The Ultimate Vacuum Cleaner for Home Use: 4 Shocking Options
Are you searching for the absolutely best vacuum cleaner for home? I’ve got you!
This post about vacuum cleaner for home use may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you.
Let’s just say… my tribe is not the cleanest… There are 7 of us, plus a cat and a dog (not the type that doesn’t shed). We are the type that plays outside, rolls in the grass, gets covered with sawdust from woodworking, gardens, and participates in dirty sports like cross country running and baseball. In my 20 years as a vacuum buying adult, I have been through and tested a lot of vacuums. Each time, I knew I wanted the best I could afford and each time, I was disappointed. There were vacuums that other people would rave about (Shark vacuums….) that my family would destroy within a month. Right now, I literally have a Shark vacuum sitting downstairs absolutely worthless and with duct tape all over it (can you just put a vacuum in the garbage bin and if so, why haven’t I done that yet?).
When we discovered our home had extreme levels of hidden mold in 2022 and that that mold was what had made my son sick with PANS, one of the first things I did was research on vacuums, specifically hepa vacuums because if it’s not a closed unit hepa vacuum then you could be sucking mold in and having it then find it’s way back in the air. It took us 19 months to remediated our home and the final step was to “small particle clean”. Small particle cleaning is basically manually capturing every single invisible mold spore off of every single surface in your home so that it can not then re-circulate into your breathing air or come into contact with water in the future and multiply. This process took us a month and it involved hepa vacuuming every tiny surface of every item and every nook and cranny of the house, followed by a wet microfiber cloth wipe-down, and then a dry microfiber wipe-down of each surface.
I have put each vacuum cleaner to the test and beyond during this journey and I can tell you that I have found the vacuums of your dreams. That sounds silly but, when I started using these vacuums it was like my whole life before them I had been using a different category of appliance… like the difference between using a butter knife and a freshly sharpened professional chef’s knife. Game changer!
Disclaimer: Instead of one best vacuum cleaner for home, I am sharing with you 4 because they all serve different purposes and as crazy as it sounds, I can’t do without any of them. Remember… I have 7 messy humans and two furry pets that I share a home with (and also I’m terrified of mold and dust). I’m listing these in order of importance- as in… if I could only have 1 of these, then I’d suggest the first option… if I added another I’d suggest the second as well… Basically, I present to you a brigade of the best vacuums for the home!
These are the absolute best vacuum cleaners for home use:
1. Miele C3 Brilliant
I am obsessed with this vacuum. It is actually fun to use. With my past Dyson vacuums I felt like I was just moving around dirt or that I needed to have the exactly right angle to capture the crud I was trying to suck up or that every item I needed to vacuum was the wrong size or height for my vacuum. It drove me crazy but with the Miele C3 Brilliant you feel like you are finally having the vacuum cleaner for home experience you’ve always been going after.
I originally choose this specific vacuum after a lot of research because I was dealing with mold (we didn’t remediate with this vacuum but we did use it for small particle cleaning afterwards) and the health of my family is dependent on keeping the dust and any possible mold spore levels very low. I chose the Miele C3 series because they all have a sealed system, meaning any mold spores or allergens that enter the system can not escape via the ventilation/exhaust systems or on accident. In the same vein, all the Miele C3 units use HEPA filtration, both of these features are absolutely imperative if you have anyone in your home that deals with allergies and/or you are trying to keep the mold spore count down (unfortunately we all have some mold spores in our home because the outside comes in but cleaning can help us keep the count down).
Here are some things I love about this vacuum cleaner after using it:
- The suction is sooooooo good. I don’t even know what ASMR stands for but I know that I am kind of addicted to the sound this vacuum makes as it sucks up all the little particles and crumbs that I can’t even see.
- The attachment heads are insanely great. It’s like zipping around an old European city in a Ferrari ( I don’t actually know anything about cars either but I think a Ferrari fits the bill for this analogy). The swivel function is so good that I can vacuum walls and ceilings and get the corners of rooms and under furniture very easily. You don’t realize how trash your other vacuums were with this kind of thing until you use a Miele C3 Brilliant vacuum cleaner for home.
- There are different suction levels you can choose from. I almost always just go full power because, why not, but there is a level that you can use to vacuum curtains and I think that is pretty cool and I’ll surely be using that once I get some curtains back up!
- There is an indicator that shows you when to change the hepa filter and the bag.
- The bags and filters are super easy to change.
- Things don’t get stuck all the time! I hate when I’ve had to spend 30 minutes unclogging other vacuums. This model doesn’t seem to ever get clogged and if it has, it was like once or twice in a year and I didn’t break out into a sweat unclogging it.
- The cord is super long in a good way and zips back in with the press of a button.
- The handle is comfy to use and the stem is adjustable for people of different heights.
- The bags are big so it takes a while to fill one. I do not feel like I’m constantly buying bags at all and we have used this sucker SO much.
I want to be clear that the Miele C3 Brilliant is the only Miele C3 model I’ve used. It is the most expensive or one of the most expensive units. I do not regret the purchase at all because I love using my vacuum, there’s nothing I would change about it, I know it’s going to last a super long time, and I have lab test evidence that it helped us bring our mold spore count from 9,900 to 293. However, I know that some of you might not be wanting to go for the top of the line and I understand that. Honestly, my purchase of the top model was motivated by fear because I was dealing with the health of my son and I just wanted the best. Having used it, I would buy the same model again, but, if you are looking for a model with the same size bag, the same closed system and hepa filtration, and the same sucking power, then I would go for this model: Miele C3 Calima. *I personally recommend avoiding the Miele C3 Cat & Dog model because it uses a charcoal filter instead of Hepa. Charcoal is good for smell but HEPA is superior for health reasons.
Less expensive but still amazing Miele C3 model: Miele C3 Calima
2. Miele Triflex HX2 Pro Cordless Stick Vacuum
Yes, another Miele is on my list. I actually fell in love with Miele after purchasing this Miele Triflex vacuum cleaner for home first. I found that I was not vacuuming as much as I should (especially in high traffic areas like the kitchen) because I got annoyed by pulling out my corded Dyson Animal vacuum. I thought a cordless vacuum that I could just quickly grab would change my life and although friends disagreed that it would, I have to say it actually was life changing. I guess I’m lazy but I want to have my cake and eat it too… clean house- less effort. Don’t get me wrong, I 100% need and LOVE my Miele C3 but I still would rather use it for weekly deep cleanings and use the Miele Triflex for daily quick cleans.
There are several different Miele Triflex models and that can get confusing. Here’s why I chose this particular model:
- The HX2 line has a stronger motor=more sucking power than the HX1 and I’m all about the suction power.
- This model has HEPA filtration whereas not all the Triflex models do.
- This model has 120 minutes worth of charge before needing to be re-charged and as someone that might forget to plug it back in from time to time, I really appreciate that extra hour of charge. Most other models have 60 minutes.
- The ergonomics and swivel power on this guy are amazing.
- Easy to empty.
This model is not the most expensive in the line because it doesn’t have every single extra attachment or bell and whistle but it does have the three things that matter the most to me: 1. best suction power. 2. Best battery life. 3. HEPA filtration. If I were to get a step down to save money, I would get the regular Miele Triflex HX2 Cordless Vacuum , which has hepa, the hx2 suction but 60 minutes of battery life instead of 120 minutes.
3. Roomba i7+ Robot Vacuum Cleaner for Home
A vacuum that cleans while you are showering, or grocery shopping, or taking a walk? Yes, please! I could have my house professionally cleaned every day and as long as my 7 humans and two fur babies were living in the space we would have dirt and dust and crumbs on the floor. No matter what I do to try to prevent it (shoes off before entering, eat over the table, pick up after yourself…) it just gets dirty. A robot vacuum cleaner would be so amazing for a single person or someone that only had a family of 2 or three. I feel like you could use it and then only need to vacuum yourself once a week or maybe even every other week. With my crew I see it as bonus cleaner, like the thing I can do that takes zero effort but will maintain the cleaning I did longer.
These little guys work too! We named ours “Clean Elizabeth”. I’ve learned a few things since owning Clean Elizabeth about robot vacuums in general and also about the Room i7+ robot vacuum cleaner model:
- You need to pick up the big things before running it: paper, legos, backpacks, shoes… it just makes it really hard for the little gal to do her job when there are obstacles everywhere and they can easily get clogged with a piece of paper or string that you left out.
- The self emptying dock I think is a must-have. I have had ours for I think about a year and I don’t ever remember having to empty the dock. Every now and then I have to empty the actual vacuum because something got stuck but the docking station is so great.
- Robot vacuums seem to need replacement parts a little more often than regular vacuums new brushes and rollers maybe once or twice a year. I’m sure it would be less if we always had picked up floors.
- For the i7+ model you can set it to turn on and do it’s thing every time you leave the house.
- Smart mapping
- Works with Alexa
- Good for pet hair!
- I think where these machines shine is to use them primarily in areas that get a lot of dirt and dust tracked in but that don’t usually have clutter.
4. ProTeam Super Coach Pro 10 Backpack Vacuum Commercial with Telescoping Wand Took Kit, 10 Quart, Corded
I know this is where I might lose some of you and you might think I am literally insane for owning and recommending a 4th vacuum cleaner for home. I want you to understand that I’m not just slapping up some list of vacuum cleaners I’ve never used or recommending several vacuum cleaners all that do the same thing. To me, each of these for models are in very separate categories. This last option, the ProTeam Super Coach Pro 10 I learned about in my mold remediation groups. I learned, through lab testing of spore counts what methods of cleaning are effective and which are not. To EFFECTIVELY small particle clean a home you have to hepa vacuum every item and surface (followed by microfiber wiping) and when I was faced with vacuuming the ceilings and tops of doorways and shelves of a 3,000 sq/ft home it became pretty clear that that would be difficult to do with a standard vacuum since I would be standing on ladders and step stools for much of it.
The ProTeam series is made for commercial cleaning applications, which means it is made for efficiency and it absolutely was. Here is what I loved about the ProTeam Super Coach Pro 10 vacuum cleaner for home:
- I could wear it as a back pack and it was very comfortable to do so. It was so easy to wear on ladders to vacuum the ceiling and walls and other hard to reach spots.
- The brush attachment is SO handy for quickly cleaning things like blinds and doors and anything that you need to get into the crevices of.
- It also comes with a long attachment that’s nice to get under furniture and a floor attachment that has very stong suction power.
- This is not an every day vacuum, it is a amazing vacuum for deep cleaning and hard to reach places.
- The vacuum bags are huge and take a long time to fill up. This means less money on bags and less time changing the bags.
- The Pro 10 models have Hepa filtration.
In conclusion, all 4 of these vacuum for home models I consider the absolute best in their class for the price. I use all of them on a weekly basis. As a re-cap, here’s how I use each of them in our every day routine:
- Every day: Hands off: Roomba i7+ robot vacuum
- Every day in high traffic areas: Miele Triflex Hx2 Pro
- Once or twice a week/as needed everywhere: Miele C3 Brilliant
- Monthly/deep clean from room to room: Pro Team Super Coach Pro 10
And, as I mentioned before, if I HAD to choose between all of these and just own ONE vacuum cleaner for home, it would for sure the Miele C3 Brilliant– it isn’t as lightweight and pick-up and go as the other options but it by far has the must suction and best attachments and is a dream to use.
