Best Vacuums for Allergy Sufferers
Several top vacuums from Kenmore, Miele, and other brands ace CR's emissions tests, which judge their ability to keep dust out of the air
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A good vacuum can be a game-changer for anyone who has seasonal allergies. But if your vacuum spews more dust and debris than it picks up, you could be doing yourself more harm than good. That’s one reason Consumer Reports measures emissions when we test vacuum cleaners. The best ones for allergies keep dirt well-contained and the air clear.
If you’re especially sensitive to dust and allergens, buying a vacuum with a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filter is a good starting point.
“There are newer vacuum cleaners that have different filtration systems, but we always recommend that a HEPA filter is there somewhere,” says Sanaz Eftekhari, chief business development officer and vice president of research at the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. “The HEPA filter will trap the matters and molecules that are coming in, so they won’t go back into the air.”
Another consideration is whether the vacuum has a bag. Bagged vacuum cleaners are more likely to send allergy-triggering debris flying into the air. Bagless vacuums are typically better at trapping these particles and tend to have lower emissions, but emptying the bin can still create a dust cloud that’s difficult to escape.
Below, we present the top bagged and bagless upright and canister vacuums, stick vacuums, and handhelds with the lowest emissions in CR’s ratings. As a bonus, most of these options perform well at picking up another allergy trigger: pet hair. They’re grouped by type and ordered alphabetically. For more choices, see our full vacuum cleaner ratings, and consult our vacuum cleaner buying guide to learn more about how we test vacuums in our labs and what to look for when choosing one.
Bagged Upright Vacuums With the Lowest Emissions
Strong airflow for tools and very good pet hair pickup are top attractions of the bagged Kenmore Elite Pet Friendly 31150. Though you can get a fine performer for less, this appliance has several helpful features, such as a brush on/off switch, which safeguards a bare floor’s finish and prevents scattering of debris; suction control, which protects drapes; and manual carpet pile-height adjustment. It earns our best rating for clean emissions. But Kenmore’s upright vacuums garner just middling scores for predicted reliability and owner satisfaction in CR’s member surveys.
While upright vacuums typically excel at cleaning carpets, the Kenmore BU1018 actually does a bit better on bare floors, which makes it a good option for handling hardwood floors, among other types. And if you have a pet, it’s a great pick given its top-notch score in our pet hair removal test. This vacuum has nice extras like a HEPA filter (a big reason it earns a top-notch clean emissions rating) and a full-bag indicator.
Bagless Upright Vacuums With the Lowest Emissions
The Shark PowerDetect AZ4002 offers both strong cleaning performance and convenient features. It’s stellar at cleaning bare floors and is exceptional for clean emissions, making it the ideal vacuum for kitchens, bathrooms, and hardwood floors. It also earned near-top-level scores in our carpet cleaning tests, and automatically adjusts the speed of the brush rolls depending on the floor type. This vacuum is able to sense dirt and boost its power to take up more debris. And unlike some vacuums that can only clean when you move them forward, this one picks up debris moving forward and backward.
The Shark Navigator Professional NV360 is one of the least expensive upright vacuums we’ve tested, and it’s also one of the highest-performing. Its standout feature is that it’s the only bagless upright model to earn a top score in our carpet cleaning tests. It’s equally amazing at picking up stray pet hair and clearing bare floors of debris, plus keeping it all trapped, which is reflected in its top-notch emissions score. The vacuum weighs about 14 pounds and has a detachable pod for more flexible cleaning.
Bagged Canister Vacuums With the Lowest Emissions
Even though it’s a bit pricey, the Miele Complete C3 Marin is worth a look for its fine cleaning and pet hair pickup. It earns a superb rating in our emissions test. Carpet cleaning is decent, its airflow for tools is very good, and its pickup performance on bare floors is excellent. Other pluses include manual carpet pile-height adjustment, suction control for drapes, and a brush on/off switch for bare floors. The Miele is one of the quietest vacuums in our tests, and its canister vacuums get the best scores possible for predicted reliability and owner satisfaction.
The Kenmore Elite Pet Friendly UltraPlush 81714 is indeed friendly for pet owners, with its great showing in our pet hair test. It’s also a champ at cleaning bare floors and a solid performer at cleaning carpet, making it a smart choice if you have a combination of flooring. Although it made the top grade in our emissions test, there are quieter choices.
Bagless Canister Vacuums With the Lowest Emissions
The Miele Blizzard CX1 Cat & Dog canister is on the pricey side for a vacuum, but it’s one of the best bagless canisters you can buy. This vacuum does an outstanding job at cleaning bare floors, though it’s only okay at cleaning carpets. Compared with many other canisters, it’s on the lighter side. Allergy sufferers may appreciate that this vacuum also performs extremely well in our emissions testing, releasing little debris back into the environment.
If you’re looking for a bagless canister that will do well on both carpets and bare floors, consider the Kenmore 500 Series DC5070. The vacuum aced our bare floor cleaning tests and notched a very good score for carpet cleaning. It was also first-rate on pet hair removal. We like that there’s a handle on the side of the vacuum that makes it easier to carry and maneuver. One of our favorite features of this model is the hair eliminator nozzle, which has ridges that help loosen and remove tangled hair.
Stick Vacuums With the Lowest Emissions
The corded Shark PowerDetect HZ4002 offers top-notch cleaning for bare floors and pet hair, and performs above par on carpets. It’s also the only corded stick vacuum that CR recommends, with a best-in-class score for clean emissions. It features an auto-detect mode that adjusts the brush roll speed to the surface, transitioning efficiently between carpets and hard floors. It also has two brush rolls: one with rubber fins for optimal contact with surfaces and a soft roller to capture small particles. It can be converted into a hand vac, which makes it easier to clean stairs and reach higher areas in your home. It also pulls apart for compact storage, allowing it to stand on its own and take up minimal space.
The premium Samsung Bespoke AI Jet Ultra VS90F40DMK/AA cordless stick vacuum delivers high performance and is packed with advanced tech features, reflected in its higher price. It includes a digital display that shows real-time battery run time while in use and battery percentage while charging. The removable battery adds flexibility, and the vacuum can be connected through an app (optional) to unlock AI-powered functionality, such as detection capabilities and suction and run time optimization. It also comes with a cleaning station that serves as a charger and automatically empties the contents of the vacuum into the station bin, helping contribute to its excellent emissions rating.
Handheld Vacuums With the Lowest Emissions
The small Shark Ion W1 WV201 handheld vacuum exhibited impressive performance both on carpet and bare floors while being quieter than most models. It’s very small and light, making it easy to get into those hard-to-reach places, but its small bin size means you’ll be forced to empty it (potentially a few times) when trying to clean a particularly large spill.
The Black+Decker Max+ DustBuster AdvancedClean+ HHVK515J00 is a good bet if you have bare floors, and it delivers solid results when cleaning the carpet. If pet hair is your nemesis, however, you should try the Shark Ion model above. This Black+Decker offers clean emissions, though, and earns an excellent rating for cleaning edges. It comes with attachments to help you clean tighter spaces, such as car seats and the cushions of your couch. It’s also one of the quieter handhelds in our tests.
How CR Tests Vacuums
To rate upright vacuums and canisters, we test dozens of models to see how well they remove debris from carpet and bare floors, how easy they are to maneuver around (and under) furniture, how clean their emissions are, and the strength of their suction. We run similar tests for stick vacuums.
To do this, we rig each upright vacuum in our testing with a pressure gauge and measure airflow in three stages: with the vacuum bag or bin empty, with it filled with 100 grams of wood flour, and with it filled with 200 grams of wood flour.
We do similar tests on canister vacuums. CR tests them across different surfaces and challenges them with picking up pet hair and other debris. We also measure airflow through the hose.
To see how much debris a vacuum emits, our testers stuff wood flour into each one and measure the amount of particles released into the air using a laser spectrometer.
On top of these calculations, we factor in the reliability and owner satisfaction scores from surveys based on members’ experiences with 115,656 nonrobotic vacuums bought between 2014 and 2024. As with all products that CR tests, the ratings they earn across our battery of tests and our surveys inform our Overall Score for each vacuum.
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