8 Best Vacuums for Pet Hair 2024, Tested by Cleaning Experts
Table Of Content
A battery indicator lets you know how much power is left, and the machine has two washable filters that can be reused, saving you from having to purchase new filters for it. However, they’re not HEPA filters, so the vacuum isn’t the best choice for deep-cleaning or particularly dusty cleaning jobs—you’ll want to break out your full-sized vacuum to handle those messes. Lift fur and dander with the help of these powerful cleaning tools for couches, floors, and surfaces. Pet hair and other fabrics can get embedded in carpet fibers, making it important to pick a vacuum that’s strong enough to rip them and other particles out of their hiding place. Consult your user manual for the most accurate information, but most models can benefit from regular filter cleaning, checking the brushroll and removing any debris that's built up. Robot vacs are a great way to pick up loose pet hair before it becomes embedded in carpets.
The best robot vacuum for pet hair
When vacuuming the hardwood floor, I could see the pet hair that was stuck in cracks or crevices was sucked up easily. I often find that my dog’s hair gets dug into the fibers in the carpet and the stitching on my couch, so it’s not always easy to get out. The Dyson V15 sucked out even the most dug-in natural and artificial dog hair using both the standard brush head, the crevice tool and the upholstery attachment. The Dyson V15 Detect strikes an unbeatable balance between power, convenience, portability and strength. It’s lightweight and easy to use, and the suction remained strong on every surface I tested it on.
Shark UltraCyclone Pet Pro+ Handheld Vacuum
For the vacuums that included special features—like the Dyson V15’s laser detect brush head—I tested each to determine how they impacted the machine’s overall performance. I continued to use the winning vacuums throughout my home over the course of a year. It transitions seamlessly between floor types and features a powerful suction that draws in dirt and debris, much like a magnet. For hard floors, use the Laser Slim Fluffy cleaner head, which features soft nylon and anti-static carbon filaments that capture dust without damaging delicate hardwood floors. Plus, the green laser reveals fine particles not usually visible to the naked eye, which helped us to achieve an even more thorough clean.
Type
If you are looking for an autonomous robot vacuum, we recommend the iRobot Roomba J7. It will steer clear of obstacles—like your pet—while cleaning and communicating with you via an app on your mobile device. The cordless vacuum is easy to empty, but to completely get all of the pet hair out we had to fully remove the filter from the canister. The small vacuum has powerful suction, and with a full charge it provides up to 17 minutes of cleaning, but it is surprisingly loud for its size. The vacuum works across multiple floor surfaces—hardwood, tile, carpet—with the ability to turn on a brush roll to sweep up items of different sizes as you clean.
Attachments and Accessories
The Dyson Outsize is the only cordless vacuum on the market with a half-gallon dust bin, meaning you can cover more ground or pet hair without having to empty it. The Dyson has a trapdoor mechanism for emptying the dustbin, so you can avoid coming in contact with debris. However, you have to remove the attachments before emptying the bin, and you may miss your trash receptacle if you don't position the dustbin just right. In our standardized tests on hardwood and carpet, the Shark Stratos easily picked up kibble, ground coffee, lentils, dog hair, and everyday household dirt.
That’s why, when we test vacuums in our lab, we put them through a specific test designed to gauge how well they’ll clean up after your cat or dog. Here are the vacuums—including upright, canister, stick, handheld, and robotic—that excelled in that test. Or, if you want one that offers the best of everything, take a look at our Best Vacuums of the Year. For cleaning pet hair off furniture, stairs, or car upholstery, the Black + Decker Furbuster is lightweight and easy to carry around your home. The handheld model comes with a motorized pet tool that makes quick work of hair on virtually any surface, and the strands don’t get wrapped around its spinning brush roll, either. We prioritized vacuums from reliable brands, including Bissell, Dyson, and Miele, and we looked for specific features that are beneficial for pet owners, including good filtration, non-tangle brush rolls, and large bins.
More in vacuums & floor cleaning
While this Bissell lives up to the advertisements for dealing with pet hair, it’s also a good spot cleaner for all sorts of messes. It picked up 94% of the testing dirt we laid out for it on medium-pile carpet in a single pass. Rachel Klein is a Senior Commerce Editor for Popular Mechanics, where she writes about everything from garden hose reels and patio furniture to mesh wifi systems and robot vacuums. She started her career as a daily newspaper reporter and was a travel editor for more than a decade before she started testing and reviewing luggage, noise-cancelling headphones, and other travel-related products. Fast-forward another five years and her area of expertise includes home decor, appliances, tech, and outdoor adventure gear.
A Robot Vac That Delivers Supreme Hands-Free Cleaning
It’s WiFi-enabled and connects to a smart app where you can track your cleaning progress, adjust settings, and more. It even has voice prompts that guide you through the cleaning process (although these can be turned off). There is a touch bar along the handle that allows you to adjust the suction strength, as well as an LCD that gives you real-time alerts when any debris is detected and once again when the debris is cleared up. Tineco’s stick vacuum also boasts five layers of filtration (including a HEPA filter) and an anti-tangle brush that keeps the brush roll from getting clogged with hair.
Bin vs. Replacement Bag
And while he says that pets tend to shed all year round due to the regulated temperatures indoors, you can also manage their shedding by making sure you’re taking care of their coat in terms of nutrition. One of our consumer testers said, "It worked well on all surfaces, but really impressed with the power it had on the area rug." It impressed our expert testers, too, earning it a Cleaning and Organizing Award. While that’s certainly not whisper-quiet, keep in mind that sound won’t matter too much unless you’re using your vacuum for an extended period of time.
A well-sealed filtration system will ensure the debris doesn't end up back in the air you breathe. If you're concerned about allergens in your air, choose a vacuum with a true HEPA filter. These filters (commonly found in air purifiers) capture 99.7% of 0.3-micron particles. The pricey Miele Classic C1 Cat & Dog Vacuum picked up messes better than any other vac in our tests, and the disposable vacuum bag keeps you out of contact with the debris. However, I had difficulty emptying the dustbin without getting my hands dirty or inadvertently sending gunk flying outside the trash can.
The best vacuums for pet hair in 2024 - National Geographic
The best vacuums for pet hair in 2024.
Posted: Tue, 19 Mar 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The laser-powered illumination on the Dyson V15 Detect is paired with a unique roller brush, the fluffy cleaner head, to shine a spotlight on the irritants in your path. This combination of light along with the nylon and anti-static fiber filaments of the roller brush productively lifts dust and hair from surfaces, including the gaps between hardwood panels where irritants get stuck. This powerfully targeted cleaning of pet hair, microscopic dust, and dander can help to relieve respiratory ailments. This cordless vacuum from Shark can quickly pick up pet hair thanks to its flexible silicone brush roll, which is designed to prevent hair from getting tangled around it.
This Shark device worked like a charm over multiple surfaces, including hardwood floors, tiles, and rugs of varying textures. We named it as a best pick for hardwood because our longterm testing gave us the chance to see firsthand how reliable and consistent it is on this type of flooring. Not only does it excel at picking up both long and short hair, as well as kibble and other small bits of debris, but it's also a breeze to use, feeling much lighter than it's near-14 pound weight. It also features a self-empty mechanism that really sets it apart from other vacuums. The canister empties directly into the charging base, and then you manually empty it once that secondary container fills, which proved simple and easy.
We took note of how many passes were required to clear the debris and whether any additional attachments or settings were necessary to get the job done. And as soon as one surface was completely cleaned, we moved on to the next, considering how easily the vacuum transitioned from bare floor to carpet and vice versa. Finally, we emptied each vacuum’s dustbin into a garbage can or removed the bag, noting how simple the process was.
This pick from Hoover earned a spot in our 2023 Best Cleaning and Organizing Awards due to its strong suction, tangle-preventing brush roll and affordable price tag. It's a bagless vacuum with a larger dust bin that can hold up to 1.5 liters of debris which is especially nice since pet hair takes up lots of space. The tangle guard prevents hair up to 16 inches long from getting caught, a claim that held up during our testing. "It did a great job picking up the long hair and threads we put down without getting them tangled in the brush roll," said one expert tester. Our top selection, which we feel most pet parents will benefit from, is the Dyson V10 Cyclone Animal. The two-in-one stick easily converts to a handheld vacuum cleaner, with a design that prevents pet hair from tangling around the roller brush.
The cordless vacuum separates air and dust as it runs across the floor, helping to ensure that the filter doesn’t get clogged and stop operation. It also automatically detects how dirty the floor is and will adapt its suction based on the amount of gunk it finds. The vacuum is very easy to push around even on high-pile carpet, though it was less comfortable to operate than a full-size vacuum on the floor since you have to bend over to use it.
It was seriously so powerful that we needed to lower the setting on the high pile carpet because the higher level of suction slowed us down. In addition to an arsenal of attachments to pull up pet hair, there are a few features that make cleaning up after your dog or cat even easier. If you have pet hair or dander on your window screens or baseboards, a dusting brush is equipped with long, soft bristles that pick up dust and fine particles without scratching surfaces. Many products today are built with tangle-free designs that make this a thing of the past — and they tend to work well with pet hair. Better yet, many can resist tangles from strings left over from pet toys, which are common hazards in homes with pets.
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