What's the best vacuum for deep carpet? I tested a bunch of options side by side – this one was the clear winner

Got deep carpet to clean? This is the vac you need

20 Dec 2025, 07:00 · TechRadar

Features By Ruth Hamilton published 20 December 2025

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Cleaning thick carpet isn't easy. There needs to be just enough suction to pull up particles that have settled deep within those long, luxurious fibers, without making the floorhead impossible to push. Too much suction and you'll get stuck; too little and there won't be much cleaning happening.

I recently ran a big group test to find the best cordless vacuum on the market, and as part of that I ran several suction tests on thick carpet. The model that scored the highest marks for cleaning deep-pile carpet was the Shark PowerDetect Cordless.

Read on for a closer look at the tests I ran, how this vacuum performed, and what makes it such a strong choice for deep-pile carpet (plus the runners up, if it's not quite right for you).

How did I test?

To test how well each vacuum performed on deep-pile carpet, I sprinkled dry tea (representing fine particles), a dry rice and lentil mix (representing chunky particles), and dog hair clippings (representing, well, dog hair) onto a large sample of thick carpet, rubbing each mixture into the fibers. I then vacuumed over the mess with the various models, using Auto mode if the vacuum had one, or the medium suction setting if it didn't.

I assessed how effectively the vacuum cleared each spillage – both at surface level and deeper down in the carpet fibers. I also assessed how easy it was to push the vacuum over the carpet, and the extent to which the floorhead pinged or pooled the particles about, rather than sucking them up.

The PowerDetect Cordless scored a perfect 5/5 in my chunky particle test, clearing everything in a single forward pass in Auto mode. It was equally effective with pet hair (in fact, this is the best vacuum for pet hair that I've tested, in general).

For fine particles the score was a little lower (4/5), because I could still see a fine dusting of tea within the carpet fibers after a forward pass. However, that was the equal-highest score that any vacuum in my group test achieved here – the reality is that it's just super tricky to effectively clean fine particles from deep-pile carpet.

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