The best vacuums for pet hair actually suck it up — and that’s a lot harder than you think. Pet hair is particularly hard to clean up.
If the hair is short and coarse, like my cat Basil’s, it can easily get embedded in fabrics and carpets; if it’s long and fluffy, like my cat Clover’s, it can fly away and accumulate in hard-to-reach corners. But whatever your situation, there’s a vacuum that can help!
A few of my fellow pet owners and I tested a dozen vacuums, from traditional corded models to cordless, handheld, robotic, and even 2-in-1 vacuum/mop combos, to find out which vacuums are truly the best for cleaning up pet hair.
I’m obsessed with this cordless vacuum. The Dyson Gen5detect has all the features of a corded vacuum, but is also lightweight and convenient.
It can also be used as a handheld vacuum, with a crevice tool and a small hair tool, when you want to quickly clean tight spaces like stairs or corners.
Dyson claims it has the most powerful HEPA filtration system of any cordless vacuum on the market.
It even has a digital screen that shows you how much rough stuff you’re picking up and keeps track of particle size—microscopic, like allergens; fine, like dander; medium, like dust mites; and coarse, like sugar.
There’s a Digital Motorbar head for carpets, which has 56 combing blades so hair never gets stuck in the head, and pet hair is sucked right into the back of the head for a neat, clean clean.
There’s also a Fluffy Optic head for hard floors. It has a super-soft spinning material and angled green light blades that illuminate pet hair and dust that’s invisible to the naked eye.
With a 70-minute run time and great attachments that make it easy to clean pet hair (as well as dust and dander) on a variety of surfaces, this versatile vacuum is one of my favorites I’ve tested.
I’m a big fan of Ryobi products. I really liked both of the handheld vacuums I tested before—they’re both powerful tools. This cordless vacuum is no exception.
It has powerful suction, a cyclonic filtration system, a brushless motor, an easily removable roller bar, and a light on the vacuum head to see debris.
The dual-plush (for hard floors) and roller brush (for carpets) have the best of both worlds, with long, thick bristles and the roller bar moving simultaneously to pull pet hair into the dust cup without getting tangled.
Plus, it has an easily removable roller bar for easy hair tangle handling. Plus, the dust cup is super easy to empty.
It can also be used as a handheld vacuum, with the crevice nozzle and dusting brush included, which I enjoyed using to clean hair and dust from vents and narrow stairways around my home.
This vacuum is a little heavier, and the battery is right behind the handle, but the vacuum can be placed upright, which is a bonus. The Ryobi costs a fraction of the price of my top cordless vacuum, the Dyson, and it’s comparable in almost every way.
(The Dyson wins because it works well on floors without carpets—a magical green light illuminates invisible hair and dust.)
This lightweight handheld vacuum from Dyson (weighing just over 2 pounds) is powerful and comes with a host of super-handy attachments, including a crevice nozzle with a movable brush, a countertop nozzle for flat surfaces and fabrics, and a hair screw nozzle.
The crevice nozzle combo works great in tight, awkward spaces, but the real star is the hair screw nozzle, which does an excellent job of picking up pet hair without getting tangled in the beater bar.
The motorized, tapered brush bar spins to quickly pick up hair and keep it from getting tangled in the rollers. Pull the red lever and the top lid drops, letting dirt and dust drain out the front. I love this design because it means no more struggling to reach pet hair and dust inside.
The only problem is that hair sometimes gets stuck in the back, which can be a bit of a hassle to get out. This vacuum claims to capture 99.99% of microscopic particles, like dust mite allergens, in addition to pet hair, which helps reduce pet dander, among other things.
This lightweight (less than 3 pounds) Shark handheld vacuum is designed to handle pet hair: It has powerful suction and two cyclonic airflows, and the motorized self-cleaning brush pulls hair back so it doesn’t get tangled in the brush (my biggest pet hair gripe).
It also has an extra-large capacity for pet hair, dander, and dust, and there’s a button that makes it easy (and clean) to eject hair and debris from the XL dust cup. It also comes with surface and crevice attachments to handle pet hair on a variety of surfaces, and has a washable filter that’s easy to clean and helps extend its life, too.
Wired reviewer Nena Farrell enjoys using this vacuum to clean up all sorts of messes around the house, including her toddler’s spilled Cheerios and crumbs from home renovations, but she’s not the biggest fan of its slightly short battery life.
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