Cameron Pitts
Cameron Pitts, a member of the editorial and product review team with Best Reviews, which tests and reviews consumer products. BestReviews.com
If your old vacuum is no longer up to the challenge of demolishing dust bunnies and pulverizing pet hair, here are the best new models to choose from…
Standard Upright Vacuums
Best overall: Dyson Ball Multi Floor 2upright vacuum combines the suction and durability of an industrial-grade vacuum with impressive ease of use—its roller-ball design maneuvers nimbly around corners or between table legs, and its cleaner head adjusts automatically to maintain suction on carpets and hard floors. This bagless vacuum’s filtration system does a great job of containing allergens—most lesser vacuums let some dust escape into the air. $399.
Best bargain-priced: Bissell CleanView Bagless upright vacuum offers far better suction and filtration than most vacuums in its price range. Although its performance falls a bit short of the more expensive Dyson above, its “multi-cyclonic” suction system and rotating brush system do an impressive job on floors and carpets, especially for the price, and it has a big one-liter bagless tank that’s easy to empty. $100.
Vacuums for Pet Owners
Best for pet hair: Dyson Ball Animal upright offers even more suction than the Dyson Ball Multi-Floor 2 to help pull stubborn pet hair out of carpeting. It comes with a “tangle-free turbine tool,” a handheld hose attachment that does an excellent job of removing pet hair from upholstery and other tricky-to-vacuum locations. Like the Dyson, it provides excellent filtration and maneuverability. $390.
Best bargain-priced vacuum for pet hair: Hoover PowerDrive Pet Upright Vacuum is a little harder to maneuver than the Dyson Ball Animal Upright but is powerful enough to pick up pet hair from deep carpets. Like the Dyson, it comes with a handheld hose attachment designed to remove pet hair from upholstery. Its sealed allergen system successfully contains 99% of the small particles it sucks up from returning to the air. $215.
Robot Vacuums
Best robot vacuum: Eufy RoboVac L70 Hybrid is a powerful vacuum capable of keeping carpets clean…and a mopping robot that does an effective job on surfaces including tile and wood. No other robot vac performs as well on such a wide range of floor surfaces. It can be controlled via phone app or voice commands, but it’s smart enough to handle most floor-cleaning tasks on its own—it has laser-guided navigation capabilities and can automatically increase suction when it senses deep carpet, for example. And it has a two-and-a-half-hour battery life between charges. Its rinseable filter traps 99.95% of allergens as small as 0.01 micron in size. $500.
Best bargain-priced robot vacuum: Ecovacs Deebot N79S cleans carpets as well as much pricier models, even $900 Roombas, and it has a high-efficiency filter. Its main limitation is that its software and app are less sophisticated than more expensive competitors. $170.
