The 6 Best Upright Vacuums - Black Friday 2024

The best upright vacuum we've tested is the Dyson Ball Animal 3. This bagless upright vacuum has a powerful suction motor and delivers exceptional cleaning performance on different floor types. The top-range Complete variant is only available from Dyson's website and comes with a wide assortment of attachments for handheld use, including a mini turbo brush, a multi-angle brush, and even a dedicated pet grooming tool.

Its floorhead has three suction gate settings, so you can quickly adapt to everything from high-pile carpets to flat surfaces like hardwood or laminate. The floorhead also features a set of plastic combs that capture long hair, preventing most of it from getting tangled in the mechanism. There's also a brushroll-off switch, so you can clean hard floors without worrying about sending large debris scattered everywhere. You can also easily free the vacuum if it gets stuck on thicker carpeting.

Unfortunately, build quality isn't a strong point, with a mainly plastic body that creaks and flexes slightly while in use. You'll also need to roll back its power cord manually when you're done cleaning, which is a disappointing omission for a vacuum that's this expensive and can be a bit of a hassle since the cord is so long. While the Dyson vacuum's ball-shaped wheel makes it fairly maneuverable for an upright, this is still a bulky and heavy machine, and you might find it a bit of a hassle to grab from a closet and use for smaller cleaning jobs.

If you're looking for something less expensive and more portable, the Shark Stratos Upright is a great choice. It shares a common design with other Shark vacuums with its 'Lift-Away' design, which lets you detach its canister body from its floorhead and carry it around in one hand while cleaning tight spots with its hose in the other. This makes it a better option for cleaning tight, awkward areas than the larger, bulkier Dyson Ball Animal 3. However, it doesn't perform as well as the Dyson on carpets, and you can't change its brushroll height, so it tends to get stuck on surfaces like shag carpeting more frequently. One of the Shark's more unique selling points is its odor neutralization system; a replaceable cartridge in its floorhead emits a detergent-like scent as you clean. However, this can become a tad overwhelming if you use the vacuum regularly.

While the Shark's attachment set isn't as varied as the Dyson's, it still comes with a miniature turbo brush, an upholstery nozzle, and a crevice tool, which will cover many of your needs. The vacuum's primary brushroll has a set of integrated fins that do a good job of preventing hair from getting wrapped around the roller, similar to the Dyson vacuum's anti-tangle combs. However, unlike the Dyson, the roller isn't removable, so cleaning it is a bit of a hassle.

Our pick for the mid-range is the Shark Performance Plus Lift-Away, available only from Costco and Walmart. It uses the same iteration of the dual-roller DuoClean floorhead design as the Shark Stratos Upright, which is quite effective in preventing hair from getting tangled in the mechanism, as well as the Stratos' odor-neutralizing floorhead-mounted cartridge. Its reconfigurable 'Lift-Away' chassis is also similar in allowing you to pick up and carry the canister unit separately from its floorhead. However, there are slight differences. The Performance Plus only has a power socket at the base of the canister unit, unlike the Stratos, which has the socket at the base of its wand; this means that you can't use the Performance Plus' motorized head when the vacuum is in its Lift-Away configuration like you can with Stratos.

The Performance Plus has a weaker suction motor than the Stratos, though actual debris pickup performance between the two vacuums is very similar, which is very good. It won't have any trouble dealing with debris on bare floors or carpets, and it's a slightly smaller and lighter appliance. Unfortunately, the Performance Plus also shares many of the same downsides. While there are two different speed settings for its brushroll, you can't change its floorhead height, and it can get bogged down on shag-pile rugs. The primary brushroll isn't removable either, making it hard to pull out any stuck-on debris or tangled strands of hair. On the upside, you can detach and easily clean the secondary soft roller.

If you have trouble getting the Shark Performance Plus Lift-Away (since it's exclusive to Costco and Walmart), consider the Shark Navigator Lift-Away Pet. It sports a larger 0.37-gallon dirt compartment while being almost a full pound lighter; however, its suction isn't as good because the floorhead doesn't seal as well to the ground, so it has more trouble picking up dirt from crevices and cracks.

The Kenmore Intuition Bagged is the best upright vacuum cleaner we've tested at a lower mid-range price point. It incurs higher ownership costs than bagless alternatives like the Shark Performance Plus Lift-Away since you'll need to replace its disposable filters and dirtbag occasionally. However, it's even cheaper than the Shark, and since it uses dirtbags that seal in debris and has a separate HEPA filter, it offers superb filtration performance. Better yet, you can release its dirtbag from its internal compartment with the press of a latch, so you won't dirty your hands when taking it out.

While debris pickup performance isn't as impressive as any of our more expensive picks above, the Kenmore still delivers an impressive overall performance on carpets and bare floors. It also has a brushroll off switch, preventing it from scattering around larger debris on hard flooring. Additionally, like Shark's series of 'Lift-Away' upright vacuums, you can disconnect its canister unit from its floorhead and carry it around, making it easier to clean hard-to-reach areas with its hose.

Unfortunately, there's no way of adjusting its floorhead height, so it can easily get bogged down on thick, high-pile carpeting. Its bulky dirtbag compartment also makes cleaning under tables and chairs difficult. Check out the BISSELL Pet Hair Eraser Turbo Plus if you want something easier to maneuver on thick carpeting. However, the BISSELL feels flimsier, and its bagless design is more demanding in terms of maintenance since you'll need to empty its dustbin and clean its filters regularly.

Consider the BISSELL PowerForce Helix if you're looking for an upright vacuum at a budget-friendly price. Right off the bat, it's crucial to note that this vacuum feels cheap and toy-like, even when compared to our previous pick, the Kenmore Intuition Bagged, though this isn't much of a surprise given its low price. It also does a terrible job of sealing fine allergens. Still, if all you're after is strong performance on a budget, it's worth a look.

It has a floorhead with five levels of height adjustment, enabling you to adapt rapidly to various carpet-pile heights, which is a rare feature at this price point. It's also powerful enough to lift away debris embedded deep within low- and high-pile carpeting with ease. Unfortunately, there's no brushroll off switch, so be careful when cleaning around obstructions like rug tassels, which can get wrapped around its brushroll and trapped in its floorhead quite easily. Taking out its brushroll for regular cleaning is also a bit of a hassle since you'll need to remove a few screws to pull it out.

The Shark Vertex Pro Powered Lift-Away is a solid option if you're looking for an upright but don't want to deal with a power cable. Its cordless design allows you to clean faraway areas far more easily than even uprights with a long power cord, like the Dyson Ball Animal 3, which has an operating range of nearly 40 feet. However, this comes at the cost of runtime, as this cordless Shark can only run for a maximum of about 40 minutes when using it in its upright configuration. Worse, you can drain its battery in as little as 10 minutes if you use it continuously in its high-power 'Boost' mode. Of course, it's worth noting that this setting is meant for cleaning small, stubborn messes rather than bigger areas.

Like many more conventional Shark uprights, it has a 'Lift-Away' mode, which allows you to pick up and carry its canister body separately from its floorhead while cleaning tight spots with its hose. However, the Vertex is even more portable in this configuration compared to its corded peers, thanks to its more compact body. It also delivers exceptional performance on bare floors and does a great job with pet hair and other kinds of solid debris on carpets.

It's lighter and more maneuverable than most conventional uprights, but its lack of a brushroll off switch and floorhead height adjustment can cause it to get stuck on rug tassels and dense shag-pile carpeting. Despite its advertised "Self-Cleaning" design, the primary brushroll in its twin-roller floorhead also collects a lot of pet hair. Worse yet, it shares a common downside with most other Shark vacuums: its primary roller isn't removable, making it a hassle to clear away any stuck-on debris.