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How reliable is your vacuum cleaner brand?

The top vacuum cleaner brands, as chosen by the CHOICE members who use them.

vacuum on wooden floors
Last updated: 02 July 2020

Every year, the CHOICE reliability survey asks thousands of members about the vacuum cleaners they own, what they think of them, and how they've held up over time.

More than 6000 members took part in our 2020 reliability survey and, of them, 87% (5210 respondents) told us they have bought a vacuum cleaner brand new. The information they provided gives us a really good indication of how various vacuum cleaner brands stack up over time - something we can't test in our labs.

Use this article to find the most reliable vacuum cleaner brands (separated into stick vacuums and barrel/upright vacuums) from our latest survey.

How we get the data

In total, 6009 CHOICE members participated in our 2020 Product Reliability Survey. Of these, 87% said they had bought a vacuum cleaner brand new.

About the scores

Reliability

Reliability figures are based on owner assessment, not test data. We use the data we collect from members to rate the most popular brands for reliability. We ask owners if their product has broken down in the past 12 months. We take into account the age of the products so we can compare brands in a fair way.

Owner satisfaction

We ask owners to tell us what they thought of the products they own, rating them from "Excellent" to "Terrible". We've used this information to give each brand an owner satisfaction rating so you can see what people who use the brand, day in day out, think of them.

Brand reliability, satisfaction and service results are for CHOICE members only.

Our guides to buying a stick vac, buying a barrel or upright vac and buying a robot vac are free and have lots of great information and advice.

Our brand reliability scores help to guide you when choosing a product - with the knowledge that the brand is well regarded by CHOICE members for customer satisfaction and reliability.

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Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.

The top barrel and upright vacuum performers

Most reliable brand

Miele

Highest owner satisfaction

Miele

Common problems: Poor suction / not picking up dirt, blocked filters, problems fixing attachments or attachments loose or broken and the brush not spinning/working.

Many respondents had more than one type of vacuum cleaner, 57% said they had a barrel, 48% had a stick vacuum, 10% had a upright and 6% had a robot vacuum. We narrowed this down to just looking at the 637 people who used a barrel or upright as their main vacuum.

For reliability and satisfaction we looked at an 8-year purchase period, 2012-2019. Miele had the highest scores for both reliability and satisfaction.

Of those who purchased their barrel or upright vacuum in the last eight years, 68% have never experienced problems. Only 7% complained about poor suction, 5% had blocked filters, 4% had problems fixing attachments or the attachments being loose/broken, 4% had the brush not spinning/working.

Only 12% of respondents had contacted the brand for service support, but nearly half (44%) of them did so due to a major failure.

Barrel and upright vacuum performance

Barrel and upright vacuum cleaner brand performance
 Brand Reliability (%)*  Satisfaction (%) 
Miele (544)  93  90 
Bosch (54)  88  83 
Average (1637)  85  85 
Hoover (119)  81  78 
Dyson (428)  79  83 
Electrolux (173)  78  81 

Sample size in brackets. * Differences of 4% or more for reliability are significantly different.

The top stick vacuum performers

Most reliable brand

All brand performed similarly

Highest owner satisfaction

Dyson and Bosch

Common problems: Short battery life

This year, 6009 members answered our reliability survey. Of this, 87% said they have bought a vacuum cleaner brand new, and of this, 48% owned a stick vacuum. All the brands performed similarly for reliability while Dyson and Bosch top the list for owner satisfaction.

Dyson dominates the stick vac market so it's not surprising that 76% of stick vac owners owned a Dyson stick vac. The other brands had minor proportions in comparison.

For reliability and satisfaction, we looked at an 8-year purchase period, 2012-2019. Of those who bought their stick vac in the last eight years, 47% have never experienced problems. The one stand out issue for stick vacuums was short battery life with 26% of respondents complaining about it. Also, 11% mentioned poor suction, 8% thought the dirt container was small and 8% had blocked filters.

Twenty one percent of consumers had contacted the brand for service support, but more than half (66%) of them did so due to a major failure.

Many Dyson owners said their stick vacuum was easy to use and worked well, and, those who had service experience generally found it satisfactory. Electrolux owners said it was handy for a quick clean, however, commented that it's not great with edges and better suction would be desirable. Vax owners said it's a lightweight machine but cleaning the filter can be difficult.

Stick vacuum performance

Stick vacuum cleaner brand performance
Brand  Reliability (%)*  Satisfaction (%) 
Electrolux (104) 78  75 
Bosch (83)  76  83 
Vax (69) 75  75 
Average (2121)  69  82 
Dyson (1616)  68  83 
Hoover (59)  68  71 

Sample sizes in brackets. * Differences of 9% or more for reliability are significantly different.

Robot vacuum cleaners (2016 survey)

We asked members about their robot vacuums in our 2016 survey. We received 392 responses from robot vac owners. We only received enough responses to be able to robustly report on iRobot/Roomba and LG vacuums.

What we found

  • While a robot vacuum is handy to use when you're not at home, 39% of respondents who bought a robot vac in the last five years faced issues with performance or reliability.
  • Common problems with robot vacs: Not fully covering the room, poor suction/not picking up dirt, battery issues, the brush not working properly.

Turd detection?

Robot vacuums can have their quirks. A couple of iRobot/Roomba owners described some unfortunate incidents involving pets. One owner's dog relieved itself on the floor and the robot vacuum proceeded to spread it all over. Another owner's robot vac spread dog poo everywhere and stunk up the machine. "It needs in-built turd detection to avoid these sort of mishaps."

Robot vacuum cleaner brand performance
Brand  Reliability (%)*  Satisfaction (%) 
iRobot / Roomba (175)  68  77 
LG (58) 61  72 
Other (159)  54  65 

Number of survey respondents in brackets. Total sample size 392. * Differences of 9% or more are significant. Average reliability is 61%, average satisfaction score is 71%.

Looking for something else?

See the most reliable brands in other categories.

Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.