The Best Upright Vacuum

This Old House Reviews Team

Make cleaning your floors easier and more effective with an upright vacuum. The This Old House Reviews Team has written this review on the best upright vacuums on Amazon.

Upright vacuums keep the floors in your home clean with their powerful suction. They can pick up everything from pet hair to food crumbs. To help you select the vacuum that’s right for you, the This Old House Reviews Team researched the best upright vacuums on Amazon. Here are our top recommendations.

1 Best for pet hair
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F6N3RT6

BISSELL Swivel Upright Bagless Vacuum

What We Like: This powerful vacuum can clean every corner of your home with edge-to-edge technology, a 13.5-inch cleaning path width, and swivel steering. The specialized pet tools allow you to remove pet hair and stains.



2 Best for allergies
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004Q4DRJW

Shark Navigator Lift Away Upright Vacuum

What We Like: This vacuum can be used on carpet, hardwood, and more to clean your entire home. For your convenience, the machine has a brush roll shut-off feature that allows you to switch from deep carpet cleaning to gentle bare floor cleaning. It also uses Anti-Allergen technology to collect 99.9% of allergens in your home and prevent them from reentering your air.



3 Largest dirt chamber
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B2TNKL3

EUREKA Upright Vacuum Cleaner

What We Like: This powerful vacuum has a cleaning path of 12.6 inches and a weight of 10 pounds. To make cleaning easier, the machine comes with multiple tools to clean a variety of surfaces and a 4.1-liter dirt chamber to limit pauses for emptying. In addition, the vacuum cleaner ships in two pieces that can be easily assembled.



4 Most lightweight
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08749DHG1

Hoover ONEPWR Upright Vacuum Cleaner

What We Like: This upright vacuum cleaner has a unique design, weighing less than nine pounds and using a rechargeable battery for power. This makes it easy to move around your home, as you’re not limited by the weight or cord.



5 Most versatile
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08G19W913

Kenmore Bagless Upright Vacuum

What We Like: This bagless vacuum can be used on carpet, upholstery, hardwood, and more. It comes with a combination tool that acts as a crevice tool, dirt brush, and upholstery brush as well as a dedicated upholstery brush to help you clean curtains, couches, stairs, floors, and other surfaces in your home.



 

Buyer’s Guide

It’s important to find an upright vacuum that can clean the surfaces you have in your home. Here are five factors to consider when making your purchase. 

Suction

The suction of a vacuum cleaner determines how thoroughly it cleans your floors. While some manufacturers use wattage to signal how powerful their vacuums are, others don’t give you any number to indicate power. When the latter is the case, read through customer reviews to get a sense of how strong a vacuum’s suction is. 

Power Source

Most upright vacuums plug into your wall outlet using a 20- or 30-foot cord. While this cord can get tangled and has to be moved, it makes the vacuum more powerful. You can also find some upright vacuums that use a rechargeable battery for power instead. This allows you to use the vacuum anywhere. However, you have to remember to recharge the battery between uses.

Dust Cup

The size of the dust cup determines how much dirt the vacuum can hold and how often it needs to be emptied. A larger dust cup that’s at least three liters in size will need less frequent dumping, but it will also make the vacuum heavier.

Filtration

A vacuum’s filtration system traps dust and allergens and prevents them from being released in the air. Most vacuums trap at least some allergens, but a vacuum that specifically lists a filtration system in its description will work best for homes that have allergy sufferers.

Attachments

The attachments included with your purchase can make cleaning multiple surfaces around your home easier. Some of the most common attachments are pet hair, crevice, and upholstery tools.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Are there other types of vacuums on the market?

Yes. There are several types of vacuums, including:

  • Handheld
  • Stick
  • Canister
  • Robot 

How can I clean my upholstery?

You can clean upholstery by vacuuming it to collect dirt and debris and using upholstery cleaner to get rid of stains. 

 

Why does my upright vacuum smell?

Upright vacuums can develop a smell over time as they pick up unpleasant-smelling debris. To get rid of this odor, clean the detachable elements of the vacuum with soap and water, and use an odor eliminator while you’re cleaning.

 

Why Trust The This Old House Reviews Team

This Old House has empowered homeowners for more than four decades with top-notch home improvement content in the form of television programs, print media, and digital content on its website and social media platforms. The This Old House Reviews Team focuses on creating in-depth product and service review content to help inform your purchasing decision for just about any item or resource that you might need for your home. The This Old House Reviews Team has written over 1,000 reviews on products in the home space, from cordless drills to kitchen trash cans, lawn mowers, and dining room decorations.

We recommend products in each review using an intensive research process, spending hours combing through the best available models on Amazon. For a product to make our list of top picks, it must hold a solid sales record on Amazon, have consistently positive customer reviews, and offer unique features, among other factors. After narrowing down our list of recommendations, we conduct additional research and sometimes in-person testing to ensure that the products meet our standards. Once we conclude the research phase, we craft a well-rounded, user-friendly article that includes our recommended products and additional information to help homeowners like you make the right purchase.

 

The This Old House Reviews Team provides overviews of select products that are top-selling on Amazon and/or popular in consumer searches. Our team evaluates the products based on industry research, consumer reviews, pricing data, hands-on testing in select cases, and other objective criteria unique to a given product line. Unless otherwise noted, these product reviews are intended to help inform buying decisions for DIY or other non-pro users only. Editor’s picks are made by members of the This Old House Reviews Team.

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