Best vacuum cleaners for pet hair 2024 UK - reviews of the 6 must-have models for pet owners
Find the best vacuum cleaners for pet hair with our reviews of top upright, canister and cordless options from Dyson, Miele, Shark, Vax and more
Best vacuums for pet hair 2024: Jump Menu
1. The list in brief ↴
2. Best overall: Miele C3
3. Best affordable: Henry PET
4. Best cordless: Shark Stratos
5. Best powerful: Miele Triflex
6. Best for allergies: Henry Allergy
7. Best for carpets: Vax Blade 5
How we tested
FAQs
Buy one of the best vacuum cleaners for pet hair with our reviews of top choices from Dyson, Vax, Shark and Miele. Pets are furry friends we couldn't live without, but when it comes to staying on top of their mess and shedding, they can make life a lot trickier.
Many of the best vacuum cleaners are great on hard floors and carpets, but being able to pick up deep-rooted pet hair is a challenge that only the best vacuum cleaners for pet hair are up to.
For the purposes of variation, we've even reviewed some of the best cordless vacuum cleaners with attachments designed to remove pet hair from carpets and upholstery.
When it comes to the difference between a regular vacuum and a vacuum cleaner for pet hair, there is more than just power at play. The reason that many people need to stay on top of pet hair in their home is to keep things clean for those with allergies, so when choosing a pet vacuum, look out for one that's hypoallergenic and approved by Allergy UK - there's one that fits that bill on this list.
Every one of the best vacuum cleaners for pet hair in our guide has been tried by the Ideal Home team, so not only have we been able to rank based on performance, but you can also find our specific thoughts on testing with our vacuum reviews.
Quick list - the best vacuums for pet hair
In a rush and only want the need-to-know details on the best vacuum for pet hair? Find our top picks after testing below or keep scrolling for in-depth reviews.
Best overall
Best overall
+ Will free you from pet hair problems
+ Excellent suction power
+ Good for carpets, rugs and hard floors
- Not as convenient as cordless
- Tricky to use on stairs
Best affordable
Best affordable
+ Great suction
+ Effective on pet hair
+ Good reach (hose & cable)
- Bulky to store
Best cordless
Best cordless
+ Sleek, foldable & compact design
+ Excellent power and features to aid pick-up
+ Suction is second to none
- Would benefit from a wall stand
- Dust tool is useless
Best for power
Best for power
+ Great on pet hair
+ Aced all of our tests
+ High quality feel
- A costly option
Best for allergies
Best for allergies
+ Allergy UK approved
+ Great amount of suction
+ Dust free emptying
- It can be hard to push around
Best for carpets
Best for carpets
+ A great amount of power
+ Roller head is great
+ Strong run time
- Doesn't stand upright on its own
- We wish it was cheaper
Best vacuum cleaners for pet hair - tried and tested
Why you can trust Ideal Home
Best vacuum for pet hair
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
As you might have guessed from its name, the Miele Complete C3 Cat & Dog vacuum is the go-to purchase for those looking to banish pet hair at home. The turbo brush floor head is equipped to get rid of the excess from moulting dogs and cats, and you've also got a regular carpet floor head and another for hard floors to work with.
We love it for its straightforward cleaning power, which is the number one feature consumers are looking for to deal with the mess that pets can make. The cylinder moves smoothly on its castors and perches acceptably on a stair, though it's not the easiest to clean this section of the house with.
Features we loved during testing
It's the little things that make this vacuum great, alongside the pet-appropriate level of power and suction. The fact that you can toggle between on and off using your for also makes moving around with this vacuum a lot easier, as well as going between modes. Importantly for dealing with pet hair, the power with this vacuum is consistent, and the hose is extra long so that you can cover an entire floor without having to find another plug socket.
Our Miele Complete C3 Cat & Dog Vacuum Cleaner review has the full details.
Best affordable vacuum for pet hair
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
The Henry Pet200 is a standout choice for anyone who needs a reliable vacuum on a budget with it available to buy for a little over £150 at the time of writing.
On the whole, it's a solid piece of kit which is easy to maintain. As it's a bagged vacuum, investing in the vacuum bags over time is a financial consideration. However, with a capacity of 9 litres, you will need to do a lot of vacuum cleaning to get through a pack of 10.
A thing to note is that this vacuum cleaner may not be suitable if you want an appliance to vacuum your home and car. It is a bulky vacuum cleaner and, again, it is corded so unless you have a driveway or a guaranteed parking space outside your home, the Henry Pet may not be the vacuum cleaner for you.
Features we loved during testing
It has a range of attachments to help combat pet hair and dirt, and in our review, we found it was really easy to switch between tools, especially as they are all stored on board.
Our Henry Pet 200 vacuum review has the full details.
Best cordless vacuum for pet hair
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
While lots of people prefer to rely on corded vacuums to deal with pet hair, the Shark Stratos goes pretty far to prove that cordless vacuums are up to the job too.
There's no doubt that our testing process proved that this vac is worth the large price tag that it carries. Even if you don't have pets, the ease with which this vacuum does away with hair is astounding, and our Ecommerce Editor Molly found that it was unmatched when it came to suction.
Features we loved during testing
The capacity of this vacuum to transform into a smaller handheld model is phenomenal, and you'll be reaching for the smaller attachments all the time to quickly resolve smaller messes made by pets all over your home. The battery life is also stellar, and 60 minutes was available during testing on non-turbo mode.
You can fork out more for the two-battery Shark Stratos model if you think you need a spare pack on charge while the other is in use, but it's not a necessity if you live in a small or medium-sized home. All in all, this is admittedly a pricier vacuum, but if you can afford to fork out and you want a cordless vacuum to deal with pet hair, it will impress you time and time again.
Our Shark Stratos IZ420UKT cordless vacuum review has the full details.
Best powerful vacuum for pet hair
4. Miele Triflex HX2 Vacuum Cleaner
Our expert review:
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
The Miele Triflex HX2 Vacuum Cleaner is one of the most pet-friendly cordless vacuum cleaners we've tried, with a powerful motor to help you banish hair and dirt from your favourite four-legged friends. While the Shark Stratos is a little more of an all-rounder (and a little more affordable), the Miele Triflex is supremely powerful.
There are two standout features here to love: the unbelievably powerful motor and the very capable floorhead, which whizzed around our testing space picking up a huge amount of hair without getting tangled.
One drawback with this vacuum is that it's pretty top-heavy, making it harder to manoeuvre than it might need to be. Cleverly, you can move the position of the dustbin around to give it more balance, but it's not great at standing up on its own. It's also trickier than it should be to empty the dustbin, which will become annoying pretty quickly if you're cleaning a large space.
Features we loved during testing
It's a flexible model, with a great reach to get to every corner of your home and 60 minutes of runtime, so that you can adequately cover all the ground that you need to. It's also got an auto-adjustment feature, which means that it'll sense the kind of ground it's covering, and amp up the power accordingly.
It is pricey but the quality of the materials is excellent, and it feels like this is a vacuum that'll help you clean up after your pets for a good few years at the very least.
Best for allergies
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
If you have a pet but need to be able to try to eradicate allergens for when a family member visits or something similar, then the Henry Allergy is the perfect vacuum to help you achieve that. The top line with this vacuum is that it is approved by Allergy UK, which means that you can trust this Henry to help you get rid of allergens at home. Made in the UK, this vacuum is great suction-wise and has the tools to help with corner and edge cleaning.
Features we loved during testing
It's not exactly a feature but this vacuum is a bargain, with an RRP of £199.99. You can feel the deep cleaning power with this vac, and pick up smaller debris as well as larger items.
Our reviewer did find this vacuum a little more difficult to push around than the other Henry vacuums she tested, something she put down to the intensity of the suction power.
After two weeks of testing, the large collecting bag was in no way full, which means that if you're worried about the environmental impact of bags, you may at least be soothed by the fact that you'll be reaching to replace them infrequently. And of course, the fact that you don’t have plumes of dust on emptying is essential for keeping allergies at bay.
Our Henry Allergy vacuum review has the full details.
Best vacuum for pet hair on carpets
6. Vax ONEPWR Blade 5
Our expert review:
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
If you're debating buying a new cordless vac, it wouldn't be a surprise if VAX was a brand near the top of your list. We think they deliver consistently great vacuums, which is why we've replaced the Blade 4 in this list with the Blade 5, which has a good number of improvements on its predecessor, with extra attachments you can buy to help with pet hair too.
Features we loved during testing
The suction power on the Blade 5 is brilliant, and the oversized floorhead means that you'll be done with swooping around your house or flat in a quick time. The battery life on the Vax Blade 5 gave us absolutely no trouble, and we completed all of the tasks we needed that day without having to return for a second charge.
Even better, with the Vax Blade 5 you get access to two batteries, which means you should get up to 90 minutes of charge, and you'll never be without your sturdy Vax vac when you need it. The Blade 5 is admittedly a little heavier than its predecessor, but it is brimming with great accessories and comes with a wall mount too, so that storage is straightforward.
How we tested these vacuum cleaners for pet hair
At Ideal Home, we believe that to give our verdict on the best vacuums and to rank them, we need to have tested them ourselves, which we delve into in our how we test guide.
That's why you'll find star ratings on the vacuums in this list, which we've decided on after extensively testing them either in our own homes or at our testing facility. In order to test pet features, we test every vacuum with large amounts of hair at our test centre, recording how well the suction works on each model to deal with it.
As well as paying close attention to how they performed at the job of vacuuming, we also make sure to evaluate practical features like how lightweight each vacuum is, the standout features of each and which appliances are good value for money.
Where we can, we've also sought to keep hold of these vacuums for long-term testing, so that we can feedback on just how they deliver after years of use, and how easy they are to store. Below you can find out more about exactly who has tested the vacuums in this round-up.
Our Ecommerce Editor Molly oversees cleaning content at Ideal Home and is a certified Customer Advisor for vacuums after passing a five-stage process. She reviews vacuums at Future's dedicated testing facility, using a range of flooring types kindly provided by Flooring Superstore in order to evaluate performance on wood floor, lino and carpet.
Testing the vacuums included in this round-up has allowed her to see which model excels at which task, and to judge them on all of the crucial factors of suction, as well as how they deal with hair, which is essential for pet-specific vacuums. She's also constantly looking out for the newest vacuum releases and technology so that she can keep you better informed on which appliance to buy.
Is there a vacuum for pet hair that you'd like to see tested here? Get in touch at Molly's email address (molly.cleary@futurenet.com) to request for the Ideal Home team to review it.
FAQs
What are the different types of pet vacuum cleaner?
Stick vacuum cleaners are generally upright plus handheld in one. Models designed to deal with pet hair frequently have a special attachment that can be used with the handheld, but the floorhead used with the stick may also have features that aid cleaning in homes with pets. As two vacuums in one, they can save space, but the top-heavy design can make them tiring to use. Often cordless, they’ll save the time taken plugging and unplugging, although these machines do need charging time.
Upright vacuum cleaners are larger than sticks, but despite this, it can be easy to move over different floor surfaces. Going up and down stairs with machine in hand does require lifting more weight, however. Special pet attachments can deal with fur on upholstery.
Robot vacuum cleaners will get on with the vacuuming for you, making them a good choice if you’re having trouble keeping up with the amount of hair a houseful of pets – or a single shedder – creates. Bin size is limited, but self-emptying versions can extend the time before you need to go to the dustbin.
Handheld vacuum cleaners are great for quick pick-ups, and with a special pet tool, can target fur as well as spills when you don’t want to get a larger machine out.
How much should I spend on a pet vacuum cleaner?
You can find a vacuum for pet hair starting from around £150, but bear in mind that you could pay more than four times as much for a top-end model, while a robot vacuum will cost even more.
The best pet vacuums in our tests cost from around £500 (which is a huge sum of money), and in this price bracket as well as those designed to deal with pet hair you’ll likely get additional features, greater suction power and more attachments.
If you're looking to bag a bargain on a vacuum for pet hair, then our cordless vacuums deal page can help to bring the price down.
Should I get a bagged or bagless vacuum cleaner?
You’re likely to have a strong personal preference for this one. Bagless vacuums, of course, save the additional expense of buying the bags and making sure you have a constant supply. However, the ease of emptying the dust bin varies between bagless models, and how much dust puffs up as you do does too. The capacity of their bins also differs and can be relatively small. Vacuum bags can fit in more and seal tightly when you change them.
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After writing for all of Future's Homes titles, Molly is now an Ecommerce Editor at Ideal Home, working across a range of shopping content to find the best buys for your space. Previously, she was the Staff Writer at TopTenReviews, another Future site, where she covered home content, which to a US audience is anything from turkey fryers to ride-on lawn mowers. Now, she spends her time writing reviews of appliances she’s tested at home and at our testing facility (we're talking air fryers, vacuums, dehumidifiers and more!), as well as curating buying guides. She's a certified Consumer Expert for several product categories after passing a five-step program including hands-on experience, consumer interviews and extensive research into her specialist areas including kitchen appliances and vacuums.
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