The best vacuums for pet hair, tried and tested

Jul 25, 2023

We pitted the best Hoover, Henry, Shark, and other vacuums against the worst dog and cat hair-covered fabrics. Here's what we found

What is the best vacuum to buy for pet hair? It's a hotly contested market. Any vacuum that sucks up hair and dirt could call itself a pet vacuum in theory, but it won't deserve the name unless it has a HEPA filter (more on that below), specialised attachments and decent suction power.

There are pet versions of the best cordless vacuum cleaners, upright vacuum cleaners, cylinder vacuum cleaners and even robot vacuum cleaners (their sensors can identify pet mess and avoid it). We’ve tested them all to help you find the best pet vacuum for you and, at the bottom of this feature, answered frequently asked questions – such as what attachments you you look for. If you're in a hurry, here's a quick look at our top five.

A good filter is absolutely key. The 'pet smell' in houses comes from dander: microscopic particles of skin, saliva, sweat and other proteins which can be as small as two microns (two thousandths of a millimetre) and can hang in the air for long periods of time, before settling into every fibre of your carpet and upholstery. You want to make sure that when you vacuum the dander up, it stays vacuumed.

The acronym to look out for here is HEPA: a high-efficiency particulate absorbing filter will trap 99.95 percent of particles down to 0.3 microns in size, which includes pet dander as well as pollen, dust and many microorganisms, bacteria and some viruses.

"HEPA filters provide the best method of filtration," says Katerina Petrova of the Happy House cleaning company. "You can find both bagged or bagless models and the prices range from cheap to considerably more expensive. Good examples of this type of vacuum come from Miele, Shark and Dyson.''

With cats and a dogs in residence, our houses are ideal test cases: you can see their hair floating in the air when the sun shines and we’ve never found a standard vacuum that can remove it all in one go.

So we tested each of the current leading pet vacuums on carpet, rugs, upholstery, curtains and hard surfaces, getting down on my knees after each clean for a very close look at how much hair and dust remained. I was also looking for low weight, manoeuvrability and ease of use. It also mattered how noisy they were, whether the rooms smelled fresher after use and, naturally, what the vacuums cost.

£100, Argos

Best overall, 10/10

We like: best combo of suction, filtration, usability and price

We don't like: no charcoal filter to trap pet smells

Recommended by Simon Lewis

It's hard to find a vacuum that ticks all the boxes for pet owners. Each of the models below can beat this at one or two things, but none of them can beat it as an overall package. The 850 Watt motor is up there with the most powerful, the HEPA filtration is the type you want for trapping pet dander, the bagless bin gives you a clear view of the contents and, at under six kilogrammes, it's light enough to carry around and small enough to store under the stairs.

There are a few other reasons why it came top in our tests. The long hose and telescopic wand give it a longer reach than the other high-power vacs, which was good for doing stairs and curtains. And although the special turbo tool was suction driven, not motorised, it really got stuck into fabrics to whip up pet hairs. It's see-through, too, so you can see when there are tangles and remove them. That may not be as clever as the anti-tangle technology on the Shark and Dyson, but it's obviously cheaper and one reason why this is under £100, another big mark in the Vax's favour. The only slight disappointment is the lack of a charcoal filter to trap pet smells.

Vax make a similarly powerful upright version with a HEPA filter and a turbo tool, called the Vax Air Lift Steerable Pet Pro. We've tried it and found it easier to use on carpet than the Air Stretch, but it's slightly costlier at £109, somewhat heavier and has a shorter hose, so not as good for stairs and upholstery.

Currently £379.99, Shark

Best cordless vacuum cleaner for pet owners, 10/10

We like: light and cleverly designed to get into every corner

We don't like: the dust bin is a little awkward to empty

Recommended by Rebecca Astill

Cordless vacuums are on their way to being the only game in town: people love how light and portable they are compared to corded vacuums, especially in flats and small houses. Your mind might automatically cast to Dyson. But cheaper and more widely available, American challengers Shark now rival them in popularity.

The USP here is a flexible wand that bends in the middle, with a light on the end to allow you to clean under furniture more easily. It also means the cleaner folds in half for convenient storage. Another unique feature is Shark's "DuoClean" floorhead which contains two motorised brush rolls – one of stiff bristles, the other of rubber fins that dig deep into carpets to release more pet dirt.

Most impressively, this model boasts Shark's most advanced anti hair wrap technology to date, removing strands from the rollers as it goes along. Unlike previous Shark models it's almost 100 per cent effective, and that's coming from someone with four long-haired cats (and two Labradors).

Removing the stick turns this into a handheld vacuum. It's somewhat bulky, but does allow you to use the pet tool which is motorised, something not all competitors can boast, and gives visible results on dog beds and fur-covered sofas and stairs. The Clean Sense IQ also senses the level of dust as it goes, and auto-adjusts the power of suction, meaning more attention is paid to particularly hairy patches of carpet.

The Stratos model uses anti-odour technology via a replaceable cartridge which fits into the floorhead. It doesn't perfume the air, but rather neutralises any odours and keeps the surfaces in your house and the vacuum's dust bin both smelling clean.

While not the most powerful pet vacuum there is, this hits the sweet spot for price, usability and fluff-removing tech.

£189.99, John Lewis

Most reliable pet vacuum cleaner, 9/10

We like: low price and solid construction

We don't like: it's noisy and heavy

Recommended by Simon Lewis

Anyone who's used trusty old Henry vacuums knows the negatives: they’re noisy, heavy, slightly annoying to pull around on their casters and, since you have to wind the cord in manually, not great if you have a bad back. The positives are that they’re good value and robust to the point of being bombproof. They also hold a stupendous amount of dust in their nine-litre bags. To this basic package, Henry Pet adds a charcoal-activated mesh filter to neutralise odours and a HepaFlo filter, which is not quite the gold standard but still removes 85 percent of 0.3-micron particles.

I used the hair-capturing EcoBrush head on my carpets, which uses the suction of the vacuum to spin the brush, scooping pet hairs into an aperture that's narrower than on the standard Henry head so that the suction power is more focused. It's very noisy and not quite as good as the motorised brushes on costlier pet vacs, but did a decent job of lifting hairs and was easy to push around.

The upholstery head is even smaller, for terrific suction, and has a lint brush ahead of the aperture. It's best used in repeated, pulling-towards-you motions and took quite a bit of elbow grease, but achieved proper deep-clean results.

Best of all, I detected no doggy smell when I changed the bag. This is a great improvement on my dog-loving great aunt's vacuum, rarely emptied, which I can testify smells worse than anything on earth.

£350, Argos

Best carpet cleaner for pet stains, 8/10

We like: the pre-treatment wand makes targeting stains easier

We don't like: it marks the carpet if you leave it to stand (though this can be cleaned up)

Recommended by Rebecca Astill

Vax dominates the world of carpet cleaners and there's now a pet version of its top of the range SmartWash model. The pet model comes with a pre treatment wand to tackle tougher stains and smells. To use it, you fill the small compartment on the treatment wand with the provided Pet Stain and Odour Solution and spray particularly stained areas of carpet before going in with the full body of the carpet cleaner.

As the current owner of two dogs and four cats and several predecessors, the carpets in my house aren't necessarily as dazzling white as they could be. I didn't expect the carpet cleaner to make too much of a difference. How wrong I was.

The Vax SmartWash uses Motion Sense Technology, meaning it wets and cleans as you push the carpet cleaner forward and dries as you pull back. The cleaning fluid (which is contained it its own dispenser) automatically mixes with the water to provide the optimum ratio.

I have a few small gripes with the carpet cleaner. Firstly, it leaked dirty water if I left it stood upright for a few minutes (though this was easy to clean up). Secondly, despite repeated passes, some stains were too deep-rooted to lift - although the SpinScrub hand tool attachment was the most effective. It didn't struggle with the more recent stains, so I suppose I shouldn't expect miracles. Thirdly, I found if I sprayed too much from the pre-treatment wand, then ran the floor head over the same spot, it became extremely soapy and hard to rinse.

Other than that it's easy to use, looks smart and is easy to clean. The pitch black contents of the dirty water tank were evidence of how effective it was at pulling dirt out of my carpets. Despite a couple of minor faults, I'd 100 per cent recommend it to a house with pets.

£397.95, Amazon

Best vacuum for pet hair on carpet, 8/10

We like: high power and old-fashioned simplicity

We don't like: it's a bulky piece of kit

Recommended by Simon Lewis

Corded upright vacuums are often considered best for pet hair removal because of their strong suction and Sebo — who originally manufactured industrial-strength vacuums for German hotels — have a high reputation among those in the know.

The Sebo Automatic X7 Pet is heavy and won't win any beauty prizes, but its old-fashioned design holds a very powerful 890W motor and a foot-wide brush head, sucking up more hair and dust in one pass than the other vacuums we tried. Though it looks unwieldy, with the carpet-cleaning motors turned on it whizzes around very easily and lays completely flat to fit under sofas and beds, with a bright light to find the dust bunnies.

Like the Henry it uses activated charcoal to neutralise pet smells. The filter is rated as S-class (S for schwebstoff - airborne particles), a European rating that's even more demanding than HEPA since it traps 99.9 percent of particles down to 0.03 microns.

Despite the turbo brush accessory and its long hose and power cable, it's not the vacuum I’d choose for going up and down stairs or for cleaning upholstery and crevices. The operations are a little basic, too: unless you have prehensile toes you have to kneel down to press the performance boost button (for ground-in dirt) or to turn the headlights on. But a lot of people will see that simplicity as a plus. In a house with wide areas of carpet, where speed and power across the floor are key, this is the one to choose.

£140, Argos

Best old-school pet vacuum, 8/10

We like: old-school upright with modern features

We don't like: the body has to be left at the bottom of the staircase when vacuuming

Recommended by Simon Lewis

Having just used one to do a whole-house clean, I can testify that Hoover's upright is also the best for stair cleaning: the ‘Reach’ in the name refers to an extremely long hose, to which you can attach a motorised mini turbo brush. It's as good as the Shark's, if not quite as impressive as the Dyson in picking up pet hair and larger debris. The H-Upright 500 is also fitted with a HEPA filter, making it a good choice for anyone with allergies.

The drawback is that the main body has to stay at the foot of the stairs, which is why the 500 has been superseded by a new lift-away model. That said, the big 1.5l capacity excels compared to competitors. Unlike the Miele below, the 10m power cord doesn't retract automatically, so if you unwind it completely (I try to avoid this), it takes a while to manually rewind.

The Hoover might be a little old-fashioned, but it's affordable and good value for money.

£389, John Lewis

Best vacuum for cat hair, 7/10

We like: very strong suction and a few neat tricks

We don't like: there's no motorised brush head

Recommended by Simon Lewis

I can offer special expertise in Miele's pet-focused cylinder vac since it's the one my mum uses, on the recommendation of a professional cleaner who’d used one for decades. Like the Sebo it packs a very powerful 890W German motor and better-than-HEPA filter (rated to trap 99.99 percent of particles), with additional charcoal layers for neutralising pet smells. But it's a bit more sophisticated than the Sebo, with settings for curtains, upholstery, carpets, rugs, hard floors and a low-power quiet mode that you can cycle through using the + and - foot-buttons.

The only thing it lacks is a motorised brush head: instead the Turbo head's rotating brush is powered by suction, as on the Henry. It also doesn't have anti-tangle tech, but it worked better than any of the other vacuums at getting cat hair — which is fine and stubbornly clingy — out of cushions, upholstery and beds.

The Miele is twice the price of the Henry, but for me (and my bad back) that's almost justified by a single pedal that whips the entire cord back into the body of the vacuum in a second. Another big plus is that the dusting, crevice and upholstery attachments are all housed under a flap on top of the machine, which to my mind beats Dyson's shelf-full of attachments hands down.

I’m more of a lightweight cordless fan myself, but if it's power you’re after, this is a serious contender.

Our buyer's guide to the best vacuum cleaners explains the complicated matter of measuring suction, but as a rough guide, look for a 600W motor or higher. And, very importantly, remember to empty the receptacle as regularly as possible: a bag or cyclone cylinder filled to the brim with pet hair will drastically reduce the vacuum's suction power.

A cyclone has the advantage over a bag here, because the hair is visible, but its built-in filter will need to be cleaned regularly. "Pet hair is small, fine, almost invisible and can get everywhere," says Fola George of home cleaning specialists WeCasa. "It's important to get it all up, especially if anyone in the house has allergies. That's why I prefer the cyclones for that job, because it sucks it straight in, you can see it's working and you get rid of it straight away."

A good pet vacuum needs special attachments for removing pet hair, which can be finer than human hair, making it more likely to cling to fabrics due to static electricity. Hair can also easily clog the bristles of a standard vacuum cleaner head, reducing its ability to sweep up dirt.

Motorised rotating brush rolls, ideally with anti-tangle features, are a feature of most good pet vacuums but you should also check for accessories like turbo nozzles, crevice tools and dust brush tools designed for getting pet hair and dander out of upholstery, curtains and inaccessible corners.

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