11 best vacuums for cleaning up pet hair in 2023

A sealed vacuum with HEPA filtration may be the best option to ensure you’re trapping allergens such as dust mites, pet hair, dander, pollen and more without releasing them into the air. Another important factor behind why we chose the vacuums that made the list was maintenance ease. With the exception of the bissell handheld vacuum Miele, all the vacuums selected are bagless. They’re more cost-effective because you don’t need to buy vacuum bags regularly. Instead, you simply drop the contents into the wastebin when you’re done. Plus, the canisters (and in many cases, the filters) could be rinsed out if they appear to be extra dirty.

My favorite feature is that this vacuum converts into a handheld vacuum, allowing me to easily spot clean small messes or add the included tube to reach elevated surfaces. One full charge gives you 40 minutes of run time, according to the brand. The design of this cordless Dyson stick vacuum is similar to the Tineco one above. It offers three adjustable levels of suction power and separately converts into a handheld vacuum and is lightweight enough to reach elevated surfaces. Dyson’s vacuum gives you up to 60 minutes of run time on a single charge, according to the brand, and its main cleaner head has a motorized brush roll to automatically clean wrapped hair from the brush while in use. Right now, based on our tests, the cordless vacuum with the best suction power is the Dyson V15 Detect, which offers 230 air watts of suction.

Not surprisingly, the V15 Detect was a powerful performer in our tests, particularly in our sand tests, where it removed the largest overall total of sand from our hardwood, low-pile carpet, and mid-pile carpet test floors. It was our No. 1 finisher on low-pile carpet, with a sand score of 93% and another perfect 100% with the black rice. It’s a strong performer on plushier, mid-pile carpet, too, which is our most difficult test. The Pure One S11 finished in third here, gathering up 78% of the sand and, once again, 100% of the black rice. In our exclusive CR surveys, more than 40 percent of battery-powered stick vacs owned by our members developed problems with the battery within the first five years of ownership. Corded stick vacuums do not have this issue, which is why we give separate reliability ratings for cordless and corded stick vacuum brands.

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It’s a great option for households with pets that need the extra suction power to clear pet hair. According to Dyson, it has twice the suction power than other cordless vacuums and an upgrade of 20% more suction power than the previous Cyclone V10 vacuum model. It includes a Dynamic Load Sensor (DLS) system that can automatically sense surfaces to change motor speeds, depending on whether you’re cleaning bare floors or carpets. Although it handles most cleaning tasks automatically, you can control the suction power by choosing from auto, boost and Eco mode. When I bought my Tineco vacuum, I realized how much value there is in investing in a high quality model specifically designed with pets in mind.

The ICONpet Cordless Vacuum has a high-powered motor to clean your floor quickly. And since it runs on a 22-volt battery, you won’t have to wrestle with a pesky cord getting in your way while you’re tidying up. I often have them vacuum as part of their chores but it’s hard for the younger kids to navigate a cord. Overall, whether a vacuum is corded or cordless is only one factor that influences a vacuum’s suction power. For example, a corded vacuum with a brush head that’s prone to getting clogged with hair tangles is going to be less efficient than a cordless model with an anti-tangle brush head. The best cordless stick vacuums are lightweight and maneuverable without sacrificing the cleaning power of a corded model (and without costing too much, either).

bissell cordless vacuum

This vacuum’s LED headlights illuminated pet hair I’d previously been missing and the powerful suction cleaned it up quickly. Beyond getting rid of hair, this vacuum easily sucks up cat food crumbs and cat litter, too. I love that the vacuum can sense dirt and automatically adjusts its suction power accordingly. The vacuum’s LED screen also shows you a status report with information like whether the brush roll is tangled or the air channel is blocked.