REASONS TO BUY
Great for cleaning carpet
Easy to use
Exceptional with pet hair
REASONS TO AVOID
Heavy
Hard to handle
Kenmore Elite Pet Friendly Review
For those with tons of carpet to clean, this is a great choice
RELATED: Best Upright Vacuums
Our Verdict
Performing well across most of our metrics, the Kenmore Elite Pet Friendly vacuum cleaner is a solid choice for those with pets or kids. While this bagged vacuum is a little on the larger side and lacks some of the maneuverability of other models, it's a great pick for someone who is primarily interested in cleaning carpets or wants to stick with a traditional bagged collection system. Still, it's quite heavy, and the accessory hose doesn't have a very long reach, so if your house has stairs or lots of obstacles to navigate, we recommend considering other top-ranked upright vacuums.
Compare to Similar Products
 This Product
Kenmore Elite Pet Friendly | |||||
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| Awards |  | | |||
| Price | $320 List $299.99 at Amazon | $200 List $179.99 at Amazon | $200 List | $150 List $129.99 at Amazon | $88 List $79.19 at Amazon |
Overall Score  |
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| Star Rating | |||||
| Bottom Line | This vacuum performed quite well when it came to cleaning carpets but not so much when maneuvering | An easy model to push and pull, that won't give you an unwanted workout | Delivering a superb performance across the board and retailing for a great price, this is our favorite vacuum for the budget-minded | A middle-tier vacuum that could be better. Other vacuums offer greater performance at a similar price point | If you are trying to spend as little as possible on a new vacuum, this one is definitely worth checking out |
| Rating Categories | Kenmore Elite Pet F... | Shark Navigator Lif... | Shark Navigator Lif... | Kenmore FeatherLite | Eureka PowerSpeed |
| Carpet Cleaning (35%) | |||||
| Ease of Use (25%) | |||||
| Handling (20%) | |||||
| Hard Surface (10%) | |||||
| Pet Hair (10%) | |||||
| Specs | Kenmore Elite Pet F... | Shark Navigator Lif... | Shark Navigator Lif... | Kenmore FeatherLite | Eureka PowerSpeed |
| Water Suction Gauge | 75 inches | 72 inches | 72 inches | 71 inches | 48 inches |
| Model Number | 81714 | NV352 | NV356E S2 | DU4080 | NEU182A |
| HEPA Filter | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Vacuum Head Width | 14.75" | 11.25" | 11.25" | 10" | 13.25" |
| Measured Brush Width | 13.5" | 9" | 9" | 8.75" | 10.5" |
| Measured Weight | 20.5 lbs | 13.6 lbs | 14.8 lbs | 12.5 lbs | 10.5 lbs |
| Variable Suction Control | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Brush On/Off Switch | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Measured Power Cord Length | 34.75' | 24.75' | 26' | 25.5' | 23.75' |
| Measured Noise at Arms Length | 72 dBa | 73 dBa | 73 dBa | 73 dBa | 76 dBa |
| Swivel Head | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Carry Handle | Yes, Behind | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Soft Bumper | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Dirt Collection | Bag | Bagless | Bagless | Bagless | Bagless |
Show full specification detailsHide full specification details
Our Analysis and Test Results
The Kenmore Elite Pet Friendly does a fantastic job cleaning carpets. This model is a more traditional design, relying on bags instead of reusable collection bins. While a bit heavier, clunkier, and nowhere near as maneuverable as some other models, its carpet cleaning and excellent pet hair collection abilities are notable.
Performance Comparison
The Kenmore Elite, a great choice for carpeted floors.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Carpet Cleaning
We compared the skill of each vacuum at collecting rice, flour, Cheerios, and oatmeal from both shallow and fluffy carpets.
The Kenmore Elite performed excellently when it came to cleaning carpets.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
The Pet Friendly did awesome in our first test: rice collection. This vacuum only required two passes to collect everything on both shallow and fluffy carpets. However, there are some plastic bars on the underside of the vacuum that inadvertently collected some rice along the way.
The performance of this model dropped a bit in our flour test. The Pet Friendly did a mediocre job collecting flour from both low and high-pile carpet tests.
The Kenmore struggled slightly with the flour on low-pile carpet.
Credit: Austin Palmer
The Pet Friendly was stellar in our cereal collection test, picking up all of the Cheerios we tossed on the floor with just a couple of passes. The bars on the undercarriage again collected the Cheerios and sometimes pressed them into the carpet, but the vacuum was able to extract them up on the backstroke.
The Kenmore only left behind a few residual Cheerios.
Credit: Austin Palmer
For the final test of this metric — oatmeal — this model's performance was best described as decent. It picked up most of the debris on the low-pile carpet with a few passes.
Ease of Use
This metric made up a quarter of the total score for each vacuum. It evaluated noise level, maximum reach, how easily the device transitioned from hard to soft floors, and its ability to clean under furniture and close to edges. The Pet Friendly did very well in our tests.
In addition to a solid cleaning performance, the Kenmore was also exceptionally easy to use.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
That said, it wasn't the easiest to transition between hard and soft floors. There is a knob on the front of the vacuum that changes the height of the rollers when adjusted — this design is substantially more difficult than the button built into the handle of other models.
The Pet Friendly cleans extremely close to walls. We spread rice along an edge and tight corner to test this, and it collected everything in a single pass.
The Kenmore did exceptionally well in this test, leaving practically no debris behind.
Credit: Austin Palmer
When cleaning under furniture, this vacuum could reach 7" under our simulated sofa. The Pet Friendly has one of the longer maximum reaches, making it 37' away from the outlet when plugged in.
The Kenmore didn't reach particularly far under our test "sofa".
Credit: Austin Palmer
This was also one of the quietest models we tested, measuring at 72.5 dBa on our SPL meter. In addition to measuring the sound with the meter, we had a panel of judges rate the sound produced. There were no excessively annoying tones produced, and the panel felt that it was relatively quiet.
Handling
Ranking next in terms of importance, this metric accounts for 20% of the final score for each vacuum. It is comprised of a trio of tests: maneuvering, pushing/pulling effort, and cleaning a flight of stairs. This set of tests proved to be the most difficult for the Pet Friendly.
The Kenmore wasn't the easiest to handle, being relatively heavy.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
This model took moderate effort to push and pull, mainly because it is one of the heaviest in our lineup. It was also reasonably difficult to clean a flight of stairs, as the Pet Friendly has a short reach when using the accessory cleaning hose. This means you have to move it more times than other models, which is an uninviting task due to its weight. However, the weight does make it stable, so it's not prone to tipping over when using the cleaning hose.
To evaluate maneuverability, we made a small obstacle course and attempted to clean our way through it with each vacuum, taking particular note of areas that we weren't able to satisfactorily clean or places that entrapped the vacuum. The Pet Friendly performed poorly in this evaluation due partly to the lack of a swiveling head. We found this vacuum to be big and clunky, taking much more work to maneuver around obstacles, and hard to fit into tight spaces.
Hard Surface Cleaning
Tests for this metric were conducted identically to the carpet cleaning tests. Once again, we spread rice, flour, Cheerios, and oats on a section of hardwood floor, rating each vacuum on how much it picked up and how long it took.
The Kenmore did alright on hard floors, though it wasn't amazing.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
The Pet Friendly did alright in our rice test, collecting most of the debris in three passes with the hard floor setting engaged. Small bumpers on the vacuum displaced rice on the first pass, hindering performance. Performance dropped when it came to flour, with the Friendly doing a below-average job. It didn't clean the floor's cracks at all and collected tons of flour on its wheels.
As shown, this vacuum struggled substantially with the flour test.
Credit: Austin Palmer
Things improved a bit when collecting cereal with the Pet Friendly getting most of it with two passes. It performed similarly on oatmeal but tended to plow and push the debris around rather than sucking it up. Four passes proved to get the job done for both cereal and oatmeal.
Pet Hair
Responsible for the remaining 10% of each score, this metric was not a great one for a model called the Pet Friendly. We spread 5 grams of pet hair on a medium-pile carpet, then vacuumed it, rating each model on the collected amount. This vacuum collected 91% of the hair, whereas most models we tested could lift between 95% and 99%.
The Pet Friendly has an extra handheld attachment so that pet owners can get hard-to-reach spots such as couch cushions.
Credit: Laura Casner
Should You Buy the Elite Pet Friendly?
The Elite Pet Friendly is somewhat pricey compared to its performance. With so many other models on the market that outperform it at a lower price point, we can't earnestly think of any situation where we'd recommend buying this model over a better, more affordable one.
What Other Upright Vacuums Should You Consider?
The Kenmore Elite Pet Friendly is an all-around competent vacuum but is outperformed by more competent models, many of which are more affordable. The Shark Navigator Lift Away is a better vacuum all-around, provides better performance, and is significantly less money, making it one of the best values on the market today. However, if your budget is flexible, you can spend a little more than what you might have intended to spend on the Elite Pet Friendly. You'll get the most premium performance in an upright with the Shark Stratos.
—
David Wise and Austin Palmer
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