How to Choose the Right Vacuum for the Job

CR’s experts have found that full-sized vacuums are the best picker-uppers for everything from embedded dirt to piles of pet hair. But between an upright and a canister, which type is best for you?

If your home has a lot of carpet and rugs, you might want an upright. “With the full weight of the vacuum sitting over the power brush, you can more easily push it down into the carpet pile to suck up the debris caught deep down,” says Matt Schimmenti, who conducts Consumer Reports’ vacuum tests. Our top models also excel on bare floors, so an upright could do everything you need.

They’re also a good choice if you have limited storage space, because the vertical design generally has a smaller footprint than a canister. One important note: While the uprights in our ratings start at just 10 pounds, the ones that do the best job of cleaning weigh about twice that, so they can be difficult to lift, a potential deal breaker if you live in a multistory home. If you want an upright but have stairs, consider models from Shark, including the Vertex DuoClean AZ2002, which can convert into a convenient-to-carry canister setup. Also, some vacuums are just easier to maneuver than others. (Look for the “handling” score in our vacuum ratings.)

If you’re torn between a bagged model and a bagless one, here’s what to know: With a bagless model, you don’t have to keep replacing the disposable bags, but you might need to clean and replace your filter more often. In our tests, bagged models tend to deep-clean better than bagless models. They’re also less messy to empty.

Here are our top bagged and bagless uprights. For more options, see our full ratings for bagged and bagless upright vacuums.

If your home has a lot of hardwood, vinyl, or tile, consider a canister. Canisters excel at sucking up dirt from bare floors and along edges where the floor meets the walls. They generally don’t do as good a job on carpet as uprights, but we found that some models, like the Kenmore Elite Pet-Friendly CrossOver 21814 and Kenmore Pop-N-Go BC4026, clean carpet well, too.

Canisters are also a good choice for multilevel homes. They’re not exactly lightweight (they range from about 15 to 26 pounds), but their two-part design makes them easier to carry. They also have long hoses and cleaning wands that let you reach under furniture without having to switch to an extension wand attachment like you might with an upright.

Upright or canister, pick a model with high scores for the type of flooring in most of your home. Also, look at the hose suction score in our ratings. This measure of how well the appliance maintains suction while you’re using cleaning tools is the key to fewer clogs.

Here are our top bagged and bagless canisters. You can see our full ratings for bagged and bagless canister vacuums for other high-performing options.

If you have a top-performing upright or canister, you don’t really need a second vacuum. Those models can handle all kinds of dirt and come with tools to get into cracks and corners. But when you don’t need in-depth cleaning, you have a small mess, or you don’t want to carry a larger vacuum up or down stairs, a stick or handheld could do the trick.

These lightweight tools (most weigh under 10 pounds) are much more powerful than they used to be. But their cleaning prowess still can’t match an upright or canister (especially on carpet), so they’re better for targeted tasks. They’re good enough that if you live in a small space with mostly hard-surface floors, a top model like those shown below could meet your needs.

In the past, CR didn’t recommend cordless stick vacuums because of reliability problems reported by our members. That has changed this year. For the first time, the median brand reliability rating for cordless stick vacuums meets the threshold for CR to recommend some models. The improvement is due largely to the introduction of several cordless stick brands, such as Miele and Samsung, that score better than the brands in our past ratings.

That’s not to say that cordless stick vacs are now problem-free. In our survey data, battery problems persist for our members, including batteries whose life gets progressively worse (17 percent of cordless sticks have had this problem), batteries that die completely (10 percent), and batteries that never hold a charge for long, even when new (7 percent). 

So when buying a cordless stick vac, look for one that comes with an extra battery or one that you can buy an extra battery for. Also, know that one charge generally allows only 10 to 15 minutes of high cleaning power. In our vacuum ratings, you can also look for brands with a higher score in predicted brand reliability, which indicates they’re less likely to experience problems as you use them.

Here are our top stick vacuums. And for more options, see our full ratings for corded stick vacuums and cordless models.

These highly portable vacuums are a quick way to clean up spills (like coffee grounds and flour) or debris in tough spots (in your car, for example). The best in our tests work well on carpeted or hard surfaces and weigh under 3 pounds. Most stick vacuums (like the Samsung Bespoke Jet VS28C9762UK/AA) convert into handheld vacuums, so you can get both quick pickup tools in one.

Here’s our top handheld vacuum. For more choices, see our full handheld vacuum ratings.

The answer? Not yet. Performance has improved enough to make robotic vacuums adequate for light routine cleaning, but they can clear away only surface dirt. They won’t get down into the fibers of carpet and rugs, and some can scatter dirt around on hard floors. But prices have come down by as much as half. They can be handy helpers between deep-cleaning sessions with a regular vacuum—and it’s fun to watch them work while you do something more enjoyable.

Almost all upright and canister vacuums come with a variety of attachments—extra brushes, hoses, and other tools—to make it easier to clean more than just the floor. If yours came without attachments, you can probably order them from the manufacturer’s website. “These tools are meant to help clean different surfaces and difficult-to-reach spaces,” says CR’s Schimmenti. He says that some brands offer specialized attachments, like pet hair power brushes and flexible crevice tools. Before you buy a new vacuum, check to see whether the attachments it comes with will fit your needs.