectively with a tall and wide floor head that is able to reach under furniture and a rotating nozzle to ensure better corner cleaning, a self-cleaning roller system and LED lighting that illuminates the path ahead.
Shark Stratos, for example is our top choice and was the most easy to maneuver. It also had the least amount of battery power in our tests. More has automatic adjusting suction, a sleek LCD display that has an indicator for the battery and the ability to switch between Eco, Auto and boost modes.
In our tests, the Stratos was able to soak up kibbles, coffee grounds, and flour easily. It also handled low-pile flooring well by removing sand, rice, and other particles with just a few passes. It also has a soft front brushroll to capture fine particles and prevent pet hair from spilling back out and a rigid rear brushroll that digs deep into carpeting.
The budget-friendly Kenmore Elite sucks up wet spills and messes from hard floors thanks to the power of its dual brushroll design. However, it's still light enough to carry up and down stairs and across a home without breaking a sweat. It's also less maintenance-intensive than many upright models with the HEPA filter that's easily removed and dust bags that can be replaced once it's full.
4. Versatility
The Levoit is an extremely versatile model that can handle the majority of cleaning tasks. It doesn't have many of the features offered by higher-end models, but it does have many 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) and an 8-foot hose that can reach over floors, and a huge easy-to-empty dust container.
The brush roll is designed for capturing and sucking up hair without wrapping the bristles around it which makes it a great option for homes with hairy animals or even humans who shed lots of hair. The results of tests conducted on it also proved that it is able to take on all kinds of debris including carpet with a low pile and hard floors and even take out sand, rice and Cheerios from carpeting.
The Miele Flex Vac is a versatile cordless vacuum that also boasts impressive power. It was particularly effective in sucking up pet hair and also removing larger particles such as cereal. However, it had trouble with more clogged-up debris like car dust. It also comes with a broad range of attachments, including an electric power nozzle that makes quick work of pet hair and dirt that accumulates on upholstery.
5. Battery Life
A good home vacuum cleaner should last at least one hour without needing to recharged. If you have a cordless model, that's important because it allows you to take on cleaning tasks without stopping to start again.
Shark Stratos cordless vacuum is our top pick. It comes with an extended battery life as well as a powerful debris picker. Its three cleaning modes - Eco, Auto and Boost - help to manage the power level, so you can continue cleaning longer without running out of battery. The vacuum has an elegant LCD display that lets you know the presence of a blockage and how much time you've got left and the status of your battery.
This model is a great option for families with hairy pets, as its no-tangle brushroll does an excellent job of getting rid of pet hair. It also is very effective in tackling dust and dirt. However, it has a difficult time to remove small particles such as flour from floors that are hard and cannot remove coffee grounds from carpeting.
Tineco Floor One S7 Pro can also handle wet spills. It's an all-in-one model that comes with features such as an iLoop sensor that detects dirt, stains and spills. It also has self-cleaning, which dry out the brush roll. It also offers superior edge cleaning that allows you to get to the corners and baseboards. The battery can last for 40 minutes - more than any other model we tested.
6. Cleaning is easy
The best vacuum cleaners make it easy to deal with messes. The Levoit LVAC-200 is a good example is light and compact but impressively powerful. It sucked up everything from food particles to coffee grinds and dog hair in our standardized tests. Its dual brushroll design catches pet hair and other debris without spitting it back out or wrapping it around the cleaner's head which helps keep it free of clogging. The motorized tool can also remove pet hair that has been embedded in upholstery, even in hard-to-reach places.
The Shark Stratos Cordless is another top performer, because it handled pet hair and large particles easily in our standard tests. The main floorhead features a soft front brushroll, which captures fine dust and debris and the floorhead that has rigid bristles reaches deeper into carpeting for tougher messes. The dust cup is large and easy to empty.
If you have a lot of carpeting in your home, you may want to consider a large upright or canister vacuum with a beater for more thorough cleaning. Or, opt for an all-purpose wet-dry vacuum, which can tackle the floors as well as messes caused by water or food, such as the Miele C3 Cat & Dog or the Henry Hoover. These vacuums are capable of handling a wide range of household debris from small crumbs to large messes and might be more sophisticated than handhelds on this list.