Your best choice in this regard could be a large upright cleaner, a lightweight cleaner or a handheld cleaner. There is quite a range of the larger ones and your decision will be down to the following three things;
How wide do you want the cleaner head to be?
Does it have the attachments you want if you also want to do upholstery?
How much can you afford to pay for this machine?
The lightweight vacuum cleaners do not normally have such a wide cleaning head nor does the dust container have such a large capacity. However, the manufacturers are putting quite large motors in the lightweight cleaners, so their suction power is not so different to their higher priced counterparts. If you have to carry your cleaner up and down stairs a lot, this type may be the best vacuum that you could buy.
The next option is a small handheld vacuum cleaner and some of do make for the best ones in the right environment. These are mostly employed when a house has a lot of laminate or hardwood floors and a mop rather than a vacuum is needed to clean them. The handheld ones are really useful for cleaning the upholstery in the house and for the stair carpets if there are any. They are also useful when the upright vacuum cleaner does a good job of the carpets but does not have upholstery tools that are up to the job of removing the pet hairs from chairs and sofas. If your pets also travel in your vehicle, then the handheld cleaners are ideal for use in automobiles too.
All the vacuum cleaners work best when their collection canisters are empty. The older types of vacuum cleaners used to have bags to collect the dust, dirt and hairs. You could not see how full they were and it was expensive to keep replacing the bags. Many modern ones have clear acrylic containers, so that you can see when they need emptying. They are detachable so they can easily be emptied and do not require expensive bag replacements.
The manufacturers are constantly changing and improving their models, so even within the different types listed here, there may be quite a few more models that would qualify as the best vacuum cleaner for hardwood and pet hair removal.
