Vacuuming is one of those tedious tasks none of us can avoid, but a good vacuum cleaner makes the job much easier. These are our picks of the very best vacuum cleaners.
Our round-up includes vacuum cleaners of every type and price. We have cylinder vacuum cleaners, bagged uprights and bagless uprights, cordless vacuum cleaners and even more unusual types you might not have considered.
In our most recent best vacuum cleaner update we've added two new vacs. One is the iconic Henry from Numatic, which is a great option if you're on a budget thanks to its low £99 asking price and bulletproof build quality.
Next is an unusual option, a steam mop and cylinder vacuum cleaner in one that's a great option if you have lots of hard floors to clean. We're constantly testing new vacuum cleaners, so if there's one you'd like to know about then let us know in the comments.
See the full list by picking from the list below, or hit the next arrow:
Best Cheap Vacuum Cleaner | Numatic Henry HVR200-A2 NEW ENTRY
Best Hard Floor Cleaner | Bissell Vac & Steam NEW ENTRY
Best Cordless Vacuum Cleaner | Dyson DC59
Best Bagged Upright | Sebo Felix Vogue Eco
Best Bagless Upright | Dyson DC41 Mk2 Animal
Best Cordless Upright | Bosch Athlet
Best Secondary Vacuum Cleaner | Gtech AirRam
Last Update: 20/01/15, two new models added
Every vacuum cleaner in our round-up has been individually reviewed – each summary in our round-up includes a link to our full, in-depth review of the product where you can read about the pros and cons and see how well it cleans using before and after photos.
When we review vacuum cleaners we look at the following things:
Manoeuvrability
Here we look at how easy is it to steer, pull and lift the machine. We test on carpets and hard floors and look for problems such as overbalancing on upright machines, flexibility and common issues like 'sticking' heads on hard floors due to poorly designed cleaner heads.
Carpet cleaning
We test using white powder on dark carpets and include a before and after photo of carpet cleaning after three sweeps, where one sweep is up and down across the area.
Edge cleaning
Our carpet test also includes how well the machine cleans up to the edge of skirting boards before you have to resort to specialist crevice tools.
Hard floor cleaning
We conduct similar tests on hard floors and look at how well the vacuum cleaner sucks dust up from crevices and gaps in flooring.
Pet hair cleaning
We test how long and how many sweeps it takes to clean a 40cm diameter circle of combed in pet hair.
Cleaning on stairs
We see how easy it is to clean on stairs using the tools provided. We pay particularly attention to how long the detachable hose is and how easy it is to carry the vacuum cleaner if you need to.
Noise
We measure how noisy the machine is in decibels recorded at head level.
We also check to see what accessories are included, how well they work and how versatile the machine is. For example, some vacuum cleaners are good at specific jobs or have small capacities that mean they're only suitable for smaller homes, while others have lots of tools that make them suitable for a variety of jobs.
Other details we check are the cord length on corded vacuum cleaners, the battery life on cordless models and how easy it is to empty bagless models.
