Bagged vacuum cleaners are a good option if you prioritize air quality and ease of maintenance. Unlike a bagless vacuum, debris is stored in a disposable container, virtually eliminating the risk of a plume of dust releasing when you empty your vacuum. Even though dirtbags tend to need frequent replacement, driving up recurring costs, they effectively act as air filters, trapping fine debris while you clean. Since the onboard filters don't have to work quite as hard as those in a bagless vacuum, user maintenance is less demanding.
We've tested over 100 vacuum cleaners, and below are our recommendations for the best vacuum cleaners with a dirtbag. These picks were selected based on their design, feature set, and price. For more buying recommendations, look at our lists of the best vacuums, the best canister vacuums, the best corded vacuums, and the best laminate floor vacuums.
The best bagged vacuum we've tested is the SEBO Airbelt D4 Premium. It's available directly from SEBO's website or from specialty retailers. With a 1250W motor, it's the most powerful bagged vacuum on the household market. This is an incredibly well-built vacuum that's very easy to maintain. Since it uses high-capacity dustbags and long-lasting filters, there's very little routine maintenance to do or parts to replace, resulting in low recurring costs as well. It's equipped with a parquet tool for hard floor surfaces and an ET-1 powerhead for carpets. You can remove the parquet tool's front bristles to allow it to pass over large debris, and the powerhead has four height levels to adjust to many different carpet pile heights.
This vacuum has an amazing range and can operate almost 50 feet from an outlet, so you won't have to keep unplugging and finding different outlets as you clean around your home. The three-stage filter system and HEPA-rated dirtbags do a great job of keeping dust out of the air as well. All this heavy-duty construction and materials come at the expense of weight, so you might find this large vacuum heavy and hard to maneuver. The suction hose is also fairly stiff, which makes pivoting the floorhead to get into tight spaces more difficult.
Check out the Cat & Dog variant of the Miele Classic C1 if you're looking for something cheaper than the SEBO Airbelt D4 Premium. Compared to the SEBO, the Miele Classic C1 lacks an onboard tool storage compartment and doesn't feel quite as robust. However, if you're only concerned about cleaning performance, the C1 uses a powerful 1200W suction motor and compares well to the SEBO.
The Cat & Dog variant sits near the top of the C1 lineup. It comes with a Miele SEB 228 powerbrush, which offers five levels of height adjustment, enabling you to adapt quickly to various carpet types. It also has a dedicated smooth floor tool for cleaning surfaces like hardwood or tile. It comes with Miele's Active AirClean post-motor filter, which features an additional layer of activated charcoal to trap unpleasant odors as you clean. Unfortunately, its power cord is fairly short, so you'll probably need to swap power outlets when cleaning faraway areas. It uses 2.5L dirtbags, which are somewhat small, so ownership costs are a little on the higher end of the scale.
Our best mid-range pick is the entry-level Pure Suction variant of the Miele Classic C1. This model is a great option if you don't have any shag or high-pile rugs in your home, as the included SBD 365-3 floorhead features retractable bristles to clean surfaces like tile or hardwood as well as low- and medium-pile carpeting. It comes with the entry-level AirClean filter, which works well in trapping airborne particles, even though it isn't HEPA-rated. You can buy and swap in a Miele HEPA AirClean or Active AirClean filter if you suffer from serious allergies and require that additional level of filtration. The most notable difference compared to the Miele Classic C1 Cat & Dog is that the Pure Suction doesn't have a power socket at the base of its hose that would allow you to use powered floorheads, so it isn't suitable for cleaning plush carpeting.
If you want a similarly priced canister vacuum with lower ownership costs, the NaceCare HVR 200 Henry is a solid option. It uses higher-capacity dirtbags and has a remarkably sturdy-feeling body. However, its suction motor is less powerful than the C1's, so it lags slightly behind in debris-pickup performance.
For a budget-friendly option, consider the Eureka Mighty Mite. It's the best bagged vacuum cleaner we've tested that won't break the bank. Compared to the Miele Classic C1, it feels very cheaply built and lacks many convenience features, like an allergen-sealed body, a telescopic wand, or a self-winding power cord. However, it's still a good option if you're looking for a vacuum that offers solid performance on a budget. It easily clears debris on bare floors, and while it only has a straight-suction floorhead, it's decent when dealing with debris on low- to medium-pile carpets, where you can retract the floorhead's bristles to improve surface contact. User maintenance is incredibly simple, thanks to the vacuum's basic design, and its lightweight construction lets you carry it from room to room with minimal effort. It also has a hard bristle brush for dislodging stuck-on dirt and debris and a combination crevice/upholstery nozzle.
Unfortunately, this vacuum's power cord is very short, so you'll probably need to swap outlets when vacuuming a larger area. There are also a few noticeable weak points in its construction, most notably its wand, which is made of two hollow plastic tubes that can fall apart if you don't wedge them together tightly.
The Kenmore Intuition Bagged is the best bagged upright vacuum we've tested. Although it isn't nearly as well-built as a premium canister vacuum like the Miele Classic C1 or as easy to maneuver, it's a lot cheaper and still delivers decent overall performance. It uses a HEPA-rated exhaust filter and is compatible with HEPA-rated dirtbags, limiting the spread of allergens as you clean. You can drop its dirtbag out of its housing with the press of a latch, so you don't need to worry about dirtying your hands or kicking up a plume of dust when taking it out, either. Its 'Lift-Up' alternative configuration allows you to pick up and carry its canister body separately from its floorhead, so you can clean shelves or countertops a little more easily.
Unfortunately, while you can turn this vacuum's brushroll off to prevent it from scattering debris on bare floors or getting caught on rug tassels, there's no way of adjusting its height, so it can easily get stuck in thick carpets. If you're comfortable shopping for a used vacuum, the discontinued Miele Dynamic U1 PowerLine is a high-end option with superb build quality, a height-adjustable head, and strong performance. However, it has a very bulky design, so it isn't the best option for smaller homes or apartments.
The Miele Complete C3 Cat & Dog is an interesting pet-owner alternative to the SEBO Airbelt D4 Premium. It comes with the powered SEB 228 floorhead, which excels at cleaning pet hair on carpet. However, it doesn't perform as well as the SEBO, has higher operating costs, and has a shorter range.
See our reviewThe BISSELL Zing Bagged Canister is an entry-level bagged canister vacuum that's remarkably lightweight and easy to maintain, but it doesn't perform as well as the Eureka Mighty Mite.
See our reviewWe replaced the discontinued Miele Complete C3 Alize with the SEBO Airbelt D4 Premium as our top recommendation and made some minor text adjustments.
We've added the Miele Complete C3 Cat & Dog to the Notable Mentions as a better option for pet hair pick-up and removed the Airsign HEPA Vacuum from the article due to availability. We've also made small edits for clarity throughout.
Sep 18, 2024 : Verified that all picks are valid and available. No change in recommendations.
May 30, 2024 : Small text edits for clarity and conciseness. No change in recommendations.
Mar 07, 2024 : We've confirmed the price and relevance of all our recommendations. We haven't made any changes to the picks. However, we've added a link in our 'Best Bagged Vacuum' category to Miele's website, as the Miele Complete C3 Brilliant PowerLine isn't always available from major online retailers.
Our recommendations are based on what we think are currently the best bagged vacuums. We don't just base our results on overall performance but also on factors like availability, price, and reader feedback.
If you'd like to do the work of choosing yourself, here's the list of all our bagged vacuum reviews. Be careful not to get too caught up in the details. While no vacuum is perfect for every use, most are good enough to please almost everyone, and the differences are often not noticeable unless you really look for them.