Cleaning thick carpet is not easy. The suction must be strong enough to draw in particles lodged deep within those long, luxurious fibers without making it impossible to push the floor nozzle. Too much suction and you'll get stuck; too little and there will be no cleaning.
I recently ran a large group test to find best cordless vacuum cleaner on the market and as part of this I did some suction tests on thick carpet. The model that received the highest ratings for cleaning deep pile carpets was Shark PowerDetect wireless.
How did I check?
To test how well each vacuum worked on deep-pile carpet, I sprinkled dry tea (representing fine particles), a mixture of dry rice and lentils (representing large particles), and dog hair scraps (representing, well, dog hair) onto a large sample of thick carpet, rubbing each mixture into the fibers. I then vacuumed up the mess using the various models, using the auto mode if the vacuum had one, or the medium suction setting if it didn't.
I appreciated how effectively the vacuum cleaned every leak, both at the surface level and deeper into the carpet fibers. I also appreciated how easy it was to push the vacuum through the carpet and how much the floor head picked up or collected particles rather than sucking them up.
The PowerDetect Cordless scored a perfect 5/5 in my large particle test, cleaning everything in one forward pass in automatic mode. It was equally effective on pet hair (in fact, it best vacuum cleaner for pet hair which is basically what I tested).
For fine particles the rating was slightly lower (4/5) because after going forward I could still see fine tea dust inside the carpet fibers. However, this was the highest score any vacuum achieved in my group test—the reality is that effectively cleaning fine particles from deep-pile carpet is simply very difficult.
Why is this vacuum so good for thick carpets?
In my opinion, the success of the PowerDetect cordless vacuum cleaner is due to the combination of high power, an automatic mode that does an excellent job of picking up debris from thick carpet, and a well-designed floor head. It's clear that the vacuum provides plenty of suction power—the PowerDetect performed best or better in all of my cleaning tests, which covered medium-pile carpet, hard floors, and further testing with pet hair.
The suction level on this model is designed to go up and down depending on the type of floor and how dirty it is, and I could hear the power switch while moving the floor nozzle over any mess. Regardless of the level of power applied, the vacuum remained light enough to operate in automatic mode and never got stuck due to suction.
Shark a valve has also been added to the rear edge which makes it more effective at sucking up particles when the floor nozzle is pulled back over them. While this feature is really great for cleaning hard floors, it also helps when cleaning thick carpet—there were some puddles (as you can see in the video above), but they weren't anywhere near the levels that some rival models create. I also found that the wheels help mix up the carpet fibers.
Second places…
If the Shark PowerDetect doesn't seem quite right to you, it came in second in my deep-pile carpet tests.
The Gen5detect has so much power that I had to go into Eco mode and open the air intake damper on the floor head so I could push the thick carpet. Otherwise, deep carpet cleaning performance was excellent.
Read our full Dyson Gen5detect review
The V8 Cyclone scored a solid 4/5 in all of my deep-pile carpet tests. It's not the fanciest vacuum here – there's no automatic suction control for one thing – but when it comes to maximum power, this model is very effective. It is currently not available in the US.
Read our full Dyson V8 Cyclone review
The Dreame R20 was a bit of a surprise: It didn't score as highly on medium-pile carpet, but did an excellent job of removing large and small particles from deep-pile carpet. However, its pet hair catcher was a little weaker than the other models listed here.
Read our full Dreame R20 review
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