Bissell CleanView Rewind Pet Bagless Vacuum with Automatic Cord Rewind, Active Extension Wand for Hard-to-Reach Areas, Powerful Suction & Multi-Surface Cleaning, 3534

Why it's worth it

Bissell's OnePass brush design pulls more out of low-pile carpet than a budget vacuum has any right to, and the 25-foot cord rewinds itself with a tap. Add the TurboBrush for stairs and the extension wand for the high corners, and it covers most of a normal house.

Buy this one if you're not sure how much vacuum you actually need. Tom's Guide's carpet pickup testing put it within a point of machines costing roughly three times as much. On low-pile carpet, the gap between this and a premium upright is much smaller than the gap between owning this and owning nothing decent. Most people shopping for their first real vacuum are in exactly that spot.

The automatic cord rewind sounds like a gimmick until you've lived with it. Twenty-five feet of cord wraps itself when you tap the button, so there's no elbow-wrapping in the hallway while the dog walks through. It's a small thing. It's also the feature owners mention most, and it's why this vacuum comes out of the closet more often than a nicer one would.

From our review of 5 upright vacuums for carpet

What we like

• +Buy this one if you're not sure how much vacuum you actually need
• +The automatic cord rewind sounds like a gimmick until you've lived with it
• +The TurboBrush is what makes this a pet vacuum instead of just an inexpensive one
• +It's the lightest of our picks at 13.5 pounds, which sounds minor until you carry a vacuum up two flights every week

What to know

• –Budget uprights fade
• –High-pile and shag carpet are where it runs out of road