8 Best Vacuums for Pet Hair to Get Rid of Fur, Dander and More

Like many other models from the brand, Bissell's Pet Hair Eraser Turbo Plus did not disappoint our testers — in fact, it's one of the best Bissell vacuums we've ever tested in the Lab. It earned good scores for its ease of use and powerful suction, but our favorite feature is the mess-free dust cup's easy-to-empty, hands-free design, with a hair spooling system inside the canister that contains a tangle-free brush roll that prevents pet hair from clogging the bristles.

"This vacuum's combination of features and tools was ideal for picking up the hair of both small and large pets," said one impressed tester. When comparing this model to other upright vacuums we tested in our Lab, we rated it favorably for its weight, but some online reviewers say they found the Pet Hair Eraser Turbo too heavy and had trouble lifting it, especially on stairs.

Pet hair is an annoyance for most pet owners, but if you or someone in your family happens to be allergic to pet hair, it can also be a serious health issue. But this upright Kenmore has all the extras to keep pet hair where it belongs: inside the vacuum. Certified by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation (AAFA), this vacuum has a HEPA filter and passed AAFA tests for low emissions, both while vacuuming and changing the bag.

While it lacks some of the features that other vacuum cleaners offer, like auto height adjustments for different floor types and a retractable cord, but we're impressed by its large capacity dust cup, ample hose storage, variety of tools and that it can be manually height adjusted for easier pushing across all carpet styles.

While we haven’t yet tested this specific model in our Lab, Kenmore vacuums have done well in our previous performance tests; we also trust the rigid standards of the AAFA, and are impressed with their certification criteria. Reviewers say this vacuum maintains its performance even as the bag fills with dirt, and it’s loaded with features we love, like a powerful motor and an air-powered hand tool with a rotating brush to more easily remove stubborn pet hair from upholstery, bedding and stairs. Still, at just under 20 pounds, it may not be the easiest to lift up.

Dyson's V15 Detect, a recent Good Housekeeping Cleaning Award winner, packs a lot of innovation into a lightweight design, with a laser that illuminates dust and other debris not visible in regular lighting, a fluffy brush that's great for picking up hair and dust from hard flooring and an LCD screen that shows you how big or small each particle your vacuum picks up is. Our testers found maintenance easy, thanks to a hair screw tool specifically made to ball up long and short pet hair and deposit it into the dust bin without tangling around the brush. The dust bin is smaller than those on most full-size upright vacuums and therefore requires more frequent emptying.

We found manually switching between cleaning modes easy, but the auto-mode automatically adjusts the suction power depending on the floor type it senses, instantly providing stronger suction when you need it most (like when removing debris from carpet fibers). Both the filter and fluffy brush are washable, plus you can store all accessories right on the wand. It has a powerful suction, so much so that it sometimes proved troublesome for testers vacuuming around lightweight rugs that were sucked up easily by the V15 Detect.

All of its innovative features and overwhelmingly positive consumer reviews online are impressive, and we especially like the battery runtime countdown on the LCD screen that tells you exactly how long (to the second!) you have before you’ll need to charge the device’s battery.

For those that prefer a bagged vacuum that keeps pet hair and dander sealed after cleaning, there's the Pet-Friendly Pop-N-Go canister vacuum from Kenmore, a 2022 Good Housekeeping Best Cleaning & Organizing Award winner. To clean hardwood floors, you can use your foot to press the button that opens up the bare floor brush storage and attach it hands-free, though one tester found that the compartment doesn't open all the way each time, so you may have to nudge it a bit to get the brush out. We found its Pet PowerMate tool to be great for cleaning hair from upholstered furniture and carpets, and it can be stored along with all other tools right on the vacuum.

In our Lab tests, it proved to have powerful suction, picking up dry oats from our test carpets and hard flooring easily. One of our consumer testers used this vacuum right after another model, and found that it picked up debris that the first vacuum missed. “The suction was phenomenal,” our tester said. We also found it easy to maneuver and transition from carpet to hard floors, thanks to its large wheels.

Keep in mind that this vacuum clocks in at over 20 pounds, so it'll take two hands to carry up or down stairs, though it is possible to clean stairs without having to pick it up thanks to its 10.5 foot telescoping wand, long hose and retractable cord. These features are also helpful for cleaning large areas without having to switch outlets too often.

This cordless handheld vacuum from Black + Decker is a great affordable vacuum for pet hair that's especially great for cleaning up the car. It has a motorized pet brush tool that uses rubber bristles to lift pet hair off upholstery, car seats and carpets efficiently.

The only other tool included is an extendable crevice tool that makes cleaning hard to reach areas especially easy. Like many of the best handheld vacuums, it has a long runtime of up to 32 minutes, but requires four hours for charging and does not have a removable battery so you'll have to plug in the whole device (and when the battery eventually stops working, you'll have to purchase a brand new hand vacuum). Its filter is washable and the dust cup empties with the push of a button, allowing for easy maintenance.

This vacuum’s powerful suction and large battery indicator were a tester’s favorite features on this model, who said, "while a small device will never be as powerful as a full-size model, this little vacuum's suction was impressive." With an average 4.4-star rating on Amazon from over 6,000 reviewers, this handheld vacuum is fan-approved, too.

From our extensive testing of robot vacuums, we've found that most models are not ideal for picking up pet hair, especially from carpet. But this budget-friendly robot vacuum from Eufy bucked the trend, easily removing pet hair from carpet and hard wood floors. It was also one of the quietest robot vacuums we tested and ran for almost two hours on a single charge.

Like most other robots on the market, it automatically returns to its charging base when the battery runs low, but lacks the ability to resume cleaning after it finishes charging like some more expensive models do. With its slim profile of just under three inches, it can glide beneath beds, low furniture and hard-to-reach places to nab stray pet hair. Its BoostIQ Technology also automatically increases suction power when it detects extra cleaning is needed and advanced sensors keep it from tumbling off ledges and stairs or running into furniture.

For a budget-friendly price, it packs quite a few of the best robot vacuum features, like spot- and edge-cleaning, but does lack some other key capabilities that some consumer might miss, like a floor mapping feature or the ability to mark off no-go zones in your home. The device's filter cannot be washed, but a replacement filter is included with the robot vacuum and can be purchased separately at an affordable price on Amazon. Its two side brushes and roller brush action helped secure its spot as the third-best performing robot vacuum amongst 15 models we recently tested.

Miele’s newest canister vacuum model comes with a turbo brush floorhead specially designed for picking up dirt and hair from low to medium pile carpets. Our experts are always impressed by the design and performance of Miele vacuums in our tests, and this canister vacuum was no exception, picking up dry oats from carpets, hardwood flooring and tiles without leaving anything behind. Thanks to its small size, it can be easily stored in small spaces and its 32-foot operating radius is great for cleaning large areas. There's even a spot on the canister body to park the hose so it stays upright during storage.

This Boost CX1 model also includes a universal floor head for pet hair pick up on bare floors. This Miele canister vacuum is one of the most expensive of our picks, but because it offers four suction power options that make it gentle enough for cleaning curtains and strong enough for cleaning carpets, our experts find that the cost is justified as you'll be able to tackle messes from floor to ceiling with just one device.

One of our consumer testers said, "It worked well on all surfaces, but really impressed with the power it had with the area rug." It impressed our expert testers, too, earning it a 2022 GH Best Cleaning & Organizing Award.

This small-but-mighty Bissell is perfect for quick pet-hair fixes. We like that it's designed with a rubber nozzle to help lift stuck-on hair and that it's easy to maneuver around chair arms and stair treads, though its shape makes it a little awkward to hold and it's not the best option for tight, hard-to-reach spots.

Our testers rated this hand vac highly because it took just four swipes to pick up every bit of hair in our pet hair pick-up tests — in fact, in our latest round of handheld vacuum tests, it earned the highest overall performance score out of 19 models tested.

Its 16-foot power cord is long enough to navigate small messes and it comes with an attachment for hard floors to nab pet hair or dry messes like kitty litter on tile and more. It's a little heavier than a lot of other handheld vacuums we've tested, but worth the extra weight for the larger than usual dust cup capacity it affords users.