Done and dusted: The best high-end stick vacuums for infrequent emptying

Stick vacuums have come a long way since Dyson revolutionised the category more than a decade ago. Here, I’ve nominated the top four from a selection of the newest and most advanced models I’ve tested over recent months.

For each one I ran a range of tests (flour, cereal, hair, soil, cat litter) on hard floors, also doing several carpet runs, primarily with the vacuum’s main included head.

Each comes with various accessories and modes, which I’ve noted, but for the purposes of comparison I’m mostly looking at how they performed daily on cleaning carpet and hard floor. I specifically focused on emptying, since doing so less frequently (and without clouds of dust floating back into your house) is a key focus of newer models.

Compared to the previous Dyson Gen5detect Absolute, the V16 is more powerful, has more suction, has a larger dust bin and runs for longer. But its new cleaning head is likely to prove divisive. The Gen5 had a flat fluffy head for hard floors and a motorbar for carpets; the new model has what Dyson calls the All Floor Cones Sense head, which it claims adjusts speed and power to the floor type and has a new design that detangles long hair.

It tested very well, but I noticed a dead zone in the middle of the head where the two cones meet. This is key to the detangling design, but it meant when picking up fine powder I couldn’t get it all in one pass. It was also tough to get into corners. The head tended to push larger objects rather than sucking them up, but you can remove the head with a quick pull on the top of the wand, revealing a wide crevice tool that will suck up anything. The V16 is stiffer than some older Dysons but still moves great, and it extracted a lot of debris from the carpet. A screen above the handle shows in real time the volume of particles you’re sucking up, which is interesting but not overly useful. For me, it always showed maximum for the smallest particles, while the others moved from mid to low as I worked. Similarly, the green light that’s meant to highlight dust only served to remind me there’s a baseline of cat hair that no amount of vacuuming will ever remove.

Unlike recent models from other brands, Dyson’s latest does not come with an auto-empty dock that removes and stores the dirt – the company says one is coming soon as a sold-separately accessory. Meanwhile, the V16 has a lever to compress the dust in the bin without removing it, so you can fit weeks of work. Compress properly and you also don’t get the usual cloud of dust when ejecting into a bin. Dyson’s claims that the bin will be wiped clean on ejection are exaggerated.

The V16 comes with a mount you can screw to your wall for out-of-the-way hanging and charging, plus hair, combi and crevice tools.

The Shark may be louder, a bit uglier and overall less svelte than the competition, but it’s quite a bit cheaper and in my testing was one of the two top performers. If you don’t mind your vacuum looking more like a hotel utility item than a sleek modern tech-forward home appliance, the PowerDetect is a compelling choice.

It’s not as manoeuvrable as a Dyson, but compensates with great performance in corners and on carpet, decisive mode switching as you move floor types, and a joint in the wand to lay it flat to go under beds without getting on the floor yourself. Large objects, such as bark chips that always mysteriously appear the kids’ room, were no problem. It needed no extra encouragement on the cat litter, and a row of metal teeth prevents hair tangling. It passed every test. As more of the weight is concentrated in the main unit, it’s a bit more tiring to operate than a Dyson.

When you drop the Shark back into the charging dock, it ejects the dust into a sealed internal canister that should hold a month of debris. This element too feels a bit primitive compared to the competition, but it’s effective. There’s no filter bag inside; carry the full canister to the garbage and open up the bottom. A replaceable perfumed puck in the top keeps it from ponging up your house (which, on my brief testing, is probably not necessary). If you do a quick late-night vac and want to charge without waking up the whole house, a switch on the dock disables auto-empyting.

The PowerDetect comes with a crevice tool, a pet brush, a motorised hand tool and a little stand to store the accessories.

The Z50, the joint top scorer, weighs about the same as the Shark. Why pay more for it? It’s clearly and significantly more powerful than the Shark, but it somehow lasts longer. I wasn’t scientifically measuring the amount of dirt extracted from my carpets, but just visually I could see the Dreame got a lot more out with the same number of runs. Further, it is unmatched in looking sleek and feeling high-end, from the magnetic removable panel on the dock to the button that easily pops out the dust cup for cleaning.

The Dreame feels as manoeuvrable as the Dyson, but can clean up equivalent messes with one stroke versus two. Its carpet performance was impressive and on hard floors it was unstoppable, with the sole notable drawback of scattered a little fine powder on its first run. The telescoping wand has three heights, so it should work for tall and short users, and the middle joint is for getting under low furniture. The head adapted well from hard floors to carpets to rugs and, as with the Dyson, it has a light and a real-time readout to inform you how dirty your floors are.

The auto-empty dock looks like some futuristic hi-fi component – it’s still obviously a vacuum cleaner, but it’s classy enough to keep in a corner of your loungeroom. Docking initiates a noisy emptying that I noticed isn’t always totally effective; I had to reach in and pull out some hair occasionally. The debris goes into a single-use filter bag that Dreame says should last three months and is certified to the medical grade HEPA-14 standard.

The Z50 comes with a combi tool, a mini motorised head, a dusting brush, a pet de-shedding tool, a floppy extension hose, a spare dust bag and a little caddy to store your accessories. If only they went into the body of the dock. The caddy is easy enough to fit under the sink or just leave on the floor.

If price is no object, there’s an argument for the Samsung being the best vacuum of the bunch. It hit close to perfection in testing, it has monster battery life, and it comes with a mopping mode option. On the other hand, it’s significantly more expensive and less likely to be discounted, it adds unnecessary features and complications, while the Dreame and the Dyson are handier to use.

You may wonder what the “AI” in the device’s name is doing there. Samsung claims the AI Jet Ultra’s AI mode will detect the floor type and change settings, which doesn’t sound all that different to what other high-end vacuums do. In this case, it works only if you’ve connected the vacuum to Wi-Fi via your phone’s SmartThings app. It generally did a great job, but I wasn’t as happy with the auto-switching as I was on the Shark. The Samsung could delay on switching, and didn’t seem to boost power at all along skirtings, for example. It pulled a lot of grime from the carpet, aced the hard floor tests, but ended up with a lot of hair tangled in the head. The big screen displays remaining run time (usually way more than the other models), but the function that displays notifications from your phone is a bit naff. Of the four models, this is the lightest but also the toughest to push around. A secondary more manoeuvrable head is specifically for hard floors.

The Jet Ultra has a telescoping wand and a tall, cylindrical auto-empty base, but I don’t find its beige theme as stylish. The base is far more dependable when it comes to completely emptying the bin on the first try. The real strength of this machine is in its versatility. In addition to the two main heads, it has a mop attachment that sprays water and buffs with two rotating discs. You can use washable or disposable pads, with some of each included.

The AI Jet Ultra comes with a motorised hand tool, combi and crevice tools, a flexible extender, two extra dust bags and a stand for accessories (again, storage in the base would be handier).

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