Finding the best vacuum cleaner isn't easy. You need a device that ensures dust and dirt have no place to hide, one that'll fit with your home and your needs and that's also within your budget. We're here to help.
We've been on a hunt to find the best of the best vacuum cleaners available right now. The cleaners we've found will leave your carpets looking clean, your floors looking dazzling and will hopefully take some of the stress out of the chore of cleaning your home. What's more, you might not have to spend as much as you think.
UPDATE: Did you know that one of our favourite robovacs, the Roomba, might soon be leaving the constraints of your house and coming for your garden? Details of iRobot's Terra Robot Mower were released earlier this year, but recent reports suggest it'll be with us by early 2020 and could change the way we mow our lawns for good.
- Want something more specific? Check out our guides to the best cordless vacuum cleaners, or best robot vacuums on the market.
- Now you've got the best tool, here's how to vacuum properly.
We've put in a considerable amount of dust-busting hours to rate and review the vacuum cleaners listed below, so you know which is the best model to buy in 2019.
You might notice that a lot of the leading vacuum cleaners in our list feature a cordless design, waving goodbye to the massive cord that was always a tripping hazard anyway. After the success of the Cyclone V10 (included below), Dyson has even stopped making corded vacuums altogether.
As well as new, cordless models, some of the top vacuum cleaners now have brains of their own: choose a robot vacuum cleaner and you don't have to lift a finger to take care of the vacuuming. You don't even have to be at home to set them off.
So whether you're after a super lightweight, cordless vacuum or an advanced robotic cleaner, here are the best vacuum cleaners TechRadar has used to date.
Best vacuum cleaners at a glance
- Dyson Cyclone V10 Absolute
- Shark IF250UK
- Dyson V8 Absolute
- Gtech AirRam MK2
- Dyson Light Ball Multi Floor
- Dyson Eye 360
- iRobot Roomba 980
- Eufy RoboVac 11
- Neato Botvac Connected
Best vacuum cleaners of 2019: ranked
Dyson Cyclone V10 Absolute
1. Dyson Cyclone V10 Absolute
Power supply: : Cordless, battery | Weight: : 5.9 lbs / 2.6 kg | Bin size: : 0.75L | Run time: : Up to 60 minutes
Unrivaled design
Powerful suction
Battery drains fast on highest setting
Expensive
Dyson's newest cordless vacuum cleaner is so good, the company is no longer making vacuums with cords. That's how confident Dyson is that the Cyclone V10 (and all the vacs that follow) will meet all your cleaning needs.
Simply put, the Cyclone V10 is the best vacuum Dyson has ever made. The redefined cyclone technology produces more suction power than ever – reportedly 20% more than the previous V8 model – and we can testify to that from first hand experience.
The V10 offers some crucial changes over older V models. The barrel is now front-facing, with all attachments connecting here directly, and the design has been tweaked for greater suction efficiency. According to Dyson, the V10 can also detect differences in altitude, air pressure and temperature, adjusting itself for maximum performance.
Prices and models vary across regions, but you will pay more for the Cyclone V10's souped-up suction. And while the Cyclone V10 is more powerful than ever and boasts a more energy-dense battery than previous models, putting it on the highest setting will drain the battery in about five minutes.
At the lowest setting, however, you'll get up to 60 minutes of use, and that should be plenty for your everyday needs.
Read our full Dyson Cyclone V10 review
2. Shark IF250UK
Power supply: : Cordless, battery | Weight: : 4kg | Bin size: : 0.33L | Suction power: 25.2AW
Easily portable
Powerful suction
Variety of cleaning modes
Heavier than some of the competition
Don't want a Dyson vacuum cleaner? This Shark IF250UK is a cheaper and rather decent alternative to some of the top-end products from Dyson that sit in this list. It's another cordless cleaner that can run for 22 minutes from a single charge – but the best bit is there are two batteries in the box, so you can just hot swap out mid-clean and get 44 minutes in total.
We really like the design of the Shark IF250UK, although it is a little on the heavy side. It comes with Shark's Flexology technology that means you can bend the cleaner at the mid-way point, so you can get those hard to reach places like under your sofa without needing to get crawl down on the floor.
As we've said, it's not as lightweight as the Dyson listed above, but we still found it easy enough to carry, and portable enough for most people.
This is certainly a powerful
vacuum cleaner. If you're a pet owner, you can get a special edition with in-built pet cleaning features, but in an animal-free home we found the Shark IF250UK cleaned up easily when using its maximum suction mode.
For a lower price than the Dyson V10, the Shark IF250UK is a very good pick for your next
vacuum cleaner– it matches the competition for power and is as simple to use as you could want.
Read the full Shark IF250UK review
Dyson V8 Absolute
3. Dyson V8 Absolute
Power supply: : Cordless, battery | Weight: : 2.16kg | Bin size: : 0.54L | Suction power: 22AW (115AW in MAX mode)
Lightweight
Portable and modular
Strong suction
Expensive
Formerly the best cordless vacuum cleaner that money could buy, the Dyson V8 Absolute is still a top-of-the-line battery-powered cleaning machine, even as the Cyclone V10 has dethroned it from the very top rung of the ladder. It also remains a real joy to use.
First, the design. With a removable extender pole and six different heads for different surfaces and use cases, the V8 Absolute is lightweight and easy to run around the house. With the suction motor in the pistol-grip handle area, you can also easily clip a head directly onto the main unit, turning the whole thing into a portable cleaner – one that's perfect for going up the stairs or decrumbing the car.
A full charge will give you around 40 minutes of use, which is really impressive for a cordless cleaner, though mileage will vary once you start using on the motorized heads – or switch on the V8 Absolute’s MAX mode. You'll rarely need it though: for a handheld, this cleaner rivals upright
vacuums for sheer dirt-sucking power. Its large bin will take in plenty of trash too before needing emptying, which is another convenience not often seen in a cordless.
Best of all though, it is genuinely fun to use. The sci-fi aesthetic makes it one of the few "white goods" gadgets you'll happily leave on show in the house, with the transforming design as useful as it is clever. It's still worth a look even with the V10 now on the scene.
4. Gtech AirRam MK2
Power supply: Cordless, battery | Weight: 3.5kg | Battery life: 40 minutes
Lightweight, easy to carry and move
Easily accessible bin
Bin is small
No attachment tools
The Gtech AirRam MK2 blends the flexibility of a cordless vacuum with strong suction performance and ease of use, making it a great choice for those looking for a lightweight and highly manoeuvrable vac they can quickly whizz around the home.
It's super-simple to setup out of the box, though the four-hour charge can be a hassle if you need a speedy clean and the AirRam MK2 simply isn't juiced. You could use it if plugged into the wall, but with such a short charging cable supplied that'd be wholly impractical.
An hour on the charger will give you a short burst of
vacuuming power to address a spillage, but if you're planning on doing a general clean you'll want a full charge, which gives you around 40 minutes of use (similar to the Dyson V8 Absolute).
Meanwhile, Gtech's Airlock technology automatically adjusts the head for different flooring types, and suction is generally very good, without being the absolute best on offer.
The collection bin may be a bit on the small side, but it's incredibly easy to empty and ensures you don’t get your hands dirty, with a removable cylinder featuring a sliding lever that pushes out all the collected dirt and dust.
The vacuum cleaner is easy to carry up and down stairs, but with no hose or attachments you can't easily clean stairs or other hard-to-reach areas of your home with it. Its price tag makes it a more approachable option than the Dyson however, so if you're on a budget it's definitely worth considering.
Dyson Light Ball Multi Floor
5. Dyson Light Ball Multi Floor
Power supply: Corded | Weight: 6.9kg | Cord length: 9.4m | Suction power: 90AW
Impressive, continuous suction
Multi-functional tools included
Heavy to carry up stairs
Cord is annoying
If you want serious suction from your
vacuum cleaner, Dyson is the market leader. Its cyclone technology has long been touted as the best sucker around, and on the Light Ball Multi Floor we can safely say it earns its reputation.
With 90AW of suction power, the Dyson Light Ball Multi Floor tackles carpet, wood floors, laminate and more. Each pass hoovers up dust, hair and other particles stuck inside your carpets too, not just those sitting on top.
We were surprised and impressed with the amount of stuff it picked up during the first few trips around our house – clearly our previous
vacuum wasn’t doing the job as effectively.
When the large bin fills up, it's just a simple one-button release from the body of the Light Ball, and then another one button press to dispense its contents into the bin – although with the large flag that opens at the bottom you'll need to angle the cylinder accordingly.
As well as acting as a standard upright
vacuum cleaner, the Light Ball also comes with a built-in hose and tools, allowing you to tackle hard to reach places, ceilings and stairs with relative ease.
It's still a bit of a beast to carry up and down the stairs though, and at times the long 9.4m cord does get in the way, making you wish this was a cordless
vacuum – but the trade off will be inferior suction.
If you're in the market for a
vacuum cleaner that will give your floors a seriously thorough clean, then the easy-to-use, highly maneuverable and surprisingly quiet Dyson Light Ball could be right up your street.
Dyson 360 Eye robot vacuum cleaner
Power supply: Battery | Weight: 2.4kg | Bin size: 0.33Lm | Suction power: 20AW
Quiet operation
Compact width
Not the most thorough clean
Tall height
With AI smarts improving all the time and robotics increasingly accepted in the home, the sci-fi dream of having a little robot helper to potter about the house is fast becoming a reality. The
Dyson 360 Eye is the
vacuum cleaning company's first effort in the space, and makes a good account of itself.
After a relatively painless app-powered set-up process, the camera-equipped Dyson 360 Eye is able to navigate your home, weaving around obstacles on a cleaning routine you again establish through the app.
Considering its small size, the vacuum cleaner surprisingly capable at sucking up the rubbish in your home, and when the battery gets low and it's time for a recharge, the 360 Eye will intelligently return to its charging station without any prompting.
It's a premium product, commanding a high asking price that's best used as a supplement to your usual cleaning rota rather than a replacement. With the 360 Eye doing the rounds once every day, you'll find that your home will need a "deep clean"
vacuuming session by your own hand far less often.
But there's still room for improvement – the tall clearance makes it difficult for the 360 Eye to fit under furniture, while a bigger bin would lessen the need to keep emptying it out, and a larger battery would give it a better chance of completing a whole-house sweep in one pass without a recharge session.
The limitations of the wider product category taken into consideration, this is a solid luxury cleaning product regardless. Bear in mind though that Dyson just announced its successor, the 360 Heurist.
iRobot Roomba 980 robot
vacuum cleaner
Power supply: Battery | Weight: 3.94kg | Bin size: 0.6Lm | Suction power: 33AW
Environment mapping
Relatively low clearance
Sluggish app control
Struggles with cables
Dyson’s not the only company working with robotics in the home space, and many rate iRobot and its
Roomba 980 vacuum cleaner very highly, too.
A low-clearance, dirt-sucking disc, it's intelligent enough to go about its business in your home without much prompting from its human owners. The Roomba 980 will intelligently map your home for problem spots, kicking into a high-power mode when carpets are identified, and weaving around chair legs and other potential obstacles.
With a two-hour battery life, it manages a longer cleaning cycle than the Dyson before it heads back to its charging dock.
Other smart features of the Roomba 980 include its battery-powered "Dual Mode Virtual Wall Barriers" which signal to the bot which areas to avoid if placed across a doorway, and more granular control over its cleaning procedures through the accompanying app.
However, as good as it is the Roomba 980 has room for improvement, with its app not always terrible intuitive, and the robot itself sometimes getting bamboozled by cables.
It's another pricey cleaning luxury, and making the choice between it and its Dyson rival is a tough one. But for those that can afford it, the Roomba 980 is another excellent cleaning convenience.
Read our full iRobot Roomba 980 review
8. Eufy RoboVac 11
Power supply: Battery | Weight: 3.02kg | Bin size: 0.6Lm
Low price compared to competition
Lots of cleaning settings
No companion app
Limited battery life
You may not have heard of the name Eufy before, but this more affordable robot
vacuum cleaner offers some fantastic value and it comes from the sister brand of Anker, which is the closest thing to a household name in the world of portable chargers.
The RoboVac 11 has lots of cleaning settings available, including an automatic mode, maximum power, edge cleaning, single room cleaning or a mode that specifically focuses on one small area.
The problem is, unlike the two
vacuum cleaners above, you can't connect the RoboVac 11 to an app – and so you can't monitor the robot cleaner or set it off when you're not in the house. (The more recent RoboVac 30C upgrades with the EufyHome app, though you're looking at closer to £300 than £200 for the change.)
Instead it's all activated through a remote control that comes in the box with the RoboVac 11. You can set it up on a timer, so the cleaner will automatically head on its journey once a day, but it's not as useful as having an app to do it from anywhere in the world.
There's also no mapping technology built-in, and instead the RoboVac 11 will just make its own way around your home until the battery runs out. It uses infrared sensors to avoid bumping into furniture in your home, but it can be quite frustrating if you're sitting and watching it work – it doesn't clean quite as efficiently as some other cleaners.
With a 600 ml bin this will keep going for multiple cleans. We found the battery life to last around 90 minutes on the automatic mode, and a little bit less if you're using the maximum power suction.
The Eufy may not be the most efficient or powerful robot
vacuum cleaner on the market, but considering its super-low price point, it's impressive how much value for money you get with the RoboVac 11.
Read our full Eufy RoboVac 11 review
9. Neato Botvac Connected
Power supply: Battery | Weight: 3.94kg | Bin size: 0.6Lm
Thorough cleaning
Relatively cheap
Incorrectly assesses its own height
Marks very easily
While not quite as familiar a name as Dyson or Roomba, with the Neato Botvac Connected, Neato has managed to create a
vacuum cleaner that definitely gives the others a run for their money.
At 10 cm tall, it comfortably manages to shuffle under most items of furniture, and uses laser guidance to map the room. It's very satisfying watching it figure out which items of furniture it can navigate under and around.
A little frustratingly, it doesn’t seem to factor in the little protruding circle on top of the unit that houses the Neato logo, and so does occasionally get caught on items that it only just clears.
You can control the Neato Botvac Connected using your phone, set up routines for when you want it to clean, and even pause it mid-clean. There are also convenient buttons on the unit itself: one for 'spot clean' that will do one room, or 'house clean' that will do your entire home before guiding itself safely back to its base station.
At 700 ml, the bin size is bigger than both the Dyson 360 and the Roomba, but it's still small in comparison to a standard vacuum cleaner, and will need emptying mid-clean if you have a large (or particularly dirty) home.
There is the option to have the Neato clean in either Eco or Turbo mode, which will give you quieter or deeper cleaning, depending on your preference. From the time that we have spent with it, the deeper cleaning mode provides a very thorough level of cleaning – although it invariably miss areas that require moving of obstacles, so you'll still need an occasional once-over with a hand-held
vacuum cleaner too.
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