The best vacuum cleaner setup is subjective, heavily hinging on how badly (or not) you want to do the vacuuming yourself, or if you’d rather a robot do it for you.
But there’s one universal factor that can make or break any type of vacuum’s usefulness in your home, and that’s how likely you are to use it. Hear me out.
Actual cleaning performance plays a huge role in how clean your floors will be, of course. But if that vacuum’s a pain to use, you won’t feel like using it — whether that’s an upright vacuum that’s too clunky to get out of the closet or a robot vacuum that gets stuck more often than not.
I’ve tested a ton of automatic vacuums and upright cordless vacuums, assessing from all of those angles along the way. And I have a handful of recommendations for both. But first, let’s unpack which kind overall might work better in your living arrangement.
Should I get an upright or robot vacuum?
I could argue for both sides, considering I think the true dream setup is to have both on hand for different situations. While there are definitely ways to shop strategically and split your budget between one of each, that won’t be the most practical choice for every household. If you’re only choosing one type of vacuum, consider your main priority when it comes to vacuuming. Is your ideal vacuum cleaner one that automates the most steps to give you as little work as possible, or is it one that does the absolute most meticulous job, even if you still have to do the work?
Drawbacks of each also have to be considered. Trusting a robot vacuum to do this chore comes with the fine print that the robot vacuum is probably going to piss you off sometimes. While I absolutely can’t knock the strides that have been made with smart mapping, AI small obstacle avoidance, automatic floor type recognition, and debris level sensors over the past few years, even the latest and greatest robot vacuums are still inanimate objects, not perceptive humans.
The downside of an upright vacuum is that you have to have free time, and spend some of that free time off the couch. Granted, the better the cordless vacuum, the less you’ll have to get it out, and the less of a pain it’ll be to whip around.
Do corded vacuums have better suction?
Typically, corded vacuums have better suction than cordless vacs, but at this point in the game, it’s not a noteworthy enough increase to cover the headache of digging that monstrosity out of the closet and wrestling with the cord. if you detest getting your vacuum out, you probably won’t vacuum too often — and that defeats the purpose of doing your research/spending your money on a nice, new vacuum in the first place.
With that in mind, no corded stick vacuums or corded canister vacuums will be recommended in this list.
Below, I’ve pulled my favorite cordless stick vacuums and robotic vacuums to create Mashable’s ultimate mashup of all of the best vacuum cleaners as of September 2024.
