Best vacuums for hardwood floors in 2024: Tested and loved by our experts for strong performance and reliability on wood

Choosing the right vacuum cleaner for a home with hardwood floors requires some different thinking. For other, more durable flooring types, the more powerful the vacuum, the better. But with something as easily scratched or discolored as wood, there are a few other things to consider.

You'll need a vacuum with a soft brushroll and a low-friction floorhead to protect the wood's surface. It'll also help if the vacuum can adapt to different floors (manually or automatically) so that it can tackle area rugs or different flooring in other rooms with ease.

In terms of suction power, vacuums typically excel on hardwood floors, so the power factor isn't quite as important as with carpets, which is why we consider hardwood-specific criteria to assess each vacuum (see our how to choose section for more details).

As H&G's home tech editor, I spend my days testing, reviewing and writing about vacuums cleaners with the help of a team of dedicated experts. We've tested 47 of the best vacuums for over 200 hours so far at H&G, both in our homes and in our standardized test center, to put them through their paces and determine which vacuums are worth your money.

So read on for the full guide, and feel free to click the navigation links to take you to each specific product.

Best vacuums for hardwood floors – The Verdict

After all our testing and analysis, the Dyson V12 Detect Slim comes out on top as the best choice thanks to its flawless performance on wooden floors and its relatively accessible price point. After testing, it's the vacuum I now use in my own home, and most of my floors are wooden.

But if you're looking for something more comprehensive, I also recommend the Bissell CrossWave HydroSteam. It vacuums, mops and steam cleans and, as well as achieving an impressive five stars on test, it's also been recommended to us by professional cleaners as the best way to clean hardwood flooring.

The quick list

Here's the list at a glance. Scroll further or click the navigation links for more info on why each of these, in their own right, are the best vacuums for hardwood floors.

The best vacuums for hardwood floors in 2024

Here, we run through why we think each of these vacuums is one of the best vacuums for hardwood floors, with links to full, in-depth reviews.

The best vacuum for hardwood floors

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Balancing suction power, ease of use and performance on wooden floors against the price - the Dyson V12 Detect Slim is the best choice. It's a highly powerful cordless vacuum that is perfect for cleaning hardwood floors, without a price tag that's too out-of-reach. Of all the vacuums I have tested, this is one I choose to use in my own home,which has predominantly hardwood floors and I love it.

The V12 Detect Slim is the smallest and most affordable vacuum in Dyson's range of detection vacuums that includes the Dyson V15 Detect (also in this guide) and the Dyson Gen5detect. While both of these two options have larger dustbins and slightly improved features, the V12 Detect Slim costs hundreds of dollars less - and you still get all of the core features and cleaning performance.

What makes the V12 Detect Slim stand out among the best vacuums for hardwood floors is the FluffyOptic floor head. It has a green laser that genuinely reveals dust that the naked eye can't see (even in a well-lit room), as well as a soft brush roll that is sure to never scratch or damage wood.

The suction power is an absolute breeze, too. I use this multiple times a week and I've never had to go back over a section of the floor to vacuum everything up. Even when it comes to hair, the V12 Detect Slim has no trouble picking it all up in a single pass, and the handy particle counter on the vacuum's screen shows you just how dirty the floors were.

It costs around $650 at full price (but is often on offer for around $400-500), and included in the price is the Motorized Anti-Tangle floor head which is mainly used for carpets. But, even in a home of exclusively hard wood floors, this powerful attachment can be used for rugs, mattresses and certain furniture.

For larger homes, perhaps the V15 Detect or the Gen5detect are better suited thanks to their bigger dustbins. But the only downside is emptying it more often. If you're ok with that, I'd save the money.

Read the full Dyson V12 Detect Slim review for more insight.

Best vacuum-mop combo for hardwood floors

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If you're looking for the full package – a vacuum cleaner that washes and sanitizes your your hardwood floors – the Bissell CrossWave HydroSteam is the best solution. It's a vacuum cleaner, mop and steam cleaner in one, with dedicated modes for hard floors or carpets/rugs.

I spoke with professional cleaners for our mopping vs wet vacuuming guide and two of the experts recommended the CrossWave HydroSteam. Lina DaSilva, founder of cleaning company Toronto Shine Cleaning, praised its 'versatility and ease of switching between hard floors and area rugs,' adding 'it's a powerful wet vacuum that provides excellent multi-surface cleaning.'

We saw similar results in our own tests, with our reviewer Aleenah Ansari awarding it the full five stars thanks to how comprehensively it was able to clean her floors. She also found it easy to clean the dirty water and debris tank which has a hair strainer (for pet and human hair) which helps to separate larger debris, and there's a self-cleaning cycle to keep the vacuum at its most hygienic.

A rare feature for a wet vacuum and mop combo, the Bissell CrossWave HydroSteam can also clean carpets and rugs, so it's a great multi-purpose option if your home has any soft flooring.

If you're looking for a vacuum cleaner, and only a vacuum cleaner, the Dyson V12 Detect Slim is your best bet. But if you're looking for more than that, such as an appliance that can fully clean and sanitize your wooden floors, the Bissell CrossWave HydroSteam is the best in our list.

Note: The Bissell Crosswave Hydrosteam should only be used on sealed hardwood floors, as the moisture and high-temperature steam can damage the porous nature of unsealed wooden floors. To find out whether your hardwood floors are sealed, see the FAQs at the bottom of the page.

Read more in our full Bissell CrossWave Hydrosteam review.

Best value vacuum for hardwood floors

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Usually, vacuum cleaners that sell for under $200 aren't good. They promise powerful suction and useful features for a fraction of the cost of other vacuums, but pretty much always fail to deliver on those promises.

The Ultenic U12 Vesla, however, truly surprised our team on test, picking up debris large and small with ease. 'It sucked up cereal effortlessly and quietly from hardwood, linoleum, and carpet floors: a totally faultless performance,' our tester Laura Honey shared. There were no problems aside from the filter clogging after vacuuming too much flour and sugar. That might sound worrying but we put vacuums through the extreme in our tests, and it was a quick, easy fix to clear the blockage.

When it came to vacuuming hair, the Ultenic was brilliant even on eco mode. 'It pushed hair around on the carpet a little, but successfully cleared everything relatively quickly. On linoleum and hardwood floor, this was completely faultless,' Laura noted. So, it didn't work quite as well on carpets, but had no problem on hardwood and linoleum floors.

The cordless vacuum even has different suction settings from eco to turbo, and it glides smoothly across the floor, making it a breeze to use. And, surprisingly at this price point, it has a genuinely useful dashboard displaying battery life, cleaning power, and any faults. It's also lighter and more compact than other cordless vacs of a similar nature.

Read our full Ultenic U12 Vesla review for more details.

Best cordless vacuum for hardwood floors

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Once hailed as our favorite vacuum ever, the Dyson V15 Detect can do it all. It's a truly powerful cordless vacuum that makes light work of all dust, dirt and hair, easily picking everything up in one run.

It's said to be the next level up from the Dyson V12 Detect Slim (number 1 in this guide), but in all honesty they largely clean up as well as each other and boast the same features.

The most noticeable differences are the V15's larger dustbin, which gives you more time cleaning between empties, and the V12's single power button, which avoids you having to continually press a trigger while using it. Personally, I'd say the ease-of-use from the single power button outweighs the benefit of a larger dustbin.

The V15 Detect is $100 more expensive ($750 at full price), but if you can afford to spend the extra money, you'll be investing in one of the most powerful vacuum cleaners, tried-and-tested to beat almost all others in terms of suction power and usability.

Just like the rest of Dyson's detection range, the FluffyOptic cleaner head has a green laser to illuminate hidden dust, and it uses a soft brush roll that's happily safe on hardwood floors (and other hard floor types like tiles and laminate). The vacuum also counts how many particles it's picked up (down to individual particle sizes) and can adapt suction power depending on the dust volume of your floor.

Read the full Dyson V15 Detect review for more details.

Best upright vacuum for hardwood floors

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Large, heavy upright vacuums aren't typically the go-to choice for hardwood floors because their powerful motorised stiff brushes can easily scratch wood and vinyl. But Shark's latest upright vac, the POWERDETECT, avoids this issue with a floor head that's designed for all floor types.

The floor head uses two brush rolls, one soft and the other with angled brush fins, to pick up everything on your floors and to avoid hair tangle. On test, our reviewer found it to be beautifully effective in doing so.

'It’s able to suck everything up in its path efficiently and proficiently, no matter the debris,' our tester James Holland noted. After a heavy period of fur shedding from his cat, the POWERDETECT had 'picked up every visible piece of hair (as well as litter near the litter box) from the carpet, filling the dust bin with an amount of hair equal to a second cat.'

He found that this performance was just as impressive on hardwood floors. No matter what he tested with (flour, sugar, cereal, and even lemon pepper seasoning), the upright vacuum cleared everything in a single pass.

The vacuum also has detection technology, and it'll adjust its suction power and brush roll speed by detecting both your floor type, the dust volume, and whether you're vacuuming the edges. So, the POWERDETECT will easily adapt to a house with predominantly hardwood floors, and can pick up the suction when it comes to area rugs or the wall's edges.

Read more at our full Shark POWERDETECT review.

Best robot vacuum for hardwood floors

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Robot vacuum cleaners are perfect for light, frequent maintenance and can make an amazing addition to your weekly cleaning, reducing how often you need to get the proper vacuum out.

On test, the Shark AI Ultra powered through rice, soil, and dog fur, and was even able to clean up a stain left on a wooden floor from a snowy boot. It wasn't a perfect performance by comparison to the vacuums above, but impressive by robot vacuum standards.

One of the best features is the grandly titled but ultimately simple 'CleanEdge Technology.' The robot uses blasts of air to loosen dirt from baseboards and push it into the path of the vacuum, so can clean right to the edge of your floors. Naturally, this cleaning performance lends itself well to the natural gaps and panels of hardwood floors.

The battery lasted nearly two hours, and when cleaning bigger rooms it will return itself to its dock if it needs to charge. The dustbin can hold 60 days worth of dirt, so in theory it can clean your floors without you having to lift a finger for two months straight.

However, if you want to mop with this vacuum you have to manually switch out the dustbin with a water canister. That's no hard task in the grand scheme of things, but it's hardly autonomous. Don't expect this vacuum to scrub your floors and vacuum the carpet by itself. It can do one or the other autonomously, but not both without your intervention, unlike other robots such as the expensive (but very worth it) iRobot Roomba Combo j9+.

The app is also a little glitchy, though in fairness this may have been patched since our review, and it also can't track progress as it goes. Sometimes this robot doubles up and cleans areas it has already vacuumed or mopped. That's not great if you're working from home and want to run a quick half-hour program in between meetings, because you might find this robot is still whirring away as you pick up the call.

Read our full Shark AI Ultra 2-in-1 review for more info.

Meet our testing team

Dan Fauzi

I am Homes & Gardens home tech editor, reviewing, testing and writing about vacuum cleaners on a daily basis. I've tested many vacuums for H&G, including the best vacuum for hardwood floors, the Dyson V12 Detect Slim.

Alex David

Alex has tested vacuums, including most of the vacuums in this guide, ever since he started reviewing. With hundreds of hours spent testing dozens of vacuum cleaners, he's an expert in the best vacuum cleaners for your home.

Camryn Rabideau

Camryn Rabideau is a freelance writer and product reviewer who has been testing home goods, including cleaning tools, for several years. She's tested many vacuums for H&G, including the Shark AI Ultra 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum from her small homestead in Rhode Island.

Jaclyn Turner

Jaclyn was an eCommerce editor for Homes & Gardens, where she oversaw sleep content including mattresses and bedding. She's tested a number of vacuums for us including the Dyson V15 Detect.

How to choose the best vacuum for hardwood floors

As vacuum cleaners excel on hard floors in general, the suction power isn't the most important factor. That being said, hardwood floors have tiny gaps between the wooden panels, so if your vacuum's power is too weak, dust will likely be left in these cracks. Any vacuum with a boost mode or soft bristles should be able to deal with this.

More importantly, you need to look for a vacuum that won't damage the floor. Not only is hardwood flooring susceptible to damage, it's also expensive, so you naturally want to avoid any scratching and discoloring.

Look for a vacuum that has a soft brush roll (like the Dyson's FluffyOptic floorhead in the V12 Detect Slim), or one that can turn its spinning brush roll off, so that you can comfortably vacuum without sharp bristles impacting the floor. Upright vacuums often have more rugged brush rolls to deal with carpet flooring; if you're opting for an upright model, make sure you're able to change its power settings, but don't forget that a cordless model is usually a safer choice.

If you have different floor types across your home, it'll be beneficial to choose a vacuum with automatic floor type detection. Many newer vacuums from brands like Dyson, Tineco and Shark (like the Shark POWERDETECT) offer this feature, and it saves you from having to adjust the power setting when moving between rugs, carpets and hard floors.

Another luxury is anti-tangle cleaning. Like with many of the options in our best vacuums for pet hair guide, anti-tangle floor heads and attachments can make a huge difference when dealing with hair. Having to manually remove wrapped hair from the brush roll can be a frustratingly time-consuming task, so it's good to be able to avoid it.

Bottom line: soft, fluffy brush rolls are a must. Take a close look at the vacuum you're considering and think about the floor head's impact on your floor. If reviews say that it's high-impact, make sure you can turn off the spinning brush roll. Then, consider whether the suction power is enough when compared with the price, and if you have pets, make sure to opt for anti-tangle floor heads and attachments. If in doubt, read reviews!

For the full guide, check out how to choose the right vacuum cleaner for your home, with more detailed info on the sort of price you should expect to pay (and how to reduce it).

How we test vacuums for hardwood floors

At Homes & Gardens we like to get hands-on experience with all the products we feature. You can learn more how we test products in our dedicated guide, and there's a more specific rundown of our vacuum test process in how we test vacuums.

All of our vacuums are tried and tested in our test center, and then in our own homes for a minimum of two weeks. When in the test center, we assess each vacuum on carpet, linoleum and hardwood flooring, two of the most common types of hard floor using different types of spilled material.

We test using flour and sugar, which is a common kitchen spill, but also a good proxy for dust and dead skin; cereal, which shows how well it picks up larger debris like crumbs and small stones; and most of all on old hair extensions, which demonstrates how well a vacuum can pick up hair, and whether or not hair gets stuck in its rollers.

When vacuuming on hardwood, it's important to observe how smoothly the vacuum glides across the floor, and how impactful the brush roll hits the floor's surface. Both of these, if not taken into consideration, can result in scratches and marks on the wood.

We consider this in tandem with the cost, attachments, size of the bin, trigger style, cord length if applicable, battery charging and run time, as well as how easy it is to unbox, set-up, clean and maintain.

Specific to vacuums for hard floors, we note any fluffy heads designed to stop scratches, and any features designed for hard floors. We take care to note each vacuum's weight and agility, because these are the traditional drawbacks with these models. We note whether each vacuum can fit under sofas and into corners and how easy they are to use to clean stairs.

We test the vacuum cleaners for a number of weeks so that we know our tests aren't a one-off. In some instances, we are also fortunate enough to keep the vacuum cleaners after writing up the review so we can continue to learn about them over months or even years and share our findings with you as the vacuums pick up wear and tear over time.

Best vacuums for hardwood floors – Glossary

• Floorhead: The main vacuum cleaner attachment for floor cleaning (i.e. not the crevice tool, dusting brush etc). Some vacuums have separate floorheads for hard floors and carpets.
• Brushroll: Rotating cylinders within the floorhead (and occasionally in smaller, motorized attachments). They can be soft, fluffy rollers for hard floors or bristled to dig deep into carpets. Many vacuums from brands like Shark and Dyson will have two brushrolls in their main floorhead.
• Wand/hose: Long tube connecting the vacuum cleaner to the floorhead or any attachments (see here for what all the vacuum cleaner attachments do, like the crevice tool or dusting brush).
• Filter: Responsible for trapping the debris and particles as air passes through. Vacuums can have pre-motor filters and post-motor filters, to trap debris of different sizes at different points along the airflow.
• HEPA filter: Filter type that's able to capture at least 99.97% of particles as small as 0.3 microns. It's a necessity in a pet hair vacuum as it's able to trap allergenic particles like pet dander (and household allergens like dust and pollen).
• Motor: The core component of a vacuum cleaner (it's also referred to as a suction motor). This is what converts the electrical power into mechanical power to create suction and airflow.
• Bagged/bagless: Some vacuums, typically older ones, use vacuum bags that you dispose of once full. Most vacuums are now bagless and have a dustbin that you conveniently empty when needed, without the need to buy additional bags. Bagged vacuums still have their advantages however, like dust-free emptying, complete odor and particle capture, and less filter maintenance.
• Detection: Some vacuums are able to 'detect' the type of flooring, how dusty/dirty the floor is, whether you're vacuuming edges, or which direction you're vacuuming. They can then automatically adjust suction power, as vacuuming carpet, edges and dust-heavy floors requires extra power, while vacuuming a fairly clean wooden floor doesn't require as much – saving energy or battery life.
• Power/air watts: A vacuum cleaner's power is best measured via air watts, reflecting the airflow and suction power in real terms. It's calculated by multiplying the airflow (in cubic metres per second) by the suction pressure (in pascals), accounting for variables like blockages or different-sized openings (from different vacuum attachments, for example).
• FluffyOptic (Dyson): The most advanced floorhead in Dyson's latest vacuums (the Gen5detect, V15 Detect and V12 Detect Slim) designed primarily for hard floors. It features a green laser that reveals hidden dust that the naked eye can't see.
• DuoClean PowerFins (Shark): Floorhead featured in many of Shark's vacuums. 'While a soft front roller pulls in particles, PowerFins deliver nonstop contact to pick up more in every pass.'

FAQs

How do I know if my hardwood floors are sealed?

There's a simple test you can do if you're unsure whether your hardwood floor is sealed or not, known as the beading test. Sealed hardwood floors are protected by a finish, to protect the wood from stains, moisture, and general wear-and-tear.

Pour a few drops of water onto an inconspicuous area of the floor. If the water spreads out or is absorbed into the wood, your floor is likely not sealed. If it beads, it should be sealed.

Can I clean hard floors without a vacuum?

Yes, you can clean hardwood floors without a vacuum, but the job will only be half done. Mopping is crucial for removing stains from hard floors, and it can get up some dust. However, mopping can't pick up crumbs and hair – you should vacuum first and then mop for the best results.

Do vacuums damage wood floors?

Vacuums won't damage wood floors if you use the right setting. If you use a carpet setting you can damage the floor, as the fast-spinning, hard bristles might scratch the floor. If you have hardwood floors in your home, it's smart to get a vacuum with a soft head, which makes it incredibly unlikely that your vacuum will scratch the floor.

Can I use an upright vacuum on hardwood floors? 

Yes, but make sure you have a model where you can turn off the motorised brush bar, or a setting that's designed not to scratch hard floors. These bars have pretty stiff bristles and move at very high speeds, so they can easily scratch some wood floors if you aren't careful.

All of the vacuums listed here are great for hardwood floors, but you may have other needs, too. It's always worth considering the best vacuum for pet hair if you have dogs or cats.