It can be quite difficult for first-time or even experienced homeowners to find the right vacuum for their laminate surfaces, since most vacuums are designed with carpets in mind. If a vacuum is unsuitable for laminate floors, it can leave scratches and damage their look, or perform poorly. But don’t worry! We have taken the time to scour the marketplace for the best vacuum for laminate floors.
Just think about that: with a specially designed vacuum cleaner, you can not only vacuum, but also mop and dry your bare floors just at once. Also, there are vacuums created with pet owners in mind that allow cleaning laminate floors of per hair in no time. Finally, there are some developments like a vacuum head specially shaped for easier bare floor cleaning. Through our in-depth research of tens of products, specs, and features and hundreds of reviews, we have found the very best of the best of what is available today. To do that, we compared vacuums in terms of their capacity, filtration system, how many speeds they use, whether they are corded or cordless, and whether they can be used to wash your floors as well as vacuum them.
In this article, we will guide you through our picks for the top vacuums for laminate, and provide you with a detailed analysis of each. If you already know what to look for to make sure you have the best vacuum for laminate floors, then you are ready to check out the table below. In it, you will find the best of the best cleaners available today. And if you are just beginning your search, you’ll also want to check out our buying guide, which will tell you everything you need to know to find the right vacuum for your needs.
The Shark Navigator NV352 comes with several unique features that make it our top pick. It features, among other things, the Lift-Away technology that allows you to lift the body of the vacuum from the floor base and use it as a canister vacuum to clean tight spaces and upholstery.
If you want an affordable vacuum that works a treat on hard floors and carpets, then you will love the Shark Navigator NV352. By using the Lift-Away feature, you can get more value for your money. It allows you to clean areas like your stairs or upholstery. If you have ever tried vacuuming with a full-sized upright vacuum, you’ll observe how hard it can be to clean out such spaces.
It comes with all the attachments you need for cleaning including two crevice tools (5” and 24”), brush tool, and pet hair power brush.
It also sports a pair of filters. The foam filter and HEPA filter ensure that you get maximum cleaning action. Additionally, the foam filter is washable. Therefore, you can use it repeatedly.
During testing, we loved using the Shark Navigator NV352. It gives good bare floor, carpet, and upholstery performance.
Although an excellent appliance, we observed that it isn’t very durable. Plastic parts break rather quickly. It is also relatively quiet during operation and does not suffer from the heavy vibration of some other models.
Thankfully, there is a 5-year warranty that you can fall back on for repairs or replacement.
If you have a large surface to clean up, and you don’t want to spend a bunch of time emptying and reassembling your vacuum, then this just might be the right cleaner for you. It has an outstandingly large capacity, complete with a filter to catch the dust and keep it inside the cleaner. While it doesn’t come with a HEPA filter, you can easily purchase one to use with this cleaner, which will only make the dust more secure.
This cleaner has six different cleaning modes, making it one of the most versatile vacuums on the market. All of these power options do come at a price, however, as this is one of the heaviest cleaners out there as well. This vacuum will last you a long time too, since it has an average lifespan of 20 years and a seven-year warranty on the motor.
For a truly cords-free, lightweight cleaning experience, look no further than this vacuum from Dyson. It is one of the lightest vacuums on the market today, yet still one of the most powerful. It is a cordless vacuum, which, when combined with its lightweight design, is perfect for cleaning all over your home. It can be used as a standup or handheld vacuum, making it ideal for larger areas or small little nooks where the dust loves to collect.
No matter how much dust you need to suck up with this vacuum, you can rest easy knowing that it has a HEPA certified filter built right in, which is designed to catch and keep all the dust and dirt you pick up in the vacuum. If you do select this vacuum to be your very own, just make sure you take the time to charge it regularly, since the battery runtime is about 40 minutes of fade-free suction and only 7 minutes of maximum suction.
If you are looking for a lightweight, yet powerful vacuum that is easy to carry up and down stairs, then this just might be the right one for you. It is relatively lightweight and can be used in two different ways. You can use it as an upright vacuum when you are cleaning a whole floor, or you can break it down into a handheld model, which is perfect for steps or hard-to-reach areas.
Another nice feature of this vacuum is that it is straightforward to use. There are only two modes to choose from, as you can either use it with the brush turned on or without it. This makes it a breeze to switch between carpeted areas or bare floors. The dust bin is somewhat limited in its capacity, but luckily it is very easy to empty and return.
This is a really cool vacuum because it can be used as a mop or as a vacuum. This makes it quite versatile. If you want to clean up a set-in stain on a laminate floor, you can switch on the mop and go to town. It even has two tanks that help to keep the clean and dirty water separate from each other.
Then, when you are ready to go after the dirt on your carpets, you just need to flip a switch, and it will operate like any other vacuum. While the capacity is a bit small, the innovative and lightweight design this vacuum makes it a tough one to miss.
While lots of the vacuums on this list do not need to be exclusively used on hard surfaces, such as laminate floors, this one does. This is both a positive and a negative. Negative because you can only use it to clean your hard surfaces, and not on your carpets. It’s a big positive, however, because it will do a wonderful job of cleaning up your laminate surfaces.
This steam mop heats up very quickly and has been shown to remove 99.9% of germs off of the floors, as well as any stains and dirt it might come into contact with. The pads that it uses to do this will need to be changed after every use, which could get a bit expensive, though it might be worth it with how clean this will keep your floors.
While all of the cleaners on this list are specialized for laminate floors, this vacuum from Bissel is even more so. The V-shaped, swivel head is designed to fit neatly into hard-to-reach corners. This makes it a great go-to vacuum for rooms that have some sort of thin area rug and then laminate floor underneath. By using this vacuum, you will be able to easily clean in your corners and on the area rug itself, as long as it isn’t too thick.
This cleaner is best suited to smaller size rooms, since it has a relatively small capacity and a cord that is on the shorter side. Being one of the best vacuums under $100 in this category, this cleaner is powerful enough to pick up surface dirt and, thanks to the rubber wipers on the bottom of the brush, any pet hair as well.
This is, by far, the most powerful vacuum on this list. It is also one of the heaviest, making it ideal for cleaning only if you are going to be using it on one floor and not the steps. This vacuum is very straightforward to use, since you don’t have to switch any attachments when you are switching surfaces.
This vacuum utilizes a HEPA filter to filter out the dirt and a HEPA cloth bag to hold all of the debris in. By utilizing these two items together, you are guaranteed that all of your dirt will stay in place once you have sucked it up. The bag is also reusable, which will be big savings in the long run.
Dirt Devil has long been synonymous with cheap, yet reliable vacuums. Such is the case with the Power Stick. It won’t break the bank, and, while it doesn’t come with as much power or as many features as some other vacuums on this list, it will do a fine job over a smaller size area.
One of the best features of the Power Stick is its extra wide head. This will allow you to pick up more dirt in less time. This vacuum is also ridiculously lightweight, making it perfect for cleaning multiple levels in your home.
Sometimes life just gets too busy to clean! In the past, that meant that your house would simply get dirtier and dirtier until you got around to cleaning it. If you select this vacuum, however, those days will be long behind you. This technological wonder will do all of that dirty work for you, though you still might have to clean out those hard to reach corners on your own.
One of the coolest features of this robotic vacuum is that it can work as a mop as well as a vacuum, helping to guarantee that any stains on your floor will be short-lived. It also takes all of the guesswork out of charging, too, since it will return to its docking station and automatically start charging after it is done the cleaning. All these features make it one of the best robot mops on the market coming at an affordable price.
As you would expect, there are a ton of things that you need to keep in mind when you are out looking for the best vacuum for laminate floors. This section will tell you everything that you need to know to make sure that you are getting exactly what you need out of the cleaner or your choice.
If you are just getting started on your vacuum seeking journey, you might be wondering, why exactly do I need a specialized vacuum to clean my laminate floors? To answer it, we first need to discuss what regular vacuums are designed to do and how they do it.
Most vacuums are designed to pick up dirt and grime from carpeted areas, and dust from hardwood floors. They do this by utilizing a combination of spinning brushes to loosen the dirt, and suction to suck it up into a canister. While this works fine for loose particles, it will not work particularly well if they are ground in, or even dried on, which is the most likely type of dirt that you are going to find on a hard surface such as laminate.
Vacuums that are designed specifically for laminate surfaces have all manner of different systems for loosening up these stains, from extra strong suction to spraying and washing systems that are built right in. These systems allow them to clean up messes that a standard vacuum would leave behind.
As you would expect, there are a ton of things that you need to keep in mind when you are out looking for the best vacuum for laminate floors. This section will tell you everything that you need to know to make sure that you are getting exactly what you need out of the cleaner or your choice.
The first that you need to consider when you are purchasing a vacuum is exactly what type you want. There are several different choices available to you, which are listed and described below.
While most vacuums for laminate floors will operate with some form of suction, you can also choose models that will steam the floors as well.
Each type of specialized vacuum uses different types of brushes to help them clean the best that they can on their focus surface. In the case of brushes for laminate floors, you want to look for a vacuum with a brush that can be turned off so you don’t damage your most delicate laminate floor.
The suction of a vacuum is the amount of pull that the vacuum generates to suck up dust and dirt from off of the floor. While a strong motor is important for strong suction, so is the design of the vacuum. If it doesn’t seal properly on the floor, you will experience a loss of suction and less effective cleaning.
The best vacuum for laminate floors doesn’t have to have the most powerful motor in the world, since you aren’t trying to pull dirt from a thick carpet, but rather right from the surface of the floor. What matters more is how well the vacuum seals onto the floor, since this will allow it to better generate suction.
The capacity of a vacuum is how much it will hold altogether, which in turn will tell you how often you have to empty it when you are cleaning. Generally, the larger the capacity, the less you will have to empty while you work, which should save you time.
When you are choosing the capacity that you require, you should first think about the size of the space that you intend to clean. If you are someone that has a small area in mind, then you won’t need to get a vacuum with an overly large capacity. If, however, you have a huge space, then you’ll want a cleaner with a higher capacity. That way, you’ll be able to concentrate on cleaning your floors, instead of emptying your vacuum every five minutes.
If you do, then you love them ever so much! Even though you do love, you have to admit that they can be a bit of a pain to clean up after. This is especially true when they are shedding, since they will leave hair everywhere, even on your lovely laminate floors.
To combat this hair attack, you need to be sure that the vacuum that you choose is built to pick up tons of hair without getting clogged. This will usually come down to the brush. A model that has bigger spacing between its bristles is a bit better than tightly made ones, since there is less of a chance of the hair becoming entangled when you are cleaning.
All vacuums have some filter system built into them. The best type of filters to look for are certified HEPA filters, since these trap much more dirt than other filter types. These filters are usually easy to access and easy to clean foam filters, that must be cleaned out every so often so that the vacuum isn’t just putting all of the dust and dirt it picked up back into the air.
If the vacuum that you are looking into utilizes water in any way, such as a steam mop system, you will need to be sure to clean out the filter more often. With the addition of water into the mix, the filter can get pretty nasty pretty quickly, if you don’t clean it.
Though it might sound a bit silly, you will need to clean your cleaner every once in a while. They are being used for a pretty dirty job after all! Since you know they are going to be exposed to tons of dirt and grime, make sure you pick a vacuum that isn’t overly complicated to clean.
The easier a vacuum is to clean out, the more likely you are to do it. The more you clean out your vacuum, the longer it is going to last. The longer it lasts, the more return you get on your investment.
The weight of the vacuum is fully dependent on where you need to use it. If you have a house or a business that has multiple floors that will need to be cleaned, you would be better served searching for a lightweight and easy to transport model. If, however, all of your cleaning can be done on one level, then the weight isn’t too big of a factor.
Another consideration with the weight of your vacuum is how powerful you need it to be. Lighter models might not be powerful enough for a space that has a lot of dirt and debris. In that type of situation, you will need to spring for a heavier, and thus more powerful, cleaner.
You can choose how you power your vacuum, as well. Your two options for this power question are to either go with a cordless or corded model vacuum. Corded models are more powerful and cannot run out of juice, as long as you can reach what you need to clean from the outlet. Since they are tethered to one spot, they are not quite as maneuverable as a cordless model.
Cordless model vacuums are much lighter than their corded cousins. They are more maneuverable and portable as a result. A cordless vacuum is perfect for stairs or if you need to clean in hard to reach places, far from an outlet. They are, however, not quite as powerful, and will eventually need to be recharged, which could pose a problem to your cleaning if you forget to charge them.
Obviously, you want a powerful vacuum. But you also don’t want one that is going to require you to wear noise canceling ear muffs every time that you clean. When you are looking for a vacuum, you should look for one that puts out no more than around 70-80 dB. That way, you can be sure that you can vacuum comfortably without giving yourself a headache from the noise.
While you might not have thought about it beforehand, a warranty is really important when you buy a vacuum, even if you buy a top-end model. There are so many moving parts within a vacuum and different systems working together, that, even if you maintain perfectly, the odds of one of the systems failing is still pretty high.
A warranty can help to alleviate some of the costs for replacement parts, saving you money, and keeping your vacuum up and running. The longer the warranty, the better the deal that you will be receiving, so keep a sharp lookout for long-term warranties, even if they cost a bit more up front. The last thing you want to do is spend a bunch of money on a new vacuum and then pay through the nose on replacement parts as well.
So there you have it! Now you know everything that you need to know to find the best vacuum for laminate floors! Hopefully, this article has been a big help in your search. Best of luck, and have a great day!
Speaking frankly, I haven’t seen cordless vacuum cleaners. I would have bought Dyson V8 Absolute… And as for me, 40 minutes runtime is not that bad at all… But what is the charging time?
Dear Henry,
It takes up to 4 hours to charge it. According to multiple reviews, users consider it is good timing for operating time of 40 minutes.
A friend of mine had both Hoover Hardwood and Dyson, I saw this list and asked him if Hoover is really better. He said there is no much difference both vacuum cleaners are great, but I would better buy Hoover as Editor’s Choice, idk