The best vacuum cleaners we’ve expertly tested

The Capsule X is the independently made follow-up to the excellent Halo Capsule and it’s unlike any other cordless on the market. It’s an exceptionally light (2.6kg) bagged vacuum cleaner that uses biodegradable dust pouches to capture dust and dirt, so you don’t have to deal with it. It has a 2-litre dustin, which means you won’t have to empty it often either. It’s also our top recommendation for people with allergies or asthma.

It has a running time of up to 60 minutes and its battery recharges from flat to full in a phenomenally fast two hours.

The Capsule X has a host of great new features and accessories, including swappable batteries, headlights and motorised cleaning tools for carpets, hard flooring and upholstery – it’s great on all surfaces. Our one quibble with the design is that the way it’s weighed makes it tougher to use holding overhead, although you can use the hose attachment to get around that.

To get all the tools and the extra battery, you’ll need to go for the Ultimate Accessories bundle. But there is another option. As it’s a completely modular vacuum, you can buy any accessories or parts separately (and all parts are reasonably priced). If a part fails or is damaged later on, you can easily replace it. This makes it a sustainable choice as well as a sensible option for anyone who wants to buy a vacuum once and keep it for years.

Sadly, it’s not available in the US.

Shark’s latest model is self-emptying, so not only is the dustbin clean every time you vacuum, you’ll only have to empty the main dock every so often: it’s a great choice for busy families, pet owners and anyone with a dust sensitivity.

This model also has a floor head that vacuums in both directions for faster cleaning, a detect mode that senses dirt and ramps up suction, and a jointed design that lets it get right under low pieces of furniture. All of these features make vacuuming a quicker and less fussy job. We also really liked the colour-changing floor lights that serve as a suction indicator, and the scent capsule in the stand that neutralises odour: necessary if you won’t be emptying it for 45 days.

We found it to be a powerful and effective vacuum as well, but this does mean that it’s power-hungry and you may have to charge it more often than is ideal. The battery is removable but it doesn’t come with a spare. The stand is also bulky and you’ll need to find a spot for it near a power socket.

There are two problems with this cordless cleaner: the price and its weight. But everything else is pretty close to vacuum cleaner perfection.

We were blown away when testing it. It’s hugely powerful – with 262AW of suction versus the V15’s 230 – something that’s evident when you’re testing it.

It has all of the features of the V15 Detect, including the green laser and piezo sensor – and some new clever bits of design. One of the best is the crevice tool built into the top of the wand for instant handheld cleaning. But you’ll also get all the other accessories you’ll need, including the hair screw tool and the jointed low reach adapter that lets the Gen5 lie flat to get under sofas.

But all this tech means that it is Dyson’s heaviest cordless yet at 3.5kg/7.7lbs. And then there’s the matter of its extraordinary price. But we think if you can afford it, you won’t be disappointed.

If you’d like a Dyson, but don’t know which one to choose, you can see how we rate all the brand’s cordless cleaners in our round-up of the best Dyson vacuums.

For under £200, you get a lot for your money with the HomePro. It’s powerful, it comes with an armful of accessories and it has thoughtful design features you’d expect to see on a much pricier model.

We especially liked the bendable wand, which lets you get right under furniture, the simple controls, the easy-empty bin, and the fact that it can stand up by itself if you pause while you’re cleaning.

We found it to be an effective cleaner on both hard flooring and carpet, and it’s comfortable to use and easy to manoeuvre. However, its large floorhead means it’s less well suited to cluttered spaces and it’s heavy as a handheld.

Its main limitation, however, is its battery life. Vax says it’ll run for 45 minutes but that’s without a motorised attachment, on the lowest suction setting. For most cleaning jobs, you’re likely to get around 25 minutes. That means that you’ll need to charge it between even fairly short cleaning sessions, which isn’t ideal if you prefer to do one long deep-clean at the weekend.

The battery is removable but it doesn’t come with a second. You can buy one from Vax for £79.99 – but that’ll significantly bump up its cost.

This specialist handheld vacuum won’t be any use on floors but it’s perfectly designed to give your mattress – and sofa, cushions and other upholstery – a deep clean. This makes it a great buy for households with allergies.

It uses four cleaning methods: strong suction, UV light, agitation and heating. Together these will ensure that dust, dirt and dead skin is removed from deep in your mattress, that dust mites are wiped out and that any damp patches are dried up.

Even better, it has dust detection indicators that’ll show you whether you need to keep cleaning (a red light will display) and when you can move on (the indicator glows green).

Although it’s a corded model, it has a long cord, and it’s light in the hand. We think it’s well-priced for what it does but you’ll still need a regular vacuum for floors and hard surfaces.

Much like the Vax HomePro Pet-Design, Tefal’s X-Force Flex comes with a truckload of accessories and a bendable wand. It’s pricier than the Vax model, however, but what you will get is a longer running time in day-to-day use – of over 70 minutes in eco mode, and half an hour in eco+. However, bump it up to max, which is what you might need for muddy, deep-pile carpets, and you’ll only get a brief 5 minutes. In our testing, we found that eco and eco+ give you plenty of power for hard flooring and medium-pile carpets.

A big advantage of the design is how easy it is to use, with tiny wheels on the base that make vacuuming much less of a workout. Meanwhile, a handy little latch makes it very easy to make the wand bend under furniture while you’re using it.

But what really impressed us was the host of well-designed accessories that make it possible to clean every part of your home and car, including the sofa brush, mini flex, and animal turbo brush.

It comes with a handy stand to keep everything organised too.

Samsung’s new flagship cordless vacuum is named for its AI features. It has a sensor-based system that adjusts the vacuum’s suction power and roller speed to handle the surface and dust level it detects. Use it in the AI mode and you won’t need to adjust any settings while you clean. It makes vacuuming simpler but it’s only one of the many excellent features the Bespoke Jet AI offers to simplify and streamline its use.

Its best feature, without a doubt, is the slim, elegantly designed Clean Station, into which you dock the vacuum. It’ll empty and charge it, so that every time you pick it up, the Jet AI is ready to go.

Still, its running time is as good as anything on the market at over 100 minutes (on its lowest setting, without a motorised tool) but in day-to-day use, you’ll get over 40 minutes before it needs to charge. And, as it comes with a second battery and separate charger, you can double that running time for marathon cleaning sessions.

It’s powerful, lighter than the Gen5detect (although I found it slightly heavy to use overhead, in handheld mode) and comes with all the cleaning tools and attachments you could want. Altogether, this is the ultimate luxury vacuum and if price is no object, we can’t see how anyone would be disappointed with it.

If the price is prohibitive, have a look at the Samsung Bespoke Jet. It doesn’t have the AI tech of the newer model, or a few of its upgrades, but it’s much more reasonably priced and has most of the same features, including the auto-empty Clean Station.

What we love about the Shark Detect Pro is that it’s so easy to use. If you hate vacuuming, this is definitely one to consider. Stick it in auto mode and all you need to do is steer it around the house. When it spots more dust or needs to vacuum along a wall, it’ll increase suction; when it hits carpet, it’ll automatically increase the roller speed; and when it encounters a dimmer spot, it’ll switch on its headlights. It’s lightweight as well, and the bin is very easy to empty.

However, you won’t get anywhere near 60 minutes of running time if you use it in auto mode and the one additional cleaning attachment that comes with it is pretty feeble. The bin is small as well, but you can buy spare batteries and an auto-empty station, which will obviate these shortcomings – although it will cost you more. Speaking of price, its UK sale price is £279. Buy it for this amount and you’ll get a very good deal.

Corded vacuum cleaners are making it back into this round-up as brands are releasing more innovative designs. That’s certainly the case with Miele’s Guard L1 Dog & Cat, a corded canister vacuum that’ll give you more welly than your average cordless. As it’s a Miele, you can be sure it’s a reliable and robust buy as well.

It’s a compact canister vacuum with impressive suction and an automatically retracting cord. It’s fitted with a pet TurboBrush, charcoal filter and XL flexible crevice nozzle, as well as a 3.5L dust bag capacity in a lightweight body (it’s just 6.6kg).

It has a host of handy features. These include icons on the controls to show you which setting to use for different surfaces, a ‘park’ system, which allows you to slot the floor head into the canister so it doesn’t fall over while you move furniture, a dusting brush that stores on the tube, and a foldable, 2-in-1 crevice & upholstery nozzle that stores within the canister. It’s quiet in use as well.

But there are (inevitably, as with any appliance) a few small issues. The handle isn’t very comfortable to hold, it’s not brilliant at cleaning right up to the edges and it adapting it to different flooring types means changing the floor head and settings, which isn’t instant.

If you’ve had your fill of stick vacuums and need something with more power, this is our recommendation. The Stratos Pet Pro Anti Hair Wrap Plus Anti-Odour Upright Vacuum NZ860UKT (to give it its full, and very long, name), can tackle just about anything from muddy floors to dusty carpets to fur-covered pet beds. We’d recommend this model as the best for tough to remove pet hair.

It has a host of excellent features as well, including headlights, impressive anti-hair wrap tech, and anti-odour technology that leaves a pleasant fragrance behind.

For a very reasonable price, you’ll get a highly versatile cleaner with astonishing levels of performance. The only downsides are that it’s heavy at 6.7kg, not hugely manoeuvrable and not the most attractive vacuum around. But if you have a busy household, it’s well worth the trade-off.

If you have a cluttered home, or lots of awkward spots that need cleaning and you’re tired of shifting furniture around, Hoover’s HFX could well be the vacuum you’re looking for. It’s a modular cordless vacuum, with three cleaning modes: as a regular carpet or hard flooring cleaner, with an anti-tangle brush bar and LED headlights; as a handheld, with either a combi brush or crevice tool; and as a full-size vacuum optimised for corners, edges and difficult bits.

This last mode – the Corner Genie – is really the reason to buy it. Just use the foot pedal to remove the main cleaning head and you can whip it around to deal with difficult spots like down the side of the fridge or behind the sofa, without having to stoop or shift furniture.

Other advantages of its design are its display, which shows the minutes left in each cleaning mode, its headlights and its large, 1.2-litre dustbin. But it has its downsides as well. With the main cleaning head attached, it’s heavier than the Gen5detect at a hefty 3.65kg/8lbs. You’ll also only get 30 minutes of running time in normal mode, although its charging time is a fairly speedy 3.5 hours.

In the UK, it’s called the Bissell SpotClean Cordless. In the US, it’s the Little Green Cordless. The difference between the two is that the UK model comes with a two-in-one sliding crevice tool, as well as the the Tough Stain tool and the HydroRinse tool (for self-cleaning) that both models have. Wherever you buy it, it’s a handy cordless portable vacuum that’ll help you to wet clean carpets, sofas, car interiors and more.

The chief problem of spot cleaners is that they can be heavy and bulky, especially when they’re filled with water. But this one weighs just 7.2lbs/3.4kg and is compact as well, which means it’s easy to take out to the car or use on stairs.

This vacuum can be used with cleaning fluid as well as water, for tough stains and messes. As it has a dirty water tank, it’ll suck up and store the wastewater produced during cleaning.

It has two cleaning modes: Eco and Turbo. We found that the Eco mode was sufficient for day-to-day cleaning, but you’ll need to switch to Turbo for serious stains. This does limit the running time to 20 minutes, after which you’ll need to let it charge for 4 hours.

We especially liked its HydroRinse tool, which allows you to flush out the vacuum’s interior, for easy maintenance.