Staff author Sabine Heinlein has been a journalist for greater than 20 years. She obsesses over holding her hardwood flooring scratch-free and glossy and the right way to take away cat and rabbit fur from her sofa and heirloom rugs. She has written guides to upright and canister, handheld, and cordless stick vacuums, amongst others.

Any respectable vacuum can preserve hardwood flooring tidy. Strong suction and airflow are an enormous assist in selecting up particles on the primary attempt, significantly the very small or giant stuff.

Beyond that, you want a vacuum that received’t power you to make use of a carpet-cleaning brush on a regular basis. A spinning brush roll with stiff bristles is nice for rugs as a result of it agitates carpet fibers, digging up hair and dirt. But on naked flooring, a spinning brush roll could scatter sure particles earlier than the vacuum can suck it up, and the fast-moving bristles can scratch softer varieties of stone, tile, or wooden flooring.

Many vacuums have an on/off swap for his or her brush rolls, so you’ll be able to shut down the comb roll once you’re cleansing naked flooring and switch it again on when you transition to a rug. Some fashions have cleansing heads with no brush rolls in any respect. Instead, they characteristic a common cleaner head with a swap that releases gentle bristles (like our decide). Others include an opulent brush roll that provides you the choice to modify between completely different heads for various surfaces or a parquet cleaner head that’s purpose-built for cleansing naked flooring.

Read extra about what makes a robust, versatile vacuum in our information to upright and canister vacuums.

The Miele Classic C1 Pure Suction is exceptionally efficient and comfy to make use of on naked flooring, although it doesn’t work properly on thick rugs. This mannequin is essentially the most fundamental, lowest-priced vacuum in Miele’s in depth lineup of canister vacuums. Here’s why we prefer it for hardwood:

Its cleaner head is adaptable. The Classic C1 has a common floorhead, which options rubberized wheels and bristles you could lengthen or retract with a swap, so it’s glorious on naked flooring, permitting you to keep away from any pointless injury to your flooring. (It’s strong on flat-weave or low-pile rugs too.) The floorhead does an excellent job of digging mud and pet hair out of cracks and grout traces.

It’s simple to deal with. Because it doesn’t have a spinning brush roll, it’s light-weight, low-profile, and straightforward to maneuver beneath furnishings and into corners.

It has respectable filtration. This mannequin makes use of the identical dust-trapping luggage as our improve decide, the Miele Complete C3 Calima PowerLine. In most houses (these with out too many long-haired pets) the filter luggage final for months and entice an enormous quantity of particles earlier than needing substitute (an indicator on the canister tells you when it’s time to swap). A field of 4 filter luggage prices about $25.

The Classic C1 has Miele’s proprietary AirClean exhaust filter, which, in keeping with Miele, traps 99.99% of particles of 0.3 microns or bigger in dimension. In comparability, in keeping with the corporate, Miele’s HEPA filter traps 99.999% of particles with a dimension of 0.3 microns or bigger.

It’s quiet. The Classic C1 makes use of the identical 1,200-watt motor as higher-end Miele fashions (together with our improve decide). While the Classic C1 is a tad noisier, Miele canister vacuums are typically quieter than your common upright. The Classic C1 measured between 57 and 69 decibels (relying on the ability setting), in contrast with 76 and 79 decibels on Shark and Hoover uprights, respectively. This mannequin’s canister additionally rolls very quietly and easily on all flooring.

Flaws however not dealbreakers

Its guarantee is disappointing—however the vacuum is repairable. This mannequin has an unremarkable one-year guarantee. (Our improve decide, the Miele Complete C3 Calima PowerLine, is roofed for 3 years.) But most restore specialists are conversant in—and assume extremely of—Miele. The firm has an honest service community, and you must have the ability to discover a restore place ought to your vacuum want fixing.

Read extra concerning the Miele Classic C1 Pure Suction—and why we predict Miele vacuums are sometimes definitely worth the funding—in our information to upright and canister vacuums.

If you’ve primarily wooden flooring with just some rugs and also you desire a highly effective vacuum cleaner made by an organization with a superb repute, the Miele Complete C3 Calima PowerLine is a good selection.

It’s a superb vacuum, particularly on hardwood flooring. The C3 Calima is a robust cleaner, significantly with regards to tremendous mud, fur, and sand on onerous flooring. It significantly shines on delicate wooden flooring: Its swiveling, low-riding, and soft-bristled parquet brush was nicer to maneuver and gentler on delicate surfaces than any cleaner head we evaluated. In our take a look at, it cleaned baking soda alongside baseboards extra easily than every other brush we tried.

But it isn’t as nice on rugs. This mannequin’s non-electric TurboTeQ cleaner head labored comparatively properly on our author’s heirloom rugs, however it balked at our fluffy, low-pile take a look at carpet, making it onerous to push. ( variety of Amazon reviewers additionally complain that it may be onerous to maneuver on carpets.)

It’s handy, comfy, and straightforward to keep up. While we desire controls on the deal with (like on the SEBO Airbelt K3, our favourite canister vacuum), Miele’s foot-control pedals are the subsequent neatest thing. Located on high of the canister, its pedals management suction energy, flip the machine on and off, and rewind the wire.

Miele vacuums aren’t identified for clogging usually (which might occur to any kind of vacuum), but when they do they arrive aside in any respect the main joints. Unfortunately, you do want a screwdriver to open its TurboTeQ brush head.

It has good instruments which are well stowed. The C3 Calima’s three helpful instruments—crevice, upholstery, and a mud brush that swivels 360 levels—are conveniently saved on board the canister.

It has glorious filtration. The C3 Calima’s filters embody its bag, its motor consumption filter, and a HEPA exhaust filter. The luggage are self-sealing, too: When you swap out the previous one, its rubber flap closes, so mud and allergens don’t escape. (Multiple Amazon reviewers write that they’ve seen noticeable enhancements for allergy sufferers after they began utilizing a Miele.)

But its guarantee is skimpy. While Miele merchandise are identified for his or her sturdiness and repairability, Miele has scaled again its guarantee to a few years for its Complete sequence (and one 12 months for its Classic sequence).

Read extra concerning the Miele Complete C3 Calima PowerLine in our information to upright and canister vacuums.

If you’re searching for a cordless vacuum that performs solidly on naked flooring, we suggest the Dyson V12 Detect Slim, which comes with a cleaner head that’s particularly designed for delicate onerous flooring.

It cleans properly. The V12 Detect Slim gives highly effective suction and airflow, and it excels at selecting up mud and particles on each naked flooring and rugs. During testing, the V12 didn’t discriminate, hungrily gobbling up baking soda, hay, cat litter, and Cheerios on hardwood flooring.

It has two light and environment friendly cleaner heads. Made of sentimental microfiber cloth, the V12’s Laser Slim Fluffy cleaner head is made for naked flooring and includes a laser gentle that spotlights mud and fur in dim corners. It is light on delicate parquet however doesn’t work on rugs and carpets. The separate Motorbar cleaner head, however, agitates filth embedded in carpets earlier than it’s ferreted up the tube and into the dustbin.

In our testing, we discovered that the Fluffy head picked up bigger particles that the Motorbar head tended to snowplow. Both V12 Detect Slim cleaner heads are low-riding and swivel 180 levels, so you’ll be able to attain into tight corners, round desk legs, and beneath furnishings.

It’s comfy to make use of. Whereas earlier Dyson fashions featured an uncomfortable trigger-style swap that you simply needed to squeeze to function the machine, the V12 Detect Slim has an on/off button. Among the stick vacuums we examined, we discovered this light-weight mannequin the simplest to maneuver.

It is flexible and has cool options. The V12 simply converts right into a handheld vacuum and comes with useful attachments for duties across the residence and within the automobile. Its crevice instrument permits you to get into pesky cracks, its mixture instrument permits for fast switching between a large nozzle and a brush, and its mini motorized brush instrument is likely one of the finest we examined for eradicating pet hair from upholstery.

The V12 Detect Slim’s LCD display exhibits animated upkeep reminders, troubleshooting ideas, and, most vital, a battery-life countdown. Its chief gimmick is its particle counter—supposedly that can assist you really feel assured that you simply’ve deep-cleaned your flooring. We don’t understand how correct or helpful the particle counter is, however it may be a enjoyable motivator.

But it has a tiny dustbin. Its roughly 12-ounce dustbin could be very small. In our assessments, we needed to empty it at the least thrice when cleansing a 650-square-foot area with pets. (Our information to one of the best vacuums for folks with pets gives suggestions on that entrance.)

And it has just a few different limitations. Cordless vacuums are likely to have much less suction than plug-ins, and their battery energy limits customers to 25 to 45 minutes of use.

Read extra concerning the Dyson V12 Detect Slim in our information to cordless stick vacuums.

For a lazy, midweek cleanup of hardwood flooring, a robotic vacuum can come in useful. The Roborock Q5 and Roborock Q5+—our high picks for finest robotic vacuums—excel at stopping mud and hair buildup. The app, which will be voice-controlled through Alexa, Siri, and Google Home, permits you to save a number of maps of your house, goal particular rooms, and schedule cleansing classes. (The Roborock Q5+ even comes with a dock that robotically empties its dustbin right into a bag.)

The Eufy RoboVac 11S Max (our finances decide) is a fundamental however succesful cleaner that glides simply beneath furnishings and runs virtually silently. While it may well’t be managed through an app, its included distant management permits you to direct the robotic to spots it might have missed and schedule cleansing classes.

These robots can preserve naked flooring tidy, when you’re affected person and don’t thoughts following up by cleansing hard-to-reach corners and alongside baseboards with a handheld, cordless, or plug-in vacuum.

To assist us decide on the fashions that clear hardwood flooring particularly properly, we checked out all the vacuums we suggest and centered on the next attributes:

Cleaning efficiency: We measured airflow and suction and the way a lot baking soda, cereal, birdseed, glitter, and hair every vac pulled from naked flooring.

Cleaner head design: We checked out every machine’s brush roll and cleaner head design to verify it’s environment friendly and mild sufficient for hardwood flooring.

Comfort, versatility, and ease of use: We thought of how simply and easily every vacuum’s wheels moved throughout hardwood flooring, and, if relevant, whether or not its attachments match their goal. We favored vacuums that weren’t too noisy and have been comfy to deal with.

Warranty and repairs: We regarded for vacuums that include an honest guarantee and that may be repaired and/or supply substitute components (reminiscent of batteries, brush rolls, and hoses, if related).

Liam McCabe wrote earlier variations of this information, which was first revealed in 2018. This article was edited by Ingrid Skjong and Courtney Schley.