

John Lewis is one of our favourites for vacs as well as other investment buys. There’s a brilliant selection online and in store plus, when you shop at John Lewis, you can trust that the partners (in other words, the John Lewis staff) know their stuff.
It’s this expertise we’re tapping into in our series covering all the essential buys for your home with advice from the people in the know.
You can find the best vacuum cleaner 2020 in our guide together with more buying tips, and you can scroll down for vacuum cleaner savvy from a specialist and today’s top deals.
Vacuum cleaner buying advice from John Lewis
Po Lon Corrigan, Partner and Assistant Buyer Small Electrical, John Lewis & Partners, offers this essential advice:
1. Get a vacuum cleaner for a smaller home
‘When you’re choosing a vacuum, it is important to think about your space, your flooring and weight of the product. If your home is on the smaller side, I would recommend a cylinder option. They’re lightweight, great on upholstery and easy to store away.’
2. Make life easy in a bigger house
‘For heavy duty cleaning and a larger carpet area, I would suggest an upright cleaner. These have great suction, and have revolving belt-driven brushes to collect ingrained dirt.’
3. Avoid heavy lifting
‘Cordless vacuums are a great choice if your home is across many levels as they’re light and easy to move around. There are no wires to trip over and the battery can last over 30 minutes.’
Get small space home decor ideas, celeb inspiration, DIY tips and more, straight to your inbox!
4. How much dirt do you have to deal with?
‘Another option for deep cleaning is a carpet cleaner. This will give your flooring a deep clean using water. It will help prolong the life of your carpet and make it feel like a fresh new one.’
If you have pets, try one of the best vacuums for pet hair.
5. Get the vacumming done for you
‘If you really want to go all out, you could try a robotic cleaner that takes away the task of vacuuming and does it for you. You can set your machine to clean at certain times, they use intelligent navigation systems to allow for thorough cleaning and are a great option for a bigger home. A robot vacuum also charges itself.’
Today’s best vacuum cleaner deals at John Lewis
SEBO Automatic X7 Excel ePower Upright Vacuum Cleaner | £349
Tackle all the tasks you need to with this powerful upright vacuum cleaner. It comes with a 31cm cleaning head, stair hose, dusting brush and clamp, removable brush roller and searchlight, plus five SEBO Fresh air fresheners, and crevice and upholstery nozzles.
Vax ECB1SPV1 Platinum Power Max Carpet Cleaner | £249
Want to be able to wash your carpets without the hassle of hiring a machine or getting someone in? This machine will wash and rinse them, leaving carpets fresh and dry within an hour. It removes up to 93 per cent of bacteria, along with other fungi and allergens.
iRobot Roomba 980 Robot Vacuum Cleaner | Was £799, now £599
Not only do you get to put your feet up and let this clever little machine clean up your floors, but you’ll also save £200. Irresistible. It can deal with carpet, hardwood, laminate and tiles, so your floors will be dirt and pet fur free.
Read more:

Sarah is a freelance journalist and editor writing for websites, national newspapers, and magazines. She’s spent most of her journalistic career specialising in homes – long enough to see fridges become smart, decorating fashions embrace both minimalism and maximalism, and interiors that blur the indoor/outdoor link become a must-have. She loves testing the latest home appliances, revealing the trends in furnishings and fittings for every room, and investigating the benefits, costs and practicalities of home improvement. It's no big surprise that she likes to put what she writes about into practice, and is a serial house revamper. For Realhomes.com, Sarah reviews coffee machines and vacuum cleaners, taking them through their paces at home to give us an honest, real life review and comparison of every model.