Few of us look forward to doing the vacuuming, but it's all the more frustrating with a cumbersome machine that does a mediocre job and takes twice as long as it should.
CHOICE expert Matt Tung knows vacuums inside and out.
Our vacuum cleaner reviews have found that barrel and upright vacuum cleaners are the best option for thorough carpet and floor cleaning, but not all vacuums are created equal.
We lab tested more than 40 popular models and found a huge difference in their performance for carpeted and hard floors, pet hair pick-up, ease of use, noise and more.
Our testing revealed some high-quality cleaners (both expensive and cheap) but also exposed a number of duds bound to make vacuuming even more of a drag.
We don't want you to end up with a dud buy, so here are the products that scored lowest in our lab tests. Consider becoming a CHOICE member to see the best performers.
Dirt Devil Rebel 4.0 Bagless Vacuum Cleaner DACBLV21E2.
Dirt Devil Rebel 4.0 Bagless Vacuum Cleaner
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 55%
- Cleaning performance score: 65%
- Pet hair removal score: 50%
- Price: $99
At less than $100, this Dirt Devil won't put too much of a strain on your wallet, but it will put a strain on your arms – and your patience.
It's difficult to move over carpet, and what little pet hair it does suck up is difficult to extract from the bin.
This Dirt Devil won't put too much of a strain on your wallet, but it will put a strain on your arms – and your patience
And just for good measure, while it's busy not picking up dirt from your floor, it'll make an irritating, high-pitched noise. Avoid it like the devil.
Read the full Dirt Devil Rebel 4.0 Bagless review.
Bissell Cleanview Turbo Multi Cyclonic 1994U.
Bissell Cleanview Turbo Multi Cyclonic 1994U
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 56%
- Cleaning performance score: 51%
- Pet hair removal score: 50%
- Price: $249
This vacuum comes with a range of tools, but all the accessories in the world can't make up for its poor performance.
Our experts rated it as "borderline" for cleaning, and it only managed to score 50% for pet hair removal.
Several vacuums recommended by our experts cost less than this one, so you can definitely do better for your money
It was fiddly to empty, and the cleaning head often got stuck when first pushing it along the carpet.
Several vacuums that are recommended by our experts cost less than this one, so you can definitely do better for your money.
Read the full Bissell Cleanview Turbo Multi Cyclonic 1994U review.
Bosch Series 4 BGL38BA3AU
Bosch Series 4 Bagged BGL38BA3AU
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 57%
- Cleaning performance score: 68%
- Pet hair removal score: 50%
- Price: $279
You'd expect a well-known European brand to do better than cheapos from discount stores like Kmart and Big W, right?
Unfortunately that's not the case for this Bosch Series 4 bagged vacuum, which came in a full three percentage points behind all the vacs we tested from budget retailers.
You can pick up far better vacuums for around the same price, so don't get sucked in by the European brand name
On the upside, you'll be able to cancel your gym membership if you buy this Bosch: it takes a lot of strength to push it across carpet. And since it doesn't clean especially well, you'll probably need to vacuum the floor twice to get it clean – you'll end up with some serious biceps with this machine!
You can pick up far better vacuums for around the same price, so don't get sucked in by the European brand name.
Read the full Bosch Series 4 Bagged BGL38BA3AU review.
Kmart Anko 2400W Bagless Vacuum SL163E.
Kmart Anko 2400W Bagless Vacuum SL163E
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 60%
- Cleaning performance score: 50%
- Pet hair removal score: 70%
- Price: $99
The price might be right, but the performance is anything but. This model delivers only mediocre suck for your buck, it's noisy and the bin is messy to remove.
It does a good job of removing pet hair (we embed cat hair in the test carpet and rate how much the vac picks up) and has a washable HEPA filter. But these pluses do little to make up for its low cleaning performance score.
Read the full Kmart Anko 2400W Bagless Vacuum review.
Big W Contempo Compact Vacuum Cleaner 1800W JC621D-180J.
Big W Contempo Compact Vacuum Cleaner 1800W JC621D-180J
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 60%
- Cleaning performance score: 63%
- Pet hair removal score: 20%
- Price: $85
This basic barrel vac will let you down in many different ways – but especially if you have a pet to clean up after.
It received the lowest score for pet hair removal of all the vacuums in our review.
It was so bad at tackling pet hair that it actually embedded it deeper into the carpet instead of removing it
In fact, it was so bad at tackling pet hair that it actually embedded it deeper into the carpet instead of removing it.
It's also pretty ordinary on pet hair-free carpet, too, with our experts scoring it a just "OK" for cleaning carpet. It's also not crash-hot on cleaning corners and edges.
Read the full Big W Contempo Compact 1800W review.
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Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
