8 Best Canister Vacuums of 2026, Lab-Tested and Reviewed
These Eureka, Kenmore, and Miele canisters stand out for their effectiveness in picking up pet hair and cleaning bare floors
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I grew up using canister vacuums, so I’ve always had a soft spot for them. While their long hoses and bulky bodies might make them trickier to store than, say, an upright, there are advantages to using a canister vacuum.
Because the weight is distributed between the canister itself and the powerhead, canister vacuums are easier to move around than upright vacuums. They’re also more well-suited to cleaning stairs because you’re not lifting the whole vacuum. And with their long hose, a canister can reach areas that are hard for an upright to access, such as spaces under your furniture.
To find the best canister vacuums, Consumer Reports puts each model through multiple tests, assessing its effectiveness at cleaning carpets and bare floors, as well as its ability to tackle specific jobs like removing pet hair. Other criteria that go into our evaluation include how quiet a vacuum is, the strength of its suction power, and how capable it is at preventing the debris it has sucked up from escaping back into the air. We also consider how easy it is to push, pull, and carry, and whether it comes with convenient features that make using and maintaining the vacuum less of a hassle.
Below, in alphabetical order, we’ve listed the top bagged and bagless canister vacuums from CR’s tests. Many of them impressed us with their ability to clean bare floors, and several are very good at cleaning carpets as well. In addition to those picks, you’ll find more details on how we test canister vacuums and determine which ones are the best. You can also browse our full canister vacuum ratings and consult our vacuum cleaner buying guide to learn more.
Best Bagged Canister Vacuums
If you have allergies, bagged vacuums are more likely to reduce your exposure to allergens. Their Overall Scores based on our tests also tend to be slightly higher. And compared with bagless vacuums, bagged vacuums typically can hold more debris and need to be emptied less often.
The Kenmore Elite Pet Friendly CrossOver 21814 is top-notch at cleaning bare floors and, like many of the canisters featured here, earns a very good rating for cleaning carpets. Suction through the hose is superb, and the vacuum does well at capturing the particles it has sucked up and making sure they don’t leak out. This Kenmore comes with a 27-foot retractable cord, floor brush, dusting brush, and crevice tool. At close to 26 pounds, however, it’s one of the heaviest canisters in CR’s tests, which contributes to its unimpressive score for handling. Other Kenmore canisters remove pet hair better in our tests, but the 21814 model still does a solid job. As a brand, Kenmore canisters earn midlevel ratings for predicted reliability and owner satisfaction in our member surveys.
For a slightly less expensive option, it’s worth looking at the Kenmore Elite Pet Friendly UltraPlush 81714 (which is indeed pet-friendly, earning an excellent score in our test for removing pet hair). It’s a champ at cleaning bare floors and a solid performer on carpets, making it a smart choice if you have a mix of flooring. It makes the grade in our filtration test, but for noise, there are quieter options. In our tests, we found the vacuum somewhat cumbersome to use and carry, which is reflected in the so-so handling score.
The Miele Complete C3 Marin earns impressive marks in almost every test we throw its way. It’s very good at cleaning bare floors and a champ at picking up embedded pet hair, and its emissions are free of debris, earning the highest score possible in our filtration assessment. Its carpet cleaning capabilities are only so-so, though. It’s the most expensive canister in this group, but its consistently strong performance has made it one of the higher-scoring canisters for several years running. The vacuum earns a very good score for ease of use because of its decent bin capacity and its low clearance, which allows it to reach under furniture. If you’re looking for a vacuum that’s unlikely to break down even after years of use, Miele canisters have top-notch scores for predicted reliability and owner satisfaction, based on our member surveys.
The Miele Guard L1, like the Miele Complete C3 Marin, is on the pricier side. But it’s still worth the investment, given its strong cleaning performance. It’s excellent at sucking up debris from bare floors, such as hardwood, tile, and linoleum, and also does very well on carpet. Some of its handy features include a 2-in-1 upholstery and crevice nozzle and a universal powerhead that allows the vacuum to transition smoothly between floor types. If you need to pause in the middle of your vacuuming, the wand can be hooked onto the rear of the vacuum cleaner, making it easier for you to resume your cleaning later without having to bend down and pick up the wand from the floor.
Best Bagless Canister Vacuums
With bagless canister vacuums, you don’t have the added expense of buying vacuum bags. It’s also more environmentally friendly because there are no disposable bags that will eventually end up in a landfill. These four models are exceptional at cleaning pet hair, and all have top or near-top-level scores for effective filtration.
If you don’t have many carpets in your home, the inexpensive Eureka WhirlWind XL NEN186BL might be best for you. It does only so-so on carpets and doesn’t come with manual carpet-pile adjustment, but it’s excellent at sucking up pet hair and clearing debris from bare, uncarpeted floors. It’s quieter than the other top-performing bagless canisters we’re spotlighting here and also lighter at around 16 pounds. As a brand, Eureka canisters earn a strong score for predicted reliability and an okay score for owner satisfaction.
The budget-friendly Kenmore 22614 includes a manual carpet pile-height adjustment, suction control, a brush on/off switch, and a retractable cord. One caveat: Handling this vacuum’s 23 pounds takes some muscle, and it’s not the easiest to carry around. But if you’re looking for a bagless canister with the strongest cleaning performance among the vacuums we tested, this is it. Top scores on bare floors and pet-hair pickup, along with impressive performance cleaning carpet and retaining debris, make this bagless canister a solid pick for those who don’t mind the vacuum’s weight.
If you’re looking for a canister that, like the Kenmore 22614, performs well on both carpets and bare floors but is a bit easier to maneuver because of its lighter weight, consider the Kenmore 500 Series DC5070. The vacuum aces our pet-hair cleaning tests and notches very good scores for cleaning carpet and bare floors. We like that the vacuum has a top-mounted handle, which makes it easier to carry. One of our favorite features of this model is the hair eliminator nozzle, which has ridges that help loosen and remove tangled hair.
Like other Mieles, the Miele Blizzard CX1 Cat & Dog is on the pricey side. But it effortlessly picks up pet hair and fur and has strong hose suction. Its carpet and bare-floor cleaning prowess might not be as strong as that of the other bagless canisters we’ve listed, but it still performs decently in our cleaning tests. The vacuum comes with an upholstery nozzle, crevice nozzle, and dusting brush. You can park the vacuum’s floorhead and suction tube next to its main body, making it easier to pause in the middle of your vacuuming and resume.
How CR Tests Canister Vacuums
CR tests canister vacuums across a variety of surfaces and challenges them to pick up pet hair and other debris.
We also measure airflow through the hose and the vacuums’ emissions—that is, how much dust and debris they spew into the air. To see how much debris a model emits while vacuuming, our testers stuff wood flour into each one and measure the amount of particles released into the air using a laser spectrometer. For more on our vacuum testing, see how CR tests vacuums.
The Overall Score for each model incorporates results from all our tests, as well as brand reliability and owner satisfaction scores based on CR members’ experiences with the 150,897 vacuums they purchased new between 2016 and 2026. For more insights from these vacuum owners, see our guide to the most reliable vacuum brands.
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