Is your vacuum cleaner making your allergies worse?

Around 41 million people in the UK live with hay fever, dust mite and other common dust-related allergies¹. Fine dust particles can trigger many of these allergies, which is why vacuuming regularly can make a big difference in relieving sneezing and other symptoms.

While some vacuum cleaners perform brilliantly in our allergy retention tests, others are very disappointing – half of the vacuums we tested received only three stars out of five, or even less in this area.

We explain what you need to know about vacuuming and allergies, plus share our top tips and advice for reducing allergy symptoms in the home.

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How vacuuming can aggravate allergies

Vacuuming can trigger symptoms for those suffer from dust allergies. These often worsen during or immediately after vacuuming or dusting since the cleaning process can stir up dust particles and unsettle debris and pollen from carpets, hard floors and other surfaces, making the particles easier to inhale.

Vacuum cleaners generally suck up most visible dust and debris – you might even spot them floating in the air after you've disturbed them. But plenty miss microscopic particles. Some vacs blast them back into the air through a motor exhaust filter and that's what aggravates allergies. 

The human eye can spot dust as small as 25mm, but it's the really tiny particles – which can be as little as 0.3mm – that can trigger dust-related allergy symptoms. If your vacuum has a poor filter, these tiny particles can get flung up into the air, causing you to cough and sneeze.

Need to upgrade your appliance? Discover the best corded vacuum cleaners and best cordless vacuum cleaners according to our lab tests

The best vacuums for people with allergies

The differences between vacuums with the best filters and those with the worst are significant, so we award the best with a full five-star rating for allergen retention.

Receiving top marks means that nearly all the fine dust and allergens the vacuum cleaner picks up are locked tightly within a container and are not released back into the home. Those with lower ratings simply shot more of the particles back up in the air.

Make sure you read our reviews to find the best vacuums with well-designed suction and filtration systems. You can find both corded and cordless vacuums with brilliant filters and our tests have uncovered models that keep allergens at bay. 

Which? members can filter our reviews to find the vacs that score four or five stars for allergen retention in our rigorous tests:

• Best corded vacuum cleaners for allergen retention
• Best cordless vacuum cleaners for allergen retention

Are bagged vacuums better for allergies?

Generally speaking, yes. It all comes down to emptying.

Most cordless vacuums are bagless and often have smaller capacities compared with corded models. This means you'll need to empty them more often and, subsequently, be exposed to dust during the process. It can be a messy job.

When you empty a bagged vacuum, you remove the entire dust bag and pop it in the bin, so you won't be exposed to the dust directly or release too many allergens back into the air. 

The emptying assessment is one of the key parts of our ease of use test. We check each vacuum to find out how messy and how quick the process of emptying really is and whether it's made especially simple. Only the best models score the full five stars.

Which? members can filter our reviews to find the best bagged vacuum cleaners:

• Best bagged corded vacuum cleaners
• Best bagged cordless vacuum cleaners

Popular Which?-tested bagged vacuum cleaners

Based on the number of visits to our vacuum cleaner reviews over the past year, we've put together a list of the most popular models among Which? users. But remember – 'popular' and 'impressive' are two different things, so make sure you consult our expert reviews before you consider buying.

Numatic Henry Allergy HVA 160-11

Henry Allergy is a cylinder-style bagged vacuum cleaner. This vacuum combines HEPA and TriTex filters with HepaFlo bags and weighs 7.9kg, which is heavy for a cylinder vacuum.

It has a combi floor head that's suitable for carpets and hard floors, and it also has a hard floor tool, specifically for cleaning floorboards and laminate.

Find out how it fared it our allergen retention and emptying assessment in the full Numatic Henry Allergy review.

Miele Complete C3 Cat & Dog PowerLine SGEF3

Like all bagged models, Complete C3 Cat & Dog uses disposable bags, so you’ll need to buy replacements, which cost around £12 for a pack of four. Each bag can hold a generous 3.7 litres of dust, so you won't have to replace them too often.

You’ll find plenty of accessories in the box, including a natural-bristle dusting brush, upholstery head and crevice tool. These fit into the body of the vac when not in use, so you won’t have to keep popping back to the cleaning cupboard to find them. 

Read the full Miele Complete C3 Cat & Dog review to find out whether this cylinder vacuum is good enough to be a Best Buy.

Halo Capsule X Ultimate

This cordless bagged vacuum cleaner is the successor to the Halo Capsule. This new model has a larger dust capacity than the Capsule, at 1.5 litres. As with all bagged models you’ll have to regularly replace the dust bags but the first five are included in the box.

It's a fairly simple vac in terms of features, so you don’t have to worry about navigating complicated displays or controls. It comes with accessories including a hard floor head, a versatile combination tool, a mini power brush, a 150cm stretch hose, a second battery and a wall dock.

Read the full Halo Capsule X Ultimate review to find out how it scores for allergen retention and pet hair removal.

How we test vacuums for allergy retention

A good vacuum cleaner should keep the fine dust and allergens trapped in its filters, which is especially important for serious allergy sufferers.

This is why we assess how much of the fine dust (including allergens) is sucked up and trapped in a vac's filters and not blown out of the exhaust. The allergen retention test has a significant impact on the overall score of each product.

During our test, a pre-weighed amount of dust (with particles ranging between 0.4mm and 25mm) is cleaned by the vacuum cleaner over 10 minutes. During this time the number and size of dust particles entering the vacuum cleaner and the number and size of dust particles exiting is measured in our test chamber. 

The filtration efficiency of the appliance is reported in percentages (the higher the value, the better) and these are turned into our star ratings. 

For more information on our in-depth testing, read how we test vacuum cleaners

How often you should vacuum if you have allergies

According to experts, your home doesn't need to be visibly dirty to trigger a reaction to dust-related allergies such as dust mites – the particles are too small to be seen. If you have such allergies, it's important to vacuum regularly, but also keep in mind that vigorous cleaning or too much cleaning can make symptoms worse.

It's generally advised to vacuum your house once or twice a week, as well as clean furniture and other areas that collect dust quickly.

Allergy UK recommends using a high-filtration vacuum cleaner, especially one with a HEPA filter – although we advise that you read our reviews and pay close attention to the allergen retention star rating. Some of the vacuum cleaners we tested were brilliant at keeping allergens locked up, but others were not so great. 

Allergy sufferers may also wish to wear an N95 filter mask while vacuuming, since it can take more than two hours for the dust to settle after a thorough cleaning.

Fight dust and allergens and get more cleaning tips in our guide to how to vacuum your home effectively

Which? advice for people living with allergies

• Choose wood flooring over carpets. Carpets are generally harder to clean effectively as they collect more dust deep between the pile. 
• Use 'allergen-proof' covers on your mattress and pillows, and wash all of your bedding weekly, using hot water.
• Consider using a steam cleaner to deep clean your home. The high temperature of the steam kills harmful bacteria and can eliminate the dust mites that cause asthma and allergies. Check out the best steam cleaners according to our tests.
• Vacuum at least twice a week – and don't forget to vacuum upholstered furniture too.
• Change clothes when you get home. This will prevent you from spreading any pollen that's stuck to your clothes around your home.
• Dry your clothing indoors. This will prevent from pollen particles settling on your clothes and causing hay fever symptoms.
• Consider using an air purifier. It can help improve air quality by trapping any floating particles and then circulating the clean air back out. Find out which ones we rated top in our pick of the best air purifiers.

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¹Source: Allergy UK