The Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright is a commercial-grade upright vacuum. It has a plasticky, yet lightweight body and it comes with a few tools and brushes. Unfortunately, it isn't very maneuverable, especially since the head can get stuck on rugs or tassels. It also offers a disappointing performance on shaggy, high-pile carpet and can push around pet hair on bare floors instead of picking it up. On the upside, it does much better on low-pile carpet and its dirtbag can hold a lot of debris.
Our Verdict
The Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright is mediocre for bare floors. While it can clear most small and large debris, it pushes around pet hair rather than picking it up. It also has a plasticky build quality and it can be hard to get under couches or tables due to its bulky vacuum head. While it's easy to maintain, its dirt compartment and drive belt need to be replaced over time.
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Able to pick up most small and large debris.
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Easy to maintain.
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Good-sized dirt compartment.
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Pushes around pet hair on bare floors.
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Poor maneuverability.
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Sub-par and flimsy build quality.
The Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright is satisfactory for low-pile carpet. It can pick up most pet hair as well as a good amount of small and large debris like baking soda and sand. However, its performance slightly declines as the dirt compartment fills. This vacuum also has a plasticky build quality that feels cheap. While it's easy to maintain, a couple of its parts need replacement over time.
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Easy to maintain.
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Good-sized dirt compartment.
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Poor maneuverability.
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Sub-par and flimsy build quality.
The Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright is mediocre for high-pile carpet. While it can pick up most pet hair on this surface type, it struggles a lot more with small and large debris like sand and baking soda. This vacuum also has a sub-par build quality and while it's easy to maintain, some parts need to be replaced over time.
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Easy to maintain.
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Good-sized dirt compartment.
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Poor maneuverability.
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Sub-par and flimsy build quality.
The Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright is disappointing for pet hair. It can pick up most pet hair from carpeted surfaces. However, it has a hard time picking up pet hair on bare floors as it pushes this debris around. It also has a sub-par build quality and while its parts are easy to maintain, it has a couple of recurring costs that add up over time.
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Easy to maintain.
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Good-sized dirt compartment.
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Pushes around pet hair on bare floors.
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Poor maneuverability.
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Sub-par and flimsy build quality.
The Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright is poor for stairs. Since it has an upright design, it can be hard to maneuver on stairs. It also has a plasticky build quality that feels quite cheap; the handle feels particularly fragile. If you use its alternative configuration, its hose length is short and the vacuum could tip over while in use. On the upside, it's lightweight and easy to carry.
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Easy to maintain.
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Good-sized dirt compartment.
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Poor maneuverability.
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Short hose length.
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Sub-par and flimsy build quality.
The Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright is an upright vacuum and isn't suitable for cleaning your car.
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Easy to maintain.
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Good-sized dirt compartment.
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Poor maneuverability.
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Sub-par and flimsy build quality.
- 6.7 Bare Floor
- 6.7 Low-Pile Carpet
- 5.9 High-Pile Carpet
- 5.7 Pets
- 5.6 Stairs
- 6.2 Cars
- 5.0 Workshop
- Updated Aug 25, 2022: This vacuum's suction force has been retested with a more accurate manometer. The test results for the 'Maximum Suction' and 'Normal Suction' fields have been updated. All relevant scores and text have been updated.
- Updated Aug 05, 2022: Converted to Test Bench 1.1.
- Updated Jun 28, 2022: Converted to Test Bench 1.0.
- Updated Nov 03, 2020: Review published.
- Updated Oct 29, 2020: Early access published.
- Updated Oct 05, 2020: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated Oct 02, 2020: The product has arrived in our lab, and our testers will start evaluating it soon.
- Updated Sep 28, 2020: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright, which comes in one variation: Blue/Gray. You can see its label here. There is another model called the Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Bagless Upright with Tools SL4410A but due to its bagless design, it may perform differently from our test unit. If you come across a PROFESSIONAL Upright that's different from ours, please let us know in the discussions and we'll update our review.
Compared To Other Vacuums
The Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright is an upright vacuum for commercial use. While more lightweight than many other upright models, its plasticky build quality feels cheap and flimsy. Its performance on bare floors is also disappointing since it pushes around pet hair. Its ability to clean shaggy high-pile carpet falls short of that of its competitors such as the Miele Dynamic U1 PowerLine. Check out our recommendations of the best upright vacuums, the best multi-surface vacuums, and the best vacuums for carpets.
The Hoover WindTunnel 2 Whole House Rewind is a better upright vacuum than the Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright. The Hoover is a better-built vacuum with a bagless design. It has virtually no recurring costs and comes with more tools and brushes. It also offers better performance on bare floors and high-pile carpets. However, the Sanitaire performs better on low-pile carpets.
The BISSELL PowerForce Helix is a better upright vacuum than the Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright. The BISSELL is better built, incurs lower recurring costs since it doesn't use disposable dirtbags, and is more portable. It also offers significantly better performance on all surface types. However, the Sanitaire has a better range and is easier to maintain thanks to its bagged design.
The Dyson Ball Animal 2 Total Clean/Origin is a better upright vacuum than the Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright. The Dyson has a better build quality with virtually no recurring costs, thanks to its bagless design. It has better maneuverability and comes with a lot of tools and brushes, too. It even offers significantly better performance on all surface types. However, the Sanitaire vacuum is easier to maintain.
The Miele Dynamic U1 PowerLine is a significantly better upright vacuum than the Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright. It offers better performance on all surface types, comes with a turbo brush, and has more quality-of-life features. It feels significantly better built, too, and its dirt compartment is larger.
The Hoover WindTunnel Tempo Bagged is a better overall vacuum than the Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright. The Hoover is better built, comes with a broader selection of tools, and delivers better cleaning performance on bare floors and high-pile carpets. It's also easier to maneuver, despite being a little heavier. Meanwhile, the Sanitaire clears lightly more coarse sand-like debris on low-pile carpets.
The Kenmore Intuition Bagged is much better overall than the Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright. The Kenmore is better built, has a slightly larger dirtbag, and is more maneuverable. It also does a better job of cleaning all surface types. The Sanitaire, meanwhile, is slightly lighter and has a marginally longer range.
Test Results
The Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright has a sub-par build quality. It's mostly made of plastic, which makes it look and feel cheap. The handle feels especially prone to damage as a gap can form between it and the body. The handle of our test unit also broke during testing, which is pretty disappointing. The bag door doesn't close so that it's flush with the body either. On the upside, it's easy and intuitive to assemble. Still, if you want an upright vacuum that's noticeably better-built, consider the Kenmore Intuition Bagged.
The Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright is easy to maintain.
- Dirtbag: To access this part, you need to remove the bag door and pull this bag by its collar to remove it from the connector tube. It needs to be replaced when it's full of debris.
- Pre-motor filter: The pre-motor filter is found at the bottom of the dirt compartment. It's removable and you can clean it with warm water. The manufacturer says that it needs to be replaced but it doesn't specify a timeframe or which filter you should use.
- Post-motor filter: The post-motor filter is located behind the filter door on the vacuum's side. It can be cleaned with warm water and a mild detergent when necessary.
- Brushroll: While you can remove hair wraps from the brushroll without detaching it, you can also unscrew the brush cover to remove the brushroll if a more thorough clean is desired.
- Drive belt: If the belt becomes loose or damaged, you can remove this part by taking off the brush cover, and brushroll. It only needs to be replaced if damaged though.
You must completely air-dry any part that's washed with water before using it again. The hose on the back of the vacuum cleaner can get clogged and you should check airway entry ports for debris if you experience a decline in suction.
The Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright has two parts that need to be replaced regularly. The dirtbag needs to be thrown out and replaced when full. If the drive belt is damaged, you can also purchase a replacement part from Sanitaire's website.
The Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright is decently easy to store. While it's fairly tall and bulky, you can manually wrap its electrical cord for easier storage. All of the tools also fit right onto the vacuum.
The Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright has a good-sized dirt compartment. It holds 2.90L, but unfortunately, it doesn't have an indicator to let you know when it's reached its max capacity.
- Vacuum body
- Stretch hose with handle
- Bag door
- Post-motor filter
- Pre-motor filter
- Dust bag
- Crevice tool
- Combination upholstery and dusting brush tool
- Extension wand
- User guide
The Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright has a mediocre range. While it has a long power cord, its hose length is fairly short, even when it's stretched out.
This vacuum is decently portable. It's not too heavy and it has a carrying handle so that you can transport it up and down stairs.
This vacuum doesn't have a battery.
The Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright has one quality of life feature: its head adjustment knob. It's found on the top of the head and it has five settings, but only two are labeled: '1' for low, and '5' for high. While it has an on/off switch, it's located on the vacuum body's side, and you have to lean over to reach it.
The Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright comes with three tools. Its hose has a handle that acts as a short extension wand so that you can add tools to it. There's an extension wand that also stores the crevice tool. There's also a combination hard bristle brush and upholstery tool to make it easy to tackle stubborn messes on couches or chairs.
The Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright can be used in a half-handheld configuration by detaching the hose and short extension wand from the body.
The Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright is passable on bare floors. While it can pick up most cereal and rice without too much of an issue, it really struggles to clear pet hair. Even with the bare floor setting, the head pushes the pet hair around instead of picking it up.
The Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright has a good performance on low-pile carpet. It can pick up most pet hair, a good amount of baking soda, and quite a bit of sand. However, its performance seems to slightly decline as the dirtbag fills. You can adjust its head to better suit your carpet's pile, though.
The Sanitaire PROFESSIONAL Upright is disappointing on high-pile carpet. It clears a good amount of pet hair but it struggles considerably more with small and large debris. It has an especially difficult time picking up sand and you need to make multiple passes to clean this mess. That said, you can adjust the head to better suit your carpet's pile if necessary.
This vacuum has sub-par maneuverability. It moves well on bare floors but it can get stuck on rugs or carpet, even if you have it set to its high-pile setting. The brushroll doesn't stop spinning and it can damage your floor or rug when placed in an upright mode. Its bulky design can make it a little tricky to clean under couches or tables since the head can stop you from moving further beneath furniture. Unfortunately, it can also get stuck on tassels. It can also get caught in electrical cords if you're on its lowest setting. While the extension wand and tools are handy features to clean furniture, the body is also a bit unstable when using the wand and tools in its alternative configuration.
