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Vacuum Cleaner Shopping Guide

A vacuum cleaner is essential to keeping your home comfortable and clean — it can change the whole feel of a room just to have dirt-free floors. Whether you have kids, pets, or you live alone, you can't prevent dirt and debris from getting in the carpet or on the hardwood floors, and if you choose a vacuum that doesn't work properly, you'll be dealing with a bigger mess than you began with.

Invest in a new vacuum cleaner that leaves your floors feeling fresh. The all-in-one capacity of today's vacuum cleaners means you don't have to bring out three cleaning tools just for a minor clean-up. With the help of this shopping guide, you'll be able to choose the perfect vacuum for your household without wasting time on the wrong choice.

How to Choose Your Vacuum

To narrow down the best vacuum for you, there are a few key determining factors that will help decide on your purchase.

What Type of Vacuum is Best for Your Household?

For families with kids and pets, your cleaning needs will be a little different than a single-person living situation. The more humans and pets you add to the equation, the more powerful a vacuum you'll need. On the opposite end of the spectrum, you don't want to get a heavy-duty, commercial-grade vacuum cleaner just to clean up after a two-person family who is rarely at home.

Larger Households: Consider an upright or canister vacuum to clean up after multiple people in the home. These vacuums add extra power to the occasion, and they are both able to cover a wide berth as they clean. Since they have bigger containers, you won't be emptying out the collection bins as often as you would a smaller stick vacuum.

Families with Pets: A pet vacuum will clean up kitty litter and dog hair without getting clogged up — their design is intended for all the messes your four-legged friends can create. Plus, these specific vacuums usually include allergen filters to help you breathe a little easier, even with dander in the air.

Smaller Households: A household with one or two people will be happy with a stick or cordless vacuum. The ease and portability of these options make it easy to clean up smaller spills, so there's no cause for panic when a potted plant is knocked over or a friend tracks in mud.

Which Vacuum is Best for Your Floor Plan?

One of the biggest factors to take into consideration when purchasing a new vacuum is your floor plan. Do you have high-pile carpeting in most of the rooms of your house? Do you live in a small studio apartment with just hardwood floors? Does your home have stairs, and will you need to carry your new vacuum up and down multiple flights? Some vacuum cleaners are better equipped for plush carpets, while others are designed for more hardwood clean-ups.

Single-Story Homes: Since you don't have to worry about carrying your vacuum up and down stairs, you can cover a wide range with a single swoop of an upright vacuum.

Multi-Story Homes: It's doubtful that you want to get in a good workout while you're vacuuming, so take a look at the weight of each vacuum if you plan on tackling more than one floor of your house. Canister vacuums generally come with extendable arms to reach tough spots like stairs, but you'll still have to get it to the second floor. Meanwhile, a stick vacuum will be easy to carry up and down a flight of stairs with little hassle.

Hardwood vs. Carpeting: Take a look at how much carpeting you have in comparison to hardwood floors. If your home is 80% shag carpet, you'll want an upright vacuum that can easily take on high-pile carpeting. Today's vacuums allow you to indicate the pile height of your carpeting, giving you full control over the types of rugs or carpeting that you want to clean. If your home is mostly laid out with hardwood flooring, canister vacuums are well-equipped to clean up smaller dust particles without scattering debris all over the room.

For homes with a half-and-half mix of flooring, make sure that the vacuum you pick can switch between carpeting and hard floors. Some vacuums have a motorized brush intended for carpeting — you'll want to switch this feature off when you're approaching a hardwood floor to prevent scattering dirt or scratching of delicate floors.

What are the Different Types of Vacuum Cleaners?

In the world of vacuum cleaners, there isn't just one model that is the perfect answer for every different type of family. Some need heavy-duty options to clean up after toddlers and pets while others just need a quick, handheld go-to for chip crumbs.

• Upright: Probably the most familiar type of cleaner, the upright vacuum provides the most power, suction, and control to cover wider floor plans and different types of flooring. On the higher end of the budget, you'll find vacuums with more versatility, like motorized brush shut-off, floor type control, automatic brush detangling, and more.

  Some of the essential considerations you should look at when purchasing an upright is its suction, weight, maneuverability, whether it can be used on multiple flooring surfaces, and, of course, price.

• Canister: Better for bare floors, a canister vacuum can easily tackle dusty hardwood without the help of a broom. The attachments that come with a canister vacuum make it easy to leave the canister in place while you use the lightweight hose to clean upholstery, drapes, stairs, and more. They're also typically quieter than upright vacuums while in use, but they are a bit bulkier.

  When considering a canister vacuum, see whether or not the vacuum can also be used on carpeting, how heavy it is (you'll have to carry it around once the reach of the hose is fully extended), and the capacity of the dirt bin.

• Pet: There's no reason your pet has to stay off couches and carpets just so your house can stay clean. Pet vacuums can handle large amounts of pet hair, kitty litter, dirty paws, and whatever else comes your way as a pet parent. Thanks to the brush design, pet vacuums are well-equipped to stay untangled, even in the thickest hair piles.

  High-quality pet vacuums also use a more robust filter in their vacuums, helping keep away contaminants that might break free from their fur. With the proper pet vacuum and filter, you can use your vacuum as a way to improve your allergies, making it possible to live with animals even if you have a slight intolerance.

• Stick: Stick vacuums are portable and compact, making them the perfect option for smaller storage spaces and quick-carry situations. They might not have the same suction power as a traditional upright vacuum, but they still tackle tough clean-up jobs without straining your back. The biggest drawback of a stick vacuum is the dirt bin — they typically fill up much faster and need to be dumped out regularly.

• Robot: Robot vacuums help maintain a routinely cleaner space since they vacuum on a regular schedule without any effort needed on your part. Robot vacuums have not reached the power threshold of other types of vacuums, so you usually need to pair their daily scheduled cleaning with a more robust once-over with a more traditional vacuum

What's the Difference Between Bagless and Bagged Vacuums?

As you shop for your new vacuum, you'll see models described as "bagless," which is a comparison against vacuums with replaceable bags. As with any shopping decision, there are pros and cons to each.

With bagless vacuums, you don't have to spend money replacing bags. However, this doesn't necessarily make them lower maintenance. Bagless vacuums depend on their filters to keep dust and microorganisms from going back into the room, so once these get too dirty, they'll need to be cleaned or replaced. Doing this is a little more time-consuming than simply removing and throwing away a vacuum bag.

Bagless vacuums work by moving air through a filter — such as a HEPA-certified filter — and collecting any large contaminants in a dust bin. Once the dust bin is full, you'll have to dump out the bin, which might stir up a cloud of dust in the process. Vacuum bags are sealed, keeping all the dirt and dust inside the bag, making it easy to remove the bag without stirring up any contaminants. Because of this, bag vacuums might be a better choice for someone with allergies or sensitivities to dust.

A vacuum with bags is less eco-friendly than a bagless vacuum, and you'll have to make sure that a bag isn't full before you start up your vacuum. Replacing bags can be more expensive over time since you'll have to do this more frequently than cleaning the filter of your bagless vacuum.

Bottom line? A bagless vacuum might be higher maintenance and can stir up dirt and dust as you clean out the collection bin, which can easily trigger allergies. However, with most bagless vacuums, you can easily see how full the collection bin is, so you're never guessing whether or not you can keep going.

Bagged vacuums are not as cost-effective nor are they eco-friendly, and you do have to make sure you have replacement bags at the ready. Bagged vacuums are what you should lean toward if you're allergy-prone, and they keep the mess contained during bag replacement.

What is a HEPA Filter?

Anyone suffering from allergies wants to keep the air in their home as clean as possible, and the same likely goes for homeowners without sensitivities. Vacuum cleaners not only pick up the dust and dirt that you can see, but they also filter out micro-organisms that you can't see.

You'll see that some vacuums in our top choices have HEPA filtration or an Anti-Allergen Seal. HEPA, an acronym for High-Efficiency Particulate Air, is a certification verifying that the filter can remove up to 99.99% of all air particles that are 0.3 microns or larger. This removes pathogens and allergens that can trigger asthma, allergies, and other sensitivities, giving some relief to people who might be allergic to pet dander, pollen in the home, and more.

HEPA falls at the highest end of particulate filtration for domestic vacuum cleaners, so be sure to look at this certification if you're taking measures against allergies in the home.

What are Other Vacuum Features? 

Each vacuum type has its own benefit behind its functionality, but you'll also be surprised at the added features that a vacuum can have to make its performance excel with any type of cleaning. For instance, wand extensions can make it possible to clean your upholstery without lifting your vacuum up onto the cushions (revolutionary, right?).

Motorized brushes on your upright vacuum should have the ability to turn on and off if you want to use it on hardwood floors, otherwise, the brush will scatter debris and leave you with an ineffective cleaning.

Look for pile-height adjustments as you search for a vacuum — if you're using it as your universal vacuum across all flooring types, you'll want it to identify flooring types as you roll through the room.

Scrub brushes are beneficial for hard stains or problem areas but don't determine your vacuum solely based on the accessories.

Find Your Vacuum Cleaner

Now that you know more about vacuums than you ever thought possible, it's time to find the perfect vacuum cleaner for your home. Long-lasting vacuums can be in your home for years, so it's worthwhile to pick out the vacuum that you'll love.

Take a look at our top vacuum picks and start making your home feel homier in no time.

Trusting Our Top Pick

Navigating the many choices for every consumer purchase can be challenging. Our team spends hours doing research, combing through forums, and reading consumer reviews on even the most basic of household items, and we summarize that information in clear, precise comparisons.

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