We all know Dyson is at the forefront of vacuum cleaner tech, so it's no surprise to find out that, on test, their vacuums really do come out on top. They utilize their signature, patented cyclone engineering to create unique airflow that grants them this unrivaled suction power.
But among Dyson's lineup is a great deal of choice. From the V8 to the V12 Detect Slim to the Ball Animal 3, knowing which one is right for you isn't too straightforward.
Luckily, myself and our team of product testers have sampled the majority of Dyson's offerings, alongside 47 of the world's best vacuums. So, we know what to look for: strong cleaning performance on different floor types, pet hair pickup, tight filtration, easy maneuverability, useful attachments, and smart features that actually help.
Here's our definitive list of the best Dyson vacuums, with hands-on insight from experienced appliance editors.
The quick list
Here's the list of the best Dyson vacuums at a glance. For more info, scroll further or click the navigation links to take you to each product.
At the bottom of the page, you'll also find a guide on how to choose a Dyson, how we test them, a Dyson vacuum glossary, and a list of FAQs.
The best Dyson vacuum in the world
Our reviewer has tested more than 100 vacuums and the Dyson Gen5detect is better than all of them, thanks to its best-in-class (and responsive) suction power, an impressive 70-minute runtime, and the green laser that reveals invisible dust.
The best cordless Dyson vacuum
The Dyson V15 Detect excels on all floor types, and uses a laser sensor to dig up dirt invisible to the naked eye. It effortlessly vacuumed every visible strand of hair on test while even reviving a dog bed to its original color.
The best value Dyson vacuum
It's surprising to see a Dyson vacuum selling for less than $400 but that's around the average price for a Dyson V8. It doesn't have the smart features of the more expensive vacuums in this guide, but it still has the incredible suction power you'd expect from a Dyson.
The best upright Dyson vacuum for carpet
This upright vacuum is bigger and bulkier than a cordless stick, but that's what you need in a home full of carpets. Offering more serious cleaning power and a wide floorhead, the Ball Animal 3 is perfect for busy, messy households with kids and/or pets.
The best Dyson vacuum for hard floors
With the same core features as the Gen5detect and V15 Detect, just in a smaller design, the V12 Detect Slim is the ideal cleaning companion for a home full of hard floors. The FluffyOptic floorhead is designed for hard floors, picking up every bit of debris and dust while revealing hidden particles.
The best Dyson vacuum for small spaces and quick cleans
The Dyson Omni-Glide is a gentler cleaner, using two brushrolls that protect even the most delicate floors, with a battery life of around 30 minutes for small, quick cleans when needed. If you live in a small home or apartment, this is a great way to get your hands on some Dyson tech for an affordable price.
The best Dyson vacuum cleaners in 2024
You can trust Homes & Gardens. Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing the latest products, helping you choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
The best Dyson vacuum cleaner
One of our expert reviewers, Helen McCue, has sampled well over 100 vacuums in her time as a product tester, and this latest model from Dyson is better than all of them.
The Dyson Gen5detect works tirelessly to dig up deep dirt from carpet, wood, and linoleum floors. With an extended runtime of 70 minutes, this is one of the only cordless vacuums that you could use to clean the whole house in a single session.
This vacuum incorporates all the latest Dyson technology: the dust-revealing green laser, the Piezo particle sensor, the anti-tangle hair screw, and the floor-responsive suction. It comes with two main floorheads, the FluffyOptic and the Motorbar, designed for hard floors and carpets respectively.
Inside the vacuum you'll find a HEPA filtration system to protect yourself from allergies and prevent particles from recirculating back into your home. It also has some serious suction power at 262 air watts (compared to the V15 Detect's 230 air watts and the V12 Detect Slim's 150 air watts). It's the most accurate measurement for a vacuum's suction power there is, and it's higher than we've ever seen in a cordless vacuum.
This excellent performance comes at a cost, and the Dyson Gen5detect is one of the most expensive vacuums on the market. Outside of sales seasons, it retails for almost $1,000. That's a significant amount of money to spend on an appliance, but if you have the money, it's a fair price to pay for the next best thing in floorcare.
Read more in our full Dyson Gen5detect review.
The best Dyson vacuum for pet hair
Not only is the Dyson V15 Detect one of the most powerful vacuums we've ever tested, it's also our best vacuum for pet hair. Whether you're vacuuming pet hair, dust, dirt or large debris, the cordless vacuum cleans it all with minimal effort, pretty much always in a single pass.
As well as effortlessly vacuuming pet hair, the V15 Detect comes with an anti-tangle hair screw tool to remove fur from furniture, upholstery, mattresses and other non-floor surfaces. When our tester Jaclyn Turner tested it on her dog's bed, she noted: 'It is one of the only vacuum tools I've tried that not only revived the faux-sherpa bottom that is an absolute magnet for dirt but brightened the fleece top from a dusty blue back to its original turquoise.'
To add to this cleaning performance, the V15 Detect is part of the same lineup as the Gen5detect and V12 Detect Slim. This is Dyson's flagship series, with a green laser to illuminate hidden dust, a Piezo sensor that counts particle sizes, and automatically responsive suction power when the floors are extra dirty or when you're vacuuming rugs and carpet.
These features are genuinely useful, and it's almost unsettling how much the green laser reveals that the naked eye can't normally see. It's the perfect smart appliance for any clean freaks out there as you'll know exactly how clean your floors are with all of this info.
The V15 Detect is the mid-range option out of Dyson's Detect vacuums retailing for around $650 at full price, which is pretty steep, even if it is often discounted. It's $100s cheaper than the Gen5detect, and around $100 more expensive than the smaller V12 Detect Slim.
If you'd rather save a bit of money, the V12 Detect Slim does everything the V15 Detect can, it just has a smaller dustbin so can't tackle a whole home in one go. But if you're happy to empty mid-clean, that's an easy way to save money on this market-leading cleaning tech.
Read more in our full Dyson V15 Detect review.
The best value Dyson vacuum
Retailing for around $400, the V8 Animal isn't cheap for a cordless cleaner, but it's one of the most affordable Dyson vacuums on the market. It's also a little bit older, and is often discounted to around $299.
The Dyson V8 doesn't have the fancy features found in the Detect vacuums (like the green laser or responsive suction). While these do make a big difference to your cleaning, they're luxuries rather than essentials, and the Dyson V8 is the perfect back-to-basics model that still offers Dyson's famous cleaning performance without the extras.
Like Dyson's best, it still has a Fluffy floorhead for hard floors and a Motorbar floorhead for carpets and rugs, as well as tight HEPA filtration inside the machine and the various cleaning tools/attachments.
You get around 30 minutes of cleaning time with the Dyson V8: more when you use attachments, such as the crevice tool, and less when you use the floorheads on MAX mode. You might struggle to clean the whole house in one go, but you could easily suck up dust and dirt between deep cleans.
The Dyson V8 isn't as quick as the V15 Detect, nor as capacious as the Ball Animal 3. But if all you want is a competent cleaning companion that won't break the bank, it will serve you well.
Read more in our full Dyson V8 review.
The best Dyson vacuum for carpet
Of all the types of flooring, carpet is one of the hardest to clean. Dirt is easily embedded down deep between the fibers and won't come up without a fight. If your home features a lot of carpeted floors or area rugs, you need an upright vacuum with powerful, variable suction, such as the Dyson Ball Animal 3.
This vacuum comes with a spacious dustbin and a 50-foot cord for whole-home cleaning sessions. It rests on a ball, which makes it easier to maneuver around obstacles and into tight corners. There's a still, dense nylon brush to dig up dirt from carpets and hard floors, with angled bristles to navigate nooks and crannies.
Now, the Dyson Ball Animal 3 isn't perfect. Like a lot of the best upright vacuums, it's heavy, and it might prove burdensome to lift and carry from space to space. But with this extra size comes extra cleaning power, and it's certainly better suited to deep cleans rather than quick pick-ups.
Homes with kids and pets would definitely benefit from this powerful vacuum, and the unrelenting brushroll makes light work of hair and all debris sizes, with exceptional performance on carpet.
Read more in our full Dyson Ball Animal 3 review.
The best Dyson vacuum for hard floors
From all the testing I've done at H&G, the V12 Detect Slim is the vacuum I use in my own home. In most ways, it's just as good as the V15 Detect and Gen5detect, only a little smaller. This smaller dustbin and slight sacrifice in cleaning power makes it the most affordable out of the three while still keeping all the best features (it retails for around $650 but is often discounted to as low as $450).
The FluffyOptic cleaner head is specially designed for hard floors, with a green laser that does an incredible job of revealing dust that the naked eye can't see. It uses a soft brushroll that's safe on all floors, even precious hardwood, and it automatically ups the suction power when reaching a dust-heavy area.
The suction power is still just as impressive, too, picking up all dust, dirt, debris and hair in one pass every time. On boost mode, you can even see dust being pulled in from further away where the brushroll isn't touching.
If your home is mostly hard floors, chances are you don't need a large vacuum anyway. Hard floors aren't dirt magnets the way carpets are, so having a small, lightweight vacuum like the V12 Detect Slim is perfect for whenever you need a quick clean.
Read more in our full Dyson V12 Detect Slim review.
The best Dyson vacuum for small spaces
If you live in an apartment with a lot of hard floors, you might not need (or want) a great big corded vacuum crowding your cleaning closet. You could get away with something smaller, such as the Dyson Omni-Glide, to clean up smaller spills and stains.
The Dyson Omni-Glide is seriously small. The vacuum arrived in a compact cardboard case, more akin to a shoebox, and disassembles for easy storage. Weighing a little less than 5lbs, the Dyson Omni-Glide is easy to lift and carry from room to room or stretch into tight corners.
This is Dyson's first (and only) vacuum designed for exclusive use on hard floors, which could mean anything from wood to linoleum to bathroom tiles. It's better equipped to clear up smaller particles of dust and dirt than bigger chunks of debris, which quickly clog the dustbin, or long hairs, which wrap around the rollers.
If all you want is a cute and compact cleaner for light maintenance, you'll find a lot to like with the Dyson Omni-Glide. But for anything more, this isn't the vacuum cleaner for you. You'd be better off going for the Dyson V8 if you're on a budget, or the Dyson V12 Detect Slim if you want the best features.
Read more in our full Dyson Omni-Glide review.
How to choose a Dyson vacuum
For the most part, choosing a Dyson is just like choosing any vacuum, which I've covered in detail in our guide on how to choose the right vacuum cleaner for your home.
But a big factor to consider with Dysons is the cost. These are expensive appliances that can range from $300 to $1,000, so it's important to first understand what it is that you need.
If you're after the best features, like the green laser and dust detection, then look at the Detect series (Gen5detect, V15 Detect and V12 Detect Slim) and see which one you can afford. The V12 Detect Slim is the cheapest but it's also the smallest, so it might not be the best choice for a large home.
If you're not particularly precious about the smart features, then the V8 is a perfectly capable cordless vacuum that shows off Dyson's excellent cleaning power. It's lightweight, easy to use and can tackle all debris on all floor types – and it costs a fraction of the price of the price of the Detect vacs.
But if you're looking for something more rugged, perhaps if you have lots of pets or a large family, an upright vacuum will likely be a better choice, like the Dyson Ball Animal 3.
Finally, make sure you compare prices across different sites like Dyson, Amazon, Walmart and QVC. These vacuums are almost always discounted to some extent, so see where you can make your money go the furthest.
How we tested the best Dyson vacuums
We put a lot of thought into how we test vacuums. We test each vacuum on carpet, hardwood, and linoleum floors. The best vacuum will excel in all areas, while other cleaners might shine on certain floor types. Carpet is hard to clean, as the long fibers cling to dirt. Linoleum, or vinyl flooring, is much easier, but it shows all sorts of stains and smudges. Wood would be easy to clean, if it weren't for the cracks between the floor boards where dirt and debris get stuck.
In our test center, we test vacuums on flour and sugar, as they make a good substitute for dust and dead skin, and they're also common kitchen spills. Next, we test cereal and lentils to see how the vacuum handles larger debris. A premium vacuum will suck it straight up, instead of pushing the cereal around the floor or crushing it beneath the wheels. In our last and strangest test, we scatter hair extensions as a substitute for dropped human and pet hairs. Some of the best vacuums feature anti-tangle brush rolls to save you from picking out the hairs with your fingers.
We also test the vacuums for weeks in our own homes. This is where we can find out how well they perform in real-world conditions, like vacuuming the stairs or the floor edges. This grants us a more complete picture of how the vacuum actually works, what maintenance is involved, and how much space they take up,
Dyson has long been the leading brand in the vacuum cleaner market and, from our tests, we can confirm this is generally the case. Their vacuums excel on all floor types and offer greater suction power than competitors. But they also happen to be the most expensive, so when testing, we weigh up their cleaning performance against whether they're worth the steep cost.
Meet the team
As H&G's home tech editor, I cover vacuum cleaners on a near-daily basis. I've tested the Dyson V12 Detect Slim in this guide and use it as the primary vacuum in my own home.
Alex has tested vacuums, including most of the vacuums in this guide, ever since he started reviewing. With hundreds of hours spent testing dozens of vacuum cleaners, he's an expert in the best vacuum cleaners for your home.
Camryn is a freelance writer and product reviewer who has been testing home goods, including cleaning tools, for several years. She's tested many vacuums for H&G, including the Dyson Ball Animal 3.
Jaclyn is one of our former eCommerce editors. She has hands-on experience with all sorts of small and large appliances, from smart vacuums to budget cleaners. Jaclyn tested many of the best Dyson vacuums for comparison in this buying guide.
Best Dyson vacuum – Glossary
- Floorhead: The main vacuum cleaner attachment for floor cleaning (i.e. not the crevice tool, dusting brush etc). Some vacuums have separate floorheads for hard floors and carpets.
- Brushroll: Rotating cylinders within the floorhead (and occasionally in smaller, motorized attachments). They can be soft, fluffy rollers for hard floors or bristled to dig deep into carpets. Many vacuums from brands like Shark and Dyson will have two brushrolls in their main floorhead.
- Wand/hose: Long tube connecting the vacuum cleaner to the floorhead or any attachments (see here for what all the vacuum cleaner attachments do, like the crevice tool or dusting brush).
- Filter: Responsible for trapping the debris and particles as air passes through. Vacuums can have pre-motor filters and post-motor filters, to trap debris of different sizes at different points along the airflow.
- HEPA filter: Filter type that's able to capture at least 99.97% of particles as small as 0.3 microns. It's a necessity in a pet hair vacuum as it's able to trap allergenic particles like pet dander (and household allergens like dust and pollen).
- Motor: The core component of a vacuum cleaner (it's also referred to as a suction motor). This is what converts the electrical power into mechanical power to create suction and airflow.
- Bagged/bagless: Some vacuums, typically older ones, use vacuum bags that you dispose of once full. Most vacuums are now bagless and have a dustbin that you conveniently empty when needed, without the need to buy additional bags. Bagged vacuums still have their advantages however, like dust-free emptying, complete odor and particle capture, and less filter maintenance.
- Detection: Some vacuums are able to 'detect' the type of flooring, how dusty/dirty the floor is, whether you're vacuuming edges, or which direction you're vacuuming. They can then automatically adjust suction power, as vacuuming carpet, edges and dust-heavy floors requires extra power, while vacuuming a fairly clean wooden floor doesn't require as much – saving energy or battery life.
- Power/air watts: A vacuum cleaner's power is best measured via air watts, reflecting the airflow and suction power in real terms. It's calculated by multiplying the airflow (in cubic metres per second) by the suction pressure (in pascals), accounting for variables like blockages or different-sized openings (from different vacuum attachments, for example).
- FluffyOptic (Dyson): The most advanced floorhead in Dyson's latest vacuums (the Gen5detect, V15 Detect and V12 Detect Slim) designed primarily for hard floors. It features a green laser that reveals hidden dust that the naked eye can't see.
- Digital Motorbar (Dyson): An anti-tangle floorhead that works wonders on carpets (but can also be used on hard floors), with automatic suction responding to dust volume/floor type.
- Hair screw tool (Dyson): A small cleaning attachment with a motorized roller, perfect for removing hair and fur from furniture, upholstery and curtains.
FAQs
Is a Dyson vacuum worth it?
Here at H&G, we've tested 47 of the world's best vacuums. Not only does Dyson come out on top with their exceptional Gen5detect and V15 Detect, but their vacuums top a number of our vacuum cleaner buying guides.
Yes, Dyson vacuums are expensive, but you really do get what you pay for: HEPA filtration, smart technology, sleek design and incredible suction. Dyson vacuums are among the best for pet parents and people with sensitive skin, since their advanced filtration system routes out irritating particles and pathogens. They're also powerful enough to dig up deep dirt, effortless enough to dispose of it, and easy to maneuver around the house.
But, are Dyson's laser vacuums worth it? Their features are incredible, and put the vacuums into a league of their own compared with others. But I'd say they're only worth it if you have the money to spare or you find them on a big discount. They're useful features but they're not essential.
What are the differences between Dyson models?
When you look at Dyson listings online, you'll find all sorts of names and numbers attributed to the same sort of vacuums. This might feel confusing at first, but it's easy to understand once you know what you're looking at.
If it has 'Detect' in the name, it's one of the cordless vacuums with the green laser, dust detection and a particle counter. These are the flagship Dyson models with prices to reflect that.
Similarly, the 'Ball' vacuums all part of the same series of upright vacuums with the spherical ergonomic design.
But most of the other words you'll see (like Plus, Absolute, Complete, Extra, Origin) only reflect the attachments that come with it, not the vacuum itself. They're essentially 'package' names that tell you what variation of attachments you'll get. They'll vary for each model, so it's worth comparing them side by side to see what you'll get.
For example: The V8 is the name of the vacuum, but you can find the Dyson V8 Absolute and the Dyson V8 Origin. The Origin comes with one floorhead and four accessories, and the Absolute comes with two floorheads and four accessories.
If you've made it all the way to the end of this article, and you still can't get on board with Dyson, then you should consider one of the best Dyson alternatives instead. Many of these vacuums incorporate smart technology and premium design for a fraction of the price.
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