Best vacuums for pet hair in 2024: Tested by our experts to help you keep your home fur-free

The best vacuum for pet hair will do more than pick up fur. It’ll remove pet odors from your home, capture allergenic pet dander along with all of your home’s other messes, it'll be easy to use and get into crevices and under furniture.

As Homes & Gardens' home tech editor, myself and a team of dedicated product experts test and review the best vacuum cleaners in our homes and in our test center. And after we've spent more than 200 hours testing 47 of the world's best vacuums, these are the 12 best-on-test vacuums for pet hair.

Our guide is here to help you make a decision, and we robustly assessed each vacuum on pet hair pickup, odor and allergen capturing, ease of use, cleaning, price, features, tools and attachments, and everything else that should make life easier as a pet owner.

Black Friday deals on vacuums for pet hair

Right now, the Black Friday sales are in full swing, and many of the vacuums in this guide are discounted, which I've included below. Keep scrolling for the full guide.

Best upright vacuum for pet hair

Shark POWERDETECT | was $399, now $299 at Shark (save $100 with code POWER100)

The Shark POWERDETECT is currently the best upright vacuum we've ever tested and our best upright vacuum for pet hair.

Testing on carpet, the POWERDETECT 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.' The same performance was found when vacuuming other messes, too, with dust and large debris being collected in a single pass.

Read our full Shark POWERDETECT review to learn more.

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Editor's choice

Dyson V12 Detect Slim | was $649.99, now $399.99 at Walmart (save $250)

This is the smaller version of our best vacuum for pet hair (the Dyson V15 Detect) and it shares all of the same features, just with a smaller dustbin and lighter weight. Now, it's at its lowest price ever.

It has no problem whatsoever vacuuming hair from carpets and hard floors, and it has a specialized anti-tangle Motorbar brushroll that's designed for that exact purpose. The other brushroll, designed for hard floors, has a green laser that illuminates hidden dust.

It's also the vacuum cleaner I use in my own home after testing 12 of the world's bests for H&G. Read our full Dyson V12 Detect Slim review to learn more.

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Samsung BESPOKE Jet AI | was $999.99, now $849.99 at Best Buy (save $150)

The Samsung BESPOKE Jet is our pick for the best pet hair vacuum for allergies, thanks to its cleaning station with tight HEPA filtration. It's a pretty impressive vacuum cleaner (for the price, you'd hope so), and it has a 100-minute runtime, which is better than almost all cordless vacs.

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Shark Stratos Upright Vacuum | was $449.99, now $349.99 at Home Depot (save $100)

Once our best-on-test upright vacuum, the Shark Stratos is still a powerful machine years after it was released. It has strong performance on pet hair across all floor types, as well as Shark's famous Lift-Away feature that gives you extra mobility when you need it.

Read our full Shark Stratos Upright Vacuum review to learn more.

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Best vacuum for pet hair - The Verdict

The cordless Dyson V15 Detect is the best choice in almost every way. It has the best pet hair pickup we've ever seen, as well as a green laser that illuminates hidden particles, adaptive suction power, tight, anti-allergenic HEPA filtration and an attachment that can deep clean pet beds. Even though Dyson have released the upgraded Gen5detect, the V15 Detect still wins as it's almost identical but $100s more affordable.

The best upright vacuum for pet owners is the Shark POWERDETECT, a powerhouse that excels on every floor type with every debris type, cleaning every visible strand of pet hair in a single pass, even on carpet. And if you're looking to save money, the cordless Ultenic U12 Vesla is surprisingly impressive on fur considering it costs under $200.

A common and effective solution from pet owners is to invest in a robot vacuum that'll regularly take care of all the fur on the floor, and the iRobot Roomba Combo j9+ is the best we've ever tested, as it’s one of the only robots that can actually remove deeply-embedded fur from carpet.

If your home is mostly carpet, you won't find a better solution than the Shark CarpetXpert. It's the most comprehensive carpet cleaner we've ever tested on pet hair, food, stains, and all other debris – and there's even a dedicated tool for cleaning up pet mess straight from the floor.

The Quick List

Here's a quick overview of our best vacuums for pet hair. If any stand out, click on the jump links to take you to the more in-depth details below.

To better understand what to look for, there's a detailed how to choose guide at the bottom of the page. And, if any of the terms in this guide sound like vacuum jargon, I've included a handy glossary to clear any confusion. You can navigate both on desktop with our side navigation bar that will travel up and down the screen with. On mobile, you can scroll the navigation bar at the top of the page, left to right, which will stick with you as you move through the article.

The best vacuums for pet hair in 2024

For more detail, here's our rundown of the very best vacuums for pet hair. We've personally tested every single one to see how they fared with fur.

The best vacuum for pet hair

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This is the best vacuum cleaner for pet hair, and one of the best in the world on every surface. It boasts unparalleled, market-leading suction power and exceptional performance on pet hair, especially when using Dyson's dedicated Motorbar cleaner head and hair screw tool that are designed exactly for that purpose.

Our expert tester Jaclyn Turner saw this first-hand when she tried the hair screw tool on her dog's lounge mat. She says, 'It is one of the only vacuum tools I've tried that not only revived the faux-sherpa bottom that is an absolute magnet for dirt but brightened the fleece top from a dusty blue back to its original turquoise.' Not only does it pick up pet hair effortlessly, it's so powerful that it revived an old dog bed to its original color.

The Dyson V15 Detect, along with the newer (and more expensive) Gen5detect, leads the line up of the best vacuums in the world. This is in part thanks to the green diode laser (see Glossary) which illuminates dust and particles that the naked eye can't see, and a particle sensor which measures microscopic dust particles in real time so that it can automatically adjust suction power when needed. If the vacuum gets to a particularly dusty part of the floor, or moves onto a rug or carpet, the V15 Detect will up the suction in a fraction of a second.

But like most Dyson products, this quality comes at a cost. This is the best vacuum you can possibly buy for pet hair, with the best suction we've ever seen in a vacuum cleaner, but it will set you back more than $700. You may also find that dust occasionally gets stuck in the dust bin, and that having to hold down the trigger to keep it running might become uncomfortable, particularly if you have limited mobility in your hands (if that's off-putting, the Gen5detect and the V12 Detect Slim which we've reviewed as well have an on/off power button instead).

If you're willing to part with the money, you won't get any better than this. It also has a HEPA filter that can trap more than just the hair, but also the dander and super-fine particles that trigger allergies and spread odors at home.

Read our full Dyson V15 Detect review for more details.

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Best upright vacuum for pet hair

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Our tester James Holland found out that Shark's latest upright vacuum, the accurately-named POWERDETECT, works like a dream on pet hair.

'With one pass, the Shark POWERDETECT had basically 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 shared after his cat went through a period of heavy shedding, leaving his carpet in need of a deep clean.

It was just as efficient on other floor types too, no matter what debris he threw at it. Seasoning powder, flour, sugar, and cereal were all vacuumed in one pass, alongside plenty of dust and dander.

It boasts a HEPA filter, an Anti-Allergen Complete Seal, and a wide 12-inch floorhead that covers a great deal of ground with each movement. 'On top of that, it’s good at getting edges even without the attachment tools as the brush rolls extend almost completely to the edges of the floorhead.'

This is helped by the vacuum's ability to detect edges, floor types and dust volumes to adjust suction power when needed. Move from wooden floor to carpet and the vacuum will up the power to get deeper into the carpet fibers. You can also use Shark's signature 'Lift-Away' feature when vacuuming tricky spots like stairs or under furniture. You can detach the pod and use the motorized nozzle for an easier and more lightweight clean.

At the time of writing, it retails for $399.99 by itself, or $499.99 with the TruePet upgrade that comes with a self-cleaning pet power brush. It might seem a little steep compared to some of the more modest cordless vacs, but it's worth the price when you consider all the cleaning power on offer. It's also a similar price to other upright vacuums like the Shark Stratos, which was released years ago and doesn't have the same up-to-date tech.

Read our full Shark POWERDETECT review for more details.

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Best value vacuum for pet hair

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The Ultenic 12 promises all of the features you'll find in the best vacuums on the market: cordless cleaning, useful cleaning monitoring, a tangle free brush, a lazer sensor, and plenty of cleaning accessories. The one thing it doesn't share with out top performers is the price tag. This is under $200 and that's before you bag a discount on top too.

Our experts were pleasantly surprised with every aspect of the Ultenic 12. It comes in a box smaller than some that I've received shoes in. It's quick to assemble and lightweight to use. There are buttons for every feature you could possibly need and you don't need to constantly press a trigger to use it.

The LED screen, which looks a lot like a dashboard, provides a countdown of how long you have left to vacuum alongside the range of power options, which you can adjust at the touch of a button.

As you can see, there's a lot to love and at $200, there's even more to love. However, there's a few things you should know before jumping in to a purchase. While the suction on debris and hair was 'brilliant', the anti-hair wrap isn't quite as impressive, and might need a bit of DIY to remove the hair from the brush roll. That being said, no hair was left on the floors during our tests.

As is inevitable, this feels cheaper than models which are five times the price. If you haven't got money to spare, this is a great option, but if you're looking for luxurious, you should know that there are more premium options available. This also won't stand up on its own, so if you're used to vacuums which can, expect a few surprising drops.

You can find more detail in our Ultenic U12 Vesla review.

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Best carpet cleaner for pet hair & messes

Resembling an upright vacuum, the Shark CarpetXpert is a full-sized carpet cleaner that's able to deep-clean carpets, rugs and furniture. Using clean and dirty water tanks, as well as an oxy-powered cleaning formula, the CarpetXpert can remove stains and clean up pet messes.

After weeks of testing, our expert reviewer Camryn was so impressed that she awarded it a rare 5 stars thanks to its cleaning power and thoughtfully-designed features. It was able to deep clean a rug that she didn't even think was dirty, reviving the feel and color while then being dry to touch after one hour. She also cleaned a 6 month-old stain from a lounge chair using the included Shark StainStriker formula.

The true saving grace for pet owners is the dedicated pet accident tool, that has a 'small, self-contained dirty water tank that captures everything you suck up, stopping pet waste from getting into the main body of the cleaner.' The CarpetXpert was able to completely clean a vomit stain caused by our tester's cat while removing other old stains and discoloration in the process.

Thanks to all the removable parts, Camryn also found it surprisingly easy to clean (considering how dirty these components are getting), and they all store neatly onto the appliance. She did note that the water tanks could be bigger, but it's a small critique when compared to the CarpetXpert's deep cleaning capabilities.

You can find more detail in our Shark CarpetXpert review.

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Best vacuum for pet hair and odors

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Our tester Camryn Rabideau absolutely loved this vacuum after testing it in a house with two long-haired dogs. It does almost as good a job as the Dyson above despite costing half as much. Like many Shark vacuums, it stops hair wrapping around the floor brush and saves you the gross job of detangling your vacuum.

Upright vacuums can be too bulky for delicate jobs, but the Shark Stratos comes with a Powered Lift-Away mode. Camryn said that 'This allowed me to pop out the main cylinder and bin, leaving me with a smaller, more nimble hand held cleaner and hose for getting under furniture and into tight spaces'. It also has an Odor Neutralizer, a cartridge which releases a 'light, fresh scent that makes the room feel cleaner', which is especially welcome in homes with pets.

But while Power Lift-Away makes it a little lighter to hold, this vacuum still weighs 17lbs, so it might not be the most suitable weight for everybody, and it's tricky to store. You should also watch out for the two different versions. It seems pedantic, but the AZ3000 is just a vacuum, whereas the AZ3002, available on Amazon comes with an effective motorized HairPro Pet Power Brush, a duster-crevice combination tool, a multi-angle dust brush, an anti-allergen dust brush, an accessory bag, and two extra odor cartridges.

Read our full Shark Stratos review for more details.

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Best pet hair vacuum for allergies

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The Samsung Bespoke Jet has 5-layer HEPA filtration system to trap allergen particles inside the dustbin. The vacuum is also charged on a 'clean station', which not only powers the vacuum but sucks out any collected dust from the 0.5 liter dust bin.

It's a small capacity for a big house, but this charging system means that you can regularly empty your dust into a sealed bag without lifting a finger. When the clean station is full, you can lift out a sealed bag, removing the chance of breathing in any allergens.

The floorhead uses two rollers: a soft roller to help catch dust and a nylon bristle brush bar which spins up to 4,000 rpm, in one of four vacuuming modes including min, mid, max and jet. The highest suction power on jet mode is 'mega impressive,' former appliance editor Jen Oksien noticed, and even though there isn't automatic power adjustment, it's intuitively easy to switch between them.

The Jet dual brush floorhead works great on both carpets and hard floors, and the vacuum has 'all the attachments you could ever possibly need for keeping your abode looking pristine, on all levels.'

On testing, Jen found it easy to maneuver. 'Getting around and underneath furniture was seamless and so was just maneuvering it around the floors in general.' She also appreciated the 60-minute runtime and handy digital screen, which displays notifications of the power level and alerts about airflow issues, clogs, missing filters, and more.

A word of warning, however – don't buy Samsung's latest update to this vacuum (the Samsung Bespoke Jet AI). Though it comes with a longer run time, it didn't perform as well in our tests. The AI – which claims to adjust to different floors automatically – isn't particularly useful, as you have to change the floorheads yourself. It's also $900, so you can save money and get a better vacuum if you stick with this older model.

Still, the Samsung Bespoke Jet will set you back around $600-700, which could score you one of the better-performing vacuums in this guide like the Dyson V15 Detect or Shark POWERDETECT. For a similar, more affordable alternative, consider the Tineco Pure One Station.

Read our full Samsung Bespoke Jet Pro Extra review for more details.

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Best robot vacuum for pet hair

Tested by our head of eCommerce, Alex David, the Combo j9+ is an update to the iRobot j7+ – and it's a huge step up. It's unmatched at spotting obstacles and, like many iRobot products, this Roomba has a P.O.O.P. guarantee (Pet Owner Official Promise) that your vacuum won't run through any pet messes, and if it does then you can get a replacement free of charge.

That's all before you get to its performance on hair. This robot has excellent anti-hair wrap. Unlike other robots he's tested, it's never gummed up with hair, and does an excellent job at removing it from all floors, even carpet.

Where Alex found the app for the j7+ a little glitchy, I found the j9+ app simple and easy to use during my testing, with a clear map and the ability to mark out keep-out zones, as well as automatic room detection.

Alex also loved the self-emptying base. When it detects that it is full, it automatically goes to eject into the Clean Base Automatic Dirt Disposal, a sealed system that can hold up to 60 days of debris. It also auto-fills its water tank for the mop, and this mop automatically flips down, so you don't have to swap out parts. It's as automatic as possibly could be.

However, while largely quiet, the clean base makes an incredibly loud noise as it empties the vacuum, which I think is this vacuum's single biggest drawback. It occasionally leaves single crumbs, and struggles to clean around round-shaped objects like trash cans. Finally, it's very expensive, and will cost you nearly $1400 outside of the sales. Even if money isn't an issue, I'd recommend waiting until it's discounted as I've seen it with $100s off in the past. Learn more in our best vacuum deals hub.

You can find more detail in our iRobot Roomba j9+ review.

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Best pet hair vacuum for apartments

The V12 Detect Slim is Dyson's smaller, lighter and more affordable alternative to their market-leading V15 Detect and Gen5detect, which we reviewed. It carries many of the same features; the laser that illuminates hidden dust, the accurate particle sensors, and automatic power adjustment are still just as useful.

Unlike the Dyson V15 Detect, the V12 Detect Slim also has a single power button creating less of a strain on your hands while vacuuming. This goes well with the lighter weight: the cordless vacuum is agile, smooth and very easy to use.

But the smaller size does bring its downsides, like a smaller dustbin and shorter battery life. Both of these are certainly noticeable, which is why the Dyson V12 Detect Slim might be better suited to smaller homes and apartments. When testing, I found the battery couldn't make it to the end of a whole-house deep clean, but it could be a good fit for those who clean more frequently and rarely need that deeper clean.

Regardless, its cleaning power shouldn't be ignored. Like we've come to expect from recent Dyson releases, its powerful suction is unrivaled by other brands. I tested it alongside four other vacuums at our test center (including the Henry Quick in this guide), and the V12 Detect Slim was always the vacuum I'd turn to when the others couldn't finish the job. No matter the debris, whether it's hair, dust or cereal, it could clear it all in one pass.

It's worth noting that hair did occasionally get wrapped around the FluffyOptic floorhead's brushroll, but it wasn't difficult to remove it. In the dustbin, hair can occasionally wrap around the filter, but once again this is super easy to remove. Even when it comes to stubborn dirt/dust, tapping the dustbin or moving the opener back and forth removes anything that's lodged.

Read our full Dyson V12 Detect Slim review for more details.

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Best dust-free vacuum for pet hair

Famous in the UK for the classic, canister-style Henry vacuums, the Henry Quick is the brand's first cordless stick. A key pillar of Henry's vacuums is affordability, and the Henry Quick is no different, coming up at under £300 in the UK. At this price point, the cordless vacuum offers truly impressive suction power.

It sells for over $500 in the US and, while that's a sharp hike, the vacuum still holds up at that price. The floorhead has a strong brush roll that easily crushes large debris and avoids anything getting stuck inside it.

It also had no problem at all picking up every strand of hair in one pass. A few hairs would poke out of the brush roll but there was no tangling, and nothing came out of the floorhead when shaken.

The Henry Quick uses a dust pod system rather than having a dust bin that you empty. This creates a completely dust-free and odorless vacuuming experience and avoids any filter maintenance, as each pod is the filter. It does, however, demand recurring costs and more waste, but the Henry Quick pods are modest at £12.99 for a pack of 10 (with each lasting around 3 weeks). They're also made of 65% recycled material and Henry carbon offset them globally.

But using a bagged vacuum in this way helps to trap pet odors, as well as any of the super-fine particles like pet dander, which can contribute to allergies at home. It's a safe and hygienic way of dealing with pets, similar to how the Samsung Bespoke Jet Pro can trap unwanted particles with its 5-layer HEPA filtration.

At our test center, I found it wasn't too far off from the cleaning power seen in the Dyson V12 Detect Slim. Dyson aside, I tested Henry Quick alongside other, more expensive vacuums like the Shark Detect Pro Cordless, and it proved more effective in every way – particularly on carpets, where it didn't struggle to pick up any dust, debris or hair.

You can find more detail in our Henry Quick review.

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Best budget pet hair vacuum

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Inexpensive but effective, this vacuum cleaner performed excellently on all the debris we tested it on, including our pet hair test. It's also the vacuum I have in my own place. On occasion it pushed at the pet hair, but quickly removed it when it was passed over with more pressure. It's nowhere near as good as the Dyson V15, but when you consider that this is five times cheaper, this isn't surprising, and it still does a fairly good job.

We loved the digital display and the specialized settings for different surfaces are effective. It's also incredibly agile, gliding smoothly across all surfaces and turning quickly on its wheels. It's a good choice for small apartments and weaving around furniture. We also appreciated the wide range of accessories for precise vacuuming.

This vacuum falls down on small but mildly-infuriating issues. It isn't free-standing, so you'll need to lean it up against furniture or a wall if you need to move cables out of the way as you vacuum. This always worries me; as a renter, I don't want it to leave a mark on a wall. After a few minutes of use, it can feel a bit heavy, especially if you're holding it aloft. The worst feature is the bin, which is not intuitive to open and can be messy. The battery is pretty poor on max, and if you or anyone you live with have long hair, be prepared to pick it out of the brush roll.

Read our full Hoover ONEPWR Pet Max review for more details.

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Best canister pet hair vacuum

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The Miele C3 Cat and Dog Canister vacuum has spacious 4.5qt bags that self-seal on removal and provide extra filtration on top of a HEPA filter. Miele's models for pets use a special charcoal filter called Active AirClean filter that captures and retains over 99.9% of lung-damaging particles as well as hair and fur. Not only is this great for allergy suffers, catching and sealing fur, dirt and dander, but on test we found that it prevents odors too.

The hose and wand come off the back, so you can use the crevice tool and small turbo brush for smaller areas. The latter is particularly effective for tackling pet beds and upholstery. There’s a 29 ft cleaning radius with this model, so you won’t need to keep swapping power sockets as you make your way around the house. We found that the suction power is incredible, so cleaning across the board, not just for pet hair, is mostly exceptional.

The obvious downside to this vacuum is that it's the most expensive vacuum we've ever tested, costing up to $1200. Not only that, but the self-sealing bags are a recurring cost. When we tested this on larger debris, we found that it is poor at taking on bigger crumbs, so it might not be great if you have young kids causing lots of mess.

You can find more detail in our Miele Complete C3 Cat and Dog review.

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Best handheld vacuum for pet hair

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Keeping a vacuum nearby is actually a tip recommended by professional cleaners on how to vacuum pet hair the right way. This Brigii model is no bigger than a rolling pin or water bottle and it’s cordless, so if you want a vacuum that you can easily pick up and have with you around the house, this is perfect.

When kibble, leaves, or dirt get tracked into the carpet by pets (or anyone else the household for that matter) this can pick them up in an instant. If your furry friend unfurls themselves from a nap on your pillow, leaving lots of hair behind, the Brigii can collect it all up in an instant: it’s perfect for short bursts and spot cleaning.

As I set out at the beginning, the nature of this handheld model means that it has limited in capacity. The maximum battery life is just 20 minutes, which is very short for properly cleaning a car. What's more, your back will ache much sooner than that, because stooping down to use this is pretty uncomfortable.

We tested this across a range of floor types (hard wood, linoleum and carpet) on a range of debris (cereal, flour, and hair) and this excelled generally. The one place it struggled was picking up fine flour on a carpet, but we found that it was more than up to the job once we attached extra accessories.

You can find more detail in our Brigii Cordless Handheld Vacuum review.

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How to choose the best vacuum for pet hair

Pet hair is a challenge for vacuums to pick up, and you also need to contain fur and dander to prevent allergies. You need a cleaner with strong suction that can pick up all pet hair without any shaking loose. Suction is often measured in air watts, but can be difficult to accurately quantify as it's influenced by other factors like motor type and airflow design. This is why it's important to read reviews for real-world analysis of how they perform.

Ensuring you choose a vacuum with the right filter type is essential. A HEPA filter (or better) is a must for trapping microscopic particles like pet dander and dust that can trigger allergies. Filters have to meet rigorous testing standards to be able to be labelled HEPA, as it must be able to trap at least 99.97% of airborne particles that are 0.3 microns in size.

Be careful of brands that state 'HEPA-style' or 'HEPA-like' filters as these won't have met the standard.

When dealing with carpets or rugs, look for a motorized brush bar, which uses rigid bristles to agitate and loosen hair so that it can be sucked up from deep within the carpet fibers.

For hard floors, having pure suction flow through the cleaner makes more sense for hair, but look out for a cleaner that has a soft brush, designed to pick up pet dander and microscopic bits of dust first.

Tools for dealing with pet hair around the house are just as important. A mini motorized brush can be your best friend, giving you the same qualities as a floor brush in a smaller package that can help clean up pet beds and upholstery with ease, while avoiding hair wrap.

Any motorized tool with tangle-free technology is worth looking for, as you won’t have to worry about cleaning stuck hair so often.

Otherwise, look out for regular accessories (dusting brushes, crevice tools and so on) for getting into those hard-to-reach areas and removing all traces of pet hair from your home.

As pet hair comes with allergenic pet dander and odors, look for vacuums with dust-free or self-emptying, as well as a tight seal around the dustbin.

Pet hair vacuums aside, find out more insight in our guide on how to choose the right vacuum cleaner for your home. Factors like having kids, flooring types, the size of your home and how many levels there are should all be considered when choosing the right one.

How we test vacuum cleaners for pet hair

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.

Each new vacuum we get the opportunity to review is tried and tested over many hours in our test center and for weeks in our own homes.

In the test center, we test each vacuum on carpet, linoleum and wood flooring. We test them with flour and sugar, which is a common kitchen spill but also tests dust and dead skin; cereal, which shows how well it picks up or crushes larger debris like crumbs; and most of all old hair extensions, which demonstrates how well a vacuum can pick up hair, and whether or not hair gets stuck in its rollers.

Most importantly, we've also tested these vacuums in homes with pets, so we know exactly how well each vacuum can pick up pet fur, how the pets reacted, and how well they remove any lingering pet smells.

We test the vacuum cleaners for a number of weeks (sometimes months) so we get a feel for the longevity and durability of each model. 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 and share our findings with you by updating our reviews and buying guides such as this.

In every test we look out for factors such as maneuverability, run-time, emptying of the dust bin (or bag), and general controls so you know exactly what you are getting for your money. We assess feedback from customer reviews too, so we know how it performs on average across thousands of users, as well as compare the vacuums we test against predecessors.

We also take into account how heavy they are and note physical fatigue or discomfort from using them.

Meet our expert testers

Dan Fauzi

I am Homes & Garden's home tech editor, covering everything from vacuums and floor care to sound and air purifiers. I've spent hours testing vacuums for this guide both at home and in our test center, including the Dyson V12 Detect Slim & the Henry Quick.

Alex David

Alex is our expert Head of eCommerce and has years of experience as a product tester. He's especially knowledgeable with vacuum cleaners, and after first-hand experience of dozens of vacuum cleaners he knows exactly what makes for a good product.

Laura Honey

Laura is an eCommerce editor for Homes & Gardens, and she recently tested several vacuums for this list including the Hoover ONEPWR Pet Max.

Jaclyn Turner

Previously the US eCommerce editor for Homes & Gardens, Jaclyn is well-informed on products for the home. She's tested a number of vacuum cleaners for the site, including the best vacuum for pet hair, the Dyson V15 Detect.

Jen Oksien

Jen is the editor of Top Ten Reviews. Previously she has written for Tech Radar, Ideal Home, Real Homes and Homes & Gardens as our Appliances Editor. She has tested out a number of vacuums in this guide, like the Miele Classic C1 Cat & Dog Vacuum Cleaner.

Camryn Rabideau

Camryn Rabideau is a freelance writer and product reviewer who has expertly tested dozens of vacuum cleaners. She tested the Shark Stratos Upright from her small homestead in Rhode Island. As the owner of two dogs and a cat, she’s always looking for the best products to help keep her home (at least somewhat) free of pet hair.

Best vacuum for pet hair – FAQs

What's the best cordless vacuum for pet hair?

The Dyson V15 Detect is one of the best cordless vacuum cleaners on the market, and it's particularly adept at picking up pet hair, dust and dander. The V15 Detect comes equipped with a Piezo sensor, which is powerful enough to locate and capture particles and pathogens as small as 10 microns for a quick deep clean. There's also an anti-tangle conical bar brush to save you from picking out the pet hairs with your fingers. Retailing for around $800, the V15 Detect is expensive, but it's the best in the business.

What's the best robot vacuum for pet hair?

The best robot vacuum for pet hair is without a doubt the iRobot Roomba j9+. Not only does it have good pickup performance, an auto-emptying bin so you can basically set it and forget it, and amazing navigating skills, but it also has features designed specifically for pet parents, including the ability to avoid pet accidents, pet toys, food bowls, cords, and many others.

What's the best vacuum for picking up pet hair on a couch?

For removing pet hair from a couch or other upholstery, you'll want to select a vacuum that comes with attachments such as a mini-upholstery tool that make it easy to vacuum across delicate fabrics.

The best Dyson vacuums, like the V15 Detect, V12 Detect Slim and Ball Animal 2, tend to come with these attachments. Most cordless and handheld vacuum styles will be sufficient for removing pet hair and dander from upholstery.

Which is the best vacuum for picking up pet hair from the car?

For removing pet hair from places like the car, we recommend one of the best handheld vacuums, such as the Brigii Cordless Handheld and the BISSELL Pet Hair Eraser Lithium Ion Hand Vacuum, which has a built-in hair tool attachment that's easy to slide across upholstered seats.

Do HEPA filters help to pick up pet hair and dander?

When sucking up dust and pet hair, it’s often not what you can see that causes irritation and allergic reactions, but the microscopic dust that you can’t.

Pet dander, for example, are microscopic skin cells shed from animals that cause reactions in people with allergies.

HEPA filters are designed and rated to prevent these particles from escaping the vacuum cleaner, sealing in the dirt that’s collected. This is very important in a pet vacuum cleaner, particularly if anyone in the house (or a regular visitor) has sensitivities to your animals.

Is a bagless or bagged vacuum better for picking up pet hair?

As discussed above, a vacuum cleaner with HEPA filters is what you need if you suffer from allergies, keeping the microscopic irritants sealed inside the dust bin. However, the big issue is what happens when you empty a vacuum.

For bagless cleaners, emptying has to be done with care, as opening the bin can create a cloud of dust, releasing smaller particles back into the air, causing issues for those with allergies.

Bagged vacuum cleaners have an extra level of protection, as the bags act as both additional filters to prevent particle escape, but you also remove and throw away the dirt without exposing it to fresh air. Look for a cleaner that has self-sealing bags for the best results.

As such, bagged vacuum cleaners are often easier to deal with for households where members are very sensitive to allergens.

That doesn’t make bagless cleaners a poor choice, though: just be careful how and where you empty the vacuum’s bin. To prevent the spreading of allergens, a vacuum bin should be ejected either down, directly into a larger internal bin or, for additional safety, emptied in the same way into an outside bin.

Best vacuum for pet hair – 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.'
• QuadClean (Shark): Shark floorhead that can adapt to different floor types and dust levels.

It's crucial to bear in mind that these are just the best vacuums for pet hair; other vacuums have different qualities that are worth considering. For example, we've also covered the best vacuums for hardwood floors and the best Dyson alternatives (for affordable quality).