10 Best Vacuums for Hardwood Floors in 2025, Tested by AD

The fitting cleansing system could make life infinitely simpler, however you may’t use simply any outdated Hoover on delicate surfaces. The very best vacuums for hardwood flooring received’t scratch or trigger injury, so we examined dozens of extremely rated fashions and requested consultants to suggest essentially the most supreme mannequin on your house.

“The vacuum ought to have smooth rubber wheels so scratching or marring doesn’t happen when transferring and manipulating the vacuum throughout the wooden flooring,” explains Paul Henthorn, proprietor of Slaughterbeck Flooring in Campbell, California. “And energy brushes on canister vacuums ought to be averted in favor of the smooth brush attachments.” What’s flawed with energy brushes? Henthorn says they’ll doubtlessly take away the end and wooden fibers from the grain of the flooring. Beater bars may also be too abrasive on this kind of flooring.

Maintaining all this, in addition to usability, in thoughts, we centered on bagless, cordless stick vacuums, robovacs, and one worthy upright vacuums for this story. You’ll additionally discover information from consultants on how to decide on the very best one on your house, in addition to useful upkeep ideas. However first, browse our favourite picks to wash your flooring and maintain scratches out of sight.

Our Prime Picks for the Greatest Vacuums for Hardwood Flooring:

Greatest Vacuums for Hardwood Flooring, Total

The Samsung Bespoke Jet AI cordless stick vacuum cleaner truly appears like a murals, so it’s not solely probably the greatest cordless vacuums (primarily based on our very hands-on expertise), but in addition one of many best-looking. The Samsung Bespoke Jet AI is available in a beautiful satin black colour and has an AI cleansing mode that detects the ground kind to regulate suction accordingly. “I’ve had it since Could 2022, and the vacuum has held up very effectively,” Williams says. “This mannequin has extra air watts (210W) than any of Samsung’s earlier cordless stick vacuums—and it additionally consists of extra equipment. The light-weight (six-pound) vacuum is straightforward to maneuver, and the nozzle features a twin brush head (a smooth one for arduous flooring and one other one with fins for carpets).”

The space-saving clear station charger holds the vacuum when not in use. When docked, the clear station robotically empties the vacuum’s dustbin. There’s additionally a separate accent cradle to carry the mixture and crevice instruments, pet software, versatile software, and mud luggage. The vacuum itself has sturdy suction, a twin brush for cleansing each arduous flooring and carpet, and the battery lasts as much as 100 minutes.

Williams loves the Shark Pet Plus Light-weight Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner (and in addition the Shark Rocket Pet Professional) as a result of the ground nozzle has a self-cleaning smooth brushroll and PowerFins. Each work collectively to choose up particles and make sure that no hair will get tousled within the vacuum. The fins are made from versatile silicone as a substitute of bristles, so it’s simple on arduous surfaces, and the LED mild on the ground nozzle helps Williams establish extra filth than she in all probability cares to find out about. The Shark Pet Plus makes use of anti-allergen complete-seal know-how and a HEPA filter to maintain all the mud and particles within the vacuum. It’s additionally tremendous simple to empty the mud cup: Simply slide the Clear Contact Grime Ejector lever right down to spit out any waste into the trash can. The light-weight vacuum lasts 40 minutes and features a crevice software and pet multitool.

Some folks like the concept of 1 vacuum that suctions and mops hardwood flooring—however they’d reasonably have these capabilities fully separated reasonably than built-in into the identical machine. If that’s your choice, the Dyson V15 Detect Submarine truly has three swappable cleaner heads. There’s the digital motorbar cleaner head for multifloor use, the fluffy optic cleaner head for hardwood flooring, and the submarine moist curler head. However as a substitute of loading water right into a water tank on the vacuum, the water is poured instantly into (and subsequently contained inside) the moist curler head. And because the vacuum has the identical articulating head used on Dyson’s different stick vacuums, I discovered it simple to swivel round furnishings legs and attain beneath my sofa when mopping. There’s additionally a drip tray to retailer the moist curler head on, and the vacuum consists of (dry use) equipment resembling the mixture software, crevice software, and hair screw software.

We have a tendency to not check “low-cost” vacuums. As an alternative, we search for economical decisions which can be nonetheless high-quality objects with the options you need. The Bissell CleanView XR matches the invoice. It has a tangle-free brush roll to maintain hair from getting snarled, and it has three cleansing modes—commonplace, medium, and turbo—to suit numerous wants. The LED headlights illuminate filth in hidden locations and the vacuum has swivel steering options, which means it simply maneuvers round furnishings legs. It may well simply convert to a handheld mannequin, permitting me to make use of the crevice software, mixture dusting brush, and fabric software. Run time is simply 35 minutes—however at this value, you should buy a further battery and swap them out.

The Sharp IQ Self-Empty Base Robotic Vacuum has all the things Williams wished—and extra—when trying to find the very best vacuums for hardwood flooring. For starters, she will be able to go a month with out having to empty it (she doesn’t, however she may). That’s as a result of the robotic empties itself into the bottom, and it might maintain 30 days price of filth. The fantastic thing about robotic vacuums is that they don’t require a lot human interplay apart from mapping your own home and emptying the vacuum. However Shark eliminates the latter process for a really very long time. It even has a self-cleaning brush roll to make sure that pet hair received’t get tangled in it. And when the robotic vac must recharge mid-clean, it does that by itself as effectively after which picks up proper the place it left off. For the reason that robotic makes use of IQ navigation, it cleans in an orderly row-by-row trend, as a substitute of zigzagging everywhere. After Williams mapped out her house, she was in a position to schedule cleanings by way of her iPhone. The robotic vac may also be activated utilizing Alexa or Google Assistant. The battery lasts over 90 minutes.

When you’re searching for a vacuum that actually does all the things for you, this is likely one of the finest picks of the bunch. Not solely is the robotic vacuum itself filled with energy and options, however the cleansing station takes care of the grunt be just right for you—like cleansing the mop pads, emptying the mud bin, and refilling the robotic with water.