If you do take care of a cheap upright vacuum, after a few sets of new belts and filters, it will end up costing more than our main pick. With the Shark Navigator Lift-Away guaranteed to last five years on warranty alone, the math proves that paying a little more right now will almost always save you money over time. For an upright vacuum that works well on carpets and bare floors, look no further than the Shark NV151 Navigator Swivel Pro Complete Upright Vacuum. This model has adjustable suction levels and brush roll speeds to maximize your cleaning efforts.
Also, Dyson uprights are made from plastic that sounds really creaky whenever the vacuums move. All of the cleaning heads made for carpets use no-stretch geared belts to drive the brush rolls, so they maintain their spin speed and cleaning ability over shark robotic vacuums time. If they do clog (which can happen to any vacuum of any type), Miele vacuums come apart at all the major joints, without needing any tools. That makes it easy to get into the cleaning head, the wand, or the hose to knock any obstructions loose.
Both models offer great suction, but the Shark has a larger floorhead with dual brush rolls, whereas the Miele floorhead doesn’t contain brush rolls at all. Pick-up on hard floors was impeccable and having the controls on the handle made it super easy to transition between different floor types as well as adjust the power if necessary. On carpet when we sprinkled oats near the baseboard, it wasn’t as effective at removing this debris and as such we’d say edge cleaning on carpet is one of its weaknesses.
As you browse through the models, consider which vacuum would work best for you in terms of weight, versatility across different surfaces, noise level, and reliability. You can find more criteria and how we rated models for each factor in our comprehensive canister vacuum ratings. Sure, a $340 Dyson vacuum won’t need new bags or filters or other replacement parts, its five-year warranty is solid, the customer service is great, and Dysons do a great job of cleaning the most common types of flooring. And compared with a $600 Miele canister vacuum, the Dyson might last half as long (10 years), if you’re lucky. The main reason we love Miele canister vacuum cleaners is that they’re impressively sturdy, without feeling clunky.
Against the tougher competition of bagged canister vacuums, the Apex let more fine dust into the air than Kenmore’s top-of-the-line sealed bag system did. The difference is only about 20%, and the Shark captured more large dust particles, shark robotic vacuums so we’re happy with this performance considering the other advantages of the system. We tested the top-of-the-line Shark Apex and found it to be a good vacuum, but probably not worth the extra cost over the Navigator.