The best early Black Friday vacuum cleaner deals, including Dyson, Shark and Hoover

Score: 94/100

For those wanting to make a switch to hands-free cleaning, check out the Dyson Spot+Scrub AI, which is currently at its lowest price ever. This vacuum scans the room seven times per second to ensure it doesn’t bump into any obstacles, and its AI technology is trained to recognise hundreds of household objects to prevent collisions.

It gobbled up crumbs with ease, cleaned away the top layer of dust without a hitch, and its self-cleaning roller mop cleaned up fresh spills with ease. It did leave some dried-on stains behind though. That said, if this is your first step into robot vacuums, this is a good pick as the app is seamless and very easy to use.

Score: 93/100

This robot has a mechanism that allows it to raise itself up and climb over thresholds or lips between rooms (yes, really), meaning it can clean homes with uneven floors. Its powerful suction helped lift all the surface layer dust and debris, sweeping up crumbs and cereal with ease.

Instead of a roller, this robot has two rotating mop pads to scrub off stains. Once dirty, the robot returns to the dock, which then washes and dries the pads with hot water so it's ready to clean again whenever you need it.

Score: 92/100

This is one of our most shopped vacuums for a reason – it’s cordless, excellent at cleaning and comes with a docking station that automatically empties the vacuum’s onboard dust bin.

In testing, we also loved how it effectively picks up dirt as it moves forwards and backwards (most just pick-up on the backwards pass). In fact, it picked up 99% of dust on hard floors in one sweep and the majority of the pet hair we laid down.

It’s not the most well-balanced (it sometimes took effort to get the head going in the desired direction) and it's a little heavier than other models but it has a good battery life, great suction and an anti-odour cartridge that keeps everything smelling fresh.

Score: 91/100

If you have lots of floors to mop, this innovative robot is a good investment to make. It has a dual water tank within the actual robot, which allows it to collect dirty water and dispense clean water on to the mop as it goes. In testing, it seriously impressed – it didn’t smear a ketchup stain (something other models have struggled with) and it worked methodically throughout. It vacuumed well, too, collecting an average of 83% of dust and dirt across different floor types, making it ideal for end-of-the-day top-up cleans.

The app can only store three mapped rooms at a time (many robots can save four) but stick to those with high-traffic zones and you’ll really notice a difference.

Score: 92/100

If you like the look of Shark vacuums but want a corded model, choose the Shark PowerDetect Corded Stick Vacuum. This combines reliable power and suction with a lighter weight design (compared to Shark’s other upright vacuums) that was easy to manoeuvre in testing.

It gobbled up most crumbs and dust in one forward and backward motion, but we didn’t like that the cord can’t be wrapped around the storage hooks while using the flexible shaft (eg for reaching under furniture), so you’ll have to unravel the full 10 metres before doing so.

Score: 91/100

If you mainly have hard floors at home, this is a reliable vacuum to buy. It picked up dust and crumbs with ease and didn’t leave much dust behind when cleaning right up against the skirting board.

The rollers in the brush head are slightly too soft to agitate carpet fibres properly, which meant around 15% of dust was left behind after several sweeps. But overall, this is a well-designed vacuum with an easily manoeuvrable head.

Score: 89/100

This is one of our top buys if you struggle to push and pull heavy vacuums. At just 1.8kg, it’s nice and light to manoeuvre and its built-in technology automatically adjusts the suction power based on the level of dust detected, ensuring you always get the best result with minimal effort.

It excelled at removing dust on short and long pile carpet, but we found the motorised tool suggested for pet hair seemed to push strands further into the carpet, rather than removing it. Use the regular brush head and this shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Score: 89/100

This robot vacuum is a great little helper if you have furry friends at home. It gobbled up both large clumps and finer strands from carpet in as little as two minutes, and then also performed impressively on our dust pick-up tests. On hard floors, though, its dual sweeping brushes sometimes flicked dust rather than sucking it up – only 72% was removed in test.

Throughout our testing, it worked methodically and effectively, avoiding obstacles and no-go zones. It even mopped up most spills and stains, using its roller mop to agitate the messes and then returning to its dock to empty the dirty water before setting out again.