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Vacuum cleaner features ranked from 'essential' to 'unnecessary', by a professional tester

December 17, 2025 • 5 min read • views
Vacuum cleaner features ranked from 'essential' to 'unnecessary', by a professional tester
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Vacuum cleaner features ranked from 'essential' to 'unnecessary', by a professional tester Opinion By Ruth Hamilton published 17 December 2025

From headlamps to air intake sliders

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Three vacuums with their headlamps on (Image credit: Future) Jump to:
  • Essential
  • Nice to have
  • Probably unnecessary
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Vacuum cleaner designs might be getting slightly out of control. As a dedicated vacuum reviewer (I manage TechRadar's official best vacuum ranking) I spend plenty of time testing different models with different features, so I know which additions will make a difference to your cleaning routine, and which are just unnecessary gimmicks.

Below, I've listed the features you should be prioritizing when choosing a vacuum, and those that you can basically ignore. I've focused on just the floorhead features here, because extending it to the entire vacuum would be far too big a topic for a single article. (Am I in too deep? Possibly.) Here's my official list of vacuum floorhead features, ranked...

Vacuum floorhead features – essentials

An anti-tangle roller

If you live with anyone with hair, you need a floorhead with anti-tangle features. And I don't mean Rapunzel-length locks – if you'd cut it with scissors rather than clippers, I'd prioritize this.

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On older vacuums, hair was basically left to do its own thing, which invariably meant it would wrap around the brushroll like a thick, cozy hair duvet. After every clean, you'd have to take to the roller with a pair of scissors, and hack the hair away. Not ideal.

Top and underside of main floorhead on Shark Detect Pro vacuum

Most modern vacuums have anti-tangle features built in (Image credit: Future)

The good news is that most modern vacuums don't have this problem – they tend to have an anti-tangle roller as standard and pretty much all that I've tried work well. Approaches to this vary by brand, so there's nothing specific to look for, beyond some kind of reference to being 'anti-tangle' in the product listing.

Dyson has come up with a specific method where, on its very newest vacuums, it uses tapering, cone-shaped rollers rather than straight-edged ones. This works well but has an unfortunate side effect (which I'll cover in my next point) that means it's worth avoiding.

A straight front edge

A niche one, but don't underestimate the importance of a straight front edge on your floorhead. As far as I'm aware, the only vacuums not to have this are Dyson's newest options, where the brand has used cone-shaped rollers and brought the front of the vacuum to a slight point as a result.

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Laser headlight on Dyson V16 Piston stick vacuum

Angled casing makes it tricky to clean the edges of rooms (Image credit: Future)

An angled edge means you won't be able to get the vacuum flush to your room's baseboards, where dust often collects. Going in side-on can solve the issue, but that's not always possible. A side-note on this one is that it's worth looking for a floorhead that has relatively narrow perimeters, meaning the suction area can get nice and close to the edges of rooms.

An air intake slider

If you have carpet – and especially deep-pile carpet – in your home, look for a vacuum with an air intake adjustment slider on its floorhead. If you find your vacuum is too difficult to push on deep carpet, you can open this up to allow more air in and ease the vacuum (in the original sense of the word) in the suction cavity. This can be the difference between a vacuum being suitable for carpet and not. On another floor type, you might want to close it down to seal off the suction area more and increase particle pickup.

Close up of the air intake slider on the Dreame R20 floorhead

An air intake slider is essential if you want to use your vacuum on thick carpet (Image credit: Future)

Vacuum floorhead features: nice to have

Headlamps

Headlamps are increasingly common on vacuums, but the quality and usefulness varies significantly from model to model. A great set of headlamps will cast big shadows on the tiniest specks of dust so you can ensure a thorough clean. They're really for use on hard floor, but can have limited use on carpet, too.

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Great headlamps will help highlight hidden dust (Image credit: Future)

The brands with the best headlamps I've tested are Dyson (included on the soft floorheads of vacuums including the V15 Detect and Gen5detect) and Roborock (as seen on the likes of the Roborock H60 Hub Ultra). Both use lime-green lights that do a stellar job of illuminating dust.

At the other end of the spectrum are your bog-standard white lights, which do little more than help brighten dingy corners. They're kind-of useful, but not a game-changer. See the Dreame R20 and Shark Detect Pro for examples.

A reverse-cleaning flap

I'd actually quite like this to come under 'Essentials', but as it's exclusive to one Shark line (at time of writing), that feels unfair. Essentially, on its PowerDetect Cordless and PowerDetect Upright vacuums, Shark has added a flap to the back of the floorhead that lifts when the vacuum is pulled backwards.

This enables particles to pass under the floorhead and into the suction area, rather than pooling up behind the floorhead as happens with pretty much every other vacuum I've used. It's a relatively simple feature that works really well in practice, and makes a big difference to how efficiently the vacuum can clean – on hard flooring in particular.

Vacuum floorhead features: probably unnecessary

Edge-based suction adjustment

This one's another Shark exclusive, but this time feels much more gimmicky. A number of the best Shark vacuums have an 'EdgeDetect' feature where the vacuum will apparently boost suction just on the relevant side of the floorhead when it approaches the edge of a room.

Shark PowerDetect Cordless being used on a wood laminate floor

Edge-sensing abilities are perhaps a step too far (Image credit: Future)

I'm a little skeptical about how this would even work – is it possible to offer different suction levels within one floorhead? But even putting that aside it feels a bit like overkill. Things like a narrow floorhead border that can get right up close to a room edge, are far more important.

In general, I don't think automatic suction adjustment is strictly necessary, but if you are going to opt for this, adjustment based on floor type is going to make the biggest difference to your cleaning routine.

Dreame R20 vacuumThe best vacuumsOur top picks, based on real-world testing

➡️ Read our full guide to the best vacuums1. Best overall:Dreame R20 Cordless2. Best upright:Shark Stratos Upright Vacuum3. Best premium:Dyson Gen5detect4. Best for pet hair:Shark PowerDetect Cordless

Ruth HamiltonRuth HamiltonSocial Links NavigationHomes Editor

Ruth is TechRadar's Homes Editor specializing in air (vacuum cleaners, fans, air purifiers), and hair (hair dryers, straighteners and stylers). She has been in consumer journalism since 2020, reviewing and writing about everything from outdoor kit to mattresses and wellness gadgets, with stints on Tom's Guide and T3.

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