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Vacuum cleaners for pet hair best ones


Best vacuums for pet hair in 2023

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Andrea Smith/CNN Underscored

Cats and dogs bring joy, comfort and companionship to your household. But they also bring hair — lots of hair, on your clothing, on your furniture and all over the floor. As with children and mess, controlling cat and dog hair in the house is a running battle, one you signed up for when you brought those bundles of chaos into your house.

A vacuum cleaner is a crucial tool against pet hair, dander and dust, especially for people with allergies, and many models now include specially designed floor heads and accessories for cleaning up after pets. We’ve found the best vacuums for pet hair among the seven cordless stick vacuums, 10 robot vacuums, six uprights and nine canister vacuums we’ve tested.

iLife V3S Pro

The best robot vacuum for pet hair

iLife V3S Pro Robot Vacuum

Amazon

The budget-priced iLife V3S Pro uses a suction tube like a traditional vacuum cleaner rather than the roller brushes employed by other robot vacuums, and does a better job picking up pet hair without clogging.

$160 $107 at Amazon

iRobot Roomba j7+

The best robot vacuum that can allegedly avoid dog poop

The Roomba j7+.

iRobot

The iRobot j7+ is the best robot vacuum you can buy right now, with simpler mapping, more cleaning power and smarter features (like dog poop avoidance) than anything else we tested.

$800 $600 at Bed Bath & Beyond

Dyson V11 Animal

Best cordless stick vacuum for pet hair and deep carpet

Dyson V11 Animal Cord-Free Vacuum

Dyson

With impressive power and the ability to tackle cleaning tasks on surfaces ranging from high-pile carpet to hard floors, the Dyson V11 Animal is the most capable cordless stick vacuum we tested.

$649 $599 at Amazon

Bissell Pet Hair Eraser Lift-Off Upright Vacuum

Best upright vacuum for pet hair

BISSELL Pet Hair Eraser Lift-Off Upright Vacuum

BISSELL

The Bissell Pet Hair Eraser Lift-Off Upright Vacuum's standout feature is the Pet Turboeraser tool, which has a spinning brush head with bristles that easily pull dog and cat hair off upholstery and stairs, making it the best upright vacuum for pet owners.

$370 at Amazon

Kenmore BC4026 Pet-Friendly Pop-N-Go

Best canister vacuum for pet hair and thick carpet

Kenmore Pop-N-Go canister vacuum cleaner

Kenmore

The Kenmore BC4026 canister vacuum is great for large homes, deep-pile carpet and folks with allergies. It's bulky and inelegant, but its powered floorhead outperforms vacuums twice its price, the motorized pet hair mini brush keeps upholstery looking fresh and its dust bags and exhaust filter are HEPA-compliant.

$320 at Target

Bissell Pet Hair Eraser

Best handheld vacuum for pet hair

Walmart

With a motorized brush that picks up more pet hair than any other handheld vacuum we tested, the powerful Bissell Pet Hair Eraser lets you take care of pet messes on floors, upholstery, in the care, or anywhere it might accumulate.

$93 $69 at Walmart

Andrea Smith/CNN Underscored

Key Specs

Of the 10 robot vacuums we tested, the iLife V3S Pro was the best at removing pet hair without clogging, thanks to its lack of roller brushes. At around $160, it costs hundreds less than most robot vacuums.

The iLife V3S Pro does a great job removing pet hair and cat litter from hardwood floor and low carpet. It uses bump-and-run navigation, rather than mapping, and it can’t avoid cords or poop like the Roomba j7+ can, but it’ll clean your whole space eventually. It can’t empty itself, unlike more expensive robots, and it doesn’t have a bin fill indicator. But if you make it a habit to empty the dust bin every day, it’ll drastically cut down on pet hair in your space for very little effort on your part.

iRobot Roomba j7+

Andrea Smith/CNN

Key Specs

If you have money to spare and want a robot vacuum that’s smarter than you are, consider the iRobot Roomba j7+. Unlike the iLife V3S Pro, it’s not bump-and-run: It maps your house, including no-go zones, and it has built-in object detection that helps it avoid power cords, headphones and — most importantly — pet waste, so you can hopefully avoid pooptastrophe.

The j7+ is self-emptying, unlike the iLife V3S Pro, which needs to be emptied after each run, and its rubber multi-surface brushes were second only to the V3S Pro, which has no brushes at all, in avoiding pet hair tangles. The Dirt Detect feature lets it focus on specific messes, like a cat litter spill, and go back over the area until it’s clean.

The Roomba j7+ is the best robot vacuum you can buy, but it’s expensive, and in our testing its self-empty cycle briefly made a noise like a jet engine. If you have the money, though, and especially if you have pets prone to pooping inside, it’s a compelling upgrade over the iLife V3S Pro.

The Dyson V11 Animal

Lindsay Boyers/CNN Underscored

Key Specs

The Dyson V11 Animal is the best cordless stick vacuum for pet hair, and the best stick vacuum of the seven we tested.  If you live in an apartment or smaller home, it might even be the only vacuum you need. Its swiveling floor head makes fast work of pet hair and dust even in high-pile carpets, and in handheld mode, the crevice tool and mini motorized brush tool are fantastic for cleaning upholstered furniture, cat towers and pet beds. It’s lightweight, maneuverable and cordless, so getting the vacuum out isn’t a hassle like it can be for upright and canister vacuums.

The V11 Animal’s biggest weakness is battery life. At its automatic and Boost settings, it gets 30 to 45 minutes of runtime, which might not be enough. Unlike other stick vacuums with swappable batteries, the Dyson’s rechargeable battery is built in, so once it’s out of juice, you have to wait for it to recharge. The Dyson also uses a trigger-style power switch, which you have to hold down the entire time you’re vacuuming — it’s fine for smaller tasks, but you might find it taxing if you’re cleaning an entire apartment.

The Bissell Pet Hair Eraser Lift-Off Upright Pet Vacuum

Lindsay Boyers/CNN Underscored

Key Specs

If you have a home too large to vacuum in a single charge of a stick vacuum, especially one with lots of carpet, you should consider a corded upright vacuum. While larger, heavier and less maneuverable than cordless stick vacuums, they have higher suction, and won’t run out of charge.

The Bissell Pet Hair Eraser Lift-Off Upright is the best upright vacuum for pet hair, thanks to its Pet Turboeraser mini brush tool, which does a better job removing pet hair from stairs and upholstery than the five other uprights we tested (though it’s powered by suction, rather than motorized, so it won’t be as effective as a motorized pet hair tool like the one on the Kenmore BC4026 canister vacuum, below).

The Pet Hair Eraser’s lift-off feature means the canister, hose, wand and motor detach from the floor head, so you can easily use it to vacuum upholstery, drapes, fixtures and other things above floor level. At 18 pounds, the vacuum isn’t the lightest of the six upright vacuums we tested, and it’s not the best on hard floors, but it’s the best upright option for people with pets. However, people with dust or dander sensitivities should consider a bagged canister vacuum rather than a bagless upright like the Bissell.

The Kenmore 600-Series BC4026 Pet Friendly Pop-N-Go canister vacuum

Nathan Edwards/CNN Underscored

Key Specs

For folks with pets, carpets and dust or dander sensitivities, a canister vacuum can offer even more powerful suction, deeper carpet cleaning and better air filtration than an upright. The Kenmore BC4026 Pet-Friendly Pop-N-Go isn’t particularly maneuverable, even by canister vacuum standards, but its electric floor sweeper brush pulls an unbelievable amount of dust and pet hair from the thickest of carpets. Like the Bissell Pet Hair Eraser upright, it has a mini turbo brush (here called a Pet Powermate) that makes quick work of cat hair on cat trees, microfiber upholstery and pet beds. Unlike the Bissell, Kenmore’s version is motorized, so you can change the suction level without changing the brush speed, which really helps get pet hair off of upholstery without inhaling the fabric.

Both the dust bag and exhaust filter of the BC4026 are HEPA-compliant, and offer much better air filtration and dust containment than a bagless vacuum, as well as three times the dust capacity of the Dyson V11 Animal stick vacuum or Bissell Pet Hair Eraser Lift-Off Upright. But that’s at the cost of portability and maneuverability; at 22 pounds, the Kenmore is 4 pounds more than the Bissell upright, and neither its floor head nor canister are as nimble. But for sheer power, you can’t beat a canister vac, and the Kenmore is far more affordable than the much more maneuverable Miele Complete C3 Kona.

Bissel Pet Hair Eraser

Alex Rennie/CNN Underscored

The Bissell Pet Hair Eraser is the best handheld vacuum for pet hair — it has a motorized brush that lets it pick up pet hair from upholstery, floors, in the car and everywhere else we found the stuff (which, as you know if you’re a cat or dog parent, is pretty much everyplace). Even though the Pet Hair Eraser is on the larger side (thanks to its sizable canister) at 17 inches long and weighs around 3 pounds, it’s still well balanced and comfortable to use.

The motorized pet hair brush attaches securely and let us get at dog hair embedded deep in carpeting, rugs, and couches, and even in our test vehicle’s carpeting. The 23.6 ounce canister—the largest of all the handheld vacuums we tested—sucked up a large amount of hair before needing to be emptied, and along with the 17-minute runtime let us work until the job was truly complete, and the long crevice tool and flat upholstery brush let us get into nooks and crannies where the motorized main brush couldn’t go.

The Bissell Pet Hair Eraser is versatile enough that you could use it as your only handheld vacuum. whether you’re looking for something to use around the house or to keep your car clean, though it’s extra power and capacity makes it a bit bulkier and a bit more cumbersome to handle than some of its competitors. You might look elsewhere if you are looking to pick up after kids, as the nozzle was too narrow to suck up Cheerios. It also doesn’t have a charging base, but comes with a wall-wart power supply cable — a less convenient setup than our other favorite handheld vacuums.

Our test supervisor assess how the robots stack up

Andrea Smith/CNN Underscored

The bristles on a vacuum’s brush head are designed to agitate carpet and to lift dust, debris and hair from the floor. As anyone who’s used a hairbrush knows, though, over time hairs get caught in the bristles. If you have pets that shed a lot, the hair can accumulate so fast on the brush that it clogs the vacuum, lowering suction or preventing the brush from turning at all. That’s why many companies sell vacuums optimized for pet hair, with brushes designed not to clog on hair, along with powered mini brush head attachments to get pet hair off of upholstery and stairs.

Pet-specific vacuums often include HEPA filters, aimed at controlling dust, dander and pet-related allergens in general. If you’re concerned about such issues, you may want to seek out a bagged vacuum rather than a bagless model; the bag provides an extra filtration stage and also lets you avoid dust spillage when emptying.

If you have a houseful of cats and dogs, a canister vacuum or upright vacuum will give you the power and tools to deal with animal hair, dander and dust on any surface. These corded units have more-powerful motors and stronger suction and pet-friendly models offer powered brushes designed to make short work of hair without clogging. While they may be a little more ungainly than cordless sticks, they won’t run out of power midway through your weekly cleaning.

An apartment or small house can likely get by with a cordless stick vacuum, especially if you have mostly bare floors. If you have a large house or lots of carpet, an upright or canister vacuum is a better choice; they can provide more suction than cordless stick vacuum, and won’t run out of batteries in the middle of a job. Many of these also double as handheld vacuums, which are great for keeping upholstery hair-free or for tackling small pet-associated messes.

A robot vacuum probably shouldn’t be your only vacuum if you’re trying to clean up after pets, but it’s a great complement to a cordless stick, upright or canister vacuum. Running a robot vacuum daily can keep the day-to-day buildup of fuzz to a manageable minimum so your weekly chores are less of a chore. The small roller brushes on most robot vacuums can clog quickly with pet hair, however, so you’ll want to pay attention to regular maintenance. Our current favorite in the category, the iLife V3S Pro, avoids this nagging issue by not using a roller brush at all.

Note: The prices above reflect the retailers' listed price at the time of publication.

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8 Best Vacuums for Pet Hair of 2023

This story was updated in January 2023 to ensure all recommendations vetted by the Good Housekeeping Institute were current, in stock and accurately priced.

Removing pet hair is one of the toughest challenges vacuum cleaners face. That's because, in part, static electricity makes dog and cat hair cling tightly to fabrics like carpeting, upholstery, draperies and more. It's the static bond that makes it seem like no amount of brushing with a lint roller, sticky tape or passes with a pet hair removal gadget will be enough to remove all traces of pet hair. But a vacuum designed specifically for picking up pet hair can make easy work of the task, thanks to useful features like rubber trim and raised "fingers" that help break static bonds and lift fur from every surface in your home.

In the Good Housekeeping Institute Home Care & Cleaning Lab, we test all kinds of vacuums, including the best stick vacuums, handheld vacuums, canister vacuums, robot vacuums and more. We put our vacuums through rigorous testing that follows industry-standard test methods from the ASTM, the organization that develops the protocols vacuum cleaner manufacturers and other testing labs also use. We apply standardized types and amounts of soil on a range of flooring types, from hardwood to deep pile carpet to vinyl, to find the best vacuums to get the job done. Our custom-built vacuum testing machine also allows us to objectively measure how much embedded dirt each vacuum pulls from carpet, all using the same standardized method. For pet hair testing, we spread down standardized rayon fibers to simulate the fur pets shed.

Keep reading for more information on how we evaluate the best vacuums for pet hair in our Lab, plus more of our best tips and tricks for pet hair removal. If your tile or wood floors need a little more love and attention, check out our guides to the best vacuum mops and the best vacuums for hardwood floors. For even more on carpets, check out our guides to the best carpet cleaners and cleaning your carpet the right way.

1

Best Overall Vacuum for Pet Hair

Bissell

Pet Hair Eraser Turbo Plus Lightweight Vacuum

Bissell

Now 10% off

$222 AT AMAZON

Product Specs
Weight 13.75 lbs.
Corded or Cordless Corded
Cord Length 30 feet
Run Time N/A
Bag or Bagless Bagless
Dust Cup Capacity 0.75 L
Filter Washable foam and non-washable pleated
Included Accessories LED Crevice Tool, Pet Turbo Eraser Tool and 2-in-1 Pet Dusting Brush

2

Best Value Vacuum for Pet Hair

Kenmore

Pet-Friendly Upright Vacuum

Kenmore

$248 AT AMAZON

Product Specs
Weight 19 lbs.
Corded or Cordless Corded
Cord Length 30 feet
Run Time N/A
Bag or Bagless Bag
Dust Cup Capacity 1.5 L
Filter HEPA
Included Accessories Dusting brush, crevice tool and bare floor tool

3

Best Cordless Vacuum for Pet Hair

Dyson

V15 Detect Stick Vacuum

Dyson

$750 AT WALMART $750 AT HOME DEPOT $750 AT NORDSTROM

Product Specs
Weight 6.8 lbs.
Corded or Cordless Cordless
Run Time Up to 60 minutes
Bag or Bagless Bagless
Dust Cup Capacity . 76 L
Filter HEPA
Included Accessories Hair screw tool, combination tool, stubborn dirt brush, crevice tool, mini soft dusting brush and digital motorbar

4

Best Vacuum for Pet Hair and Hardwood Floors

Kenmore

Pet-Friendly Pop-N-Go Bagged Canister

Kenmore

Now 19% off

$283 AT AMAZON $350 AT WALMART

Product Specs
Weight 24 lbs.
Corded or Cordless Corded
Cord Length 26 feet
Run Time N/A
Bag or Bagless Bag
Duct Cup Capacity N/A
Filter HEPA
Included Accessories Crevice tool, bare floor tool, upholstery brush and pet PowerMate

5

Best Cordless Handheld Vacuum for Pet Hair

BLACK+DECKER

Furbuster Cordless Handheld Vacuum for Pets

Black + Decker

$96 AT AMAZON $99 AT HOME DEPOT $116 AT WALMART

Product Specs
Weight 4. 2 lbs
Run time Up to 32 minutes
Bag or Bagless Bagless
Dust Cup Capacity 0.75 L
Corded or Cordless Cordless
Filter Washable filter and pre-filter
Run Time N/A
Included Accessories Crevice tool and motorized pet brush

6

Best Canister Vacuum for Pet Hair

Miele

Boost CX1 Cat & Dog

Miele

Product Specs
Weight 18 lbs.
Corded or Cordless Corded
Cord Length 21 feet
Run Time N/A
Bag or Bagless Bagless
Dust Cup Capacity 1 L
Filter HEPA
Included Accessories Upholstery nozzle, crevice nozzle, two floor nozzles and dusting brush

7

Best Corded Handheld Vacuum for Pet Hair

Bissell

Pet Hair Eraser Corded Handheld Vacuum

Bissell

Now 21% off

$30 AT AMAZON $61 AT WALMART

Product Specs
Weight 5 lbs.
Corded or Cordless Corded
Cord Length 16 feet
Run Time N/A
Bag or Bagless Bagless
Dust Cup Capacity .78 L
Filter Multi-layer filtration
Included Accessories Specialized rubber nozzle and suction nozzle

8

Best Robot Vacuum for Pet Hair

eufy

RoboVac 15C MAX

eufy

$250 AT AMAZON

Product Specs
Weight 6 lbs.
Corded or Cordless Cordless (Base is corded)
Run Time Up to 100 minutes
Bag or Bagless Bagless
Dust Cup Capacity . 6 L
Filter Non-washable
Included Accessories Cleaning tool and side brushes

How we tested and chose the best vacuums for pet hair

In the Good Housekeeping Institute Cleaning Lab, we test dozens of vacuum cleaners throughout the year. Each vacuum model we evaluate is tested exactly the same way, according to ASTM standards. As a member of ASTM International's F11 Vacuum Cleaner Committee, our Cleaning Lab's executive director helps to develop the standards used across the industry to assess vacuum’s performance, ease of use, durability and more.

In the Cleaning Lab, we assess how well vacuums pick up dirt and debris from carpets, hardwood, tile and linoleum flooring. Perhaps most importantly, every vacuum we evaluate gets tested on "pet hair,” a.k.a. fine rayon fibers that we apply to test carpeting in a uniform way. After a specified number of passes, the percent of pet hair pickup from the carpeting is determined.

Carolyn Forte/ Hearst

In addition to performance testing, each vacuum must also undergo ease of use evaluations that include assessing the weight, battery runtime, maneuverability and ease of emptying and using the controls of the devices. Models that are tested in consideration for our annual Good Housekeeping Best Cleaning & Organizing Awards are also sent to consumer testers who rate and provide feedback on the vacuum’s maneuverability, ease of use and more. Our picks are the vacuums that performed best on in-Lab pet hair tests, plus ones with features perfectly suited to tackle stubborn fur.

What to look for when shopping for the best pet hair vacuums

To help any vacuum do a better job at removing pet hair, our cleaning pros recommend giving fur-covered carpets and couches a spritz of an anti-static spray, like Static Guard, before vacuuming to help strands come up easier. Then, there are a few features to look for in a vacuum specifically for pet hair:

✔️ Bag vs. bagless: Dust cups or bags are essential considerations for the inevitable and frequent dumping that happens as you vacuum up after your pet. Bagged vacuums are best for keeping pet hair, dust and debris out of the air when emptying the vacuum, ideal for homes with allergy sufferers. Bagless vacuums are often sealed to prevent debris escaping and going back into the air of your home as you clean, but have to be emptied directly into the trash bin where dust can escape and find its way into the air or back on the floor. Bagless models are great for homes that don't want to re-up on bags periodically. Make sure that the dust cup is sizable and easy to empty, or that the bag is easily disposed of for the easiest post-cleaning cleanup.

✔️ Filter type: Filters not only help the dust from recirculating back into the air but can actually help neutralize pet smells in your home. Look for models with multi-layer filtration that can trap more debris than a single layer filter can. Models with pre-filters and whole machine filtration also offer multiple levels of filtration at different parts of the vacuum to further prevent dust and debris from re-entering your home's air. And if allergies are a concern, HEPA filters are the most effective, since they trap 99.97% of dust, pollen, mold, bacteria and any airborne particles with a minimum size of 0.3 microns (nanoparticles).

✔️ Type of flooring: Many vacuum cleaners come with attachments that are specifically designed for cleaning different types of flooring. Models with brushes that can be turned off or soft brushes are the best option for hardwood flooring as they are less likely to cause scratches than brushes with harder bristles. For thick carpets, rotating brush rolls with stiff bristles help get into the individual fibers of the carpet to get as much dirt and debris out.

✔️ Corded vs. cordless: With a corded vacuum, you’ll never have to worry about running out of battery power, however, cordless vacuums are easy to take from room to room or use in a car. Deciding if you need a corded or a cordless model should be chosen depending on your usage: Do you plan to tote it around the house and outside, or perhaps you're more likely to use it for long stretches of time? If you're leaning toward a cordless model, look for ones that include a second battery for longer run time

✔️ Size and weight: Portability is also an important factor when shopping for a vacuum cleaner. If you’re frequently vacuuming small amounts of pet hair, you may want a handheld or stick vacuum that’s compact and lightweight to quickly suction up tiny amounts of pet hair. However, if you find yourself vacuuming large areas often to pick up pet hair you’ll want a corded canister or upright vacuum that never runs out of power. Keep in mind that heavier vacuums will be harder to carry up and down stairs if you have multiple levels to clean in your home.

✔️ Pet tools & features: Pet hair-nabbing features are crucial, like rubber trim and raised “fingers” on floor nozzles or attachments that help zap static and break the bonds so fur comes up more easily. Tangle-free brush rolls also put an end to clipping long strands of hair (from pets or humans!) that get twisted around the brush.

Is a vacuum with a HEPA filter worth it?

Yes, vacuums with HEPA filters are especially great for homes with allergy sufferers as they trap 99.97% of microscopic airborne allergens. In fact, research conducted by NASA showed that HEPA filters remove almost all nanoparticles from a space cabin. Vacuums with “HEPA-like” filters are less expensive but often are only able to trap airborne particles as small as 0.5 microns, which makes a big difference when it comes to reducing airborne viruses and bacteria in your home. We also recommend sealed vacuums that don’t allow any particles to escape from side vents or any other part of the vacuum are helpful for allergies, as are bagged vacuums that minimize the release of dust when emptying the dust cup.

Why trust Good Housekeeping?

Carolyn Forté has tested and reviewed hundreds of vacuum cleaners, carpet cleaners, mops and other major (and minor) home appliances for over 40 years.

Learn more