The 5 Best Canister Vacuums Winter 2023: Reviews

We’re looking forward to testing the Boost CX1 eventually, to compare it to our upgrade pick as well as to the Shark Vertex CZ2001 bagless canister. We also plan to try out the new Airsign bagged canister vacuum, a design-focused model with a HEPA filter. Over time, hair and other fibers will wrap around the vacuum’s brush roll; use scissors or a blade to cut those off and keep the brush rolling freely.

Thereby eliminating the need to spend your valuable free time removing unwanted hair from the floorhead. We used to recommend the Miele Dynamic U1 line of upright bagged vacuum cleaners, but we’ve watched the owner ratings plummet. But the nosedive began around the time Miele rebranded the line , in late 2014. Reps from Miele assured us that shark canister vacuum nothing about the vacuum changed except the name, but more and more complaints about pet-hair clogs and defective units popped up and dragged down the user ratings. Though Dyson announced in 2018 that it would stop developing new plug-in vacuum cleaners in order to focus on cordless models, the company appears to have reversed course.

Spoke with brand reps, product managers, and engineers of brands we reviewed, including Dirt Devil, Dyson, Miele, Sebo, and Tacony . Some of these chats were during product demonstrations at trade shows; others were more-formal conversations about particular products. We vacuumed a mix of sand and baking powder from medium and high pile rugs and used a scale to measure how much we picked up. After our pet vacuum tester’s lackluster experience with his own Miele – Calima, though, we thought long and hard about how to qualify value for a general review.

shark canister vacuum

Whether or not you need a powered hose will depend on how often you plan to use the vacuum in canister mode. For instance, if canister mode is only to help you clean your above-ground surfaces, it won’t be necessary to spend the extra cash for a powered hose design. However, if you want to clean carpeted stairs or shark pet hair vacuum clean floors in canister mode, you’ll want a hose that can provide the power you need to spin the brush roller. Instead of going for a tried and true canister design that relies on a hose and floor-based canister to hold the debris and the motor, Shark bagless uprights are often built with Lift-Away technology.

Filters also clog up pretty quickly and you’ll need to clean it often. Since this is a bagless vacuum there is still exposure to dust and allergens. If you suffer some sort of allergy or really allergic to dust then go with a bagged canister like a Bissell Zing or Miele Compact C1. And the 23 foot power cord is pretty generous for a canister vacuum. If you’d like to do the work of choosing yourself, here’s the list of our canister vacuum reviews.