This hidden vacuum feature could change the way you clean your home

A vacuum cleaner is a pretty straightforward concept. You switch it on, it sucks up dust and dirt, and then you switch it off again. But after spending my days testing most of the best vacuum cleaners on the market, there's one useful feature I've found can make a big difference to the cleaning experience – and I'd wager that most people aren't aware of it.

Here it is: an air intake adjustor on the floorhead. This usually takes the form of a small manual sider, and it does exactly as the name suggests: it changes the amount of air that can get into the main suction area underneath.

Vacuums rely on there being a 'vacuum' (in the original sense of the word) underneath the floorhead. The head needs to connect to the floor around its entire perimeter in order to maximize the cleaning power – if it were open, the motor would be wasting energy sucking air from the surrounding area rather than being concentrated on its main task of pulling dust from the floor beneath it.

However, if there's too much of a vacuum created underneath the floorhead, it can become impossible to push. That can be a particular issue on thick carpet, where the long fibers help form more of a seal around the floorhead. That's where the air intake slider comes in.

The trick is to find the setting that makes maneuvering comfortable while still creating enough of a seal for efficient cleaning. So you'll probably want to open up the sider just a little bit on thick carpet, to can make the vacuum easier to push (when I was running my group test to find the best cordless vacuum, I found on the models that had the most power, I often had to open the slider when cleaning carpet in order to make maneuvering possible). Conversely, on a hard floor, you might want to close it down to maximize pickup power.

The good news is that this isn't a particularly advanced feature – a large proportion of vacuums have it already, you just might not have noticed it. If you're struggling with maneuvering on carpet, or want to maximize your vacuum's cleaning power on hard flooring, it's well worth checking around on your floorhead to see if there's a slider you might have missed.

The best vacuums

➡️ Read our full guide to the best vacuums
1. Best overall:
Dreame R20 Cordless
2. Best upright:
Shark Stratos Upright Vacuum
3. Best premium:
Dyson Gen5detect
4. Best for pet hair:
Shark PowerDetect Cordless