Best Vacuum Cleaners (2026): Cordless Vacuums, Robot Vacuums, Dysons
AI News Desk
·
Wired
··
12 min read
In my quest to find the best vacuum cleaner, I’ve tried every kind, from robot vacuums to cheap stick vacs.
In my quest to find the best vacuum cleaner, I’ve tried every kind, from robot vacuums to cheap stick vacs. As a toddler mom plagued by sand and snacks, you can find me vacuuming almost daily, rotating between powerful Dysons , automated robot models , and even vacuums made for car cleaning . And I'm not alone in this pursuit; many other WIRED staffers also regularly test vacuums in their homes to find the best of the best.
If you’re looking for all of our vacuum cleaner recommendations in one place, this is it. From my favorite Shark and Dyson stick vacuums to a powerful budget robot vacuum from Eufy, there’s a vacuum cleaner here for every kind of cleaning task, home, and lifestyle.
Looking for our guides that dive into each category? Check out the Best Dyson Vacuums , Best Robot Vacuums , Best Cordless Vacuums , Best Handheld Vacuums , and Best Pet Hair Vacuums .
Updated July 2026: I've updated this guide with my new top cordless vacuum picks: the Shark PowerDetect Speed and Dyson Gen5Detect. I've also added notes on Dyson's newest vacuum models to Honorable Mentions.
Love WIRED? Add us as a preferred source on Google to see more of us.
Shark continues to be my go-to for great, well-priced cordless vacuums. My new favorite is Shark’s latest addition to its PowerDetect vacuum lineup, the PowerDetect Speed. It’s a lighter and slightly cheaper version of my previously favored PowerDetect but still packs 350 watts of power, three cleaning modes, intelligent floor-type detection, and a bendable vacuum wand so you can get under furniture without bending over.
Compared to the original Shark PowerDetect, you’ll save a little bit of cash with this vacuum while losing only 10 minutes of battery life, edge detection, a smidge of power, and a bit of dust-cup size. There is a Clean & Empty version of both the PowerDetect and the PowerDetect Speed that includes a self-emptying base station. There’s also a Luxe line of PowerDetect Speed Clean & Empty vacuums in prettier colors, so you can choose one that won’t be an eyesore in your house. The Clean & Empty version includes a light on the vacuum to illuminate dust, and that version is easier to find at most retailers.
Even though it’s three years older than the newest Dyson stick models, the Gen5Detect remains my top pick. It earned a near perfect score in five rounds of comparative testing.
The Gen5Detect has 262 air watts of power and comes with both the Digital Motorbar head for carpet and the Fluffy Optic head for hard floors. It only struggled with vacuuming sand on a thin rug, but worked perfectly on a thicker rug. In every other test—Cheerios on carpet; piles of cat litter on hard floor; cat hair on the stairs—it outperformed the rest of the Dyson lineup. Its powerful suction and HEPA filtration is excellent for pet owners, or anyone with carpet and allergies. It also comes with a couple accessories, and can be used as a handheld vacuum—you can often catch me using it in handheld mode to get all the pet hair and dander out of my carpeted staircase.
If you’re looking for a great affordable stick vacuum, I recommend Bissell. You’ll get everything you want in a good cordless: solid power, a HEPA-sealed filter, and a couple attachments. I love the Bissell FurFinder ($260) for my house, but the BissellPowerClean is an even cheaper version that skips the FurFinder attachment and leaves a few lights off the headlight. WIRED reviewer Kat Merck still found the headlight useful for spotting litter and dust on her floor. It has a 40-minute run time which was just enough to clean all the rugs, bare floors, and upholstery in a 3,000-square-foot house. It feels heavier than she expected, but it’s a great cordless vacuum for the price, especially since it has a HEPA-sealed system to keep allergens from escaping.
Just about every product category has some promise of how artificial intelligence will make it better. It’s not always true, and sometimes it’s hard to tell if the AI is actually doing anything. My favorite robot vacuum, the Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal , makes it clear when its intelligence is at work. The UV Reveal uses a UV light with a camera to spot stains on hard floors. Its method is a little funny: The robot vacuum does its regular floor cleaning, vacuuming and mopping to your preferences, and after it returns to the base, analyzes the footage and determines where it needs to return and scrub stains away. The base station also announces this, telling you it’s going back out to attack stains.
I was impressed by this vacuum’s corner cleaning abilities. The UV Reveal has both an extendable arm and can shoot out air to clean corners; I use a Cheerio test to see how well robot vacuums get into tricky corners around my home, and the Shark is the only one that’s gotten a Cheerio out of the tight corner next to my fridge. It leaves my rugs and carpets feeling fluffy, too. The only downside is that it can’t learn multiple floors. Shark also doesn’t confirm the suction power on this vacuum, but it left my home feeling clean.
Robot vacuums aren’t cheap, especially ones that double as mops. If you’re looking to spend less but still get mopping and vacuuming abilities, plus multi-floor mapping (something the more expensive Shark can't do), then look no further than the Eufy Omni C28. This is Eufy’s latest budget robot vacuum, packing similar features to the Eufy X10 Pro Omni we previously loved but with almost double the suction and some updated features.
The Omni C28 has a rolling mop pad instead of just rotating ones, making it better at self-cleaning so you don’t spread grime around the house. I will say this vacuum didn’t do an amazing job scrubbing stains or spills like the Shark did, but it performed well for overall cleaning. It didn’t leave my rug or carpet wet like the older X10 Pro Omni did for WIRED reviewer Adrienne So. It uses a laser distance sensor and a laser line for its navigation, though, so I needed to make sure no cords were in reach of its cleaning route.
Dyson’s vacuums impress us again and again, and the brand’s handheld-only models are no exception. WIRED reviewer Molly Higgins previously loved the older Dyson Humdinger handheld, and the Dyson Car+Boat came out in early 2025 as a replacement. It feels similar to the design of the handle of one of Dyson’s stick vacuums, sans the stick, but with the same powerful suction. It has only two cleaning modes, though, and no screen. There's just a switch for the two modes and a trigger button for power. The Car+Boat also comes with a couple attachments, which is a nice bonus, and it’s a good price for Dyson power. It also has a decent battery life, which is rare in handheld vacuums. It’s the one I would grab if I wanted something to deep-clean staircases and cars.
For a cheaper handheld vacuum, the Ryobi 10V One+ is a powerful small model that WIRED reviewer Molly Higgins says is the best one she’s tried under $100 . This handheld is lightweight and powerful, and it comes with two attachments that work well on pet hair and car debris. It has a fine battery life of around 25 minutes, at least in Molly's testing.
Bissell PowerClean FurFinder for $260 : This was our previous top pick for the best cordless vacuum. It got bumped though because the regular Bissell PowerClean ($200) is a touch cheaper since it doesn't come with the FurFinder upholstery attachment, while Dyson and Ryobi’s vacuums have more powerful suction for pet hair.
Black and Decker Dustbuster Flex for $130 : This is another cool handheld vacuum that’s great for cars or even indoor areas like staircases. It has a 4-foot hose, longer than most compact vacuums, and a handy little charging mount that the accessories clip into. Thank goodness for the charging mount, though, since the battery only lasts 15 minutes.
Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai Robot Vacuum for $1200 : This is Dyson's first robot vacuum that doubles as a mop , and it serves both purposes well. It uses the same app as other Dyson vacuums and can learn multiple floors of your home. The base station is large and unique, with a visible dustbin that’s certainly a callback to the clear dustbins of the brand’s cordless vacuums. Dyson says it has artificial intelligence to spot stains and scrub them away, but I couldn’t tell a difference and it didn’t spot the cherry stains I intentionally created. It’s also tall, so it was often bumping into cabinets and low furniture.
Dyson V8 Cyclone for $400 : This is a new version of the long-favored Dyson V8, but I wasn’t super impressed when testing it side by side with the only slightly more expensive V10 Konical. It did a fine job and has 150 air watts of power, but I'd recommend the V10 over the V8 any day.
Dyson V10 Konical for $500 : I expected to prefer the V8 Cyclone, but the V10 Konical did a better job vacuuming up debris in my tests, comes with a HEPA filter, and has a built-in light so you can better spot dust and dirt when using it on hard floors. When tested and scored against all of the new and current Dyson vacuums, the V10 Konical was in third place, ahead of both the V8 Cyclone and the V15 Detect. It’s a great buy if you want a Dyson vacuum but don’t want to manage multiple heads, and it will be compatible with Dyson's base station that comes out later this year.
Dyson V15Detect for $846 : There are a lot of Dyson vacuum models, and the older V15 Detect is a good choice if you want two vacuum heads included without spending close to a grand. There’s an option to upgrade and get a Submarine wet roller head if you want it to double as a mop. It performed solidly in testing against Dyson’s other vacuums, but wasn’t the best. I’d recommend looking for it on sale for under $700; anything higher and there’s no point in not buying the Gen5Detect or V16 Piston Animal instead.
Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones for $600 : This is a new take on a stick vacuum with the motor and dustbin built into the slender handle. There's both a Fluffycones version, which I tested, that has four fluffy cone-shaped rollers in the head, and a cheaper Fluffy version. I was impressed with the maneuverability of the PencilVac Fluffycones and often find myself grabbing it between runs of my robot vacuum to keep debris and cat litter under control. It’s also lightweight and easy to push, and it has a freestanding charging mount. But it’s a little pricey for being only for hard floors.
Ecovacs Deebot X11 Omnicyclone for $1100 : If you want a newer robot vacuum, the Ecovacs Deebot X11 Omnicyclone has a unique design with no dust bag. Instead, it has a rounded canister like a Dyson or stick vacuum, circling the debris to keep it from tangling. It’s a great robot vacuum overall, especially if you don't want to buy dust bags over and over.
Eufy X10 Pro Omni for $700 : This was our previous top robot vacuum pick. It’s a well-priced option that can vacuum and mop, and has a solid 8,000 Pa of suction power. But Eufy does have a newer model that you can pick up for just a little more if you want a self-cleaning roller mop instead of roller pads, with almost double the suction power.
Roborock Saros 20 for $1,600 : Roborock’s latest robot vacuum is overall pretty good, but WIRED reviewer Adrienne So noticed it left debris behind on her hard floors, specifically on the divider when it moved from her carpet onto hard flooring. This could be a fault of the super-high suction, which hits 36,000 Pa. There are a few other features she hoped would work better, too, including the AdaptiLift (which raises the vacuum up on uneven surfaces) and beta stain-detection feature. We’re in touch with Roborock about these issues.
Shark PowerDetect Cordless Vacuum for $418 : This is the original PowerDetect vacuum I recommended, with 380 watts of power, three cleaning models, two accessories, and an option to upgrade to include a self-emptying vase station. It can bend to get under furniture and often outpaced Dyson vacuums in my tests, especially when cleaning up sand or cereal on carpet. I prefer the Shark PowerDetect Speed a little more since it’s cheaper and has more options for its base station, but either vacuum is a smart buy.
Tineco Pure One Station 5 for $459 : If you want a cordless stick vacuum but don’t want to deal with emptying it all the time, this Tineco vacuum comes with a self-emptying docking station. You’ll eventually have to empty the station, but it’s a great bonus feature and keeps the vacuum from falling over around your home since it’s stored safely in the docking station.
Worx Cordless Cube Vacuum for $120 : This adorable, cube-shaped vacuum is one of my favorite handhelds, and is my go-to for vacuuming the car since it’s so easy to hold. It can also store all of its accessories inside itself, and the hose is four feet long to reach your entire carpeted car trunk.
To help you choose which one to buy, here’s what makes each vacuum style great.
An upright vacuum is the classic, original vacuum style that sits straight up on its own, is much heavier than a cordless stick vacuum, and requires an outlet connection to operate. We don't have an upright vacuum we recommend, since cordless stick vacuums have become the main focus for most shoppers (and as frequent vacuumers ourselves, we usually reach for cordless and robot vacuums anyway). We're considering upright vacuums to test in the future, however, so feel free to comment on this guide with models we should consider.
Do You Need a Stick Vacuum and a Handheld Vacuum?
Do you need a handheld vacuum if you already have a cordless vacuum? Likely not, because most stick vacuums can transform into a handheld vacuum. Stick or cordless vacuums usually allow you to remove the stick between the vacuum head and canister base and instead connect those two pieces directly, making it into a handheld vacuum. It’ll be much heavier than a handheld-only vacuum and might be irritating for some use cases, but you don’t need both unless there’s a specific reason. A handheld is a good add-on if you already have an upright vacuum you love that doesn’t need replacing.
How Often Should You Replace Your Vacuum?
Vacuums last about five years, depending on the use frequency and build quality. Some cheaper stick vacuums might last only a year or two, though, so it’s worth investing in a better vacuum rather than a cheap dupe. If you’re curious what signs might indicate your vacuum needs replacing, check out our guide to how long vacuums can last .
Power up with unlimited access to WIRED . Get best-in-class reporting and exclusive subscriber content that's too important to ignore. Subscribe Today .
