We independently review everything we recommend. When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Learn more›

I’ve lost count of all the people in my life who have given me a hard time for recommending a vacuum that “broke” within a year or two. It doesn’t clean like it used to, they say, or the vacuum just won’t run right, and what a shame that it’s such a waste of money.

Almost every time, it turned out that they’d never done any basic maintenance: clearing clogs, cutting tangles, and dealing with dirty filters. Usually, all it would take was a 10-minute tune-up to get their “broken” vacuum back in business.

Suddenly worried that you’ve neglected your vacuum? Trying not to think about whether you’ve thrown away a vacuum that still worked? Or ruined a nice vacuum through laziness and ignorance? It never needs to happen again. Here’s how to keep your vacuum sucking.

Plan for 10 to 30 minutes for basic maintenance, plus 24 hours of drying time if you wash or rinse any parts. More serious repairs might take a couple of hours.

Every vacuum—even the ones that cost so much, you’d think they’d take care of themselves—needs some maintenance. It’s normal, and there’s nothing you can do to prevent it entirely.

If you notice your vacuum seems weaker than it used to be, that’s a sign it needs some attention. Ditto if the vacuum ever shuts itself off abruptly—that’s usually a fail-safe feature to protect the parts from overheating due to clogs or tangles. And it’s never a bad idea to do some preventive maintenance, or at least a visual inspection, every now and then.

The good news is that most of the maintenance is uncomplicated, and advice for the trickier jobs can be found on YouTube. Here’s what I’ve learned from a decade of testing vacuums, reading manuals, talking to repair technicians, watching how-to videos—and getting an earful from family, friends, and co-workers.

As you get a peek at all the hidden parts of your vacuum, take the opportunity to brush, air-blast, or damp-wipe any buildup you find inside the vacuum. Let damp parts dry for 24 hours, preferably in sunlight, before you use the vacuum again.

This step isn’t strictly necessary. But it’ll help vacuums with see-through plastic parts look less gross. And getting rid of dust and grime now could help prevent clogs in the future.

Maybe this seems too obvious to even mention, but some people do not understand how important this step is. Air needs to flow through a vacuum, and an overstuffed bin or bag blocks that airflow. Personally, I’ve seen two vacuums that were simply too full to work. It just hadn’t occurred to my family members their owners that if they dumped out the debris, their vacuums would work again.

Any decent vacuum filter will eventually get clogged with dust, and the vacuum will lose suction. It might take a couple of years to get to the point where the vacuum can’t clean at all—I’ve seen this a few times—but a dirty filter starts to slowly, silently inhibit your vacuum’s cleaning performance long before then.

Most vacuum makers recommend cleaning or replacing filters at set intervals—and those intervals vary wildly. Tineco, for example, recommends cleaning the filters on its stick vacuums after every few uses, while Miele says you need to change its vacuum filters only after every fourth bag change, which usually takes about a year. Typically you can wait a bit longer than recommended between filter service, and everything will run fine, but the delayed maintenance will catch up with the vacuum eventually.

Filter care instructions can also be way different from vacuum to vacuum. Some models, such as Dyson’s cordless stick vacuums and most robot vacuums, have a single filter. Others, like the Shark Navigator Lift-Away series, have multiple filters in different parts of the vacuum. Find them all!

Plenty of vacuums still use disposable filters that you need to buy and replace periodically. But washable, reusable types are very common now. In general, you clean one of these by tapping it on the edge of a trash bin until the obvious debris falls off—a blast of compressed air is another option, but a messier one—and then rinsing it under cold water until the water runs clear. You should give the filter 24 hours to air-dry (maybe on a sunny windowsill if you have one) to be safe.

The most ridiculous clog I’ve personally seen was at Wirecutter’s old test kitchen in lower Manhattan, where a Miele upright was jammed by a Uni-ball Jetstream pen. The vacuum sat unused for several months, and everyone in the test kitchen just assumed it was “broken.” When I eventually visited the office and took a look, I found the clog in less than a minute because I knew where to look.

Usually, though, clogs form when debris that’s slightly oversized (such as bits of yard waste or scraps of paper) or slightly tacky (moist clods of dirt or clumps of fur, for example) get stuck in the narrow, twisty, transitional areas inside the vacuum. The intake channel on the cleaning head is one common spot, for example. On stick vacuums, the junction where the shaft meets the dust bin is often a bottleneck.

If you think you need to clear a clog, look first at those transfer points. Disconnect the hoses or cleaning head if you can, and look for any “trapdoors” that might be built into the vacuum—all of which are likely spots for clogs to form. Clear out any jams or buildups by hand, with a pipe cleaner, or with a can of compressed air.

If that doesn’t turn anything up, try to shine a flashlight deeper inside the machine and work at any clogs with a pipe cleaner. And try to avoid vacuuming pens.

If anyone in your household (pets included) has hair that’s longer than a few inches, there’s a really good chance that some of it ends up wrapped about your vacuum’s spinning brush. Floss and thread can get tangled, too.

Over time, string-like debris covers more and more of the bristles on the brush and prevents it from working well on carpets. In extreme cases, the wrapped hair can stop the brush from spinning freely, which can then lead to the drive belt snapping or the bearings getting damaged—both of which need to be repaired at an extra cost and inconvenience that you’d likely avoid with regular maintenance.

If you see any hair wrapped around the brush (or around the wheels near the brush, especially on robot vacuums), you have a few ways to take care of it.

The simple one is to just cut the tangle with scissors or slice it with a blade. Watch your fingers, and be careful not to snip any of the bristles. Some models have a little groove along the length of the brush that can guide your cutting tool.

Your tool may not always be able to reach to the ends of the brush, but you can usually just pull the remaining hair off by hand.

For really thick, tight tangles that you’re having trouble cutting with a blade, you could try slicing through the thicket in spots with something like a rotary tool. Just be careful not to grind the brush roll itself.

If you have the option to partially or completely remove the brush roll (or wheels) without completely disassembling the cleaning head—check the manual for instructions—you should do so. This makes it extra easy to cut away tangles and wraps, and it gives you direct access to the bearings, where even more hair and dust can sneakily collect. Compressed air is a great way to blow the dust out of a brush’s bearings or any other recessed areas on the vacuum.

Most of the time, the basic yet thorough cleaning we’ve outlined above will get your vacuum back into top form.

But if you still aren’t getting much oomph, or the power keeps cutting out, or the vacuum just won’t start, you have a few other possibilities to consider:

You can find tons of DIY repair videos on YouTube, and they can be a great guide to fixing these problems. But sometimes your best bet is to bring your vacuum into a shop and let an experienced technician give it a shot.

Liam McCabe is a former senior staff writer for Wirecutter, and has covered the wild world of appliances since 2011. After testing dozens of robot vacuums, he is neither worried about AI nor holding his breath for self-driving cars. He enjoys visiting factories and learning about regulatory loopholes, and has flooded our testing area only three times.

We’ve tested dozens of robot vacuums, and recommend the sturdy, strong, smart-enough Roomba i3 EVO first, followed closely by the super-clever Roborock S4 Max .

Power cords got you wound up? We’ve tested dozens of cordless vacuums, and the Tineco Pure One S11 offers the best combo of comfort, cleaning power, and price.

For a dependable, versatile, and affordable cleaner, we prefer a bagless upright, but we have recommendations for other types of vacuums as well.

It’s time to recognize the Shark Navigator as one of the crowning achievements of vacuum design.

Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing to save people time, energy and money when making buying decisions. Whether it's finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we'll help you get it right (the first time). Subscribe now for unlimited access.

© 2022 Wirecutter, Inc., A New York Times Company