Ask any pet owner, and they’ll tell you the hardest part of having a “furbaby” is dealing with pet hair. No matter how many times you bathe them or brush them, pet hair has a way of sneaking into all surfaces of the home. That makes a good vacuum for pet hair worth its weight in gold, ensuring your home is free of allergens and dander that might be lurking in your carpets.
The best vacuums for pet hair typically use a design that eliminates tangles and clogs, allowing them to put out maximum suction and easily pull embedded fur out of fabrics and furniture. They also tend to offer easy-to-empty dustbins and are lightweight for prolonged use without fatigue. Brands like Dyson, Shark, and Tineco produce many of the best vacuums for all types of homes, and a handful of their models are now aimed specifically at pet owners.
If you need help navigating all your options, here’s a look at the seven best vacuums for pet hair in 2024.
The best vacuums for pet hair
- Buy the for the best overall vacuum for pet hair.
- Buy the for a mid-range cordless vacuum that’s great for pet hair.
- Buy the for an affordable cordless vacuum with great suction.
- Buy the for an affordable upright vacuum.
- Buy the to tackle crevices and small spaces.
- Buy the Buy at Walmart.com for a robot vacuum that’s great at picking up pet fur.
- Buy the if you want a large canister system with powerful suction.
Dyson V15 Detect Cordless Vacuum
The best overall vacuum for pet hair
| Pros | Cons |
| Lightweight design | Expensive |
| Built-in LCD screen | |
| Automatically adapts to floor type |
The Dyson V15 Detect Cordless Vacuum is well-equipped to tackle pet hair. Clocking in at less than seven pounds, this cordless vacuum is easy to maneuver yet powerful enough to pull fur out of all types of carpet. It comes with a built-in LCD screen to give you instant feedback about your cleaning cycle, its brush can automatically adapt to the type of floor you’re working on, and its roller uses a conical design to eliminate tangles.
It also features a unique light on its brush that helps illuminate dust and ensures you get a perfect clean. Coupled with Dyson’s two-year warranty and lifetime support, the V15 is a wise investment for homes with a furry friend roaming its halls. If you don’t mind the price, there’s no reason to pass up this premium vacuum.
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Style | Cordless |
| Weight | 6.80 lbs |
| Special features | LCD screen, Dyson illumination, multiple attachments |
Tineco Pure One S15 Pet EX
The best mid-range cordless vacuum for pet hair
| Pros | Cons |
| Runs for up to 80 minutes | Runtime varies widely |
| Quick-release dustbin | |
| Unique iLoop dust sensor |
It’s more affordable than the Dyson V15, yet the Pure One S15 Pet EX offers many of the same features. This includes a tangle-free brush, multiple brush attachments, and a lightweight design that’s easy to move around furniture. You’ll even get up to 80 minutes of runtime thanks to its two batteries — though this number drops significantly if your home is dirty and requires high suction. The unit boasts a built-in display that tells you exactly how dirty the current section of the floor is, giving you a visual indicator that changes from red to blue as it cleans.
Best of all, its dustbin can be emptied with a single pull of a trigger, ensuring your hands don’t get dirty. Tineco designed this vacuum specifically for homes with pets, and it uses a unique PureCyclone feature to separate air from dust, allowing the vacuum to maximize suction and prevent clogs from pet hair and other debris.
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Style | Cordless |
| Weight | 6.80 lbs |
| Special features | iLoop technology, multiple attachments, freestanding dock |
Shark Stratos Cordless Vacuum
The best affordable cordless vacuum for pet hair
| Pros | Cons |
| Great price | Heavy |
| Automatically adjusts power | |
| Dual-roller design |
Shark has always been a popular brand among shoppers, thanks to its reliable products and reasonable prices. That legacy continues with the Shark Stratos, which competes with products in a higher price bracket. Using a soft roller combined with a unique PowerFins roller, the vacuum is able to easily loosen pet hair from your carpet and trap it inside its dustbin. The unit automatically detects how dirty your floors are and adjusts power as needed, allowing it to get up to an hour of runtime on a charge. Shark also uses a HEPA filter to eliminate allergens and pet dander — a premium feature that’s well-suited for homes with animals.
One of the biggest drawbacks to the Stratos is its weight, as it’s a few pounds heavier than the competition. It may not seem like much, but you’ll definitely feel it if you’re pushing it around for its full 60-minute runtime.
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Style | Cordless |
| Weight | 8.9 lbs |
| Special features | Dual-roller brushes, auto-suction, two included accessories |
Bissell Pet Hair Eraser Turbo
The best upright vacuum cleaner
| Pros | Cons |
| Under $300 | Wired connection |
| Easy-empty dustbin | Large base can be hard to maneuver |
| Quick release wand |
Not sold on cordless vacuums? Then stick with the Bissell Pet Hair Eraser Turbo upright vacuum, as it’s just as great at removing pet hair from your floors. Its brush is one of the biggest selling points, as it uses Bissell’s tangle-free design to stop hairs from gunking up the roller. This allows it to give a consistent clean regardless of how much fur is trapped in your carpets.
To complement its standard roller, you’ll find a bunch of secondary tools, including a crevice tool and pet turbo eraser tool that’s perfect for tackling difficult jobs like a doggy bed. And while you won’t be picking up the vacuum to clean shelves or other high-up locations, it comes with a retractable extension wand for added flexibility.
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Style | Upright |
| Weight | 13.75 lbs |
| Special features | Additional accessories, one-touch dustbin, dual-rollers |
Black + Decker Furbuster Handheld Vacuum
The best handheld vacuum for pet hair
| Pros | Cons |
| Compact size | Not ideal for floors |
| Large dustbin with one-touch empty | |
| Includes crevice tool |
It’s not built to tackle large spaces, but for clearing pet fur from crevices around baseboards and other furniture, the Furbuster is hard to beat. Featuring both a motorized pet brush and built-in crevice tool, it’s the perfect way to get debris out of small spaces. Like all products on this list, it uses an anti-tangle roller design to eliminate clogs from pet hair and pet toys. Black + Decker also ensured the unit was easy to clean, with a washable filter and pre-filter.
You won’t be replacing a traditional vacuum with the Furbuster, but it makes a great secondary vacuum to get the ultimate clean. Consider using it to suck up pet food crumbs, clean pet hair from your car, or whisk away fur trapped in your couch fabric.
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Style | Handheld |
| Weight | 2.6 lbs |
| Special features | Built-in crevice tool, washable filters, two speeds |
Roborock S8 Pro Ultra
The best robot vacuum for pet hair
| Pros | Cons |
| Programmable schedules | Expensive |
| Empties dustbin after each run | Less power than standalone vacuums |
| Also mops your home |
Robot vacuums offer a utopian world where you no longer have to pick up a vacuum to clean your floors. The Roborock S8 Pro Ultra is one of the best robot vacuums on the market, due to its combination of powerful suction and self-cleaning skills.
After setting up the unit and inputting your preferred cleaning preferences, the robot will go about its business automatically. All you need to do is check its water reservoirs every so often and replace its dustbin every few months. Pet hair is tackled with ease, thanks to its double-brush design and 6,000 Pa of suction. It’s the most expensive product on this list by a wide margin, but no other product offers the same type of automation.
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Style | Robot |
| Weight | 31.1 lbs |
| Special features | Programmable, mops, cleans itself after each run |
Kenmore 600 Series
The best canister vacuum for pet hair
| Pros | Cons |
| Two-motor system for enhanced suction | Bulky design |
| Includes pet-specific tool | |
| Telescoping wand for added reach |
With a two-motor system that’s great for pulling pet hair from your carpet, the Kenmore 600 Series provides your home with a superior clean. It’s a bit hefty at around 23 lbs, but its wheeled canister makes it easy to haul around.
Pet parents will particularly love its Pet PowerMate attachment, which is built specifically to lift pet hair from fabrics while preventing it from tangling up its brushes. There’s also a telescoping wand if you need to need a bit of help getting to those hard-to-reach locations. Best of all, it’s relatively affordable, as it’s regularly on sale for under $300.
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Style | Canister |
| Weight | 22.6 lbs |
| Special features | Pet-specific attachment, four height adjustment options, HEPA filtration |
How we chose these vacuums for pet hair
There are tons of great vacuums available today, but not all of them are great at removing pet hair. To weed through all the options, here’s a look at all the factors we considered when looking for the best vacuums for pet hair.
Tangle-free design
There’s nothing worse than having to stop vacuuming to detangle its rollers. Many products today are built with tangle-free designs that make this a thing of the past — and they tend to work well with pet hair. Better yet, many can resist tangles from strings left over from pet toys, which are common hazards in homes with pets.
Powerful suction and motors
The more suction, the more debris you’ll pull out of your carpet. Pet hair and other fabrics can get embedded in carpet fibers, making it important to pick a vacuum that’s strong enough to rip them and other particles out of their hiding place.
Low maintenance
Vacuum maintenance is tedious (and dirty) work. Products that require little routine maintenance are ideal for all homes, and if replacement filters are required, they should be cheap and available at multiple retailers.
Easy to use
The best vacuums are lightweight and easy to maneuver, making it easy to tackle your entire home with getting an upper arm workout. Cordless models are great for their wire-free design, though they can be hard on your wrist due to their weighty dustbin and battery. Conversely, upright vacuums are great because they put more weight directly on the ground but are bulky and require cumbersome wired connections. We took into account both types of designs and looked at products that best hide these drawbacks.
This article is managed and created separately from the Digital Trends Editorial team.
