Are HEPA Vacuums Worth It? Think Twice Before Spending Big. | Reviews by Wirecutter

By Liam McCabe

HEPA filtration has become something like a modern-day talisman, a protective ward against often-invisible dangers from wildfires, viruses, stovetops, and more.

Although HEPA is indeed the gold standard for fighting airborne pollution, a HEPA filter alone can’t shield you from pollution. It’s not a magic charm—it’s a piece of pleated fabric—and it can catch only what it can touch. “People have gotten used to seeing HEPA and wanting HEPA,” says Joseph Allen, DSc, director of the Healthy Buildings program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “But a HEPA filter is only going to work if air is going through it.” (Disclosure: A family member of the reporter is employed at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.)

And that’s the problem with HEPA filters in many vacuum cleaners. Researchers and product reviewers (video) have found that just because a vacuum has “HEPA” somewhere on its packaging doesn’t mean it’s always better for your home’s air quality. HEPA vacuums often do work well, but some models have air gaps that allow debris to shoot sideways out of the vacuum. “It doesn’t make sense to have a high-grade filter in a vacuum that’s not sealed,” explains Allen.

Plenty of vacuums are effectively air-sealed, and Wirecutter recommends several. (I checked some of their bona fides with a fog machine.) But even those big-ticket cleaners can’t eliminate your exposure to air pollution because the act of vacuuming itself kicks up significant debris, according to Jeffrey Siegel, PhD, a professor at the University of Toronto specializing in building engineering and indoor air quality.

To be clear: A high-performance vacuum cleaner can play a huge role in keeping your home healthy and comfortable, especially if allergies, asthma, or other conditions are a concern. But a HEPA filter doesn’t always mean high performance. And the inverse can be true: Plenty of high-performance vacuums don’t use a HEPA filter. They technically fall short of the most elite filtration standards, but many people aren’t likely to notice a difference.

Depending on your goals and expectations for your indoor air quality, an expensive upgrade isn’t always necessary.

When a vacuum sucks up crumbs, dust, and microscopic particles through the cleaning head or the end of the wand, the first stop is the bag or cyclonic separator—and that’s where most of the debris will remain. Anything that sneaks past that first line of defense (usually) runs into a loose filter, which stops debris that’s big enough to damage the motor.

After the airstream passes through the motor, one last filter tries to catch any tiny particles that are still along for the ride. If the vacuum has a HEPA filter, this is where it’s located. In theory, all but the teeny-tiniest particles that enter the vacuum are collected there, and they remain there until you empty the vacuum and clean or replace the filters.

But lots of vacuums have leaks, and debris escapes through gaps and cracks in the system. A poorly sealed vacuum ends up “collecting allergens and heavy metals like lead that could be in dust, and you’re aerosolizing them,” Allen says. “Then you can breathe them in.”

To look for leaks in my own vacuum (an old Shark Navigator), I picked up a fog machine from a party-supply shop. I set the machine up to shoot fake smoke directly into the Shark vacuum’s hose while it was running to make spotting air gaps easy—and I found a ton. The HEPA filter itself was tight, but clouds came billowing out of every other seam where the vacuum parts connected, including the seams around the edge of the filter.

This isn’t meant to be a knock on Shark Navigator vacuums in particular; it’s just one of the few vacuums that I own and had at home for a test. I’m certain I would have found other leaky vacuums from other brands if I’d looked for them. That said, Shark vacuums tend to be tight when they’re brand-new, so it’s interesting to see at least one example of that air seal loosening up over time—I’ve had this one for at least five years.

HEPA or not, sealed or leaky, vacuum cleaners almost always make the air quality worse in a space while they’re running, Siegel says. He co-authored a study that found measurable particle pollution increases from just rolling a vacuum across the carpet, but especially with the brush roller spinning.

I noticed this in my own testing at home, though it was only ever a small increase, and my air-quality monitor never flagged a risky level of pollution. Still, Siegel advises that people with sensitivities to air pollution be absent while anyone is running a vacuum cleaner.

A different study found that vacuums, while they’re turned on, create entirely new, ultrafine particles spewing forth from the motor, though it’s less clear whether this sort of ultrafine pollution is anything to be worried about, according to Siegel.

It turns out that just being alive is a dusty business, and there’s nothing you can do to escape some amount of exposure to air pollution. “We actually have a dust cloud around us” all the time, Allen says, something that he calls the Pigpen effect (after the Peanuts character).

It’s still much healthier—and more comfortable—to vacuum than to let your home gather dust, because that dust can be made of substances that are known to be harmful to human health. On balance, a vacuum does remove such hazards from your home, and it’s clearly the most effective way to clean a carpet. But you should understand that the act of vacuum cleaning carries some risk, “and you manage that risk,” Siegel says.

The amount of air pollution you inhale while vacuuming is “not nothing,” Siegel says. “But if I’m being honest, I don’t actually care that much about vacuuming for the ordinary person. It’s usually not an everyday activity.” (Professional cleaners are at greater risk.) He recommends opening the windows for ventilation while you clean, as the weather allows. A portable air purifier couldn’t hurt, either.

Siegel recommends buying a vacuum with strong suction and a design that lets you work quickly. That way, you can spend as little time as possible with the vacuum running and kicking up extra debris. He estimates that most of your pollution exposure comes from the dust-rustling activity of vacuum cleaning itself, not necessarily the debris that leaks out of air gaps. “The vacuum matters, but it’s not the be-all, end-all,” he says.

If a vacuum has a sealed system, the box will often say so. But take those claims with a grain of salt: The industry definition of “sealed” is a bit vague, and independent certifications are rare in the US. Some vacuum reviewers, such as Vacuum Wars, test the air sealing on dozens of vacuums per year, and that’s a great reference—though they won’t necessarily tell you if the seal wears out with age, as I found with the old Shark Navigator that failed my fog tests.

If price isn’t a limiting factor, you’ll have an easier time finding a tightly built vacuum, and some research shows that well-sealed vacuums can emit far less debris than others. Some models collect debris in bags that are made from filter material and have self-sealing rubber gaskets at the opening. We know from our tests that these bagged models tend to be high performers in general, and they rank among our favorite vacuum cleaners. Bagged models from Sebo and Miele are powerful cleaners with excellent maneuverability, and they offer other nice-to-have benefits such as quiet operation and a great reputation for longevity.

Pairing a true HEPA filter with a sealed vacuum is never a bad idea, but many owners find that the regular filters are just fine. The filtration can still be notably effective even if it falls short of the official HEPA standard. Sebo vacuums, for example, don’t meet the precise standards for HEPA, but they’re still very tight. (Many allergens are relatively large, at least at the scale relevant to air filters, and even non-HEPA vacuums can catch nearly every common irritant that enters the system, as long as they’re air-sealed.)

Miele’s “basic” filter package is similarly excellent. My colleague Christine Cyr Clisset, a Wirecutter editorial director, thought she had bought a Miele canister vac equipped with a HEPA filter, saw a dramatic improvement in her daughter’s allergy symptoms, and then realized it had not come with a HEPA filter after all. (Just make sure you’re using the genuine filter bags, because they do a lot of the filtering and sealing work on their own. I ran a fog test on the Miele vacuum with a knockoff bag installed, and it failed miserably. The first-party filter bag fixed it.)

Remember: A top-tier filter alone is not enough to clean the air, so don’t pick your vacuum just because the package says “HEPA” somewhere. Even a vacuum with truly elite air-scrubbing performance will reduce—but not eliminate—your exposure to pollution at home.

And don’t spend your entire air-quality budget on a vacuum cleaner. Leave some cushion for other upgrades such as a HEPA air purifier, high-quality HVAC filtration, and some kind of strategy to ventilate your kitchen when you cook.

This article was edited by Megan Beauchamp and Maxine Builder.

For a dependable, versatile, and affordable cleaner, we prefer a bagless upright, but we have recommendations for other types of vacuums as well.

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Liam McCabe

Liam McCabe is a senior staff writer at Wirecutter covering appliances, HVAC, home improvement, and yard gear—the big stuff for your house. Previously, he was on staff at Consumer Reports and USA Today’s Reviewed and worked in the clean-energy industry for a bit. He has tested more than 50 robot vacuums and has mostly electrified his 100-year-old house.