Ever since early man got into an initially awkward and violent petting tussle with first a sabre tooth tiger and then a dire wolf, humans and certain animals have enjoyed ever-increasing degrees of comfortable domestic cohabitation.
But it’s not all companionate cloud nine. Noisy, smelly and constantly shedding, humans can be awful to live with. Plus, while ‘people’ are bumbling around the house distributing dead-skin dust everywhere they go, the dogs and cats that live with the filthy apes also have a habit of coating everything they come into contact with in a thick layer of fur that not only looks unpleasant but which can also trigger unpleasant allergies.
Like a cut-price Noah, you’ve invited a cat or dog to live in your house, but now you’re noticing the mess they make when they molt and also that you seem to have a constant cold, with itchy, watery eyes, a runny or stuffy nose, bouts of surprise sneezing and maybe even a shortness of breath – yep, you’ve got pet allergies!
Fortunately, fur is easy to deal with. Indeed, pop on a pair of Marigolds and let the palm grip pull the fur from your furnishings, ready to banish to the bin. But to truly have done with every strand of stray hair, while also dispelling health-damaging dander into the vacuum of oblivion, you need to invest in a proper, powerful pet vacuum.
With many excellent options on the market, it might prove a little bewildering when it comes to picking a particular product to tackle your pet peeve, but you can calm that confusion because, living in a house besieged by two, sometimes three, cats who shed like having fur is going out of cat fashion, I’ve been busy testing out a variety of pet-problem-targeting vacuums that make the mess vanish.
Best pet vacuum cleaners at a glance:
- Best for fur removal with a friendly face: Henry Pet - £159.99, John Lewis
- Best for not making a Miele out of pet mess: Miele 3-in-1 Triflex HX2 Cat & Dog - £599, Miele
- Best for decisive home depilation: Dyson V15 Detect Absolute - £699.97, Currys
- Best for budget fur busting: Tower VL45 Pro Pet Anti Tangle - £110, Argos
- Best for rapid fur removal: BOSCH Unlimited 7 Pet BCS71PETGB Auto Detect Cordless Vacuum Cleaner - £299.99, Currys
- Best for car and caravan dog and cat clean-up: Black+Decker Lithium-ion Cordless Dustbuster - £109.95, Amazon
- Best for pure fur-freeing power: Hoover HF9 Cordless Pet Vacuum Cleaner with ANTI-TWIST - £319, Hoover
- Best for hair-raising performance: Shark Stratos Anti Hair Wrap Plus Pet Pro IZ400UKT - £279.99, Shark
- Best for power, performance and practicality: Vax ONEPWR Blade 5 Dual Pet & Car - £370, Argos
- Best for performance at a pleasing price: Vax ONEPWR Blade 4 Pet Cordless - £170, Argos
- Best for light weight and slick design: Gtech Multi MK11 K9 - £199.99, Gtech
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Henry Pet
Best for: Fur removal with a friendly face
Everyone knows Henry! The only vacuum cleaner with an actual face has been around since 1981 and is the only mass-produced sucker-upper still being made in Britain. Most recognisable in his red livery, what you may not know is that Henry comes in a variety of colours to represent abilities specific to that model, and he also has a range of friends, including Hetty, James, George, Charles, Harry and Genghis. Okay, maybe not the last one.
But the Henry we’re focusing on here is his pet-specific iteration. Green, as you can see, the Henry Pet is a canister vacuum cleaner – like the rest of his hose-faced family – with a HairoBrush that makes short work of stubbornly sticky pet hair and a special charcoal-activated MicroFresh filter that sucks up animal stench and leaves you with a less zoo-esque aroma in the air.
With a capacity of 9-litres and 10m power cable, Henry Pet’s ability to contain cat and canine coating is commodious, meaning less messing around emptying him, whether you’ve simply got a single animal companion or you’re a full-on feline-obsessed cat lady, the Henry Pet can handle the hair and accompanying odour with smiley faced aplomb.
Buy now £159.99, John Lewis
Miele 3-in-1 Triflex HX2 Cat & Dog
Best for: Not making a Miele out of pet mess
A name utterly synonymous with high-quality home appliances, behold the Triflex HX2 Cat & Dog is Miele’s most powerful vacuum to date, which should fill pet owners with all the confidence they need to reach for that not insubstantial sum of 700 quid.
So, what do we have? Well, it’s a cordless affair that offers an impressive 60-minutes of use from a single battery charge and boasts automatic floor detection so that, whether carpet, wood or vinyl, the HX2 will know what it’s working with and adapt to deliver the best performance.
There’s also a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filter to collect all manner of allergy causing contaminants, a whopping 99.99 per cent dust retention capacity, and a single vacuum cleaner that can transmogrify into three different forms to let you clean high, low and even in the car because, as we know, pet fur gets everywhere.
Coming complete with all the nozzles and brushes you could conceivably need to deal with rogue animal pelt peelings, plus a wall mount to let you stash the Miele safely away when its work is done, for an utterly thorough fur-removal job first-time, the 3-in-1 Triflex HX2 Cat & Dog is king.
Buy now £599.00, Miele
Dyson V15 Detect Absolute
Best for: Decisive home depilation
A big name in the world of domestic drudgery with an ample asking price, the V15 Detect Absolute from Dyson takes your never-ending pet pelage vs floor and furnishings battle and brings immense innovation to each assault. For a start, its powerful Hyperdymium motor spins up to 125,000rpm to suck up all and sundry and trap it using Dyson’s Root Cyclone technology with absolute ease. Then there’s the illuminated cleaner head which fires out a precision angled beam of dirt-detecting light, so what was formerly invisible to the human eye is laid bare before the might of the V15.
Also imbued with detangling technology, no matter how much hair your four-legged friend has managed to share with the house, the Dyson will never clog, which is a massive boost to cleaning morale.
And when it comes to keeping all that absolute filth away, a multi-stage filtration traps up to 99.99 per cent of particles as small as 0.3 microns and allergens safely away in the special hygienic bin, which also makes it easy to empty free from contact with the contents.
To keep you in the know at all stages of your sanitation, the V15 Detect Absolute even features an LCD screen to display the amount and type of muck you’re sucking up as directed by the vac’s piezo sensor.
With a wall-mounted charger, 60 minutes of cleaning between charges and all the tools required to rid your home of all unwanted hair, the Dyson delivers on all furry fronts.
Buy now £699.97, Currys
Tower VL45 Pro Pet Anti Tangle
Best for: Budget fur busting
Never heard of Tower? Then where have you been for the last 100 years? Because that’s how long this British company has been designing, making and doling out essential equipment to homes everywhere… and at far more affordable prices too.
Take this, the VL45 Pro Pet Anti Tangle for example. Currently sitting at around £100, just look at the boxes this little bargain is ticking: 3-in-1 design so that you can use it absolutely anywhere? Yes. Motorised anti-tangle floor head so you don’t have to keep stopping and pulling clumps of clogging hair out? Check. Turbo pet brush to give extra grunt when it comes to stubborn hair strands? Roger that. HEPA 13 filter to remove 99.95 per cent of fine particles down to 0.3-microns to keep allergy sufferers safe? You better believe it.
Indeed, those are many of the essential elements we’ve seen in the far more expensive models I’ve already looked at, but at a fraction of the financial outlay, which is pretty damn impressive.
So that being the case, where does the Tower lose out to its more richly priced rivals? Well, it’s all in the battery, with the VL45 only managing 35-minues of runtime between charges, with a full charge taking four- to five-hours, but for smaller homes this should prove more than ample… and that saving!
Solidly built to boot and, let’s be honest, as far as these things go, not unattractive (although the colour scheme does make me think of Thanos from Avengers: Endgame), and the Tower makes a great case for itself.
How did the review model cope with the flurry of fur my own beasts lay down in my lounge? Well, it may not have special sensors or auto floor detection, but the Tower certainly didn’t shy away from the task, and although it took a little more effort to obtain the same end results as the more costly options, it performed well above the asking price, making it a pet hair sucking steal.
Buy now £110.00, Argos
BOSCH Unlimited 7 Pet BCS71PETGB Auto Detect Cordless Vacuum Cleaner
Best for: Rapid fur removal
Sometimes you can find exactly what you seek in a domestic cleaning appliance simply from the name. Free from any ambiguity, you know exactly you’re going to get, because it’s metaphorically being screamed into your face. Indeed, such a name that there can be not even a shadow of a doubt for what purpose the equipment has been created and whether is restricted by anything. Say hello to the Bosch Unlimited 7 Pet – a vac on a single-minded mission.
Okay, sometimes self-given monikers can be the stuff of fibbery, like any country that calls itself ‘The Democratic Republic of…”, but no such nonsense here. Rather, racking up a TurboSpin motor, a powerful main brush complete with LED lights and a wider diameter than previous models to avoid hair tangling, this lightweight wonder achieves more than 99.9 per cent dust pick-up.
Taking around five-hours to charge to full, the Bosch will then give you up to 40-minutes of suck-time before it needs to go back on its wall-mounted docking station, but you’ll be amazed at just how much ground you can cover in that 40-minues, such is the powerful performance of this cat and dog detritus disposer.
Buy now £299.99, Currys
Black+Decker Lithium-ion Cordless Dustbuster
Best for: Car and caravan dog and cat clean-up
Dogs don’t like being left alone; they get all kinds of crazy ideas, which is why good owners tend to take their pooches everywhere with them, especially out in the car where dogs love nothing more than sticking their head out of the window and letting their tongue flap hilarious in the wind. Also, by a similar token, I’ve seen many a static caravan owner decamp to their seasonal abode for the summer, complete with cat in tow.
Of course, falling animal fur doesn’t take a day off for a daytrip, nor does it stop shedding for the summer, so a pet vacuum that can clean the car and or caravan completely yet still be small enough to stash away is called for. The Black+Decker Cordless Dustbuster answers that call.
Ludicrously light, the B+D comes equipped with a motorised power pet head with an anti-tangle rubberised beater bar, making the removal of even ingrained hair in carpets and on furniture an absolute breeze, without risk of clogging.
Easy to recharge, a full battery gives up to 21-minutes of use (at low speed, less if on boost), and the reasonably capacious 700ml dustbowl feature a very convenient one-touch empty that saves you from having to touch any of the dirt within.
Coming with a charge base and blessed with an LED panel that show you the state of charge and tells you when the filter needs changing, the Black+Decker Lithium-Ion Cordless Pet Dustbuster is ideal for smaller space and perfectly priced at just over a Ton.
Buy now £109.95, Amazon
Hoover HF9 Cordless Pet Vacuum Cleaner with ANTI-TWIST
Best for: Pure fur-freeing power
And so, we arrive at it, the brand whose name is so entwined with the very idea of suction cleaning that its name is constantly misused to encompass any make of vacuum cleaner – both a blessing and a trademark curse.
Hoover has been making vacs since 1908 and the ingenuity behind its models and its reputation for reliability has seen the company remain at the fore in all the years since. So, it should come as no surprise to learn that the HF9, Hoovers’ brightest and best when it comes to taking down pesky pet fur is nothing short of a powerhouse.
First off, the HF9 has the suction potential of a black hole, so you’ll be able to hoover-up (a term I’m allowed to use in this review) the most dogged of dog hair and contumacious of cat fur with utter ease over the hour a full charge will permit. But should you stumble on some animal spoor that resists, simply hit Turbo Boost for 12-minutes of even more oomph.
With an Anti-Twist feature that employs an integrated comb to prevent hair becoming wrapped around the roller, keeping it unclogged and clean is a doddle, and transforming it into handheld mode means you can clean higher, harder to reach areas as well as the fur on the floor.
Charging to full in 3.5-hours, the Hoover also comes with Carpet and Hard Floor modes to let you vac both with absolute efficiency.
Add to this a motorised mini power nozzle for sweeping any evidence of animals from fabric surfaces and the Hoover HF9 is all-encompassing solution to the bane of shed pet mane that’ll keep you and your home free from fur each and every day.
Buy now £319.00, Hoover
Shark Stratos Anti Hair Wrap Plus Pet Pro IZ400UKT
Best for: Hair-raising performance
Featuring Shark’s best ever hair pick-up with Anti Hair Wrap Plus, pet hair both long and short is automatically removed from the brush to free you to concentrate on finding the fur, while Clean Sense IQ delivers up to 50 per cent more dirt pick-up compared to other Shark models, and Anti-Odour tech protects against bad odours inside the vacuum.
But I know what you’re thinking: that all sounds very impressive, but how did it perform when faced with your two, sometimes three, cat-fur-infested household? Like dream. The anti-hair wrap thing could make a cleaner cry tears of joy, while the whole things glides round with all the easy elegance of a Great White, gobbling up all discarded cat coat matter with a seemingly insatiable appetite (although actual bin capacity is 0.7-litres). So, as far as field tests go, aced it.
Battery life is impressive, good for up to 60-minutes of runtime, and the Shark is equally at home on carpet and hard floors, so there is nowhere for pet hair to hide.
Coming complete with a special Pet Hair Removal Tool, if you have an issue with pet fur peppering your house like cat coat confetti, then the Shark Stratos, its name referring to both a specific species of toothy fish and the sky, is a veritable sharknado of strapping hair suction.
Buy now £279.99, Shark
Vax ONEPWR Blade 5 Dual Pet & Car
Best for: Power, performance and practicality
The first review model to arrive at the loosely hirsute place I call home, the Vax ONEPWR Blade 5 Dual Pet and Car certainly had its work cut out for it, as it was to tackle the initial assault on the cat hair havoc the house was in. However, this impressively flexible and featured option proved more than up to the task.
Able to take on both carpet and hard floors thank to its dual-brushbar VersaClear technology, the second, bristled bar is utterly adept at pulling pet hair out of the carpet, which is what we’re here for. Not only that, but this Vax’s three-stage filtration system ensures up to 99.8 per cent of particles down to 0.3-microns in size are captured and kept in the dirt bin, so fur and dander is done and dusted.
Capable of converting from full-size vac into a handheld to tackle hair-troubled upholstery, the Blade 5 also has another very nice feature, namely a digital display on the handle that shows you what mode you’re in and how much runtime you have left before its time to hit the recharge.
Further focusing on the pet-possessing market, the Blade 5 also includes a mini motorised pet tool and features an anti-odour filter and antimicrobial protection, so it’s more than adept at dealing with fur and all the allergens that come both associated with your pets or, indeed, otherwise.
Finally, sealing the deal in my eyes, the Blade 5 also comes bundled with a free ONEPWR toolkit, valued at £50, that includes a stretchy flexible hose, a textile tool, tough brush, and flexible and extendable crevice tool to let you clean up in all corners of your crib.
Giving 45-minutes of function per battery (it comes with two) before needing three-hours to fully recharge, the Vax ONEPWR Blade 5 Dual Pet & Car is a highly effective bit of kit that despatches dust, dander and dead hair to the inescapable confines of its 0.7-litre bin almost effortlessly.
With the afore-reviewed Shark Stratos Anti Hair Wrap Plus Pet Pro IZ400UKT currently enjoying a £100 price reduction, the Vax Blade 5 suddenly finds itself in direct competition and, if it helps, I pity those faced with the agony of that particular choice. Yeah, I know that doesn’t help at all, but then I can’t choose either.
Buy now £370.00, Argos
Vax ONEPWR Blade 4 Pet Cordless
Best for: Performance at a pleasing price
Another Vax now, but one at a considerably lower price-point, I’ve included the Blade 4 as its garnered quite the praise from press and public alike, and according to UK Market data, the 4 cleans carpet better than the UK’s Top 3 best-selling cordless vacuum cleaners, so there’s also that.
Featuring Vax’s VaxCore controlled brushless motor that harnesses the might of a 32bit micro-processor to continually monitor power to maximise cleaning efficiency and performance, so whatever surface you’re sucking down, you’ll never suffer loss of power.
Dual cyclones and three-stage filtration technology grabs 99.8 per cent of even the smallest particles of dust and dander, dumping them in the 0.6-litre dirt bin where a dual-layer electrostatic filter keeps them captive and away from sensitive eyes, throats and skin.
Lightweight and capable of transforming for higher level cleaning or into a handheld for cleaning the car, cushions and other assorted upholstery, akin to the Blade 5, the Blade 4 also comes with a complimentary tool kit that allows access to all areas, ensuring that no surface escapes uncleaned.
Bundled with dual batteries, you get a total runtime of up to 90-minutes, which should be enough to blitz the hairy hell out of your house, before each need a three-hour recharge.
A lot of vac for not very much money, the Vax ONEPWR Blade 4 Pet Cordless is an excellent investment for anyone seeking happy medium of performance and price.
Buy now £170.00, Argos
Gtech Multi MK11 K9
Best for: light weight and slick design
I love a success story, especially when the success comes for an unassuming inventor who did not inherit a fortune, but who started out as a child, fixing the broken hand-me-down toys he received from his older siblings. That, in a tiny nutshell, is the origin story of Nick Grey, the founder of innovative home- and -garden appliance company, Gtech.
Addressing the issue of pets with a remit that extends beyond fur and dander to include the mud our little furry overlords often bring into the house too, the Multi MKII K9 comes enhanced with aluminium to make it tough enough to tackle any job.
Lovely and light at 1.5kg and with a 0.4-litre bin capacity, this natty little handheld can handle any surface type and the power head made exceptionally short work of the two sofas my cats particularly enjoying shedding all over.
Alongside that, the Gtech also comes with a crevice nozzle, dusting brush and an extension tube to let you get busy banishing fluff and fur wherever you find it.
Slickly designed, the Multi MK11 K9 also comes supplied with a spare (washable) filter and a scented cartridges that insert into the top of the filter to rid the air of additional animal stench as it sucks.
An LED headlight is also on hand to highlight the area you’re assaulting, and four-hours of charging pays back 20-minutes of powerful runtime.
In the short 20-odd years that Gtech has been in existence, its built a solid and enviable reputation for the quality and performance of the equipment it produces, and the Multi MK11 K9 is the perfect example of why.
Buy now £199.99, Gtech
