Best Vacuum Cleaners 2024 - Forbes Vetted

All vacuum cleaners can pick up dirt and dust, but the best vacuums go a step further with powerful suction that works on all types of flooring, allowing you to clean your home quickly and efficiently. I tested 21 popular models to find the best vacuums that deliver top-tier suction power, are easy to operate and maintain, and can tackle various areas around your home. After weeks of testing, the best overall pick is the Shark PowerDetect Upright Vacuum, offering unbeatable suction, advanced features and impressive versatility. For those on a budget, the Shark Navigator Lift-Away Deluxe is also a great option if you don't mind a simpler design.

I tested 21 popular models to find the best vacuums that deliver top-tier suction power, are easy to ... [+] operate and maintain, and can tackle various areas around your home.

These two models weren’t the only stellar vacuums I tested—here are all of the standout options I recommend:

I prioritized a few key features, regardless of vacuum type. “A good filtration system, a swivel head for maneuverability and floor-type-specific features—like soft rollers for hard floors or powerful agitation for carpets—are must-haves when choosing a vacuum,” says Christopher White, CEO of Vacuum Wars. “These features ensure the vacuum is not only effective but also user-friendly and tailored to your home’s specific needs.”

During testing, I evaluated each vacuum’s cleaning performance, ease of use, noise level, ease of emptying the bin and maintenance, as well as overall value. With all these factors in mind, here are the best vacuums you can buy today.

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The Shark PowerDetect is the brand’s latest upright vacuum, and I was blown away by its cleaning performance and versatility—all at a reasonable price. This vacuum never needed more than two passes to pick up any type of debris and performed exceptionally on both carpeting and hard floors, thanks to Shark’s signature dual-brush roll design. It easily sucked up large particles like uncooked rice and cat litter without scattering them across the floor. It also pulled up a surprising amount of dirt and dog hair from an area rug I had just vacuumed with another model. Despite collecting multiple canisters full of dog hair from my two golden retrievers, the brush roll never got tangled, and the dustbin was always easy to empty.

The PowerDetect offers four cleaning modes—hard floors, low-pile carpet, high-pile carpet and PowerDetect—which are conveniently located on the handle for easy operation. The PowerDetect setting automatically adjusts suction power based on the floor type and dirt levels, but I appreciated that you can manually select a mode if you prefer not to rely on the sensors. Another standout feature is the Powered Lift-Away mode, which allows you to detach the canister body from the wand while still using the floorhead. This made it simple to clean under low-profile furniture like my sofa—a task most full-size vacuums struggle with.

The PowerDetect also includes a crevice tool and multi-pet tool, ideal for cleaning stairs and furniture, both of which dock right onto the vacuum’s body. Additionally, Shark offers several specialty attachments, making it a versatile option for cleaning your entire home.

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The Shark Navigator Lift-Away Deluxe is an excellent value for homes without pets. This model offers powerful suction, a versatile lift-away design, HEPA filtration and a 5-year warranty—all at less than half the price of many other upright vacuums. During testing, this budget-friendly vacuum excelled on carpets, picking up debris like coffee grounds and cereal in just three passes. It also performed well on hard floors, lifting baby powder and rice, but you need to turn off the brush roll to prevent larger pieces from being scattered.

This upright vacuum features convenient swivel steering, making it easy to maneuver around obstacles, and its canister lifts off the body to clean hard-to-reach areas like stairs. There's a docking slot for one of the two included attachments, and the whole vacuum is slightly more compact and lightweight than many other uprights I tested. However, the main drawback is its performance with pet hair—long strands tangle around the brush roll almost immediately, so pet owners should opt for a different model.

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If you're willing to invest in a high-end vacuum, the Dyson Gen5detect is the brand’s latest cordless model, and it handled every task I tested with ease. Despite being cordless, this vacuum offers 70 minutes of runtime on its auto suction setting with the floorhead attached, and it features a countdown timer on its digital screen to show exactly how much cleaning time remains. The Gen5detect also comes with attachments that excel at cleaning a variety of surfaces, from thick rugs to furniture. One standout is the Hair Screw tool, which made quick work of dog hair on my sofa and car seats.

This vacuum includes separate floorheads for carpeting and hard floors, both of which delivered top-tier cleaning performance. The Digital Motorbar head is designed for rugs, featuring a height-adjustable design that creates a strong seal on carpets for deep cleaning. It easily picked up large and small debris in just one or two passes, and its de-tangling vanes prevented pet hair from wrapping around the brush roll. The Fluffy Optic cleaner head, ideal for hard floors, uses a green laser to illuminate crumbs, dirt and pet hair, making them more visible. Both attachments automatically adjust the vacuum’s suction power based on the amount of dirt detected, handling debris of all sizes. The vacuum is also easy to empty with a lever on the back of the dustbin, and Dyson’s wall-mounted charging dock makes storage convenient.

The main drawback of the Gen5detect is its high price point, but it's worth the investment if you’re looking for a cordless vacuum with powerful, long-lasting suction. Keep in mind, however, that it’s somewhat top-heavy, which can make it tiring to use for extended periods and prevents it from standing upright on its own.

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The Miele Complete C3 Marin PowerLine may be a splurge, but it's worth the investment if you struggle with heavy upright vacuums. The Marin offers the most customizable settings of all the vacuums I tested, with seven suction levels and five brush roll heights, adjustable via foot controls to suit your specific cleaning needs. For example, the lower height was ideal for vacuuming up coffee grounds on carpeting, while the higher settings made it easy to pick up large cereal pieces without crushing them. I was particularly impressed by the Parquet Twister attachment, which is perfect for hard flooring. Its swiveling design allows it to lay flat, easily cleaning under low furniture and maneuvering around obstacles, though pet hair does tend to collect in its bristled edges.

One of this canister vacuum's standout features is its maneuverability. It glides effortlessly behind you as the hose connector swivels for easy handling. The Marin also comes with five attachments (three of which are stored neatly within the vacuum body), allowing you to clean virtually any surface in your home. Its 4.8-quart vacuum bags are two to three times larger than most upright dustbins, meaning fewer trips to empty them. Plus, maintenance is minimal—Miele recommends changing the filter after every four bag changes.

The only downside is that the canister design takes up more storage space compared to upright models. However, if you're willing to invest in this vacuum, its powerful cleaning capabilities will not disappoint.

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For households with a lot of carpeting, the Kenmore Intuition Bagged Upright provides a deep clean in less time, and its bagged dust collection system, along with a HEPA filter, ensures that allergens stay trapped inside instead of being expelled back into the air. During testing, I could feel the vacuum’s strong suction forming a solid seal with the carpet, easily picking up debris of all sizes in a single pass—making it one of the top performers among all the vacuums I tested. However, it wasn’t as effective on hard flooring, requiring several passes to collect materials like uncooked rice and cat litter.

One standout feature of this vacuum is its oversized upholstery brush, which is nearly 8 inches wide—twice the size of most other brushes I tested. This made it much faster to clean my sofa and other furniture. I also appreciated its lift-away design, which made above-floor cleaning easier. Keep in mind that there are multiple versions of this upright vacuum, with prices ranging from $160 to $200, differing in color, attachments, and floorheads. The model I tested, the purple BU4018, comes with a standard brush roll that can tangle with hair, so if you have pets, I recommend opting for the BU4050 model, which features a self-cleaning brush roll.

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If you have pets, the Shark Stratos DuoClean PowerFins HairPro is an excellent choice for your home, thanks to its no-tangle brushroll, HEPA filter and powerful suction. This is the vacuum I own and have used as my primary cleaning tool for the past two years in a chaotic multi-pet household. With its dual brushrolls—one soft and fluffy, the other featuring stiff fins—the vacuum digs deep into carpets to pull up pet hair and other debris. It performs just as effectively on hard floors, effortlessly sucking up everything from baby powder to cat litter in just one or two passes. Although it is slightly heavier than some models, the Stratos excels in suction power.

This vacuum also shines in versatility; I regularly use mine to clean furniture, stairs, baseboards and pet beds. It features the brand’s Powered Lift-Away technology, which makes it easy to clean under low-profile furniture. Additionally, it comes with an upholstery tool, a crevice tool and a motorized self-cleaning pet brush, making it ideal for tackling surfaces with lots of pet hair.

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Cordless stick vacuums are often considered supplementary cleaning tools, but the LG CordZero All-In-One could serve as your primary vacuum if you have a smaller home. It has the strongest suction of any cordless vacuum I’ve ever tested, and its all-in-one docking station makes it low-maintenance and incredibly convenient to use. The freestanding dock features hidden compartments on each side for storing all the vacuum’s attachments, and it self-empties into the base, eliminating the need for manual dustbin emptying.

In addition to its convenient design, this cordless stick vacuum delivers comparable suction power to a full-size model, efficiently picking up all types of debris in just one or two passes. It has a telescoping wand that adjusts to your height, and the onboard dust bin includes a compressor lever, allowing you to clean for longer before needing to empty it. The vacuum even comes with a powered mopping attachment featuring two rotating mop pads and a spray function for quick cleanups.

One word of warning, however: While the brand claims this vacuum can run for up to 200 minutes, that’s on its lowest setting without the floorhead attached. In testing, I found that it lasts around 15 minutes on medium suction with the floorhead. The vacuum comes with two batteries, providing about 30 minutes of cleaning time in total, making it best suited for smaller homes.

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Tineco is renowned for its wet-dry vacuums that can vacuum and mop simultaneously, and the Tineco Floor ONE Stretch S6 stood out for its impressive cleaning performance and ease of use. It features a suction-only setting that flawlessly picked up debris like uncooked rice and coffee grounds. In regular cleaning mode, it required just one slow pass to eliminate dried-on dirt and sticky chocolate syrup from linoleum flooring. The Stretch S6 is also more compact than most other wet-dry vacuums I’ve tested, and its unique lay-flat cleaning ability was particularly useful for reaching under my clawfoot bathtub, an area that hadn’t been mopped in years.

Beyond its exceptional cleaning capabilities, the Tineco Floor ONE Stretch S6 boasts additional features that enhance its appeal. It separates wet and dry debris in its dirty water tank, so I didn’t have to deal with wet clumps of dog hair. The base uses hot water and air to clean the brushroll after use, and after a five-minute self-cleaning cycle, it looked almost brand new and was nearly dry, helping to prevent odors over time. The only drawback I found was that the clean water tank can be a bit tricky to fill, but it's not a dealbreaker.

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For small cleaning tasks around the house, the Black+Decker Dustbuster Furbuster AdvancedClean+ is a surprisingly capable handheld vacuum. In testing, it effectively picked up all types of debris, including large pieces of cereal, without clogging. Additionally, nothing fell out of the nozzle when the vacuum was held upside down—a common issue with many handheld models.

The Furbuster AdvancedClean+ features two suction settings, but the lower setting was more than sufficient for all the cleaning tasks I tested it on. I especially appreciated the vacuum’s motorized pet brush, which excelled at picking up hair from furniture upholstery, carpeting and car seats without tangling. This vacuum ran for an impressive 28 minutes on its lower suction setting—much longer than other models—and its extra-large dust bin is easy to empty without needing to remove it from the vacuum. However, there are a few drawbacks to consider. It lacks a dusting brush, and it can be quite noisy on the higher suction setting, measuring around 88 decibels.

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The Eufy X8 Pro is the latest robot vacuum from the brand, and it stands out as both the quietest and most effective automated cleaning tool I tested. Even on its “Turbo” suction setting, it registered just 58 decibels while cleaning, allowing me to comfortably watch TV or hold a conversation without interruption. The X8 Pro impressed me with its cleaning performance; after programming it to make two passes around my dining room, it effortlessly picked up all the uncooked rice, cereal, dog hair and baby powder I scattered on the floor. It did occasionally get slightly tripped up on a shoelace but was able to free itself without any assistance.

This robot vacuum comes with a self-emptying base, and I particularly appreciated its special cleaning cycle at the end of each run, which uses a metal comb to remove hair from the brush roll. While this feature was highly effective for cleaning up long dog hairs, I did need to manually remove a few strands wrapped around the side brush. The only area where the X8 Pro struggled was climbing over thresholds between rooms, but that was primarily due to the higher-than-average height of nearly an inch in my older home.

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The Eufy S1 Pro is packed with the latest in robotic cleaning technology, earning it the title of the best robot vacuum and mop combo. While this robotic cleaner isn’t cheap, it excels at maintaining hard floors with minimal human intervention. In testing, it was the only robotic mop that fully removed a sticky chocolate stain, and it had no trouble sucking up various debris and eliminating dirt marks from hardwood flooring. Plus, the unit uses clean water to rinse off its large brush roll as it operates, ensuring it doesn't just spread dirt around like other robotic cleaners.

This all-in-one robotic cleaner features an oversized base that takes up significant space but houses a clean water tank, a dirty water tank, a bottle of cleaning solution and a dustbin for debris. The robot is nearly fully self-sufficient, even drying its mopping pads after cleaning. The only maintenance required is topping off the water tank and cleaning solution about once a week, depending on your usage.

I tested 10 other top-rated vacuums during this process, and while they didn’t earn my top spots, many of them are still solid options for your home:

To identify the best vacuums on the market, I began by gathering a testing pool based on thorough market research and my own hands-on experience with today’s bestselling models. My list included 20 vacuums, spanning several categories, from highly rated models to new releases from top brands like Shark, Dyson and Kenmore. I tested each vacuum in my 2,400-square-foot home, assessing their performance on three types of flooring and evaluating key factors such as cleaning performance, ease of use, noise level, debris disposal, storage, maintenance and overall value.

During testing, I designed standardized tasks to challenge each vacuum, using them to clean carpeting, hardwood floors, and linoleum. I tested their ability to pick up coffee grounds, uncooked rice, dog hair, and cereal on both carpets and hard floors. For hard floors, I added baby powder and cat litter into the mix. I tracked how many passes were needed to remove different debris types and noted if any vacuums scattered or crushed particles in the process. For wet-dry vacuums, I added stains with dirt and chocolate syrup to test their mopping capabilities.

Beyond standardized tests, I also used each vacuum for everyday cleaning around my home, trying out attachments on upholstery and stairs. I measured the noise level of each vacuum, and for cordless models, I recorded how long they lasted compared to the manufacturer’s listed runtime. Additional factors I took into account included weight, balance, ease of emptying the dustbin and regular maintenance requirements.

There are several styles of vacuum that are popular today, and the best option for your home will depend on your cleaning preferences.

Corded and cordless vacuums both have their benefits. “Corded vacuums typically have stronger suction power and, of course, have unlimited runtime,” explains Julien Levesque, senior vice president of global product development at Shark. “They tend to be a great option for a thorough, deep clean and would be great for folks with larger spaces.”

On the other hand, cordless vacuums like the LG CordZero All-In-One run on batteries, which means you don’t have to plug them into an electrical outlet. “Cordless vacuums are often more convenient, lightweight and flexible,” he says. “With advances in battery technology over the past several years, many cordless models rival corded vacuums when it comes to cleaning performance.”

Vacuums with poor filtration systems often let dust and allergens escape back into your home, so when possible, look for a model with a HEPA filter. The EPA explains that these filters are able to trap 99.97% of dust, pollen and other airborne particles with a size of 0.3 microns or larger, helping to improve indoor air quality.

White also recommends looking for a vacuum with a “sealed” filtration system: “The key is whether the vacuum has a sealed system,” he says. “Without it, fine dust and allergens can easily leak out, defeating the purpose of vacuuming. If you've ever noticed a smell while vacuuming, it's a strong indication that your vacuum is leaking.” Our top overall pick, the Shark PowerDetect Upright Vacuum, has a sealed dustbin that helps keep fine particles trapped.

Among our top picks, there are both bagless vacuums, such as the Shark Navigator Lift-Away Deluxe, and bagged options like the Kenmore Intuition Bagged Upright. Bagless vacuums are cheaper to maintain over time, as you don’t have to purchase replacement vacuum bags, but they need to be emptied more frequently due to the smaller size of their dust bins.

On the flip side, vacuum bags can typically hold more debris, allowing you to vacuum several times before needing to insert a new bag. They also do a better job keeping fine particles contained, which can be beneficial for allergy sufferers.

Not all vacuum brushrolls are the same—they commonly feature materials like soft fluffy fabric, stiff nylon bristles or rubber fins, all of which have their own benefits. “Soft roller vacuums are exceptional on hard floors—they not only dust but also pick up larger debris and pet hair more effectively than other vacuums,” says White. In testing, we found that models with a soft brushroll, such as the Shark Stratos DuoClean PowerFins HairPro, were much more efficient at picking up dust and cleaning hard floors.

On the other hand, if you have a lot of carpeting in your home, stiff bristles deliver better agitation to loosen up dirt and hair. For pet owners, you’ll also want to look for a brushroll that has a non-tangle design. These vacuums typically have an integrated comb that pulls hair off the brushroll to prevent it from getting wrapped up.

It’s worth noting that some of the best vacuums, including models from Shark and LG, incorporate multiple brushrolls into their floorheads to reap the benefits of both styles. These vacuums are often the best for cleaning across multiple types of flooring.

I’ve been a professional product tester for eight years, and cleaning products is one of my areas of expertise. Over the course of my career, I’ve tested dozens of vacuums in virtually every category—from corded uprights to robot vacuums—totalling well over 100 models from all the major brands.

The lifespan of a vacuum can vary quite significantly, ranging anywhere from two years for a low-end model to eight years or more for a well-made machine. Factors like construction, frequency of use and whether you stay on top of maintenance will all impact how long a vacuum lasts before it needs to be replaced.

In my testing, Shark vacuums were consistently some of the best in terms of overall performance, ease of use and features. Shark vacuums also tend to be reasonably priced—for instance, our top recommendation, the Shark PowerDetect Upright Vacuum, retails for $399, and it offered some of the best cleaning performance of all the models we tested. Similarly, our top budget pick is the Shark Navigator Lift-Away Deluxe, which has features like a HEPA filter and lift-away design for just $160.

Of all the vacuums I tested, the Shark PowerDetect Upright Vacuum had the best suction power. This upright vacuum was able to pick up debris of all sizes in one pass, from fine particles of baby powder to large pieces of cereal, and its dual brushroll design performs equally well across both hard floors and carpets. This vacuum also picked up debris that many others left behind, cementing my belief that it’s one of the strongest options out there today.

Shark and Dyson are two popular vacuum brands, but if you want the most bang for your buck, Shark is the way to go. In my experience, vacuums from the two brands often offer similar cleaning performance, but Shark vacuums tend to be more affordable. Dyson vacuums often have more high-tech features, such as their laser dirt detection and particle counters, but you’re going to pay a lot more.

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Best Vacuum Cleaners 2024 - Forbes Vetted