Uprights can weigh anywhere from 10 to over 20 pounds, which can be heavy to carry up and down stairs. If your home has more than one level and you prefer an upright, consider keeping one on each floor. Most uprights feature on-board hoses, wands and tools for vacuuming crevices and upholstery and cleaning above-the-floor spaces like door frames and crown moldings. For an upright vacuum that works well on carpets and bare floors, look no further than the Shark NV151 Navigator Swivel Pro Complete Upright Vacuum, which is one of the most affordable models offered by Shark.
In testing, the vacuum was able to pick up all sorts of dirt, dust, grass, and other debris with no problems, and its convenient self-empty base means that there’s very little maintenance needed on your part. The lowest setting on most vacuums works well for bare floors and thin carpets, whereas the highest setting is optimal for thicker carpets and area rugs, Solomon said. A thick high pile rug, for example, needs a higher setting, while bare wood floors need a low setting and no automatic roll brush, Dulude noted. Both upright and canister vacuums come in bagged and bagless models—the difference lies in where the dirt goes as it gets sucked up. The canister feels lightweight to pull along and when vacuuming stairs it’s compact enough to sit on a step. We did experience the hose twisting a couple of times, but a firm tug usually pulls it straight.
It also comes with a complete set of attachments for reaching hard-to-clean areas, such as window sills, and getting hair off of upholstery. ✔️ Consider a stick or pole vacuum cleaner if you are looking for a lightweight, quick picker-upper for bare floors and low pile rugs. The cleaning performance of this type of vacuum is getting better and better, and it may be the only vac some homes require.
This is the most rigorous set of tests we’ve done on vacuum cleaners at Wirecutter, particularly the cleaning tests. In previous versions of this guide (and in our other vacuum guides), we also did a bunch of testing, but we didn’t measure the results as carefully. We think it’s pretty cool that, even though we keep refining our tests, the same vacuums keep coming out on top year after year. Think of our test results as a rough, rather than an exact, measurement of cleaning performance, due to real-world limitations. For example, none of the vacuums could pick up all of the debris from the rugs we were testing on.
They come corded or cordless, and in our Cleaning Lab tests, we’ve found rechargeable ones usually run anywhere up to one hour, so you’ll need to keep them plugged into an outlet to keep them fully charged and ready to go. Most have rotating brushes for efficient floor and rug cleaning, and many convert to or have a hand vacuum on board so it’s like having two vacuums in one. Most come with attachments, like dusting brushes, crevice tools and charging stands for storage. ✔️ Opt for a canister vacuum cleaner if your home has lots of stairs and bare floors.
If you’d like to do the work of choosing yourself, here’s the list of our canister vacuum reviews. While there’s no single best vacuum with a canister design, most are good enough to please almost everyone, and the differences are often not noticeable unless you really look for them. Allergy sufferers will benefit from the HEPA shark robotic vacuums filter and Shark’s anti-allergen complete seal that it claims will trap and seal over 99.9% of dust, dander and allergens inside the vacuum. For this review, Helen spent a week thoroughly testing the Shark Vertex Bagless Corded Canister Vacuum, putting it through its paces through her home and assessing its performance.
Whether vacuuming carpet or hard floor, this vacuum didn’t go above 70dB, which is similar to a dishwasher or shower and pretty quiet in comparison to some other vacuums. The floorhead glides nicely on all floor types and it’s easy to maneuver around obstacles. Plus when you need to stop to pick up a stray dog toy or sock, it’s helpful the floorhead and wand shark robotic vacuums will stand unsupported. In an upgrade from Shark’s cheaper canister vacuum, this one features two brushrolls in the floorhead for a deeper clean. What’s more, the self-cleaning design stops longer hairs from becoming tangled around the brushroll. Thereby eliminating the need to spend your valuable free time removing unwanted hair from the floorhead.
She also took the vacuum’s specs, features, price point and ease of use to give an in-depth and accurate judgement of its value to our readers. Here at The Spruce, we want to ensure we fully stand behind every product we recommend and that when we say something is the best, we mean it. You might have noticed The Spruce shark dustbuster Approved badge next to the products on this list. Every product with this badge has been rigorously tested in person and carefully selected by our expert team of lab testers and editors. In most cases, we buy all these products ourselves, though occasionally, we get samples provided to us directly by companies.
From the moment we wake up to the time we tuck ourselves into bed, our appliances tirelessly serve us, making our lives easier and more convenient. With the advent of online marketplaces, the world of appliances has opened up like never before. Now, with just a few clicks, we can explore a vast selection of top-notch brands, each offering a unique blend of innovation, quality, and reliability. If you need the vacuum for dusting work then you will have to ante up and buy a dusting tool. If you really want to get up tight against the wall in this case you would have to use the crevice tool.