Few of us look forward to doing the vacuuming, but it’s all the more frustrating with a cumbersome machine that does a mediocre job and takes twice as long as it should.
Our vacuum cleaner reviews have found that barrel and upright vacuum cleaners are the best option for thorough carpet and floor cleaning, but not all vacuums are created equal.
We lab-tested more than 30 popular models and found a huge difference in their performance for carpeted and hard floors, pet hair pick-up, ease of use, noise and more.
Our testing revealed some high-quality cleaners (both expensive and cheap) but also exposed a number of duds bound to make vacuuming even more of a drag.
These models below received the lowest scores in our expert testing.
The poorest performing corded vacuums in our test
Dirt Devil Rebel 4.0 Bagless Vacuum Cleaner
CHOICE Expert Rating: 55%
Pet hair removal score: 50%
Price: $150
Dirt Devil Rebel 4.0 Bagless Vacuum Cleaner.
At under $200, this Dirt Devil won’t put too much of a strain on your wallet, but it will put a strain on your arms – and your patience.
It’s difficult to move over carpet, and what little pet hair it does suck up is difficult to extract from the bin.
And just for good measure, while it’s busy not picking up dirt from your floor, it’ll make an irritating, high-pitched noise.
This vacuum comes with a range of tools, but all the accessories in the world can’t make up for its poor performance (and its price tag isn’t exactly tiny, either).
Bissell Cleanview Turbo Multi Cyclonic.
Our experts rated it as borderline for cleaning, and it only managed to score 50% for pet hair removal.
It was fiddly to empty, and the cleaning head often got stuck when first pushing it along the carpet.
Several vacuums that are recommended by our experts cost less than this one, so you can definitely do better for your money.
With scores like these, this “anti-allergy” vac is poorly named and should probably be renamed “anti-cleaning”.
It claims to be anti-allergy, but if you’re allergic to pet hair it won’t do much for you: it only scored a pass mark for removing pet hair from carpet.
Anko Anti-Allergy Bagless Vacuum.
And with a cleaning performance score this low, it’s not great at cleaning up dust either, so it’s probably not much help for dust mite allergies.
Plus, it has a canister to collect dust and debris which, even though it’s convenient, isn’t the most allergy-friendly solution for emptying your vacuum.
This ‘anti-allergy’ vac should probably be renamed ‘anti-cleaning’
A bagged vacuum is a better option because you can close it up and throw the whole thing in the bin rather than risk coming into contact with the dust and other allergens when you empty the canister.
It does have a washable HEPA filter though, so whatever little it sucks up can at least be washed down the drain.
You’d expect a well-known European brand to do better than cheapos from discount stores like Kmart and Big W, right?
Bosch Series 4.
Unfortunately that’s not the case for this Bosch Series 4 bagged vacuum.
It came in a full three percentage points behind some of the vacs we tested from budget retailers.
On the upside, you’ll be able to cancel your gym membership if you buy this Bosch: it takes a lot of strength to push it across carpet.
And since it doesn’t clean especially well, you’ll probably need to vacuum the floor twice to get it clean – you’ll end up with some serious biceps with this machine!
Don’t get sucked in by the European brand name
You can pick up far better vacuums for around the same price, so don’t get sucked in by the European brand name.
Alice Richard is a Content creator and marketer. Alice writes on a range of topics, from health insurance to heaters and BBQs to bargain-hunting, always with the aim to help consumers find the best products to buy, and which to avoid.
Alice can take vast amounts of data from CHOICE product tests and turn it into content that is easily digestible and fun for readers.
Alice has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland.
Alice Richard is a Content creator and marketer. Alice writes on a range of topics, from health insurance to heaters and BBQs to bargain-hunting, always with the aim to help consumers find the best products to buy, and which to avoid.
Alice can take vast amounts of data from CHOICE product tests and turn it into content that is easily digestible and fun for readers.
Alice has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland.
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