“When evaluating [the best stick vacuums], it needs to be lightweight, and be able to transform into a hand vac,” says Allen Rathey, director of the Indoor Health Council. “If it’s a battery-powered stick vacuum, you want one with a high-powered, replaceable lithium-ion battery, as this drives suction.” Functionality, accessories, battery life, storage, and ease of cleaning are also important factors to consider. To narrow your search for the best stick vacuums, we extensively researched the most important features, accessories, and designs available on the market from top brands like Dyson, Shark, Samsung, and more. Our team of cleaning experts has also spent several days testing dozens of different stick vacuums, which helped inform our selections. Overall, the best overall stick vacuum is the Tineco Pure One S15 Pet Smart Cordless Vacuum, which has strong suction, a powerful brushroll, and several intuitive features that make it easy to clean debris off any flooring type. Here are the best stick vacuums. Keep in Mind: Its battery only lasts 40 minutes, which isn’t as long as we’d like. When sucking up dust, crumbs, and dirt from your floors, the Pure One S15 Pet Smart vacuum uses its powerful suction and effective brush roll to pick up everything in its path. It also has a zero-tangle brush with V-shaped bristles and dual combs to trap hair without letting it wrap around the brush. This ensures that you’ll be able to keep using your device for longer without pausing to cut long hairs out of the bottom of the vacuum. The brush head has a low profile to allow it to slide beneath coffee tables and other furniture, and the LED headlights at the front make it easy to see everything in its path. Handy attachments like the mini-power brush, two-in-one dusting brush, and crevice tool make it easy to clean every nook and crevice in your home. As you’re cleaning, you’ll be able to get real-time insights on how dirty your floors are by glancing at the digital display on the vacuum. The iLoop Smart Sensor turns red when debris is detected, then changes back to blue when the debris is cleared. It’ll also automatically adjust suction as needed to deal with particles as small as a dust bunny or as large as a piece of kibble. Plus, this powerful vacuum has a five-stage HEPA filter, so it can remove even the tiniest particles from your carpet and hard floors. The freestanding charging base is a huge plus since many stick vacuums have to be mounted on the wall or leaned against something. However, we wish its battery life was a bit longer—it only lasts 40 minutes, which most likely isn’t enough to clean your entire home. Price at time of publish: $500 Weight: 6.8 pounds | Battery Life: 40 minutes | Recommended Surfaces: Hard floors, carpets, upholstery | Attachments: Mini power brush, hair cleaning tool, anti-tangle brush, dusting brush Keep in Mind: It only comes with one attachment. To help it pick up lightweight debris and heavy particles on any flooring type, the Black + Decker PowerSeries vacuum uses autosense technology, which changes the suction power based on whether you’re vacuuming on carpet or hard floors. You can also convert the stick vacuum to a handheld device and use the crevice tool to clean stairs, upholstery, and hard-to-reach corners. The dustbin is easy to remove and empty, and the filter is washable, allowing you to quickly get rid of debris and get back to cleaning. The vacuum has a 44-minute runtime, which is enough to clean several rooms in your house without needing a recharge. When not in use, the Black + Decker vacuum is designed to stand up by itself, so you don’t have to prop it up against the wall or furniture. However, it can also be mounted on the wall if you want to keep it completely off the floor and out of the way. This device’s 20-volt cordless battery is interchangeable, so you can swap out batteries among all your Black + Decker tools. Keep in mind that this vacuum only has one attachment—a crevice tool. Compared to other devices on our list of the best vacuums, this doesn’t provide you with as much flexibility when cleaning upholstery. Price at time of publish: $130 Weight: 8.9 pounds | Battery Life: 44 minutes | Recommended Surfaces: Hard floors, carpet, upholstery | Attachments: Crevice tool Keep in Mind: The charging base is much larger than other stick vacuums and will take up a lot of space in small closets. This isn’t the only feature we love about the LG CordZero stick vacuum. We also like its impressive power suction that works on both hard floors and carpet to remove a disgusting amount of debris. Its five-step filtration system keeps dust and debris out of the air, and the filter and the entire cyclone system can all be removed and washed. Additionally, you can use the LG ThinQ app to view your cleaning history and usage duration. The telescoping wand is adjustable, making it a convenient height no matter how tall or short you are. The detachable power mop nozzle allows you to scrub sealed hard floors with ease. It has a high and low setting, a removable water tank, and two sets of washable pads for easy mopping. If you need to clean staircases or suck crumbs out of a hard-to-reach corner, the vacuum can be converted to a handheld device. It comes with a power mini nozzle, a crevice tool, and a two-in-one combination tool. All of these attachments can be easily stored in the base of the device, so it’ll be easier to keep track of them when not in use. However, the base itself is quite large and will take up a lot of space no matter where you choose to store it. Keep this in mind if you have a small home or limited storage space. Price at time of publish: $1,000 Weight: 5.95 pounds | Battery Life: 120 minutes | Recommended Surfaces: Hard floors, carpet, upholstery | Attachments: Power mop attachment, mini nozzle, crevice tool, two-in-one combination tool Keep in Mind: The features may not be worth the hefty price tag for some shoppers. It comes with two 60-minute batteries, so you can clean your home for a total of two hours without stopping to recharge your vacuum. The Jet dual brush can be used on hard floors and carpets, allowing it to pick up debris from high-pile rugs and slippery floors with similar ease. To get rid of pet hair or to target shelves and upholstery, attach the included pet tool accessory, combination tool, crevice tool, or flexible tool for the ultimate all-in-one cleaning station. Plus, all the accessories can be stored on the charging station, so you won’t have trouble keeping track of all the separate pieces. The vacuum has a digital display that shows its suction power, run time, charge status, filter status, and an error guide (for example, if something gets stuck in the brush roll). The telescopic wand makes it easy to find the perfect height for you, and the entire device is lightweight enough to maneuver with ease. When it’s time to empty out the vacuum, simply attach it to the cleaning station, press the button, and sit back as it empties the dustbin on its own. The Samsung Bespoke Jet Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner is one of the most-expensive items on our list of the best vacuums, and it’s well worth the investment if you like a vacuum with high-tech features. However, if you are fine with emptying a dust bin yourself or won’t find much use in the digital display this vacuum offers, you can certainly find other models with similar cleaning power at a lower price. Price at time of publish: $899 Weight: 6 pounds | Battery Life: 120 minutes (60 minutes for each battery) | Recommended Surfaces: Hard floors, carpet, upholstery | Attachments: Combination tool, crevice tool, pet tool, flexible tool Keep in Mind: You have to manually empty the dustbin. The vacuum works well on both carpet and hard floors thanks to a simple switch that shuts off the brushroll when on hard floor mode. The tangle-free brush roll can pick up hair from any surface without it getting caught and wrapped around the roll, making it easier to clean without stopping. The Bissell PowerGlide Pet Slim corded vacuum cleaner can even convert to a handheld machine, and it comes with a pet turbo eraser tool to remove embedded pet hair from carpet and upholstery. There’s also a crevice tool to reach into narrow places and suck away debris and a dusting brush for easily removing fine particles. Additionally, the built-in scented filter masks the smell of dust and dirt inside your machine, making it less of an unpleasant task to empty it. Compared to other devices on this list, emptying the dustbin on the Bissell PowerGlide Pet machine is a little more tedious. You’ll need to press the eject button, take the dust bin out, and pull the separator up from the dirt tank to help dislodge the debris. To be clear, you don’t have to actually touch the dust, but it doesn’t have the one-touch button that automatically releases the bottom into the trash like others on this list. However, the foam filter can be washed with warm water to eliminate the need for purchasing additional filters. Price at time of publish: $196 Weight: 9.25 pounds | Cord Length: 30 feet | Recommended Surfaces: Hard floors, carpets, upholstery | Attachments: Pet tool, crevice tool, dusting brush Keep in Mind: It’s more top-heavy than other stick vacuums. Additionally, the LED headlights on the front of the vacuum allow you to see debris even in low-light settings such as under the couch or dark crevices in your kitchen. The  Shark Stratos Cordless vacuum has a self-cleaning, dual brushroll system that includes a soft roller on one brush and stiff rubber fins on the other. This allows for constant contact with your carpets, digging up more debris from the fibers while sweeping away loose particles in one fell swoop. The vacuum cleaner has a 60-minute run time, and there’s an LED display to let you easily view remaining battery time, choose between suction levels, and see how dirty or clean your floors are in real time. The vacuum also converts to a handheld device, and you can use the duster crevice tool and anti-allergen dusting brush to clean other parts of your home. Despite only weighing 8.9 pounds, the Shark Stratos Cordless vacuum cleaner is rather top-heavy, making it a little more difficult to maneuver and more tiring to operate. We don’t recommend this vacuum cleaner to anyone with wrist mobility issues. Price at time of publish: $450 Weight: 8.9 pounds | Battery Life: 60 minutes | Recommended Surfaces: Hard floors, carpets, upholstery | Attachments: Duster crevice tool, anti-allergen brush Keep in Mind: At 17 pounds, it’s quite heavy to push across your floors. The sleek brush roll at the bottom of the device can provide edge cleaning while vacuuming, allowing you to get right up to those baseboards and walls for a more thorough clean. This smart vacuum automatically detects the debris on your floors, then displays it on the LED screen along with the debris already cleaned up and the remaining battery life. In addition to the Tineco app, the vacuum cleaner also has built-in voice assistance and both can be used for maintenance notifications and to get helpful tips. These prompts to let you know when the clean water tank is empty or the dirty water tank is full. After you finish mopping or vacuuming, the Tineco Floor One S5 device can then clean itself in the docking station. This consists of straining pet hair and flushing the brush roller and inner tubing. When it finishes, simply pour out the dirty water. This wet-dry vacuum packs a lot of features in one device, which is why it’s a little more bulky than others on our list of the best stick vacuums. At 17 pounds, this device will take up more space when stored, and you may notice more fatigue when pushing it across your floors compared to other stick vacuums on our list. Price at time of publish: $500 Weight: 17.37 pounds | Battery Life: 35 minutes | Recommended Surfaces: Hard floors, area rugs | Attachments: None Keep in Mind: It has a very short battery life compared to the other options on this list. Most notable about this vacuum is its articulating neck and four 360-degree castors which allows the device to glide in every direction to remove debris without missing a spot. The omni-directional soft roller cleaner head can vacuum around objects, and it can lie completely flat on the floor to slide underneath chairs, sofas, tables, and other low furniture. The lightweight vacuum can also transition to a handheld vacuum. In addition to the double fluffy cleaner head, there’s also a mini motorized tool that can clean everything including mattresses and stairs. You can also use the combination crevice tool and light pipe crevice tool to access hard-to-reach corners and other tight spaces. The wall-mounted charging dock holds the vacuum when charging and stores it out of the way. No one likes to clean vacuums, but this one is easy: simply press the bin’s eject button to release debris into the trash. In addition, the filter and fluffy roller can be washed, as can the dust bin and any of the tools that don’t have electronic parts. Keep in mind that this vacuum’s battery life is very short—only 20 minutes. This is what allows the vacuum to be so lightweight, but if you prefer to clean your entire house in one stint, the Dyson Omni Glide+ vacuum won’t be the best option for you. Price at time of publish: $500 Weight: 4.19 pounds | Battery Life: 20 minutes | Recommended Surfaces: Hard floors, carpet, upholstery | Attachments: Double fluffy cleaner head, mini motorized tool, combination crevice tool, light pipe crevice tool Keep in Mind: You’ll have to remove long hairs from the dust bin by hand. Two swappable batteries are included for a total 80-minute run time, and the vacuum cleaner has a regular and turbo mode for tackling particularly dirty parts of your carpet or hard floors. When it’s being used as a handheld, you can use the bedding power punch nozzle for upholstery and mattresses, or swap in the crevice attachment or two-in-one brush tool for hard-to-access corners. These accessories increase the functionality of the vacuum cleaner beyond simply maintaining your hardwood floors. The LG CordZero A9 vacuum’s five-step filtration system keeps all of the dust and dirt inside of the dust bin, so it won’t escape back into your home. Its filters are washable, making the vacuum cleaner also easy to maintain. Plus, the vacuum and attachments all fit on an unobtrusive, space-saving stand, making it great for small spaces and large homes alike. Cleaning out the dust bin is easy because of its one-touch release that empties the bin directly into the trash. However, long hair tends to get stuck inside the bin, so you may have to reach inside to dislodge this type of debris. Price at time of publish: $519 Weight: 5.63 pounds | Battery Life: 80 minutes (40 minutes each battery) | Recommended Surfaces: Hard floors, carpets, upholstery | Attachments: Crevice tool, telescoping wand, power floor nozzle, battery, combination tool, universal power nozzle, power punch nozzle Keep in Mind:  It’s difficult to maneuver on high-pile carpet. The vacuum has a five-layer filtration system that captures and separates particles of all sizes, and the digital display shows the power level and brush type in use, along with any alerts (for example, missing filter). The telescopic wand can be adjusted to four different heights for customized use. It comes with a spare battery to swap in when one runs out, allowing you to clean your home for a total of 120 minutes at a time. Since the vacuum can be converted to a handheld, there’s also a mini motorized tool for pet hair, and a combination dusting and upholstery tool make it easy to clean furniture and window frames. The dual charging station is self-standing and holds the vacuum, spare battery, and also the accessories in one compact location. The dustbin is easy to empty, and the dustbin and filters are all washable. Because of its powerful suction, the Samsung Jet 90 Cordless Stick vacuum is more difficult to maneuver on carpet than other flooring types. If you have high-pile rugs in your home, we don’t recommend this stick vacuum, since it won’t be able to glide across the surface and clean effectively. Price at time of publish: $620 Weight: 6.17 pounds | Battery Life: 120 minutes (60 minutes each battery) | Recommended Surfaces: Hard floors, carpets, upholstery | Attachments: Crevice tool, brush Keep in Mind: The model with a 50-minute runtime costs slightly more than the model with a 40-minute runtime. The LED headlights on the front also help you to see in dark spaces, and the vacuum has a low-profile body that will fit underneath furniture to help you clean areas of your home that tend to get missed. In addition to effectively cleaning carpet, the vacuum also performs well on hard floors. The anti-allergen filter seal keeps all of the dust, dander, and other irritants inside the dust bin until the lid is ejected, so you don’t have to worry about debris escaping back into your home as you clean. The vacuum can also be converted to a handheld device to remove hair and other debris from furniture, stairs, and other surfaces. Accessories include a crevice tool, pet multi-tool, and anti-allergen dusting brush.  You can also transform the vacuum into a freestanding unit for storage by detaching the hand vacuum and clipping it onto the base. Price at time of publish: $390 Weight: 7.17 pounds | Battery Life: 50 minutes | Recommended Surfaces: Hard floors, carpet, upholstery | Attachments: Dusting brush, crevice tool, pet multi-tool, brush

What to Know About Stick Vacuums Before Shopping

Weight

One of the benefits of the best stick vacuums are that they don’t weigh as much as an upright or canister vacuum cleaner. But you’ll miss out on this benefit if you choose a heavy, clunky stick vacuum that is hard to maneuver around your home. Allen Rathey, director of the Indoor Health Council, recommends a lightweight vacuum, especially if you have stairs. Most of the devices on our list of the best stick vacuums are between 4 and 10 pounds, because we think heavier options won’t be comfortable to operate and transport.

Battery Life or Cord Length

It can be quite irritating to pause your cleaning session to re-charge your vacuum’s battery or hunt for a nearby outlet. When creating our list of the best stick vacuums, we looked for devices with a long battery life—30 minutes or more—to ensure you can clean more than one room at a time without stopping to recharge (which can take several hours). If you plan to clean multiple rooms in your home at a time, Rathey recommends looking for a device that can go even longer. “I would definitely look for a stick vacuum with a longer run-times—45 minutes to an hour—depending on how you plan to use it,” Rathey says. However, if you prefer a corded stick vacuum, make sure the cord is long. The Bissell PowerGlide Pet Slim has a 30 feet cord, which is why we chose it as the best corded stick vacuum.

The best stick vacuums can be used on a variety of surfaces, including hardwood, tile, laminate, and carpet. For more versatile cleaning, many stick vacuums come with separate attachments that are designed to clean specific flooring types, such as a vacuum head with soft rollers for cleaning hardwood floors. On other vacuums, it’s just a matter of increasing or decreasing the suction level depending on the surface—and many stick vacuums are designed to automatically detect the flooring type and change their settings.

Number of Attachments

The more attachments you have, the more uses you can get out of the stick vacuum. Depending on what types of surfaces you want to clean, the amount of storage space you have for attachments, and how much you’re willing to spend may impact how many attachments your vacuum comes with. However, Rathey recommends looking for stick vacuums that can also clean upholstery. “The stick vacuum should have the ability to perform a variety of cleaning tasks normally done by a full-sized upright or canister vac; depending on how you plan to use it,” Rathey says. “I would advise looking for a stick vacuum that has the ability to transform into a hand vac for removing pet hair on furniture.”

Your Questions, Answered

What are the benefits of a stick vacuum?

“Stick vacuums are perfect for everyday cleaning because they are lightweight and easy to use,” says Leanne Stapf, COO of The Cleaning Authority. This makes them more maneuverable in tight spaces, easier to store in closets when not in use, and less tedious to push across your floors for long periods of time. The best stick vacuums will also provide powerful suction and brush roll to remove all kinds of gunk from your floors including dirt, pollen, crumbs, pet hair, and more. If you have a home made up of mostly one flooring type—such as hardwood, tile, or carpet—you’ll want to shop for a stick vacuum that’s most effective on your floors. We identified the best stick vacuums for each flooring type to make it easy to find the right device for your home.

Can stick vacuums clean carpet?

Despite their slimmer profile and lighter design compared to an upright vacuum, stick vacuums are still powerful enough to clean on carpet. In fact, these versatile devices make it easy to clean just about any flooring type with ease, and they’ll take up less storage space in your cleaning closet. “Stick vacuums are the perfect tool for transitioning from hard floors to carpet with ease,” Stapf says. “Plus, their lightweight, portable, and usually cordless design make cleaning easy and hassle-free."

How many years do stick vacuums last?

Longevity is one area in which stick vacuums may lag behind heavier, sturdier upright vacuums. The lightweight design of these devices make them easier to knock over, so you’ll want to be careful about where you store your vacuum when not in use to extend its life. Additionally, since they’re so light, stick vacuums are likely to be used more often than regular vacuum cleaners, meaning they’ll wear out more quickly than a vacuum you only drag out on occasion. “Cordless vacuums typically last around four years, although timing may vary,” Staph says. According to Rathey, the high-powered, replaceable lithium-ion battery in stick vacuums may wane after several years, resulting in a loss of power. You may notice over time that your cordless stick vacuum becomes less effective at picking up heavier particles, so keep this in mind if you’re looking for a vacuum that’ll last more than four or five years.

Who We Are

Terri Williams is a freelance journalist and product review writer with bylines at Architectural Digest, Realtor.com, The Daily Beast, CNN, NBC News, USA Today, Popular Science, and more. To find the best stick vacuums, Terri conducted extensive research into vacuum brands and models, then spoke with Allen Rathey, director of the Indoor Health Council, and Leanne Stapf, COO of The Cleaning Authority, for their expertise.