The top performers in our review are Bissell CleanView, the Gold Award winner; Hoover Tempo WidePath, the Silver Award winner; and Dirt Devil Dynamite Plus, the Bronze Award winner. Here's more on choosing a budget vacuum to meet your needs, along with detail on how we arrived at our ranking of these top 10 budget vacuums. Vacuums are necessary for a clean home, but that doesn’t mean you need the most expensive model to keep it spotless. You could spend hundreds of dollars for a top-of-the-line vacuum, but there are many reasons why a budget vacuum will take care of all your needs. Students with small living spaces, newlyweds on a budget or anyone looking to save money can benefit from an inexpensive vacuum. It could also be a secondary, cheaper vacuum for the upstairs of a larger home. Budget vacuums are also a better choice than a used or refurbished vacuum. In most cases, a used vacuum will no longer be under warranty, meaning you’ll be stuck if the motor fails. Most major vacuum manufacturers offer affordable models, meaning you can find a good vacuum for under $120.

If you're interested in spending more than that, consider our rankings of the best upright vacuums. For information on other models or choosing the right type of vacuum for your situation, visit our vacuum learning center. Although budget vacuums are more affordable than other uprights or canisters, they should still be able to clean common messes in your home. For this reason, cleaning performance was the most important factor of the vacuums we tested. Our in-house team tested each of the inexpensive vacuums on our lineup, focusing on low-pile and medium-pile carpets. We didn't test the vacuums' effectiveness on hardwood floors, as several models aren't recommended for this type of flooring. To test the performance of each vacuum, we used a variety of materials on a test patch of low-pile and medium-pile carpet, including flour to simulate dust and kitty litter for larger debris. We counted the number of passes it took each vacuum to suck up the debris. We then emptied the bag and measured how much material was actually suctioned up.

From here, we awarded the vacuum a percentage score based on its suction performance.sanyo vacuum cleaner replacement parts Our team also ran the vacuums through a series of movement tests to gauge how well they maneuvered on and around different surfaces. vacuum cleaners in currysWe also evaluated the design of each vacuum, including if they had ergonomic, versatile handles and if they fit into small, tight spaces. best upright vacuum cleaner for hardwood floorsFinally, we also cleaned out the canisters (or bags) to determine which vacuum was the easiest to clean.The results of our evaluation were not provided to the companies in advance of publication. Features & Accessories: What Extras Does the Vacuum Offer?

Every home has areas that are more difficult to clean than others, whether it's those tight spaces between furniture; or upholstery that is invariably covered in pet hair. Budget vacuums won't have as many accessories as higher-priced models, but the essentials should still be included. For high ceilings, you should consider a vacuum with an extension wand. Upholstery and dusting brushes are important for couches, other furniture and blinds. A crevice tool will help you reach into tight corners and vents. Beyond this, the accessories should be convenient. The best budget vacuums have onboard attachment housing, meaning the attachments fit on the vacuum handle or base. Some vacuums store the attachments in a separate bag, which isn't the best choice. In a busy household, they tend to get lost. In addition to convenient storage, vacuum accessories should also be easy to attach to and detach from the hose. Help & Support: Peace of Mind from the Manufacturer Budget vacuums typically require more assembly than higher-priced models.

While assembly is usually straightforward, it still is additional work you should plan on doing before you can use your vacuum. Therefore, if you have questions or run into a problem, receiving support from the manufacturer is of utmost importance. The best budget vacuum manufacturers have customer service that is accessible through multiple avenues, such as phone, email and live chat. They also offer extended hours. Whether it's the night or a weekend, customer service can help you with assembly, teach you more about different features or help you resolve any technical issues. Finally and more importantly, a good manufacturer warranty will provide you peace of mind. Most manufacturers provide at least a one-year warranty, but the best budget vacuum manufacturers provide a warranty of two years or more. After spending time with each of the vacuums on our lineup, we concluded that three particular budget vacuums stood out. The Bissell CleanView was nearly perfect in all of our categories: Vacuuming Performance, Convenience and Design, Design Extras, and Help and Support.

It has one of the largest canisters, a low-cost bagless design and a full range of attachments. The Hoover Tempo WidePath was the easiest vacuum to clean and had a strong, capable motor. The Dirt Devil Dynamite Plus excelled in our Vacuuming Performance tests, receiving high marks for suction while also receiving points for providing automatic height adjustment, a feature that adjusts the height of the vacuum head depending on whether you're vacuuming thick carpet or bare floor. Budget vacuums are ideal for many situations, whether you're starting out in a small space to needing an extra vacuum on a separate floor so you don't have to haul a vacuum up and down stairs. Sure, more expensive vacuums have specialized features you won't find with the models in this lineup, but you don't have to spend a lot of money to get high-quality performance as long as you're willing to sacrifice a few minor extras.When I was a kid, I remember seeing commercials for Oreck vacuum cleaners on TV. David Oreck himself usually starred in the ads, and when he did, he'd always cheerfully proclaim the merits of his machine, the 8-pound Oreck XL.

The XL had the look of a complete clunker, with an ugly, dated design that seemed like it hadn't been updated since 1963, when Oreck first started selling vacuums in Louisiana. All the same, there was just something endearing and perhaps infectious about Oreck's unapologetic confidence. Sure enough, everyone I knew who used an Oreck XL swore by the thing.Fast forward twenty years or so to today, and you'll still see Orecks on the market (David Oreck, by the way, just celebrated his 90th birthday last month, and is still an active entrepreneur, lecturer, and philanthropist). You won't, however, see anything quite like the good ol' Oreck XL. It seems that somewhere between those TV commercials and the present day, the company finally caved in and decided to update its design -- which brings us to the new Oreck Touch. I was almost disappointed as I took the thing out of the box. Was this really an Oreck vacuum I was looking at? By the standards of the many Oreck loyalists out there, I'm happy to say that yes, this is most definitely an Oreck vacuum, the kind of vacuum you'll swear by.

We put it through hours upon hours of tests, throwing everything from sawdust to Labradoodle hair at it, and in the end, we found that it was one of our top scoring vacuums, right up there with the most expensive, high-end models. At a price of $399, the Oreck Touch isn't cheap, but as a high-quality appliance in a category with more variance than you might think, it still represents real value for consumers looking for a dependable, easy-to-use cleaning machine. Design and construction The Oreck Touch is a vacuum cleaner built for the 21st century, and if Oreck was late to the party in this regard, it's only helped it to make a big entrance. The minimalist, utilitarian design of fifty years ago is gone, replaced with something truly modern and elegant-looking. If there was an old chalkboard at the Oreck factory with the word "flourishes" boldly crossed out for all to see, it's been thrown out the windowThis is a vacuum with style to spare. The thick, pale blue bag is gone -- the Oreck Touch uses a sleek-looking translucent blue canister, instead.

The handle isn't just a boring, industrial-looking loop of white plastic anymore -- it's a futuristic joystick buttressed by arcs of brushed steel. I hate when writers refer to appliances as "sexy," but I'm really struggling to not call this thing a sexy vacuum.Thankfully, these design touches have a degree of functionality to them. The brush roll is housed in a body with stylish cutaways that actually allow you to immediately see if you've missed anything on the floor as you're cleaning. The great-looking canister is amazingly easy to take out, empty, and replace. And, of course, there's the fact that the Oreck Touch conveniently relocates the power switch, along with the brush roll button, to the tip of the handle, where they sit just beneath your thumb. From start to end, you could clean with this vacuum and never need to bend over once.The most noticeable function of the new design is how maneuverable the Oreck Touch is. The curves of the machine's body create a pivot point at the base, allowing you to turn the thing with a simple twist of the wrist, similar to how you would with a ball-based design, like Dyson vacuums use.

The comfortable angle of the handle seems designed to make this kind of turning even easier -- it juts out in front of the vacuum, giving your wrist more leverage. It's a subtle, surprisingly smart build, and I was struck with how much I enjoyed using it in comparison with other machines that we tested. It isn't without its minor imperfections, though. I wish that the hollow loops connecting the brush roll to the back wheels were a bit sturdier, since these are what you're supposed to step on in order to click the vacuum down out of its resting position. While we're at it, a dedicated button or latch for this function would have left me feeling much more comfortable. All in all, when it comes time to criticize the build, minor quibbles are the best I can come up with.One last design note: as Oreck vacuums go, the Oreck Touch is a heavyweight, weighing in at about 16 pounds. This isn't to say that it's noticeably heavy or difficult to lug around, but don't expect to see David Oreck lifting one with a single finger the way he used to do regularly while hocking the 8-pound Oreck XL.

Performance So the Oreck Touch looks and feels great, but the real question is how well does it clean? After all, it's going to spend most of its life stashed away in a closet. How... ugh... sexy it looks is a trivial concern next to knowing how much dirt it'll suck out of your carpets. For $399, you want a vacuum cleaner that's going to do the job, and do it well. So how does the Oreck stack up? Cheerios, 1 oz. (percentage picked up)(Longer bars indicate better performance) 92 97 95 Dyson DC4192 97 93 Shark73 88 97 Electrolux93 88 92 Dyson DC5080 83 Let's start with cereal. For our purposes, we used Cheerios (Fruity Cheerios, to be exact -- they photograph a little better against beige carpet and plus, they were on sale).Our goal was to see how well the vacuums could handle lightweight particulates of a significantly larger size than your average dust mote. What percentage of the cereal would each vacuum manage to pick up? Would the cereal fit underneath the vacuum, or would it just get shoveled around?