What's is the best vacuum for hardwood floors?
Hardwood and vinyl flooring have become popular in the last decade or so, and they've added to the complexity of flooring types in a home. I'm in that camp: There's carpet, tile and vinyl in my house, and while I enjoy it, this leads to a new question: What's the best vacuum to tackle hardwood floors and other hard flooring types? Ultimately, the best overall vacuum for cleaning up your hardwood floors is a cordless model, the Tineco Pure One S15 Pet.
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While the best vacuum cleaner may be great overall and even excel at cleaning up on carpets, it may not be the best for hard floors. Here at CNET, we've tested dozens of different vacuum cleaners in our lab to help determine which vacuums work best for hardwood floors. Here is a list of robot, cordless and even options to help clean up messes on your flooring.
Best vacuum for hardwood floors for 2025
Pros
- Excellent hard floor cleaning
- Good runtime of 40 min
- Automatically adjusts cleaning power
Cons
- No self-emptying base station
While you may not be familiar with Tineco, with just a bit of research, you'll quickly find that it makes some of the top cordless vacuums on the market. The Pure One S15 Pet is a formidable all-around vacuum, but it went unmatched in the lab when it came to cleaning up debris on hardwood floors.
In our testing, the Tineco Pure One S15 Pet picked up every piece of black rice from the floor and all the sand. This HEPA-filtered vacuum scored 89.92 overall in cleaning hardwood, low and midpile carpets. So if you have a home with mixed flooring types, this cordless vac can handle it all.
When cleaning up, the vacuum will automatically detect the dirt level and flooring type and increase suction power to ensure it doesn't miss a thing. As a vacuum with a pet label, it is excellent at avoiding hair tangles on the brush so you can cross that off your list. While it doesn't have a self-emptying charging station, when it is time to dump the debris, the one-button feature makes it easy and keeps your hands clean.
Pros
- Excellent obstacle detection
- Great at avoiding pet waste
Cons
- No built-in mop
- Pricey
Roomba may still be the most recognized name in robot vacuums, and that's not only because it was a pioneer in the space, but because it continues to make very good robot vacuums. The Roomba J7 Plus may not be the newest model on the block from iRobot, but it continues to be one of the best.
During our lab tests, the Roomba J7 Plus cleaned up the competition -- yes, pun intended -- but sweeping up every spec of sand and over 97% of the black rice in our hardwood floor testing. It also does so efficiently with its RGB camera and 3D sensor for navigation and obstacle recognition. This comes in clutch when there is the ever-fear-inducing pet defecation that tends to end up right in the path of a robot vacuum.
While the Roomba J7 Plus lacks a built-in mop, the docking station will automatically empty the debris picked up by the vac. This way, the next time your floors are ready to be swept, your Roomba J7 Plus will be fully charged, empty of dirt and ready to go.
Pros
- Lightweight
- Easy-to-empty dustbin
- Excellent cleaning power
Cons
- Short runtime
Not every mess requires getting out a cordless or corded vacuum to clean it up. In some cases, those bigger vacs can't even get to the mess. This is when a powerful handheld vacuum like the Shart Wandvac is the perfect tool for the job.
Our testing showed that this compact vacuum was able to clean up over 97% of the black rice and all of the sand from the hardwood floors. Stats like this mean that any dry debris on your floors, desktops, counters or other hard surfaces will be light work for this handheld cleaner. Oh, and when it's time to empty out the mess, a simple press of a button opens the bin and lets the dust fall out -- without you needing to get your hands dirty.
The biggest downside to the Shark Wandvac is its runtime. At only 10 minutes of cleaning per charge, you'll likely have enough juice to pick up a quick mess. But you won't want to rely on it for deeper cleaning and always make sure it's put back on the charging dock so it'll be ready next time you need it.
Pros
- Very lightweight
- Solid runtime
- Built-in light
Cons
- No docking station
This cordless stick vacuum is under $100, so you may not think it would clean well. But in our testing, the Moosoo TC1M XL-618A did fantastic on hardwood floors. It got a nearly perfect score on our black rice and sand tests but missed it by getting 99% of the sand picked up.
When cleaning hard flooring, sometimes it can be difficult to see dust, but the Moosoo vacuum has an LED light across the front of the cleaning head. This makes a big difference in cleaning because, even if your floor may look clear of larger pieces of debris, the light will show you the thin layer of dust that could be on your floor.
It would be expected to have a small dust bin capacity and low runtime at the budget price, but at 1.3 liters and 35 minutes, both are perfectly acceptable. But there is a bit of a corner cut because Moosoo doesn't include a dock to put the vacuum on while charging. It does stand up on its own, though.
Pros
- All-in-one cleaning dock
- Built-in mop
- Swing-out mop and side brush
Cons
- Expensive
At $1,900, a robot vacuum is expected to be a do-it-all kind of machine, and the Dreame X40 Ultra is that. While it didn't top the list, when cleaning up messes on hardwood floors, the X40 Ultra nabbed over 93% of the black rice and over 95% of the sand in our tests. In addition to that, the impressive robo vac has a side brush that will extend out to reach into corners and right up against baseboards to ensure the entire floor is cleaned.
In addition to the swing-out brush, the spinning mop pads can also extend to reach hard-to-reach areas. When mopping, the X40 Ultra collects dirty water and returns it to the base station to empty it, clean the mop pads and get more clean water. At the end of the entire cleaning task, the base empties out the dust from the vacuum and dries out the mop pads with 158. degrees Fahrenheit water and air.
If you want an amazing robot vacuum that lets you get your home's floors sparkling clean without lifting a finger, this can do it. But you'll have to fork over nearly $2,000 to get it.
Factors to consider when buying a vacuum cleaner
Vacuum type: Robot vs. cordless stick
Floor care is a broad category these days with seemingly a tool dedicated to nearly any way you want to get your floors sparkling. While there is still a place for a plug-in style vacuum, with advances in battery technology, wire-free devices are far more convenient.
When considering a cordless stick-type vacuum, you will get the best results when using it on hard surfaces. This is mostly because the cleaning head is much lighter than that of a cord-style vac and struggles to stay pressed to the surface. But that lightweight is exactly what makes these devices so great. Being able to easily move from room to room, literally cleaning from top to bottom, you can get much more done. An excellent cordless vacuum can be the perfect tool to get debris picked up from all over the house, and it won't wear you down in the process.
iRobot created an affordable and effective robot vacuum in the Roomba i3 Plus that is great at picking up pet hair in homes.
For some, even the effort required to use a cordless vacuum can be too much or requires time that isn't available. In these instances, getting one of the best robot vacuums can really be the ticket. These devices are the ultimate time-saver and multitasking products, allowing you to free up your time to do other things. However, there are some areas the robot vacuum can't go, like on the couch. So, there are limitations to this type of vacuum, too.
Cost and value
Whether something is expensive or not is largely in the eye of the beholder. Though we do offer what is considered to be value options on this list, you are still looking at a minimum of a few hundred dollars to get a great vacuum for cleaning your floors. That is the out-of-pocket cost, then you have to consider the cost of your time.
Using a stick vac will require you to physically be involved in the cleaning process by walking around and pushing the vacuum around to pick up any messes. Whereas a robot vacuum will cost you more than most cordless vacuums, you won't have to be involved in the cleaning process nearly as much. This is what is considered a value proposition. If saving $100 or more upfront is the most important thing to you, then look at the lower-cost items on this list or save even more money with a product from our best cheap vacuums list.
But if time is more important to you, then picking up a robot vacuum, which is usually more expensive than cordless options, is the way to go. You'll have trade-offs with this style of vacuum compared to a stick vac, but you can use the time saved for other things.
Floor type
Stuck once again on an area rug
Most homes today have multiple types of flooring, from wood and tile to carpets and rugs. Each of these surfaces can pose different problems for floor cleaning devices. However, typically, the hard surface types tend to be the easiest to clean up for both cordless and robot vacuums.
Carpets and pet hair go together really well, but makes it more difficult to clean. While you can usually get all the dirt and other loose debris out with relative ease, pet hair gets intertwined with the carpet fabrics and requires more power to remove. Cordless vacuums are versatile in where they can be used, but the design of the brush head can sometimes be less effective at cleaning hair from carpets since it is so light. However, stick vacs are excellent at cleaning up hard surfaces.
Robot vacuums tend to offer similar or better cleaning results on carpet, but to keep the devices as small as possible, they tend to be more underpowered than a stick vacuum. Regardless of that, robo vacs do excellent on hard surfaces and can be a solid all-around choice if it works for your home's flooring setup.
How we test vacuum cleaners at CNET
Our method for evaluating robot vacuums is straightforward but grueling. There are two types of tests we run. The first trial is to figure out how well a robot covers the floor while it's cleaning. We built an industry-standard testing room as specified by the International Electrotechnical Commission just for this purpose. The IEC is an international standards body responsible for managing robot vacuum testing procedures, among other things, for vacuum manufacturers.
We watch what robot vacuums do inside the test room closely.
Inside this room are objects designed to simulate typical obstacles a robot vac encounters for navigation as it cleans. These obstacles include wall edges, table and chair legs, couches, other furniture and so on, plus bare tile and hardwood floors, as well as carpet. We mount LED lights to the top of each vacuum cleaner. The dimensions of the lights correspond to the measured nozzle width of each particular robot vacuum we test.
As robots move through the room while cleaning, an overhead camera captures a long-exposure image of the entire room in low light. That photo will then have a light trail, created by the LEDs, that shows the exact areas where the robot traveled (and its nozzle position) during its runtime. We can also see areas of the floor where the vacuum may have missed or gotten stuck. You can see the navigation results of all the robot vacuums in our test group in the gallery below.
The second type of test reveals exactly how much physical debris a vacuum is able to pick up off of the floor. To mimic dirt of small particle size, we use a mixture of play sand and landscaping sand. For bigger particle soil, we use grains of uncooked black rice. Robots then run in straight line mode across three types of flooring (low-pile carpet, medium-pile carpet and hardwood bare floors).
We control for the specific nozzle width of each vacuum, too. We constructed an adjustable tool to soil our test floors. It lets us lay down a strip of a precise area of soil to match the nozzle dimensions for every robot. The mass of soil isn't chosen at random either. We measure a proportional amount that's related to the flooring material, type of debris, plus each vacuum's nozzle width.
We conduct three cleaning runs (at minimum) on each floor type. We also perform cleaning tests with sand and rice separately. That comes to at least 18 tests per robot vacuum. We weigh the robot's dustbin both before and after each run. From there we can calculate the percentage of debris pickup for every cleaning run and the average amount of soil a machine manages to remove. Additionally we run anecdotal (visual) pet hair tests for each robot, on all three floor types.
Our rice-based, medium-size particle test didn't show enough differentiation between each cleaner, which says they can all handle larger particles without trouble. For fur removal for pet owners, we judged anecdotally.
How we test cordless vacuums
We run tests in a straight line across all three floor types.
Just like in robot tests, the width of the test bed is proportional to the vacuum's nozzle width. We measure this width ourselves. We also use nozzle width, plus the flooring type, to calculate the soil density for each test, per IEC guidelines. We use the same soil types here as well; sand, rice and pet hair. We perform three runs (at minimum) on each floor type. We also test suction power with sand and rice separately. That comes to at least 18 tests per vacuum. We weigh the vacuum's dust bin both before and after each run.
From there we can calculate the percentage of dirt and debris pickup for every run and the average amount of soil a vacuum manages to remove. Additionally, we run anecdotal (visual) pet hair tests for each vacuum, on all three floor types to help us select the best cordless vacuum.
Hardwood floor cleaning FAQs
What makes a vacuum cleaner good for hardwood floors?
Picking a good vacuum for hardwood isn't all that much different than finding a good overall vacuum. However, each vacuum is built differently than another, and some express a lot of air from the sides which can cause debris on your hardwood floors to get blown away from the brushes. This is going to be difficult to know without using it, but that's what we're for. But in your own research, look for strong suction power, an active side brush, and a large-capacity dustbin.
Which vacuums have the strongest suction?
Suction power for robot vacuums and stick vacs is calculated differently, making it challenging to compare head-to-head. However, you can use each type of measuring method to help inform you how much suction each style of cleaning tool offers. Robot vacuums use units of Pascal or "Pa" to indicate the suction power for these devices, with a range between 850 and 12,000 PA, with most averaging between 3,000 and 6,000 Pa.
For stick vacs, the standard unit of measurement is air watts, or "AW," to give consumers an idea of the vacuum's suction power. AW combines water lift and airflow methodologies and is recognized by the American Society of Testing and Materials.
What is the most reliable vacuum cleaner?
Each vacuum style can offer long-term cleaning ability should you properly maintain your machine. This includes removing clogs and periodically giving the vacuum a deep clean. Generally, especially for cheap stick vacs, fewer things can go wrong and cause the unit to become less reliable. Robot vacuums rely on sensors and more moving parts to properly clean your floors. Then there's an app and other software aspects that can sometimes cause issues. This is not common, but it is something to be aware of.
