Best Vacuum Cleaner for Hardwood Floors in 2024
Type of vacuum cleaner: Robot vs. cordless stick vacuum cleaner
Floor care is a broad category these days with seemingly a tool dedicated to almost every way you want to make your floors shine. While there’s still a place for a plug-in vacuum, with advances in battery technology, cordless units are much more convenient.
If you’re considering a cordless stick vacuum, you’ll get the best results if you use it on hard surfaces. This is largely because the cleaning head is much lighter than a corded vacuum and struggles to stay pressed against the surface. But that light weight is exactly what makes these devices so great. Because you can easily move them from room to room and literally clean from top to bottom, you can get a lot more done. A great cordless vacuum can be the perfect tool for sucking up dirt and grime all over your home, and it won’t wear you out in the process.
With the Roomba i3 Plus, iRobot has designed an affordable and effective robot vacuum cleaner that is ideal for vacuuming up pet hair.
For some, even the effort required to use a cordless vacuum cleaner can be too much or take up time that is not available. In these cases, purchasing one of the best robot vacuum cleaners can really be the solution. These devices are the ultimate time-saver and multitasking products, leaving you with time to do other things. However, there are some areas that a robot vacuum cleaner cannot reach, such as the couch. So there are also limitations to this type of vacuum cleaner.
Cost and value
Whether something is expensive or not is largely up to the beholder. While we offer options on this list that are considered valuable, you should still expect to spend at least a few hundred dollars on a great vacuum cleaner to clean your floors. That’s the cost you’ll have to pay yourself, and then you have to factor in the cost of your time.
Using a stick vacuum requires you to be physically involved in the cleaning process by walking around and pushing the vacuum around to suck up debris. While a robot vacuum will cost you more than most cordless vacuums, you will need to be much less involved in the cleaning process. This is considered a value proposition. If you want to save $100 or more up front, look at the cheaper items on this list or save even more money with a product from our list of the best cheap vacuums.
But if time is more important to you, then buying a robot vacuum, which is usually more expensive than cordless options, is the way to go. You will have to make compromises with this type of vacuum compared to a stick vacuum, but you can use the time saved for other things.
Floor type
Stuck on a rug again
Most homes today have multiple types of flooring, from wood and tile to carpets and rugs. Each of these surfaces can pose different problems for floor cleaning equipment. However, hard surfaces are usually the easiest to clean for both cordless and robotic vacuums.
Carpets and pet hair go well together, but they are more difficult to clean. While you can usually get dirt and other loose debris out relatively easily, pet hair gets tangled in carpet fabrics and requires more force to remove. Cordless vacuums are versatile in where they can be used, but the design of the brush head can sometimes be less effective at removing hair from carpets because it is so lightweight. Stick vacuums, on the other hand, are excellent at cleaning hard surfaces.
Robot vacuums generally provide similar or better cleaning results on carpet, but to keep the units as small as possible, they are often less powerful than a stick vacuum. Still, robot vacuums do a great job on hard surfaces and can be a solid all-around choice if they fit your home’s flooring layout.
