Australians love the best vacuums for hardwood floors for a straightforward reason - the high-quality, premium maintenance they lend any home with hard floors.
Hardwood floors that are made from top-of-the-line dry wood, and finished to a very high standard, could last for generations.
You need to make sure that your investment is protected with some of the best vacuums for hardwood floors.
One of the most crucial things in floor maintenance is ensuring that you regularly run a vacuum over to prevent dust building up.
Vacuumit has made an attempt to make a list of the best vacuums for hardwood floors we have tested in Australia.
Don’t forget to go through our discussion of the key factors to keep in mind before considering the best vacuum for hard floors.
We’ve also gone ahead and answered some common questions people have regarding the top vacuum cleaners.
Let’s jump right into the best vacuum for wood floors reviews.
Best Vacuum For Hard Floors and Wood Australia 2021
- Bissell Featherweight
- Dyson V8
- Shark Duo Clean Powered Lift-Away
Ideally, the best vacuum for hardwood floors would have soft brush roll to pick up dust effectively on hard surfaces, without pushing it around.
Excellent suction power, sufficient capacity as well as suction that can be turned down are great features for the best vacuum for hard floors.
We’ve divided the top picks by best performing, best cordless offering and the best cheap hardwood vacuum we came across.
Bissell Featherweight
Best Cheap Vacuum For Hardwood Floors
Bissell Featherweight
Bissell’s cheapest offering comes in a convenient, versatile and lightweight package while being a treat to use on hard floors.
As the name suggests, this vacuum is ultra-lightweight and also comes with an affordable price tag.
Despite all of that, this vacuum from U.S.-based Bissell is a revelation when it comes to hardwood cleaning.
With excellent suction and corded design, this vacuum is an excellent choice for homeowners that do not have large properties.
We could easily envision how homemakers in Australia would look forward to cleaning with this convenient device!
Unlike most stick vacuums, the Bissell Featherweight comes with a 4.5-metre long power cord.
As you can expect, we weren’t too pleased with the length of the cord.
We were also not too pleased with the dust canister capacity of only about 0.5 litres.
Although this lightweight vacuum does great on hard surfaces, it does struggle a tad to push through on high-pile carpets.
We were, however, impressed with the ability of this vacuum to convert to a handheld device.
We also loved how easy Bissell has made it to remove and clean the filter.
By all means, if you wanted one of the best vacuum for hardwood floors, there aren’t too many more affordable options in Australia.
Dyson V8
Best Cordless Vacuum For Hardwood Floors
Dyson V8
A super-quiet cordless beauty that adjusts to different floors, comes with Cyclonic Technology and 40 minutes of battery time.
If you’ve been following vacuum cleaner reviews religiously, the Dyson V8 would have popped up more than a few times.
Despite newer versions coming out from Dyson, the V8 remains one of the best stick vacuums ever.
This cordless beauty will run for about 40 minutes on a full charge on a lower power mode.
When you go for maximum power, the battery life drops to a paltry seven minutes, which isn’t too great.
To clean hard floor, however, we found that we would rarely have to go for the higher power modes.
An excellent motor provides plenty of suction even on lower power modes for dirt and debris.
The brush bar on the V8 has hard nylon bristles to dig deep into carpets.
Although you may be thinking that it could seriously scratch your hardwood floor up, Dyson already thought that through.
When moving onto hardwood floors, these hard bristles can be retracted by merely pressing a button.
When it comes to filtration, Cyclonic Technology on the V8 will ensure tiny dust particles are separated for easy capture.
Combine that with a HEPA filter, and you’ve got an extremely adept dust capture system on your V8.
The V8 comes with an accessory for sucking up pet hair.
The ability to convert to a handheld device means that your V8 can easily clean up staircases.
Emptying your dust canister is simple with a quick release button that Dyson poetically calls a “Point and Shoot” mechanism!
The dust canister itself isn’t too big which is a bit of a downer.
The V8 works quiet, but some of our testers with large hands found the pistol-like grip a bit uncomfortable.
The Dyson V8 is not a cheap vacuum, but the vacuum is too loveable to pass up!
Shark Duo Clean Powered Lift-Away
Best Performing Vacuum For Hardwood Floors
Shark Duo Clean Powered Lift-Away
One of Australia’s best upright vacuums, this quiet machine can be detached for easy cleaning and is excellent on all floor types.
Vacuumit is such a big fan of this vacuum from Shark, that it has also made our list of the best vacuums in Australia.
DuoClean technology is the name of the game when it comes to dealing with your hardwood floors.
A soft brush roll will leave your floorboards looking polished.
Your carpets won’t be ignored either, with a hard bristle brush to deeply clean carpet fibres.
Filtration is a really impressive aspect of this vacuum as it comes with Shark’s Anti-Allergen filtration along with a HEPA filter.
Such comprehensive filtration will ensure that the allergens your Shark vacuum picks up from the space in between your floorboards will be kept inside.
For adding a dimension of portability in cleaning, this vacuum will convert to a handheld device.
Powered Lift-Away technology will power your brush roll directly in handheld mode.
If you have a pet at home, the Pet Multi-Tool accessory will come in handy.
We loved how easy this vacuum is to move around, with manoeuvrability excellent on this device despite being a heavy vacuum at 6.7 kilos.
We were also highly impressed with how quiet this vacuum is in cleaning up!
The dust canister capacity is a little worrying, however, with only about a litre of capacity.
The premium price tag may seem a roadblock, but this vacuum from Shark is a definite winner in our book.
What Do People Usually Miss When Considering The Best Vacuum For Hard Floors?
Cleaning your wood floors often is a pre-requisite in ensuring that the lifespan of your floors is extended.
Currently, a lot of vacuum brands are jumping into a congested market space with highly differentiated products.
It is important to keep certain factors in mind before settling on a purchase decision for your home, so let's discuss them.
Powerful Suction
For cleaning the debris that piles up in the space between your floorboards, it is essential to focus on some of the best vacuum for hard floors that showcases excellent suction.
The suction in a vacuum depends on the motor inside as well as the airflow design within the vacuum itself.
A good test that our team of testers at Vacuumit use for the best vacuum for hardwood floors is to see if it can pick up bits of cereal on hard surfaces.
Typically, most vacuum cleaners with weak suction fail to do so in such a test.
Rolling Brush Bar
When selecting the best vacuum for hardwood floors, one of the critical things to look out for is a brush bar which can be turned off.
While the rotation of the brush bar is a crucial part of digging deep into carpet fibres, when it comes to bare floors, it can be a hindrance.
Rotating brush bars could fling debris away instead of picking it up.
Additionally, if the bristles are made of hard nylon, then it could scratch up your floor badly.
If your home has no carpets at all, then go for a floor vacuum without a brush bar itself!
Soft Brush Rolls
Some vacuum models come with a useful hard floor attachment such as a soft brush roll, which is typically made of delicate carbon.
These soft brush rolls won’t scratch up your floorboards, and will also do a better job in picking up debris on hard surfaces.
Power Mode
Some vacuum cleaners give you the option to control suction power.
Vacuumit recommends going for the lowest power mode on hardwood so that debris is sucked up without getting pushed away.
Staircase Cleaning
If you have staircases at home that need to be cleaned, go for lightweight cordless vacuums or go for a vacuum that can be converted to a handheld device.
Only by doing so will you be given the extra dimension of portability in dealing with staircases.
Pets
Looking at the best vacuum for hardwood floors that can also pick up pet hair?
If pet hair is a persistent issue at your home, Vacuumit recommends that you go for a pet vacuum.
On the other hand, you could also go for the best vacuum for hardwood floors that has pet tool attachments included.
Filtration
The space between your floorboards is a good hiding place for allergens such as pet dander, fine dust particles and even pollen.
If you do not go for a hardwood vacuum with excellent filtration, then all of the allergens it picks up could be re-released in your home environment.
Vacuumit recommends that you keep an eye out for vacuums that have HEPA filtration, to protect allergy sufferers.
Dust Capacity
Floors are often dusty, and the best vacuums for hardwood floors often display powerful suction.
In order to hold all of the dust that is collected, you need to select a vacuum that has sufficient capacity in the dust canister or dust bag.
Greater the capacity of your vacuum to hold dust, the lesser you have to empty your device.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the difference between carpet vacuuming and hardwood vacuuming?
How Do I Vacuum Laminate Floors?
Can My Hardwood Vacuum Remove Stains?
Final Verdict
Hardwood floors, or just about any hard surface for that matter, are a difficult task for most vacuums.
Besides being at risk of getting scratched, debris is often pushed aside instead of being sucked up.
Our list of the best vacuums for hardwood floors avoid such issues through carefully crafted technology and powerful suction.
Our top recommendation would be the Shark DuoClean Powered Lift-Away vacuum for its overall performance on hardwood floors.
The Dyson V8 is a premium offering with some exciting features in a cordless package.
If you wanted something super affordable and value for your investment, look no further than the Bissell Featherweight.
Each of the types of vacuum that have made the Vacuumit’s list are great all-rounders.