%20Taniya%20Nayak,%20Ty%20Pennington,%20Alison%20Victoria,%20and%20Brian%20and%20Sarah%20Baeumler_BOTB_HGTV%20.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.196.196.suffix/1683310636672.jpeg)
The Best Vacuum Cleaners of 2023, Reviewed by HGTV Editors
Shop our editors' most-loved vacuum cleaners for every surface and budget.
When it comes to cleaning, we're a passionate group. From pets to kids to everyday dust and grime, these editor-approved vacuums get the job done with ease. Plus, there's an option for every budget and surface. (These tools make cleaning, dare I say, fun?) But with so many different types of vacuums out there, it can be difficult to start your shopping journey. We’re here to help!
Types of Vacuum Cleaners
First, it’s important to understand the different types of vacuums so you can find one that works for you and your household.
Canister Vacuum: Ideal for furniture and multi-surface use, canister vacuums come with a suction hose and retractable cord to make vacuuming a breeze. The motor and dustbin live in a separate unit for flexibility and ease while cleaning.
Carpet Cleaner: If your house is heavily carpeted, a carpet cleaner or carpet shampooer is a great way to tackle tough stains. While not meant for everyday use, they are great for spot and ground-in dirt removal. Carpet cleaners combine a cleaning solution, scrubbing brushes and vacuum suction to lift away hard-to-remove dirt and stains. The cleaning solution is injected deep into carpet fibers, while brushes agitate and loosen the stain, allowing the vacuum suction to remove it from the fibers entirely.
Handheld Vacuum: Handheld cleaners aren’t meant to tackle entire-home messes; they’re designed for spot cleaning in small areas. Plus, they’re particularly handy for cleaning upholstery, stairs and fabric because of how easy they are to carry. There are a few different types of handheld vacuums — corded, cordless and those with HEPA filters. While corded handheld vacuums typically offer better, more powerful suction, cordless models provide more cleaning flexibility — which is the whole point of having a handheld vacuum as a supplemental cleaning tool.
Pet Hair Vacuum: Pet hair vacuums are designed to tackle just that — pet hair. There are several important factors to consider when choosing the right one to efficiently de-shed your home. Carpet and area rugs will benefit from great suction and a rotating brush to pull hair out of the carpet fibers. Hardwood and tile require a vacuum specifically for floors and one that won’t just blow the hair around, creating a bigger mess. And if you have stairs, you should consider the weight of the machine. Plus, most pet hair vacuums come with HEPA air filters and attachments, like crevice and upholstery tools, so you can conquer the sofa, ceilings and more to pick up hair you can’t even see.
Robot Vacuum: These smart little machines excel at cutting down on manual work, and they easily fit under beds and couches, reaching places that don't frequently get cleaned. Most robot vacuums are controlled with an app, making it easy to start a cleaning session whenever you want, wherever you are. Stairs are not an issue thanks to drop-sensing technology, and voice-enabled startup is widely available. Dustbin sizes vary and some vacuums come with side brush attachments for a deeper clean.
Stick Vacuum: Lightweight and cordless (battery-powered), stick vacuums are the perfect mix between an upright vacuum and a handheld vacuum. A great stick vacuum should have both an upright configuration with powerful suction that can tackle larger floor spaces, as well as a handheld configuration for getting corners and hard-to-reach nooks and crannies. They’re most commonly used for quick cleanups in kitchens and bathrooms versus whole-house vacuuming.
Upright Vacuum: Upright vacuums are the most common vacuum cleaner. Uprights are ideal for larger carpeted areas and hardwood floors. Most feature height adjustments for easy surface transition and come with onboard attachments like crevice tools, dust brushes, upholstery tools and more. Upright vacuums may be bagless, while others have traditional bags to hold debris. FYI: Bagged vacuums can hold more dirt and release less dust into the air, while bagless vacuums require frequent emptying and often feature filters that need to be cleaned or replaced. (You will save money on bags, though.)
How to Choose the Best Vacuum Cleaner
There's a lot to consider when choosing a vacuum, from floor surfaces to the size of your home. These are our top six priorities: ease of use/weight, suction power, dirt disposal system, air filtration, included attachments and price. What is your cleaning priority: clearing pet hair? Picking up everyday dirt and grime? Quickly grabbing kid messes? Consider the size of the space you're looking to clean, too. (Only the kitchen? Just upholstery? The entire house?) That will determine the type of vacuum you need. For example, if you want to clean your entire house and every surface, a stick vacuum probably isn't the best pick. From there, consider strong suction for hard-to-tackle messes, like clingy pet hair, and your preferred dirt disposal system (bag or dustbin) while also thinking about air filtration if you or someone in your household suffers from allergies. Most vacuums, even handhelds, come with attachments, so determine which ones are important to you and that you need for your home. If you're looking to hit baseboards and hidden corners, a crevice tool may be crucial for your cleaning routine. If you need to grab crumbs off the sofa, then an upholstery attachment will make cleaning a breeze. Finally, you'll want to consider the price. Not all vacuums are created equal and a top-of-the-line vacuum doesn't always equal the best clean. It's important to dive into the specs of the vacuums you're interested in to determine if they meet your cleaning expectations before purchasing.
To help you get started, we've rounded up our favorite tried-and-true vacuum cleaner picks for houses with pets, kids, hardwood floors, area rugs and more. Shop our top vacuum buys in the links below.
For just $200, this relatively affordable upright cleaner checks all the boxes for us: ample tank size, powerful cleaning capability, simple assembly, automatic shampoo release and mixing, and easy to clean. While it's not the lightest of cleaners, it handles like a standard upright vacuum, although its size may not be ideal for those with limited storage space. Dual tanks, a half-gallon dirty water tank and a one-gallon clean water tank, were large enough for our tester to clean upholstery and an 8-by-10-foot rug without emptying or adding more water. We loved being able to add cleaning solution directly into the machine's pre-measured tank for automatic mixing and dispensing. (No trigger, here!) We were also won over by an additional dry-only feature that allows you to push and pull the machine without dispensing water or cleaner to help speed up drying time. A removable nozzle gives easy access to brushes for de-gunking. Overall, we were really impressed by the design and effectiveness of this machine, and believe it's a solid choice for most households.
Our Editor Says: "I really appreciate when machines are engineered so that simple and regular cleaning and maintenance can be done without tools. I'm very happy that was the case with this machine."
More Carpet Cleaners We Swear By
This 20-volt handheld vacuum cleaner gets our Best Overall pick for a reason. While its runtime is only 10 to 12 minutes, it handles everyday messes like a champ and has the most powerful suction on our list. Its 15-ounce dustbin and washable filter are removable for easy cleaning right in the sink with a “side door” for quick dirt disposal between vacuuming sessions. It comes with a built-in crevice tool, upholstery brush and features a patented nozzle that pivots to your preferred angle to help clean up high, down low and even in tight spaces. Our tester found it works better on hard surfaces than carpeted areas, though. The compact, lightweight design and attached accessory tools make it easy to store, too. We love that the battery is integrated into the vacuum so you don’t have to store it separately, and the charging base is even mountable so you can store it in a closet out of sight — a huge pro on our list.
Our Editor Says: "It's so convenient to have a compact, cordless vacuum like this stored near the areas in my home with the most frequent messes so I can tackle them as they happen instead of putting them off until my robot vacuum covers that area."
More Handheld Vacuums We Swear By
Offering powerful pet hair pickup with an affordable price tag, the Bissell Cleanview Pet Upright Vacuum conquers pet messes on hardwood, carpet, vinyl and tile with ease. The triple-action brush roll lifts, loosens and removes embedded pet hair, and its soft bristles work gently on hard surfaces to remove fine dust and debris while also keeping it contained with scatter-free technology. Swivel steering gets around and under furniture and other obstacles without a problem, while edge-to-edge cleaning capabilities pick up pet hair from one edge of the brush roll to the other. (This means you’ll spend less time cleaning.) Clean hard-to-reach areas with a 6-foot stretch hose and specialty tools including a corner tool and a TurboEraser tool. The multi-cyclonic suction system offers top-notch suction needed to grab pet hair, while a multi-level filtration system (with a washable filter!) helps trap dust and debris. Done cleaning? A bottom, easy-empty dustbin is quick and delightfully mess-free. And at just 13.5 pounds, it’s easy to carry up and down stairs or from room to room without breaking a sweat.
Our Editor Says: "This vacuum has great suction. It ranks right up there with more expensive vacuums I've tried."
More Pet Hair Vacuums We Swear By
To determine which vacuum would hold the "Best Overall" title, it had to meet three main criteria: affordable, strong suction and good navigation. Ultimately, the eufy prevailed in all of these categories. In comparison to other models on the market, the RoboVac G30 offers the most features for your money. We were unexpectedly won over by its quiet noise level (the quietest one we tested) and the user-friendly app that provides a map of the bot's cleaning job and allows you to manually direct the robot to clean a specific area. It picked up leaves, crumbs and hair, no problem, thanks to BoostIQ, a feature that automatically increases suction power when extra strength is needed. The 0.6-liter dustbin was less than half full after our tester ran it two to three times a week. The G30's slim design fits easily in hard-to-reach spots but, because of its smaller size, struggled to get over thresholds between rooms. All in all, though, the eufy RoboVac met our basic needs from a robot vacuum. It's not the fanciest, but it's also not going to cause you more problems than it solves.
Our Editor's Review: "I really like that it creates a visual map of its cleaning jobs that you can look at while it's running or later after it's completed a job."
More Robot Vacuums We Swear By
The Dyson V8 Animal is by no means the fanciest Dyson available, but its features will fit the needs of most households as an excellent daily maintenance vacuum and it's under $500. It can run up to 40 minutes on one battery charge — our tester, who has owned this vacuum for three years, usually gets about 40 minutes. If you're using the max mode, expect to get only about 20 minutes. The lightweight, easy-to-maneuver vacuum features a .14-gallon dustbin that’s super easy to empty, multi-surface capabilities and versatile attachment tools: a combination tool, crevice tool and mini motorized tool. This vacuum works extremely well on pet hair, to which our tester and owner of a cat and a dog cat attest. Beyond daily maintenance for whole-house deep cleans, especially if you live in a house over 1,500 square feet, you may want to splurge for one of Dyson's newer models with longer battery life, if you can find one in stock.
A common complaint of longtime Dyson cordless vacuum owners, including several HGTV editors, is that the battery fades after several years (though, all batteries will fade over time). If you want to make sure investing in a pricey Dyson is worth it and you won't have to buy an entirely new vacuum in 4-5 years, know that a replacement battery is probably all you'll need. Though you can buy replacement batteries for models as old as the V6 vacuums from Dyson's site, if they're out of stock or you just want to save money, consider this Powerextra model (for a Dyson V8) from Amazon if your Dyson warranty has expired. This Powerextra model costs less than half what a Dyson battery does. One of our editors and longtime Dyson owners bought the V7 version when she couldn't find a Dyson-branded replacement battery in stock, and she says her old Dyson V7 now works good as new.
