Vacuum Buying Guide
What is the best vacuum?
A vacuum cleaner is an important appliance for any home – but how do you know which one is best for you?
Some are best for hard floors, some for carpets, others for homes with pets, while others still are useful for cleaning your car or helping alleviate allergies.
We’ve put together this vacuum cleaner buying guide to help you make an informed decision when you buy a new vacuum cleaner.
Stick Vacuums
What is a stick vacuum?
Stick vacuums are lightweight, usually cordless, and handheld vacuums that are highly manoeuvrable and ideal for smaller homes and apartments or as a secondary vacuum for quick cleaning.
When you buy a new stick vacuum, it will often come with various heads and attachments suitable for hardwood or carpet floors.
They also often have attachments that allow you to clean smaller areas, such as behind the fridge or in the pantry and many stick vacuums feature compact docking stations for easy storage and charging.
While stick vacs are perfect for smaller apartments, the limited capacity, suction power, and battery power compared to other vacuums make them less ideal as the primary vacuum in a larger home.
While better technology is improving and there are now some stick vacuums that can run for an hour, these models are more expensive.
In bigger homes, most stick vacs are better suited as a second vacuum when the primary vacuum is too cumbersome for small cleans.
Robot Vacuums
Is it worth getting a robot vacuum?
If you don’t have time to clean or simply dislike doing it then you might want to consider getting a robot vacuum cleaner to do it for you.
The best robot vacuums clean your floors without you having to lift a finger. They’re often app-controlled and usually allow you to:
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Pre-set cleaning times and zones
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Tell the vacuum when to charge
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Set a place for the vacuum to auto-empty
Robot vacuums use cutting-edge technology to intelligently map your home, creating and saving floor plans and routes to the onboard computer that you may be able to review with the app.
However, when you buy a new robot vacuum, you should be aware that this technology doesn’t completely stop your vacuum from getting into trouble.
They can get stuck under furniture, on door thresholds, or on thick rugs, and are prone to sucking up stray cords, shoelaces, clothes and other household items that might put the vacuum temporarily out of operation.
To get the most out of your robot vacuum and to keep it working at maximum efficiency, make sure that any unnecessary clutter is removed from the floor prior to use.
Can I use a robot vacuum as my main vacuum?
While robot vacuums are a fantastic option for keeping on top of dust and dirt, and some are great at picking up pet hair and can even mop the floor, they’re not suitable for deep cleaning your floors on a large scale.
They also have mixed success in cleaning edges, such as where the floor meets the wall, and room corners.
As a result, robot vacuums are ideal as a secondary vacuum to help you keep on top of dust and dirt without the hassle of manually cleaning your floors.
They’re also a great option for those with mobility issues or who may struggle to lift heavier cleaning units.
A popular version is the robot vacuum and mop, which combines the abilities of the robot vacuum and a mop, and is perfect if most of your house has hard floors.
Handheld & Portable Vacuums
Handheld and portable vacuums are small, lightweight, and specifically designed to clean awkward spaces that are out of the reach of other vacuums.
Highly portable, these vacuums are ideal for cleaning your car, pantry, and other small places, and are compact enough to pack away on road trips.
Portable vacuums are also great for quick spot cleans, either on the floor or on a bench or table, when your main vacuum is not needed.
What is an upright vacuum cleaner?
Like stick vacuums, upright vacuum cleaners are manoeuvrable, handheld vacuums and often cordless.
However, in comparison to stick vacuums, upright vacuums have more powerful motors, wider vacuum heads, and a larger capacity for dust and dirt.
While this makes upright vacuums more powerful with stronger suction and well suited to heavy-duty home cleaning, it results in a heavier and less mobile unit compared to a stick vacuum.
Upright vacuums are a great choice as your home’s primary vacuum cleaner but may be too cumbersome to wheel out for spot cleaning and unsuitable for people with compromised mobility.
What is a barrel vacuum?
With powerful suction suitable for cleaning floors and upholstery, a barrel vacuum is a popular choice as the primary home vacuum cleaner.
Barrel vacuums are often corded, so they don’t need to be continuously recharged, and usually have the largest dust capacity and most powerful suction of all types of vacuums.
This makes barrel vacuums ideal for top-to-bottom cleaning in your home, ideal for hardwood and carpeted floors, rugs, and even couches and armchairs.
However, this means they’re less mobile and versatile than a stick or upright vacuum, and their size and corded power source leave them inappropriate for quick spot cleaning.
What is the best vacuum for a home with pets?
Do you have a cat or dog in your family?
If so, you may need a vacuum cleaner that is powerful enough to clean the fur and extra dirt that your pet tracks through the house, especially if they’re a breed that sheds lots of hair.
To keep your floors clean with pets in the home, look out for vacuums with these features:
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Powerful suction: A great option for homes with pets is to use a barrel or upright vacuum for cleaning pet hair that’s deep in the carpet while having an extra stick vacuum for quick spot cleaning. Some stick vacuums are powerful enough for homes with pets, but most are too weak to clean all the pet hair embedded in your carpet
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HEPA filter: A HEPA filter captures up to 99.97% of the allergens and irritants that pets spread around your home.
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Tangle-free technology: The best vacuums feature cleaner heads that utilise tangle-free technology to automatically untangle hair and other things that get caught in the roller brush.
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Large capacity: With pets comes more frequent vacuuming, which means that the dust cup or bag needs to be emptied more often. A larger capacity means fewer interruptions while you’re cleaning.
Should I get a corded or cordless vacuum?
Corded and cordless vacuums each come with respective benefits and drawbacks.
Mobility
Cordless: cordless vacuum cleaners are generally lighter and they don’t require constant plugging and unplugging to clean different rooms.
Corded: corded vacuums are often heavier and less maneuverable than cordless varieties. Their cleaning range is also limited by the vacuum cleaner’s cord length, which can be problematic if your home has irregularly spaced outlets.
Power source
Cordless: while cordless vacuums offer the convenience of not having to attach the unit to the power outlet during use, you will have to regularly charge the battery, putting the vacuum out of operation while it charges. Battery power and durability vary between models, so always check the battery specifications on individual vacuums.
Corded: unlike cordless vacuums, corded vacuum cleaners don’t have batteries that need to be recharged. Your vacuum cleaner can clean anywhere that the cord allows it to reach.
Strength
Cordless: while cordless vacuums offer superior mobility and convenience, they’re usually less powerful than corded upright or barrel vacuums and rarely suited to heavy-duty cleaning.
Corded: corded vacuums, especially upright and barrel vacuum cleaners, are often the strongest home vacuums available and suitable for deep cleaning carpets and for homes with pets.
Attachments & vacuum cleaner heads
Crevice tool
An important tool on most vacuum cleaners, a crevice tool’s slim shape and angled tip help you clean hard-to-reach places behind appliances, in room corners, and between couch cushions. It also turns a stick vacuum into a makeshift portable vacuum cleaner, allowing you to easily clean the car, pantry, wardrobe and other small places.
Upholstery tools
If your vacuum cleaner has an upholstery tool, it’s well-suited to cleaning furniture, including couches, armchairs and more, without damaging the fabric that covers seat cushions.
Roller brush
If your home has hard floors, you should look for a vacuum cleaner with a roller brush head attachment. A roller brush is more effective at picking up fine dust and dirt from floorboards and other hard floors, and also reduces the chance that the vacuum head will damage your floorboards.
Extension wand
Some vacuum cleaners include an extension wand attachment that gives you greater reach when vacuuming. This might help you more easily clean around and under furniture or even vacuum cobwebs and dust from high on walls or the ceiling.
Vacuum cleaner filters
HEPA Filters
HEPA filter stands for high-efficiency particulate air filter. HEPA filters in vacuum cleaners capture up to 99.97% of dust, pollen, mould, bacteria and more potentially harmful allergens and irritants. Vacuum cleaners with a HEPA filter trap these particles instead of sending them back into the air, which can provide relief for those who experience asthma or allergies. As a result of this ability to capture more dust and dirt particles, HEPA filters need to be changed more regularly than other filters.
Washable filters
Washable filters are vacuum cleaner filters that can be removed, cleaned with soap and water, and then put back into the vacuum. More durable than disposable filters, washable filters in vacuum cleaners remove the need to regularly buy new filters, helping you save money over the lifetime of your vacuum.
How often should I change my vacuum filter?
Most vacuum cleaner manufacturers recommend changing your vacuum filters every 3-6 months.
However, this will vary depending on a number of factors:
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Type of vacuum: Vacuum cleaners used for heavy-duty cleaning naturally need their filters replaced more often. For example, a barrel vacuum that’s used for deep whole-home cleans will need its filters changed more regularly than a stick vac that’s used for spot cleaning.
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Type of filter: HEPA filters capture more dust, dirt and allergens than other filters, so they need to be changed more often.
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Pets: If you have pets in your home, you will need to vacuum more regularly to capture pet hair, dirt and dust that they track through your home. As a result, you will need to frequently replace your vacuum filters.
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Cleaning frequency: How often you change your vacuum cleaner filters also depends on how regularly you use your vacuum. Cleaning more often means your filters will need to be changed more frequently.