How We Compare Vacuum Cleaners

Where the specifications come from

Every product on WhichVacuum is entered from manufacturer specification sheets and UK retailer listings, then checked for consistency against both sources before it's published. We do not run our own lab tests or long-term reviews — specifications and pricing are catalogue data, not our own measurements. Where a source lists a spec ambiguously or two sources disagree, we hold the product back rather than publish a guessed figure.

What the spec bands mean

Where a filter groups products into a range — for example a runtime or capacity band — that band is a simple grouping of the underlying numeric value, not a performance rating. The exact figure for any product is always shown on its own page, in the specification table alongside every other recorded field for that model, so the band is a filtering convenience rather than the primary source of truth.

How comparisons and "similar products" work

Head-to-head comparison pages and the "similar products" widget on each product page both draw from the same catalogue fields as the main listings — a product's type and use-case tags, not a separate curated list — so a comparison never shows a field that isn't also on both products' own pages. We don't show star ratings or aggregate review scores anywhere on the site: those come from third-party sources we can't verify or keep current, so we leave that space blank rather than fill it with a number we can't stand behind.

How sorting works today

Unless you choose a sort order, results are shown in the order they were added to the catalogue — there is no ranking algorithm behind the default view yet. If you pick a sort (such as price), the list is ordered strictly by that value, with no manual reordering or promotion of particular models.

Currency and pricing

Every price on the site is shown in pounds sterling. A handful of products are sourced from EU retailers rather than UK ones; their listed price is converted to sterling at a fixed exchange rate during import, so every price on the site is directly comparable regardless of where it was sourced.

Update cadence

The catalogue is refreshed as prices, availability, and specifications change; pages show when they were last updated. Discontinued or unavailable products are removed rather than left listed as current, so a product staying on the site is itself a (loose) signal that it's still purchasable.

Funding and independence

WhichVacuum earns a commission from qualifying purchases through retailer links — see About for the detail. Commercial relationships with retailers do not change how a product is described, whether it's included, or where it appears in a comparison; the same catalogue fields and comparison logic apply regardless of which retailer or affiliate program a product links through.