Best stick vacuum for pet hair: brush, runtime and power compared

The brush comes first

With a shedding pet, the brush roll is where you notice the difference week to week: hair that wraps around it has to be cut free by hand. Five of the seven models here name a brush that resists wrap. The Shark Rocket Pet Plus and the Shark PowerDetect Clean & Empty are the two where neither the listing nor a maker page we used records it. The names differ by maker: BISSELL calls the 4039's brush FurGuard and says long hair will not wrap around it, while Shark and Levoit use anti-tangle wording. The table treats these the same, as a named feature; how well each works on your pet's hair is not something a listing can tell you.

Cord or battery: a simple rule

Three models here are corded (the Shark Rocket Pet Plus, the BISSELL FurFinder and the Shark PowerDetect Corded) and four are cordless. Ask yourself which you will pick up on an ordinary weekday evening. If the answer is a quick pass of the hallway where the dog sheds, cordless wins on convenience. If it is a full weekly run of the whole home, a cord never runs out.

Runtime against your home

For the cordless models, set the stated runtime against how long a full vacuum of your home takes now. The Shark Cordless Pet states 40 minutes and the Shark PowerDetect Clean & Empty 70 minutes. Use those as ceilings: a stated figure is the maker's longest, and if you run a higher setting on carpet, expect less.

The BISSELL FurGuard shows why the conditions matter. BISSELL's page gives up to 50 minutes, and ties that figure to its Eco mode using the hand vacuum alone; the same page gives 13 minutes in turbo mode. With the floor head on and the power up for carpet, plan around the shorter figure. The Levoit listing also gives two runtime values, and we could not confirm a single figure on Levoit's own site, so its cell says so rather than picking one.

A small piece of arithmetic helps here. If your home takes 25 minutes to vacuum, a 40-minute stated figure leaves a 15-minute margin at best, and less at a higher power setting. A 70-minute figure leaves room for a higher setting on the rugs where the hair collects.

Self-emptying: worth it if you vacuum daily

Only the Shark PowerDetect Clean & Empty names a self-emptying base. A stick vacuum's bin is small, and with a shedding pet it fills with hair quickly. If you vacuum daily, a base that empties it saves a daily chore. If you vacuum weekly, emptying by hand is less of a burden, and the base takes floor space and an outlet.

Which one if...

• Larger home, daily vacuuming: the Shark PowerDetect Pet Plus Clean & Empty, with the longest stated runtime and a self-emptying base.
• Apartment or small home, quick daily pickups: the Shark Cordless Pet, with an anti-tangle brush and 40 stated minutes.
• You never want to think about a battery: the BISSELL FurFinder or the Shark PowerDetect Corded, both corded with a named anti-tangle brush.
• Cordless, with a brush the maker says long hair will not wrap around: the BISSELL FurGuard, planning around its turbo figure for carpet.

If pet accidents rather than hair are the bigger problem, a vacuum is not the tool: see carpet cleaners for pet accidents. For hard floors that also need washing, see wet-dry floor cleaners compared, or start at which floor cleaner you need.

What this page does not tell you

We have not used these vacuums, and we do not rank them. We do not say how much hair each one picks up, how well a brush resists wrap with your pet's coat, or how long a battery keeps its capacity. Weight is left out because listing weights in this category have been unreliable. Filtration is outside this page's scope.