Eureka WhirlWind Review

We were pleasantly surprised by the results of the Eureka WhirlWind. It is great at cleaning hard surfaces, along walls and corners, and is easy to use. This little canister puts all this together at an affordable price.

Performance Comparison

Carpet Cleaning

For our carpet cleaning tests, we spread out flour, cereal, oats, and rice over shallow and fluffy carpets, pushing the debris deeper into the carpet using a laminate floor roller to make cleaning more difficult. We then vacuumed up all of the debris and counted the number of passes it took to do so. We even ensured that we were finished by feeling the carpet with our hands for any leftover debris. Because carpet cleaning is so important to most, it is our most heavily weighted metric at 35% of each canister vacuum's total score.

The Eureka WhirlWind impressed us with its ability to clean the carpets and not just push debris around. One of the tricky parts of vacuuming some debris is the dust created, especially with oatmeal. That's why we test all types of debris, from large to fine particles, to see what debris each vacuum handles best. After vacuuming rice, flour, oats, and cereal, we concluded that this vacuum does an admirable job of picking up fine and large particles.

When it came to cleaning rice out of our carpets, the WhirlWind took up to nine passes to pick up everything, which felt tedious and time-consuming. We even noticed that this model sometimes tended to plow the rice around rather than pick it up. Although the carpet cleaning performance wasn't absolute perfection, at a fraction of the cost, we were pleased.

Ease of Use

We love a vacuum that makes vacuuming feel less like a chore, which is why we gave this metric a 25% weighting of each model's total score. For this, we looked at edging (vacuuming along the walls), the weight of each unit, reach (maximum distance from the outlet), how well it maneuvered under furniture, and how smooth and easy it was to transition from carpeting to hard floors.

As we mentioned, the Eureka WhirlWind is light and easy to put together. We carried this model up and down the stairs with ease. We were also pleasantly surprised by how easily it managed to clean along the edges of the room.

The WhirlWind then faltered when it came to reach. At 26'10", it has a relatively short reach compared to others in our lineup, and at 16'6", it has a shorter cord than we would like. But, if you're willing to move the cord from one outlet to another, this is only a minor inconvenience. The WhirlWind also has a middling surface transition performance as it has both height and suction adjustments. It also doesn't come with a brush roller, so there is no need for brush roller adjustments.

Handling

In this metric, we measured how much effort it took to push and pull the vacuums, maneuverability, and how easily they carried up and down stairs. Because we know the importance of usability, we gave this metric a 20% weighting for each canister. Again, the Eureka WhirlWind left the other canister vacuums in the dust.

The Eureka WhirlWind was easy to push and pull in our tests — with very little resistance in both directions. When we took this vacuum through our obstacle course, we noticed that the head angled swiftly, making turns a breeze. The WhirlWind almost felt like a toy while driving it around the room. The only caveat to having such a light and maneuverable vacuum is that it had a tendency to tip over because the canister is so light.

Hard Surface

In this metric we spread oats, Cheerios, rice, and flour on hardwood flooring and then used a laminate floor roller to get all the debris into the cracks and crevices. We then counted how many times it took for each vacuum to sweep up all of the debris. This metric has an overall weighting of 10% for each canister vacuum.

This metric is where the Eureka WhirlWind shined the most. This model will save you so much time vacuuming up hard floors, as it managed to gather up all the debris in very few passes. It did a particularly excellent job at picking flour, managing to sweep everything up not just from the surface but from the nooks and crannies of the floorboards as well. Part of what makes this vacuum so great on hardwood floors is how easy it is to angle over the top of piles of large debris, acting almost like our favorite handheld vacuums in its cleaning methods.

Pet Hair

We put each canister vacuum through simple yet effective pet hair tests. In these tests, we measured out exactly 50 grams of pet hair and spread it out over a carpeted surface. We then used a laminate floor roller to press the hair deep into the carpet, making the tests much more strenuous. Then, we made four passes — two forward and two backward — over the hair. Finally, we hand-plucked the remaining hair, weighing it to find out how much was swept up. We weighted pet hair at 10% for each model's overall score.

The Eureka WhirlWind picked up 69% of pet hair, mostly because the head does not have a brush option, which significantly improves pet hair performance. If you have a pet, then this probably isn't the best canister vacuum for you, but despite the poor pet hair performance of the WhirlWind, we still think it's a viable option for its impeccable price.

Should you buy the Eureka WhirlWind?

We try to look at value as the options and quality you get versus what you pay. The Eureka WhirlWind is an amazing vacuum all around, especially if you are on a budget. It isn't perfect — particularly if you have pets — but it makes up for this through its great maneuverability, carpet, and hard surface cleaning performance. Best of all, it comes at a fraction of the cost of most other high-performing vacuums.

What Other Canister Vacuum Should You Consider?