The Vacuums 7 Strategist Editors Actually Use

Whether they’re testing the latest models for “Best in Class” or raving about the vacuums they actually use to clean up their day-to-day messes, the editors and writers on our staff have a lot to say about the vacuums they use. We gathered our in-house vacuum experts to chit-chat about the differences between Mieles and Dysons, bagged and bagless vacuums, and what makes a good vacuum great. 

What Vacuum Does Everyone Own?

What Makes Your Vacuum Great?

W.Y.: What’s special about the Dyson Gen5 Detect and the V15 is that they have this green laser that shines sideways on your floor, and it really shows you every speck of dirt and debris. It’s very gratifying when you’re cleaning. It also has this feature that counts how many particles it’s picking up. I think it just makes people paranoid about how dirty their houses are — but the light thing is very cool.

D.P.: It’s also awesome for vacuuming under the bed, couch, or desk — all those really hard-to-reach spots. I agree about very silly particle counters. Why is this information useful to me?

L.R.: Something that I like about the Miele is its extendable handle. I can get on the floor and get under the bed. I can almost do the entire underside of the king-size bed from one side. Another very helpful aspect is it comes with different heads: one for carpets, rugs, and for bare floors.

L.C.: The LG that I have also has that extendable arm. So you can get really far under the bed, which is great. Or even just, like, if I don’t feel like crouching down.

J.T.: The Shark that we have is really contortable. Its body looks like a smaller version of the Miele, if it could plug into an upright handle with the rotator head. We use it as an upright most of the time, but there’s like a button release that pulls the canister off. So you can walk around with just the canister and use it as a more portable thing.

L.C.: The LG also has a turbo mode, which is nice on rugs and does a good job of picking stuff up.

W.Y.: While the Miele is annoying because you have the cord, I’ve always found it very classy that it has that button that you push that retracts the cord for you and winds it up. You feel like Spider-man.

Bags or Bagless?

J.T.: Making the stick vacs work efficiently is difficult; any bagless vacuum is, right? You have to empty a canister, and emptying the canister sucks. We definitely go way too long and let it get way too full before we empty it.

L.C.: The LG is very easy to empty. I feel like it gets the dirt into the garbage can well and then the filter is really easy to take out and clean. I’m usually too lazy to clean it with water, but you can just wash it in your sink, then let it dry and then put it back in.

J.T.: I have been thinking about buying a backup Dyson filter specifically so we can pop one in while we’re cleaning the other ones.

L.R.: What I’ll say about the Miele: Having a bag is really nice. You just have to throw it away and the bag lasts a long time. And you could just order a three or four pack on Amazon and the cleanup is so good. I don’t know, do all vacuums have the HEPA filter?

W.Y.: No, not all of them do.

L.R.: I think the HEPA filter makes us feel better. Also, you know when you vacuum using a bad vacuum, you can smell the dust? You can’t smell anything on the Miele; I don’t smell dust blowing at me.

W.Y.: I think the main thing with the bags is that you can just throw them in the trash. If you empty the bagless ones, it’s always like poof in your face. Every Dyson we’ve had has a wet-dog smell after a while even though we wash the filter pretty regularly.

J.T.: I feel like our Dyson has hit musk level unfixable without a new filter.

W.Y.: It just smells while you’re vacuuming, which sucks.

J.T.: The Dyson blows out a lot of air from the handle; if you lean in a funny way where you’re trying to get under something, you can get a blowback in your face or I’ll see my hair blow around. There’s definitely a lot of air coming out of a Dyson.

J.M.: There are a lot of robot vacuums that don’t have a self-emptying function, which can be really annoying. It’s really hard to get the chamber completely clean of all the dirt, especially pet hair, or really long human hairs that can get caught. You have to get really clever about getting that stuff out. That’s really annoying and gross. I don’t think I would get one that didn’t have the self-emptying function.

What Would You Get Next Time?

J.T.: I really see the appeal of going for the Miele to have the bags. I think I’m sold on buying a Miele the next time I need a new vacuum.

L.R.: I would be interested in trying a robot vac, although we don’t have a cat anymore, so maybe it’s less important.

J.T.: We definitely have a case for a robot vac, but at the same time, we’re so cluttered … I would have to give it really strict perimeters and hope it listens because otherwise the Barbies are just gonners. Maybe I need a partition-specific robot vac.

L.R.: Is there a new generation of vacuums coming out? A new frontier in vacuums?

J.M.: Dyson came out with a new model last year that has a mopping head that doesn’t use soap, it just uses water. Then right on the head it has a dirty-water chamber, which I think is pretty clever.