Best Vacuums of 2026 for Allergy Sufferers
Top-rated vacuums from Kenmore, Miele, and other brands ace CR's filtration tests, which assess their ability to keep irritants contained
When you shop through retailer links on our site, we may earn affiliate commissions. 100% of the fees we collect are used to support our nonprofit mission. Learn more.
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 matter and molecules that are coming in, so they won’t go back into the air.”
Another consideration is whether the vacuum has a bag. Emptying a bagless vacuum can create a dust cloud, increasing your exposure to allergens, so you might be better off choosing a bagged vacuum.
Below, we present the top bagged and bagless upright and canister vacuums, stick vacuums, and handhelds with high scores for filtration effectiveness. 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 how we test vacuums in our labs and what to look for when choosing one.
Bagged Upright Vacuums With the Lowest Emissions
While upright vacuums typically excel at cleaning carpets, the Kenmore BU1018 actually performs better on bare floors (earning an excellent rating), 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.
Overall, this Kenmore Intuition BU4050 bagged model is a strong performer that’s also budget-friendly. It excels in our pet hair tests and features a HEPA filtration system, making it a great choice for allergy sufferers. It features a lift-away design for enhanced portability, adjustable suction control, and a compact powerhead that’s powerful enough to remove embedded dirt from carpets. Another plus is the hair eliminator feature on the brush roll, designed to prevent hair entanglement.
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 exceptional for filtration effectiveness and pet hair pickup, 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 based on the floor type. This vacuum can sense dirt and boost its suction to pick 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 Stratos AZ3002 is good for any home with a mixture of surfaces and is especially handy if you are sensitive to dust. This 17-pound upright does a very good job cleaning carpets and an excellent job on bare floors, with effective filtration and good pet hair pickup. The power-lift-away feature, which allows it to be used like a canister, is another plus. This model comes with several attachments, and the suction through the hose is top-notch, so you won’t have a problem vacuuming upholstery. There’s also an odor neutralizer that the manufacturer says you can dial in to help freshen the air.
Bagged Canister Vacuums With the Lowest Emissions
It’s pricey, but the Miele Complete C3 Marin is worth a look for its fine cleaning performance and excellent pet hair pickup. It also earns a superb rating in our filtration effectiveness test. Its carpet-cleaning ability is decent, its airflow for tools is very good, and its pickup performance on bare floors is also very good. Other pluses include manual adjustment for different carpet pile heights, 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 models earn the highest possible scores for predicted reliability and owner satisfaction.
The Miele Guard L1 is as pricey as its brandmate above, but, like the Complete C3 Marin, it can be a worthy investment. It gets an excellent rating in our filtration effectiveness and pet hair tests. It’s also a champ at cleaning bare floors, like hardwood and tile, and does a good job at cleaning 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 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.
Bagless Canister Vacuums With the Lowest Emissions
The Eureka Whirlwind is a moderately priced bagless canister that gets excellent scores for effective filtration and pet hair pickup. It’s also great at cleaning bare floors, though less adept on carpet. It’s among the quieter bagless canisters we’ve tested, and has a 20-foot retractable cord. Predicted reliability for Eureka canisters is very good, according to our member surveys, though owner satisfaction is just middling.
The Miele Blizzard CX1 Cat & Dog canister is one of the best bagless canisters you can buy—but like other Mieles, it’s pricey. 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 will appreciate that this vacuum also performs extremely well in our filtration testing, releasing little debris back into the environment. It earns an excellent score for pet hair pick up, too.
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 just one of two corded stick vacuums 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 surface contact and a soft roller to capture small particles. It can be converted into a hand vac, which makes it easier to clean stairs and other hard-to-reach 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 features, which is reflected in its high price. It’s the highest-performing cordless vacuum that we’ve tested, earning top-notch scores for both pet hair pickup and filtration effectiveness. 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 vacuum’s contents into the station’s bin.
Handheld Vacuums With the Lowest Emissions
The small Shark Ion W1 WV201 handheld vacuum delivers great performance on carpet and excellent performance on bare floors, while remaining quieter than most models. It’s a good choice for allergy-prone individuals because it earns an excellent score for filtration effectiveness and pet hair pickup. It’s very small and light, making it easy to get into hard-to-reach places, but its small bin size means you’ll have to empty it (potentially a few times) when cleaning a particularly large spill.
The uniquely designed Black+Decker Flex BDH2020FL is excellent when it comes to expelling filtered and clear air and has an impressively large bin and a built-in hose, making it easier to clean hard-to-reach spaces. It earns top-notch ratings for cleaning pet hair and is equally excellent at cleaning tight corners and hard-to-reach areas. It comes with several attachments, including a handy crevice tool and a rubber pet hair tool, and all the tools can be stowed in the charging dock.
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 use and maneuver around (and under) furniture, how noisy they are, how many features they have, and how strong their suction is. For corded and cordless stick vacs, we test pickup on carpet, bare floors, and around edges, along with noise levels and ease of use.
Of particular interest to allergy sufferers, we also rate all vacuums on how well they pick up pet hair and how well they contain the debris they suck up without releasing it back into the air. To measure this, our testers stuff wood flour into each vacuum and measure the amount of particles released into the air using a laser spectrometer.
In addition to these calculations, we factor in reliability and owner satisfaction scores from surveys based on members’ experiences with 135,906 vacuums they purchased new between 2015 and 2025. 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.
BEST TIME TO BUY:
