Our recommendations are based on what we think are currently the best vacuums with a canister design. We don’t just base our results on overall performance but also factors like availability, price, and reader feedback. Mary H.J. Farrell is a senior editor at Consumer Reports whose real passion is for cooking and all that entails.
Electrolux includes a turbine-powered carpet head with this model, and that was also a disappointment. It’s incredibly loud, and stalls out quickly on anything thicker than tight-knit carpet like Berber. The Electrolux was light and fairly easy to maneuver, but for cleaning performance the Kenmore – 200 Series has it totally beat. Don’t try to use a basic canister vacuum like this for medium-pile or longer carpet; it’ll just get stuck.
This canister vacuum isn’t cheap, and you’ll also pay for new filters and bags pretty regularly. But a Miele canister can last so long that it works out to be an excellent long-term value. With those parameters, the Kenmore – Elite is a clear winner for anyone who also needs to deal with carpeted floors.
She has expanded CR’s cookware category to include not only more pots and pans but also other essentials like stand mixer attachments, sheet pans, and vacuum sealers. Since the mid-1990s, Mary has held senior positions at People.com, MSNBC, and Ladies’ Home Journal. There is also one post-motor HEPA filter that sits underneath a panel on the back of the canister, and is also easy to access. The HEPA shark canister vacuum filter can be rinsed in water and, according to Shark, should be cleaned about every 12 months. Edge cleaning testChili flakes were placed up tight against an edge where the carpet meets the wall (baseboard). Good edge cleaning will pick up everything while poor edge cleaning will leave a swath of chili flakes (we’ve seen some instances where flakes are left an inch or more away from the wall).
“I’ve never had an issue with it, and it’s easy to empty.” Senior editor Grant Clauser has had the Navigator for at least two years and likes it better than the more expensive Dyson upright it replaced. “The only thing I’d change is a better way to attach the attachments,” he says. Editor Signe Brewster says it picks up cat hair from a shag-like rug in a single pass. Sometimes she has to dig hair out of the dustbin by hand, but we’ve found that’s often the case for all bagless vacs. Senior editor Harry Sawyers mostly uses a cordless vacuum cleaner at home, but he whips out the Shark when he needs a deeper clean on his rugs.
One of the main appeals of this vacuum is its Matrix Clean technology, which moves across floors in a grid pattern, effectively passing every spot multiple times so no debris is left behind. You can also notify the robot for spot cleanings, which is great if a sudden mess occurs or if you have a high-traffic area in your home that you’d like to pay special attention to. However, the Shark vacuum does feature a flexible wand that is a real game changer for reaching under furniture.
Bissell has aimed squarely at the budget vacuum target, and hit the mark. For bare floors and cleaning tight spots, this is a tool that will get the job done efficiently. The agility of Shark’s motorized brush head makes steering with one hand no problem, but if you’ve got a large room to cover you’ll definitely want to use upright mode most of the time.