Most people vacuum in a similar fashion, 'rowing' the vacuum cleaner in straight, horizontal lines. But when it comes to carpet, this isn't the most effective technique, as the upright carpet fibers aren't being cleaned from every angle.
Instead, you can clean carpets more thoroughly by vacuuming in a 90-degree cross-hatch pattern. It's one of the major learnings I've gathered from testing the best vacuums for pet hair in a cat and dog shelter.
For definitive results, I put it to the test with my Dyson V15 Detect that counts particulate matter. While it may seem like more work, you will pull up a tremendous amount more.
Vacuum in a 90-Degree Cross-Hatch Pattern to Clean More Thoroughly
Whether looped or not, carpet fibers stand upright, and dust, dirt, and hair cling to every side of them. This means that vacuuming forwards and backwards only agitates them from two angles.
Instead, vacuuming in a cross-hatch pattern allows your vacuum's brushroll to agitate every side of each carpet fiber, dislodging what's trapped to allow the suction to pull it up.
I have spent more than 400 hours testing the world's best vacuum cleaners, and a significant portion of that has been spent deep cleaning Bristol ARC, a local cat and dog shelter, finding the most effective ways to pull up as much fur as possible from the low, medium, and thick-pile carpet.
I have learned that this is a simple but highly effective solution that can make even the best vacuums for carpet clean deeper than ever before.
The Results
To find out definitively, I vacuumed two areas of my entryway: One using horizontal lines and the other using the cross-hatch pattern. My entryway has consistent foot traffic along the whole stretch of the floor.
Each area was 4'' by 4'', and I vacuumed each one in ten passes. My Dyson V15 Detect counts individual particles as they're vacuumed, up to the millions, so I was able to accurately compare how much each vacuuming pattern picked up.
The results were clear:
- Using horizontal lines, the vacuum cleaner picked up 51 million particles.
- Using the cross-hatch pattern, the vacuum cleaner picked up 72 million particles.
So, vacuuming in horizontal lines means you're missing almost a third of the dust, debris, and hair that is trapped within your carpet fibers. To maximize your carpet cleaning, the cross-hatch pattern at a 90-degree angle is your best solution.
What to Shop
To help clean your carpets as thoroughly as possible, here are a few tried-and-tested tools that our product experts use at home.
All prices were correct at the time of publication.
Our Head of Solved Punteha van Terheyden uses a carpet rake at home, to pick up any fur that her vacuum and robot vacuum can't lift. It never fails, it just takes more effort.
The Dyson V15 Detect does more than count particles – it also boasts the most effective cleaning we've tested in a cordless vacuum cleaner, even on thick carpets.
Read more in my full Dyson V15 Detect review.
The Shark POWERDETECT Upright is the strongest carpet vacuum out of the 97 vacuums we've tested at Homes & Gardens.
Read more in our five-star Shark POWERDETECT review.
The Bissell SurfaceSense Allergen Pet Lift-Off performed excellently on carpets during testing, and doesn't wrap with hair.
Read more in our full Bissell SurfaceSense Allergen Pet Lift-Off review.
To actually wash your carpets, as opposed to simply vacuuming debris, a carpet cleaner is what you need. This Bissell model uses steam power to break down old stains, too.
Read more in my five-star Bissell Revolution HydroSteam review.
To alleviate some of the carpet-cleaning effort, a robot vacuum cleaner can handle a bulk of it on your behalf. This Yeedi model is one of the best-value robot vacuums we've tested.
Read more in our full Yeedi S14 Plus review.
Next, see which vacuums top our guides of the best Dyson alternatives after our rigorous testing sessions.
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