REASONS TO BUY
Long reach
Great handling
Superb pet hair performance
REASONS TO AVOID
Expensive
Poor edging performance
Bulky head
Kenmore Elite Pet Friendly Review
This vacuum takes many passes to get the work done at a high cost
Credit: Kenmore
RELATED: Best Canister Vacuum of 2023
Our Verdict
If you are looking for a canister vacuum that is tough on pet hair, you should definitely check out the Kenmore Elite Pet Friendly. While it's not our all-time favorite canister model, this product ranked very highly in picking up pet hair. It is also easy to use and very maneuverable but had a disappointing cleaning performance on carpeted and hard floors. The price tag is also a bit difficult to swallow for its so-so performance. All told, we recommend looking at other canister models with better cleaning performances.
Compare to Similar Products
 This Product
Kenmore Elite Pet Friendly | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awards |  |  | | ||
| Price | $430 List $386.99 at Amazon | $80 List $71.99 at Amazon | $400 List $304.99 at Amazon | $70 List $82.99 at Amazon | $500 List $441.99 at Amazon |
Overall Score  |
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| Star Rating | |||||
| Pros | Long reach, great handling, superb pet hair performance | Great edging, hard surface, and carpet cleaning performances | Great maneuverability, cool features, picks up finer debris, great with hair | Easy maneuverability, strong suction, good on hard floors | Great carpet cleaning, easily suctions small debris |
| Cons | Expensive, poor edging performance, bulky head | Poor pet hair cleaning, short reach | Poor with larger debris, expensive | Struggles with pet hair, non-adjustable shaft | Expensive, poor on hard surfaces |
| Bottom Line | This vacuum takes many passes to get the work done at a high cost | This little vacuum can pack a punch in performance, cleaning carpets and hard surfaces with ease at an affordable price | Great cleaning performance with additional features that will keep you happy and your house clean | Great maneuverability and cleaning performance makes this a go-to vacuum, especially if you're looking for a bagged model | Excellent cleaning carpet performance, but if you're seeking a vacuum to tackle hard floors, look somewhere else |
| Rating Categories | Kenmore Elite Pet F... | Eureka WhirlWind | Dyson Big Ball Mult... | Eureka Mighty Mite | Miele Compact C1 Turbo |
| Carpet Cleaning (35%) | |||||
| Ease of Use (25%) | |||||
| Handling (20%) | |||||
| Hard Surface (10%) | |||||
| Pet Hair (10%) | |||||
| Specs | Kenmore Elite Pet F... | Eureka WhirlWind | Dyson Big Ball Mult... | Eureka Mighty Mite | Miele Compact C1 Turbo |
| Model Number | 81714 | NEN110B | N/A | 3670G | SCAE0 |
| Dirt Collection | Bag | Bagless | Bagless | Bag | Bag |
| Measured Head Width | 14.75'' | 10.5'' | 10.5'' | 10.5'' | 10.75'' |
| Measured Weight | 24.5 lbs | 11.0 lbs | 17.4 lbs | 9.3 lbs | 14.2 lbs |
| Measured Brush Width | 14'' | N/A | 9'' | N/A | 10'' |
| Measured Weight | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Brush On/Off Switch | Yes | N/A | Adjusts | N/A | No |
| Measured Maximum Reach | 37' 4" | 26' 10" | 33' 4" | 31' 10" | 30' |
| Measured Power Cord Length | 26' | 16' 6" | 22' | 19' 6" | 18' |
| Automatic Cord Rewind | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Measured Noise | 72 dBa | 68 dBa | 74 dBa | 72 dBa | 67 dBa |
| Measure Suction Power | 74'' | 60'' | 80'' | 90'' | 72'' |
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Our Analysis and Test Results
The Kenmore Elite Pet Friendly Canister delivered impressive results for pet hair clean-up. It's a good choice for handling and is easy to use, but it doesn't deliver a solid cleaning performance. It's also pricey for a canister vacuum, and others generally outperformed it.
Performance Comparison
Credit: Laura Casner
Carpet Cleaning
We began our review by putting each vacuum through a gauntlet of carpet cleaning tests. We used difficult-to-vacuum items like flour, oatmeal, rice, and cereal on both medium and low-pile carpets in order to assess performance. The Kenmore Elite Pet Friendly vacuum got off to a rather bad start on the rice test, spraying it out every which way.
The Kenmore Elite Pet Friendly did do marginally better with the oatmeal and surprised us with the Cheerios — vacuuming up all of the cereal in five passes. But, it did not pass our flour tests, leaving a powdery haze in its wake.
This is after the first pass through the Cheerios.
Credit: Jessica Riconscente
Ease of Use
Our next series of tests ranked and scored the overall user-friendliness of each vacuum and looked at how easy they were to use when cleaning different sections of a home. We tested each canister vacuum on edging, reach, furniture maneuverability, and surface transition. The Kenmore Elite Pet Friendly did quite well in this regard. It has a foot switch used to move between four different cleaning modes (XLO, LO, MED, HI), maximizing efficiency on different types of floors. It also has a switch on the handle to turn on or off the powered brush roll.
The foot switch to change the ground clearance.
Credit: Laura Casner
The Kenmore Elite Pet Friendly vacuum earned high marks for its surface transition and reach performances, thanks to the 26-foot cord and 9-foot hose. But, it bombed again in the edging test.
Handling
We based scores for our handling metric by using them on stairs and also on how agile and maneuverable each product felt. This vacuum does an excellent job when it comes to maneuvering and pushing/pulling. But, again, it failed at cleaning the stairs.
It has enough hose to clean around seven steps before the base of the vacuum needs to be moved. The Kenmore Elite Pet Friendly is also on the lighter side and has a built-in stair grip that allows it to be easily carried up most staircases. This worked great on our test flight of stairs.
The base can easily be dragged up a flight of stairs.
Credit: Laura Casner
It's easy to push and pull the Kenmore Elite across most types of floors, and we found it to be very nimble and maneuverable, even when cleaning a room cluttered with furniture. The vacuum is aided by its flexible neck, and the canister base usually does a good job of following.
The handle makes it very convenient to carry this vacuum around.
Credit: Laura Casner
Hard Surface Cleaning
For this metric, we repeated our gauntlet of cleaning tests for each vacuum on a section of laminate floors. Regrettably, the performance of the Kenmore Elite Pet Friendly plummeted a bit. It was mediocre at sucking up rice and oatmeal, eventually collecting them when the brush roll was off, but it took a bit more coaxing than other vacuums.
We weren't too impressed with the hard floor cleaning performance of this vacuum.
Credit: Laura Casner
The Kenmore Elite did about the same with Cheerios, though we did have to tweak the clearance settings a bit to keep it from pushing them around. However, we noticed that the cereal could get caught in the extractor's head rather than making it up to the collection bin. This vacuum was slightly better with fine messes, but not by too much, leaving behind a film of flour in our test.
Pet Hair
As the name would imply, the Kenmore Elite Pet Friendly Canister finished our tests with an excellent performance when it came to collecting pet hair. For these tests, we weighed 50 grams of pet hair, spread it on a carpet or hard floor, made four passes, then weighed what was collected and converted it to percentages. The Kenmore Elite vacuumed up 95.60% of pet hair.
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 Kenmore Elite Pet Friendly?
Unfortunately, it is hard to say that the Kenmore Elite Pet Friendly is of great value. It pairs a good-but-not-great performance with a top-tier price tag, while more affordable vacuums outperform it.
What Other Canister Vacuum Should You Consider?
If you are attached to the idea of a canister vacuum and have a furry friend living with you, then the Kenmore Elite Pet Friendly Canister may be the one for you. It offers great pet hair cleaning performance and is very easy to handle and convenient to use. Although, if you want a canister that will do everything else at a solid price point, we recommend the Eureka WhirlWind or the Dyson Big Ball Multi Floor for an equally stellar pet hair performance.
—
Ruth Bruckbauer and Jessica Riconscente
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