The best vacuums for cleaning up pet hair

Of the 95 standard and stick vacuums we’ve got test results for on our website, 24 have the words “pet”, “animal”, “cat” or “dog” in their model name. Vacuum manufacturers must have worked out marketing their products this way is good for business.

But are these vacs actually any better at sucking up cat and dog hair?

When we test vacs, one of the measures we score them on is how well they suck up pet hair. We source fur from a grooming company and methodically embed it in the carpet before analysing how much is left after vacuuming. Each vacuum then gets a pet hair score shown as a percentage.

With a pet hair score of just 60%, we don’t think the Bissell Pet Hair Eraser Turbo has any business marketing itself as a pet vacuum.

There are also a couple of pet vacuums that only get a 70% pet hair score – the Electrolux Ease C4 Animal and Sebo K1 Pet. We’ve tested other Electrolux and Sebo vacuums that don’t market themselves as pet vacs but get better pet hair scores.

The two most expensive Miele vacuums we’ve tested have “pet” in the name and cost more than $900. They also both score 90% for cleaning pet hair. But a Miele that costs about half the price got a perfect pet hair score of 100%.

Erin Bennett oversees our vacuum test at Consumer NZ and says the only way to know if you are really getting a vac that makes cleaning pet fur easier is to check our test results.

“There are a lot of pet vacuums that do a great job of sucking up fur, but some vacuums that aren’t marketed to pet owners will do it just as well and can cost less,” Erin said.

There is one vacuum you definitely shouldn’t buy if you’re focussed on fur – The Warehouse’s Living & Co Multi-Cyclonic Bagless 2400W SL157E got the worst pet hair score in our test.

What about a robot vacuum?

If you’re constantly vacuuming up fur, you might be considering getting a robot vac to whizz around and do the job for you. Some do a terrible job of sucking up pet hair - a couple scored only 25%. Check out our robot vacuum test results before you buy.