The 6 Best Vacuums for Pet Hair in 2024, Tested and Reviewed

Table Of Content

• Bissell Pet Hair Eraser Turbo Lift-Off Upright Vacuum
• The Best Vacuum Cleaners
• The best basic robot vacuum for people with pets: Eufy RoboVac 11S Max
• The best handheld vacuum for people with pets
• Hoover MaxLife Pet Max Complete Bagless Upright Vacuum Cleaner
• Convenient cordless stick vac with a large dustbin

For strong suction and easy maneuverability, the Shark Stratos Cordless Vacuum does the job. This is a great vacuum for households with everyday vacuuming needs, but like most cordless vacuums, it won’t hold up to hours long cleaning sessions. Loss of suction power typically means that a vacuum's airflow is blocked, according to Toogood. "It is crucial for a vacuum cleaner to have one strong, powerful airflow running continuously through the machine," says Toogood.

Bissell Pet Hair Eraser Turbo Lift-Off Upright Vacuum

The Shark cordless vacuum has a low-profile design that can clean under furniture, and LED headlights show you where there’s dirt or hair on the floor. It does come with a few attachments, including a crevice tool and dusting brush. In our tests, the Airbelt K3 Premium excelled at picking up fur on carpets and couches, along with dirt and debris dragged in from the outside. Its powerful electric cleaner head is the best we’ve tested, gliding effortlessly on bare floors and across short-, medium-, and high-pile carpets and rugs. This model has three useful onboard attachments, including an efficient upholstery tool that works well on fur.

The Best Vacuum Cleaners

Two attachments are provided, a duster crevice tool and a pet multi-tool, both of which are equipped with optional brushes for lifting embedded dirt and dust off a variety of household surfaces. For storage, the vacuum features a front-facing clip that connects the handheld piece of the vacuum to the body while it sits on the dock, significantly reducing the overall height. But there is only one slot to keep one of the two attachments conveniently within reach. The Shark vacuum also only has one power setting, but it works well across hardwood flooring, upholstery, tile, and rugs without being too harsh.

The best basic robot vacuum for people with pets: Eufy RoboVac 11S Max

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Some people prefer the powerful suction and larger dustbin that upright vacuums offer over more lightweight models like stick vacuums. After testing both types in our lab, we found that the Shark Navigator Zero-M Self-Cleaning Brushroll Pet Pro is the best upright vacuum for pet hair. This Miele canister vacuum model comes with a turbo brush floorhead specially designed for picking up dirt and hair from low- to medium-pile carpets.

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It also has a built-in extendable crevice tool that helps target fur and other detritus on kitchen counters and between couch cushions. Mili Godio, NBC Select updates editor, uses this vacuum at home to clean up dog hair, dog food and dirt her furry friend brings inside after a walk. It gives you up to 60 minutes of run time on a single charge and the Digital Motorbar XL cleaner head automatically clears wrapped hair from the brush bar as you clean. You can also monitor the vacuum’s settings via its LED screen, plus turn it into a handheld vacuum to address small messes. We also tested smaller vacuums like robotic, stick, and handheld models for pet-hair pickup. But because we don’t expect them to accomplish the deep cleaning of a full-sized vacuum, we use a bit less cat hair in our tests.

The best handheld vacuum for people with pets

In the last nine months, we've tested 44 vacuums for our 2023 Cleaning and Organizing Awards and other category tests. We also spoke with Dr. Gary Richter M.S., D.V.M., a holistic veterinarian who’s well-acquainted with pet fur in both his home and office on how to better mitigate your pet's shedding. The laser-powered illumination on the Dyson V15 Detect is paired with a unique roller brush, the fluffy cleaner head, to shine a spotlight on the irritants in your path.

Hoover MaxLife Pet Max Complete Bagless Upright Vacuum Cleaner

Before moving into freelance, Brittany was a staff writer at TODAY.com and CBS News. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in consumer journalism from the University of Georgia. For up to six months with regular monthly check-ins, each tester was required to document and capture the performance of the vacuum in their home. They took note of how often they needed to maintain their vacuum, how easy it was to keep running efficiently, whether the performance declined as time passed, and if they found the vacuum to be beneficial. We evaluated our findings across multiple categories, including effectiveness, maneuverability, ease of emptying, portability, noise level, ease of setup, and overall value. Each vacuum was set up and taken through several testing trials to rate and compare features and functionality.

You can turn the automated brush head off while cleaning hard floors and store the included attachments inside the vacuum. Beyond cleaning your floors, this Dyson model has a dog grooming tool to remove loose hairs, dead skin and other allergens directly from long-haired pets. The vacuum has a 35-foot cord and its construction allows you to swivel around furniture easily.

Convenient cordless stick vac with a large dustbin

The Shark Detect Pro was also able to navigate around and avoid an obstacle course of toys without getting stuck or suctioning up something it shouldn't. The Dyson Outsize is the only cordless vacuum on the market with a half-gallon dust bin, meaning you can cover more ground or pet hair without having to empty it. The Dyson has a trapdoor mechanism for emptying the dustbin, so you can avoid coming in contact with debris. However, you have to remove the attachments before emptying the bin, and you may miss your trash receptacle if you don't position the dustbin just right. The Dyson Outsize vacuum is designed to clean large areas with an 11.5-inch-wide cleaner head that lets you pick up more debris in a single pass. The Outsize batteries last about 67% longer than other Dyson batteries we've tested.

We tried this tool on a chaise lounge that was covered in cat hair and found that cleaning hard-to-reach spots was a breeze. Including a top-tested upright vacuum and a cordless Dyson for hardwood floors. One of the most quiet vacuums we tested with suction powerful enough to take in a bath mat. Fortunately, it’s equipped with a safety mechanism that triggers the vacuum to power off when it takes in too much at the head. It’s most comparable in terms of style and price to our choice for Best Overall, the Dyson V10 Cyclone Animal, but it’s heavier and more difficult to maneuver. Ultimately we found the Dyson to be more versatile and durable, but the Tineco Pure One S15 has an LED illumination light which you may find useful if someone in your home has respiratory allergies.

However, the vacuum does need to be running while you brush your pet, which may frighten some animals. Non-motorized upholstery brushes have bristles and/or a strip of microfiber to clean off furniture. As you pull the tool across fabric, the bristles lift pet hair and dust to be sucked up through the vacuum hose. There are a few important factors that make a vacuum well-suited for dog and cat fur—namely, how much hair its bin holds and how it empties, how well it filters fine particles, and the types of attachments included. In our tests, the RoboVac 11S Max cleaned about as well as the much pricier Roborock Q5. It effortlessly removed rice, Cheerios, cat litter, and even baking soda sprinkled close to baseboards (a rarity among even the most expensive robot models).

Given vacuum companies’ fuzzy claims around whisking away what our furry friends leave behind, we filtered models down to vacuums that get top marks in performance ratings across our pet-hair and other key tests. If you are sensitive to pet hair, we suggest a bagged vacuum over a bagless model, because every time you empty a bagless bin, the fur can fly. The Hoover MaxLife Pet Max Complete Bagless Upright Vacuum almost made our list of the top vacuums for pet hair. Though it was effective on carpet and upholstery, our testers found that it wasn't able to pick up pet hair or kibble on hard floors. We'd only recommend this vacuum to someone whose home has mostly carpeted floors.