The 5 best upright vacuum cleaners of 2024, tested by appliance experts

Sometimes the old ways are best. Sure, upright vacuums are the oldest type of vacuum on the market. But though they've since been superseded by canister vacuums and then cordless vacuums, they're still a popular choice.

That's because these large vacuums have suction power that smaller cordless and canister vacuums still can't handle. They're a particularly smart choice if you have carpet throughout your home, as their powerful motorised brush bars and suction can drive deep into carpet fibres to pull out dirt and dander. Because some companies like Dyson are starting to phase them out, they're also a much cheaper option than cordless models.

I'm Homes & Gardens' home tech editor and I spend a lot of my time covering, reviewing and writing about vacuums. Myself and a team of expert reviewers have tested some of the best upright vacuums you can buy, both in our homes and in our dedicated test centre.

We test each vacuum on carpet, hardwood and linoleum flooring and in a breadth of different scenarios to assess how well it can clean your home. We assess the vacuums on suction power, ease of use, cleaning features, weight, filtration and price.

Each of these vacuums is among the best vacuums you can buy, but each of them has drawbacks to bear in mind. This is everything you need to know about the best uprights on the market.

The quick list

Here are the top upright vacuums at a glance. Scroll further for the full guide, or click the navigation links to jump to each product.

The best upright vacuum cleaners in 2024

Explore our guide to the best upright vacuums below, with details on what makes each of these models one of the best available right now.

The best upright vacuum cleaner

Shark's lates upright vacuum, the aptly-named POWERDETECT, outperforms all others on test. It boasts Shark's more recent technology: detecting floor type, floor edges and dust volume so that it can adjust to the optimal suction power.

Our expert tester James Holland was truly impressed by its cleaning performance: ' It’s able to suck everything up in its path efficiently and proficiently, no matter the debris. And, it’s equally capable regardless of the surface I used it on.'

A key sign of its suction power was on a cat fur-ridden carpet. With one pass, the POWERDETECT was able to pick up every visible strand of hair, 'filling the dust bin with an amount of hair equal to a second cat.'

The POWERDETECT is the only vacuum in this guide with detection tech, bringing a unique level of convenience, power and cleaning efficiency. Being able to automatically detect floor types allows you to seamlessly pass from carpet to hard floors. Plus, the vacuum being able to up the suction power in dirtier areas or by the floor's edges saves you from doing multiple passes to clear it all.

And, like with many of Shark's upright vacs, the POWERDETECT features an odor-neutralizing cartridge to avoid the dusty smells from spreading across your home. It also features a HEPA filter to protect the fine particles that can trigger allergies (like pet dander and pollen), as well as two brushrolls that genuinely avoid hair from wrapping.

Read more at our full Shark POWERDETECT review.

The best upright vacuum for pet hair

Our expert tester Camryn Rabideau was 'honestly shocked' at the strength of this vacuum. She tested it at home to clean up the fur from her two dogs, and running this vacuum over a 9' x 6' area rug picked up enough fur and dirt to fill up the vacuum in a single pass.

Like many Shark vacuums, it stops hair wrapping around the floor brush and saves you the gross job of detangling your vacuum. We also love the Odor Neutralizer. It's a handy scent cartridge that will stop your vacuum from smelling as you clean up hair and dander.

However, perhaps the best feature, and the one which takes this vacuum beyond the competition, is the fact that you can remove the body from the base of the vacuum. This means you can hold the dustbin and hose as you go up the stairs as you would with a cordless or handheld vacuum. It's infinitely easier than any other upright. If you've ever struggled to lug an upright vacuum up a flight of stairs, this is the vacuum for you.

But while it's positively nimble on stairs, this vacuum typically weighs in around 17lbs. In fairness, that's average for upright vacuums, and most users shouldn't find it a problem. But if you have mobility issues, or simply don't like heavy lifting, you may find this pretty tricky to steer. It also has a relatively small dustbin. The fact that Camryn filled the canister from a single rug might be testament to its suction, but it's also a result of the small 0.37 gal capacity.

This isn't a criticism as such, but my top tip when shopping for one of these is to watch out for the two different versions. The AZ3000 model is just a vacuum, whereas the AZ3002, available at Amazon, comes with an effective motorized HairPro Pet Power Brush, a duster-crevice combination tool, a multi-angle dust brush, an anti-allergen dust brush, an accessory bag, and two extra odor cartridges.

Camryn's Shark Stratos upright vacuum review has more details.

The best upright vacuum for carpet

This vacuum is unbelievably powerful, and that power makes it fantastic for taking on carpets. On test, we found that the powerful suction combines with an effective motorised brush to reach deep into carpet fibres and pull out hair and fur. Where other vacuums did a good job at cleaning the surface of a carpet, this one deep-cleaned them.

Better than that, it has very effective 'vanes' which stop hair from wrapping around the brushroll. If you hate pulling hair out a vacuum, this is a good choice, because it's rare that hair is caught in this machine.

Though at its best on carpet, this vacuum is also great on hardwood floors, because the powerful suction easily removes debris from in between floorboards. If you have a lot of furniture, you'll find it easy to maneuver this vacuum around chair legs and into corners.

But true to type, this vacuum is very heavy, so it's hard to move between floors. It's also so powerful that it takes a little effort to push over carpets. In fact, our tester Camryn said that 'If you have the suction on too high, the vacuum will essentially suction itself right to the floor, making it almost impossible to push across your carpet'.

Perhaps the most frustrating feature is that the switch to adjust power modes between different floor types is on the floor head rather than the handle. That means you have to bend down to change settings, which is at best tedious if you have a lot of different floor types and at worst painful if you have a bad back. Unlike its predecessor above, the hose on the Ball Animal 3 is just 15ft, and because its so powerful, it can never stretch to its fullest extent, so you probably won't be able to vacuum a flight of stairs in one go.

Our full Dyson Ball Animal 3 review has more details.

The best bagged upright vacuum

Our tester Laura found this vacuum 'faultless' on our hair test. It easily picked up all the hair in the test on carpet, hardwood floors, and linoleum, and absolutely none of it was caught in the rollers.

That's because this vacuum detects the floor type it's on and automatically adjusts its power and brush settings. This means it's a good option if you have lots of different floor types throughout your home. You can vacuum a hardwood floor and a rug in one room before moving to tile or linoleum in the next without having to change any settings.

As a bagged vacuum, it's fantastic for allergies, becuase the dust and dander that can cause your symptoms to flare up are in a sealed bag that won't irritate your sinuses. Just like the Shark Stratos at #1, SEBO also sell scent cartridges for their vacuums, so there's no gross warm dog smell as you vacuum.

However, the single biggest issue with this vacuum is its size. At 22lbs, it's pretty heavy to push around. Even though it steers fairly smoothly, you need a bit of oomph just to get it to turn, and the floor head is pretty bulky, so it will struggle to get around thin chair legs.

This vacuum is let down by lots of small details, too. While the performance is excellent, the carry handle is also on the body of the vacuum, so it either tilts backwards as you pick it up, or you have to stoop awkwardly to keep it upright. That makes it very unwieldy for carrying up and down stairs. While the 40ft cord is fantastic, it often falls off the back of the machine, which is irritating to bear in mind as you clean under sofas. There's also no automatic reel for the cord, so you have to wind it up by hand. On top of all of this, it's among the most expensive vacuums we've ever tested; depending on sales periods this vacuum will be at least $800.

There's more detail in our full SEBO Automatic X4 Boost Upright review.

The best lightweight upright vacuum

The Vertex Upright is where Shark's Lift-Away feature really shines. Lift-Away is a distinct advantage of Shark's upright vacuums, allowing you to lift the dustbin and hose away from the vacuum's main compartment, giving you more freedom and flexibility (and a lighter weight to carry) when cleaning.

The vacuum comes in at a slightly lighter weight than the others in this list. Most sit around the 17lb mark while the Vertex weighs just over 16. But pair that with the added mobility awarded by the Lift-Away feature and this is the easiest vacuum to use in this guide.

This flexibility doesn't come with a worrying sacrifice to power, however. Our expert tester (and former eCommerce editor) Jaclyn Turner found it to perform highly on all floor types and with all types of dust, dirt and hair. It particularly shines on carpet, and she found that it glides across carpet flooring without much resistance at all.

She noted: 'I'm continuously impressed with the amount of hair it seems to capture, with nary a tangled brush roll in sight.' This is great news for any home with pets, as the Vertex makes light work of cleaning up after animals (it helps that you can get deep into carpet fibers, too).

Read more at our full Shark Vertex DuoClean PowerFin Upright Vacuum review.

Meet the team

Dan Fauzi

Dan is our home tech editor, focusing almost exclusively on the vast world of vacuum cleaners. Dan has been reviewing products for years now and has spent hours testing vacuum cleaners for Homes & Gardens.

Alex David

Alex has tested vacuums ever since he started reviewing products and has clocked up hundreds of hours testing dozens of vacuum cleaners for your home.

Laura Honey

Laura is our former eCommerce editor, testing all manner of product types for Homes & Gardens including many vacuum cleaners. She tested the SEBO X4 Automatic for this guide.

Camryn Rabideau

Camryn Rabideau is a freelance writer and product reviewer who has been testing home goods, including cleaning tools, for several years. She tested the Shark Stratos Upright and Dyson Ball 3 from her small homestead in Rhode Island, using them to clean up after her pets.

Jaclyn Turner

Jaclyn was an eCommerce editor for Homes & Gardens, where she oversaw sleep content including mattresses and bedding. She tested a number of vacuums including the Shark Vertex.

How we test

At Homes & Gardens we like to get hands-on experience with all the products we feature. You can learn more how we test products in our dedicated guide, and there's a more specific rundown of our vacuum test process in how we test vacuums.

All of our vacuums are tried and tested in our test centre and in our own homes. When in the test centre, we assess each vacuum on carpet, linoleum and wood flooring. We test them with flour and sugar, which is a common kitchen spill but also a good proxy for dust and dead skin; cereal, which shows how well it picks up larger debris like crumbs and small stones; and most of all on old hair extensions, which demonstrates how well a vacuum can pick up hair, and whether or not hair gets stuck in its rollers.

Specific to upright vacuums, we note the lengths of its hose and any other bonus features. We take care to note each vacuum's weight and agility, because these are the traditional drawbacks with these models. We note whether each vacuum can fit under sofas and into corners and how easy they are to use to clean stairs.

We test the vacuum cleaners for a number of weeks so that we know our tests aren't a one-off fluke. In some instances, we are also fortunate enough to keep the vacuum cleaners after writing up the review so we can continue to learn about them over months or even years and share our findings with you as the vacuums pick up wear and tear as they age.

Upright vacuums FAQs

What's good about upright vacuums?

Upright vacuums are the oldest type of vacuum but they're still well worth considering. Though they're much heavier and clumsier than modern cordless vacuums, they're much more powerful, because they can house larger motors. Because they're larger, they can also vacuum up more dirt in one go than most cordless vacuums, saving you from having to empty the dust canister every time you use the vacuum. What's more, because they're so old-school, they tend to be cheaper than new-fangled cordless vacuums.

Can I use an upright vacuum on hardwood floors?

Yes, you can use an upright vacuum on hardwood floors, but make sure you have a model where you can turn off the motorized brush bar. These bars have pretty stiff bristles and move at very high speeds, so they can easily scratch some wood floors if you aren't careful.

While I've got a soft spot for upright vacuums, they're not always the best choice. They're pretty heavy and cumbersome, so they don't work for everyone. If none of the above options work for you, we've covered the best robot vacuums and the best cordless vacuums if your current upright vacuum is feeling a little dated.