Best Vacuums for College Students
Dorms can get gross fast; these handy vacuums will help yours get a passing grade
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I don’t consider myself a messy person, but when I think about how often I cleaned my college dorm room back in the day, I’m a little horrified. Unlike some of my friends who brought a vacuum cleaner with them, I picked up a vacuum cleaner exactly zero times as an undergrad.
It’s not pretty, living in a room where dirt, dust, and bits of food have made the floor their permanent home. Sure, I made the mistake of never vacuuming my dorm, but that doesn’t mean I recommend it. If you’re a college student, having an inexpensive but high-performing vacuum cleaner on hand can help you keep your quarters tidier—or at the very least more livable—something your roommates will surely appreciate. And if you’re a parent who was a bit ... disappointed ... at the state of your child’s campus digs during a recent family weekend, remember that it’s never too late to gift them with an inexpensive, easy-to-store vacuum to prevent you from stepping on any unidentifiable objects on your next visit.
After we spoke with several college students, it became clear which vacuum attributes make the grade. A dorm vacuum needs to be small, convenient to use, and lightweight. And, of course, there’s the price. Parents might have deeper pockets, but the students I spoke to definitely favored a vacuum that could deliver on power without exceeding their budget.
For this assignment, we’ve selected six handheld and stick vacuums that perform well in our tests and are relatively inexpensive. While handheld vacuum cleaners and stick vacuums might not be as powerful as a full-sized canister or upright model, their small size and convenience make them more suitable for dorm life. Handheld vacs are small, easy to handle, and ideal for surface and spot cleaning. Stick vacuums are compact and lightweight, and their suction power has improved in recent years.
Dorm rooms are generally small, so a corded stick vacuum will probably reach from end to end, provided its cord is long enough. A cordless stick might seem like a more convenient choice, but you’ll still need to find a free outlet (among the lamps and computers and phone chargers) to charge it, and cordless models tend to be pricier than corded ones. They can also come with potential battery issues, such as worsening battery life or a battery that dies completely.
Below, in alphabetical order by category, we’ve highlighted six handheld and stick vacuums that we would choose to room with. For even more options, check our complete vacuum ratings.
A great budget pick, the Black+Decker DustBuster CHV1410L is outstanding at cleaning bare floors and very good at suctioning up debris from carpets and edges. Like the Black+Decker Max+ DustBuster AdvancedClean+ HHVK515J00 below, it comes with a crevice tool that helps you clean places that are hard to reach. But its run time is shorter—around 9 minutes—making it better at sucking up a few spilled chips than completing a top-to-bottom clean. This model is also on the slightly noisier side, earning a middling score in our noise tests.
The last thing you want is your vac to quit in the middle of a cleanup session. Luckily, the Black+Decker Max+ DustBuster AdvancedClean+ HHVK515J00 has an average run time of about 23 minutes, the longest among all the handheld vacs we tested. This hand vac is stellar at cleaning bare floors and edges, and solid at cleaning carpets. It comes with a crevice tool and attachments that allow for vacuuming hard-to-reach spaces like underneath your bed or behind your mini fridge. It’s also a quieter model, a bonus if you live with roommates and don’t want to disturb them.
The Shark Vertex Pro IZ662H, at more than $400, is worth it for the cleaning performance. The model aced our bare floor and edges tests, earning an excellent rating in both, and it’s adequate at cleaning carpets. It also folds for compact storage, perfect for a college dorm. The Shark Vertex Pro IZ662H has a longer battery life than most of the other cordless stick vacs we tested. It runs for about 42 minutes on the low setting and 12 minutes on the high setting. The model’s display shows its battery percentage, so you can monitor the charge level as you clean and not have to fret about your vacuum dying. Like some other sticks, this Shark can convert to a hand vac for more lightweight cleaning, and it has a flexible wand that streamlines its profile for better under-furniture clearance.
The Tineco A10-D Plus Vacuum Cleaner is an acceptable, basic choice if you want to keep your budget under $200 and your dorm doesn’t have too much carpeting. While the model is top-notch at vacuuming edges and does a solid job at cleaning up bare floors, it’s only passable at removing debris from carpets. And you’ll have to cram on your cleaning with this vac: The run time is on the shorter side, about 13 minutes on low mode and 11 minutes on high mode in CR’s tests. However, it does have a color-coded light to warn you when the battery is about to run out. It scores well in our noise test and gets a top score in our emissions test, which is helpful if anyone in the area has allergies.
If you’re looking for a corded stick vac under $200 that cleans well and is unlikely to have issues down the road, the Shark Rocket is the one. In our member survey of corded stick vacs, Shark as a brand received top marks for predicted reliability and a strong score in owner satisfaction. This model is expected to perform similarly to the tested HV302, which has limited distribution at this time. That model suctioned up cereal, rice, and sand on laminate flooring with aplomb in our bare-floor test and showed strong performance in cleaning edges, though it scored just so-so on cleaning carpets. Its 30-foot cord will let you cover your room from end to end, and it comes with a crevice tool, contoured nozzle, dust brush, and pet hair tool to get into tiny spaces (and cover up for your favorite feline’s unsanctioned visit). You can also convert it to a hand vac to make quick work of desktop spills.
With this model, you’re getting two for one. Part of the Shark Vertex Ultralight HZ2002 Vacuum Cleaner can be detached and used as a hand vac that weighs a light 2.9 pounds. The model comes with a 30-foot cord, long enough to maneuver the vacuum around your space easily. Among all the corded stick vacuums we tested, this model earned the highest scores in our bare floor tests. Its ability to clean edges is very good, though it’s only adequate at removing debris from carpets (when you’re cleaning, you can switch between hard floor and carpet mode). The model comes with a dust brush, a crevice tool, and a self-cleaning brush roll.
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