The Best Vacuum Cleaners for Pet Hair

Written by Posted On Tuesday, 10 October 2017 23:50

If you have a cat or dog, you’re probably familiar with your “furry baby”’s shedding. Besides the animal shedding hair, your pet sheds flakes of dead skin as well, called "dander". This dander is a food source for dust mites, and contributes to the amount of "dust" in the house. If you or your family members suffer from asthma or allergies, getting rid of this dander is top-priority. The places that will get the biggest accumulation of pet hair and dander will be underneath furniture, such as under your bed or couch. So you need a vacuum that will be able to reach these places with ease. You should also get a vacuum with an array of attachments, to be ready to pick up hair from a number of different surfaces.

Considerations When Buying a Vacuum Cleaner for Pet Hair

  • Which attachments are important: Vacuum cleaners are supplied with a number of attachments, which are specific for picking up pet hair and dander. Let’s look at some of the most important ones:

    • Stiff brush attachment: the best vacuums for pet hair have a stiff brush attachment that is specially suited for getting pet hair off of upholstery. It rolls the pet hair up and makes it clump up, so that it's easier to vacuum. (You’ll see the hair ball in the vacuum’s dust cup when you empty it out.) The Shark Navigator Lift-Away Professional (Cat. No. NV 370) has a pet power brush, which is a motorized attachment to clean up pet hair more efficiently.  It generates static electricity by means of its rotating rubber roller--that dislodges pet hair from carpets and upholstery and sucks it up. The Dyson V6 Animal also has a motorized pet hair attachment, with a direct-drive motor that pushes the brush bristles deeper into the carpet to pick up pet hair.

    • Soft brush attachment: Some vacuums have a soft brush attachment as well, which is good for picking up pet hair on flat, smooth surfaces. Consider getting cordless vacuum cleaners, they will do a good job on the baseboards (the section of the wall where the wall meets the floor).

    • Crevice tool: This is a long, thin, pointed tube that can get in between couch cushions and the like. The crevice attachment is good for carpet edges as well.

  • Added features:

  • Brushroll cleaner feature: Over time, the bristles on a brushroll will get all tangled up with pet hair, which will limit its ability to pick up hair. Some vacuum cleaners have a cutting tool to cut those hairs off the bristles. feature to automatically clean hair and thread tangled around the brush roll. Examples include the Electrolux Precision Brushroll Clean and the Eureka Brushroll Clean. When pet hair gets stuck inside the Electrolux Precision Brushroll Vacuum, the brush roll cleaner feature released all the stuck-on animal hair. (It unfortunately retains clumps of human hair, though, since such hair tends to be longer. But you can remove the human hair manually.) The Eureka Brushroll Clean has a similar self-cleaning feature to remove stuck-on pet hair: it has a blade that lowers onto the bristles at the press of a button. That slices off the pet hair, while the vacuum's suction picks it up.

Useful Tips for Shoppers

Filter to trap dust and allergens: It’s recommended to look for a vacuum with a HEPA (= High efficiency particulate air) filter. Such filters have been tested to remove 99.97% of all impurities from the air that are 0.3 micrometers in size or larger. A HEPA filter will ensure that the allergy-causing impurities (dust, dust mites, pet hair, dander, pollen, etc.) will get trapped in the vacuum's dirt bin, and will not get released back into the air. That's especially important when choosing the right vacuum cleaner for small aparatments. Some vacuums have a washable filter, which can last the lifetime of the vacuum cleaner. That will be a big savings.

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