Ryobi Stick Vacuums: Which Is Best For Your Needs?

Unless you live under a rock (or just have better things to do), you've likely noticed a bit of a revolution taking over the vacuum cleaner industry. The upright vacuums we know and love are on their way out in favor of new, sleek stick vacuums.

As the name suggests, stick vacuums have a slimmer design than traditional vacuums. They're also lighter, handheld, wireless, and perfect for smaller homes, making cleaning faster and easier than ever before. However, there are countless stick vacuums on the market, especially from the best vacuum cleaner brands, but one that is constantly overlooked is Ryobi.

Yes, the same Ryobi that makes quality electric tools also has a line of stick vacuums. The Japanese manufacturer brings its patented 18V One+ battery technology to the household cleaning tool, making it an incredibly underrated vacuum company whether you need tools to help you conquer your to-do list or help make spring cleaning a breeze. The one downside to Ryobi stick vacuums is that there are multiple different options, each that excel in one category more than another. Depending on your needs, one might fit your situation better, so let's break down which Ryobi stick vacuum is best for your needs. There will be a more in-depth explanation as to why we chose these vacuums at the end of the article.

18V One+ HP High-Capacity Stick Vacuum

Homes can get dirty quickly, especially if you're dealing with kids, pets, a messy spouse, or a combination of all three. If you find yourself needing to vacuum every day just to maintain a semblance of cleanliness, Ryobi's High-Capacity stick vacuum may be right for you.

The 18V One+ HP High-Capacity Stick Vacuum puts Ryobi's brushless motor, advanced electronics, and high-performance batteries to work, delivering impressive power, runtime, durability, and speed in a compact case. It has a lightweight design, weighing only 3 pounds, tool-free removable rollers to make maintenance a breeze, and a Wrap Defense roller bar to minimize hair and fur getting wrapped around the rollers.

As the name suggests, the High-Capacity Vacuum Stick has a large, bagless dust cup, holding up to 1 liter of debris. The large-capacity storage lets you empty less and clean more, making it the perfect household tool for homes where frequent vacuuming is a must. That job is only made easier by the stick vacuum's ability to pick up large and small debris and its multi-surface cleaning on carpets and hard floors.

The Ryobi 18V One+ HP High-Capacity Stick Vacuum is available on Ryobi's website for $279, including a high-performance battery, charger, and maintenance tool, or you can just get the vacuum for $229.

18V One+ HP SwiftClean Wet/Dry Stick Vacuum

While the High-Capacity Stick Vacuum is great for multi-surface cleaning, Ryobi's 18V One+ HP SwiftClean Wet/Dry Stick Vacuum is perfect for homes with more hard floors than carpets. Let's face it, no one is wet cleaning their floors as much as they should, and this stick vacuum makes it easier than ever. 

The SwiftClean Wet/Dry Stick Vacuum is a two-in-one mop and vacuum that can dispense solution, clean floors, and pick up debris. It works on any sealed hard floor, including hardwood, tile, stone, and vinyl, and even has a MAX mode to give it a suction boost for tough messes. The SwiftClean Vacuum features dual tanks to separate the clean and dirty water, and a guiding LED headlight to ensure you don't miss any dust, dirt, or debris. It even has self-cleaning features, with the cycle flushing clean water through the vacuum when the tanks are at capacity. 

The SwiftClean boasts the same brushless motors, advanced electronics, and high-performance batteries as the High-Capacity Vacuum, giving it impressive power, runtime, and speed while thoroughly cleaning your floors. It's available through Ryobi in a kit for $379, which includes the vacuum, a high-performance battery, charger, self-cleaning stand, two roller bars, two filters, and Ryobi's hard surface cleaning formula. If you just want the vacuum, it costs $329.

18V One+ HP Cordless Pet Stick Vac Kit

As pet owners, we love our fur babies with all of our hearts. But, we have to admit that we could do without having their hair all over the place. Thankfully, Ryobi makes a stick vacuum for this exact situation: the 18V One+ HP Cordless Pet Stick Vacuum.

The Cordless Pet Stick Vacuum is one of the best Ryobi floor cleaner kits to tackle high traffic areas around the house. It tailors Ryobi's patented 18V One+ HP battery technology to make pet fur a problem of the past. This stick vacuum is twice as strong as Ryobi's base product (more on that later), 30% lighter, and 50% quieter, providing floor-to-ceiling cleaning. The dual-roller bar can pick up large and small debris, working best on hard floors. The Pet Stick Vac has a cyclonic filter that traps pet fur and 99.9% of dust and allergens. The dust cup is incredibly easy to remove and clean, and the vacuum features LED lights that illuminate dust, dirt, and hair, ensuring you never miss a piece.

You can also remove the extension wand on the Pet Stick Vac, transforming it into a hand vacuum for cleaning pet pillows, stairs, cars, and other hard-to-reach areas. And the kit comes with a mini-motorized beater bar for smaller surfaces, like vacuuming fur off of bedding and upholstery. The product has a 4.7-star customer rating on Ryobi's website, with nine five-star reviews. The Pet Stick Vacuum Kit costs $299 through Ryobi's website, or you can get only the vacuum for $249.

18V One+ HP Advanced Stick Vacuum

While the other options on this list focus on your cleaning routine, this one depends on your financial standing. Simply put, if your budget isn't limited, and you want one of the best stick vacuums that money can buy, look no further than the 18V One+ HP Advanced Stick Vacuum. 

As the name suggests, the Advanced Stick Vacuum is the most state-of-the-art cleaning product Ryobi makes. It utilizes the company's One+ HP technology to deliver the strongest vacuum, truly putting the "high performance" in their high-performance batteries. However, what sets the Advanced Stick apart from the crowd is Ryobi's Whisper series technology, which makes it their quietest vacuum yet. Plus, it comes installed with a HEPA filter, tackling any dirt, debris, and dust you throw at it and capturing 99.97% of particles. The Advanced Stick Vacuum is also Pet Rated, equipped with the same roller bar as Ryobi's Cordless Pet Stick Vac, and has 12 cleaning configurations for whatever messes life throws your way. 

Naturally, it has many of Ryobi's other features, including an LED light and a detachable extension wand, and comes with a Charging Docking Station for all of your One+ batteries. The Advanced Stick Vacuum is available for $379 for the kit with the charger, or $299 for just the vacuum. It has five-star reviews on Ryobi's website, so if you have the money, Ryobi's most expensive stick vacuum seems worth it. 

18V One+ Stick Vacuum Kit

On the opposite end of the spectrum as the Advanced Stick Vacuum, the 18V One+ Stick Vacuum Kit is the most affordable cleaning tool Ryobi sells. The Stick Vacuum is the company's base product that started the line of more advanced cleaners. However, that doesn't mean it's outdated, and it's an excellent option for anyone who wants to transition to a stick vacuum cleaner but is working with a budget. 

The Stick Vacuum Kit isn't as strong as the other options on this list, but it offers the same convenience of floor-to-ceiling cleaning. Like the others, you can remove the extension wand to transform it into a smaller vacuum that's perfect for tight spaces. It has an LED light to help guide you towards dust, dirt, and debris, and an easy to empty dust cup. You can also remove the roller bar, so maintenance won't take long, and you can spend more time cleaning. And the Stick Vacuum stands on its own, which isn't a game changer but certainly comes in handy. 

Best of all, the Stick Vacuum Kit costs $199 on Ryobi's website and comes with a battery, charger, wall mount, and attachments. If you want even steeper savings, you can get just the vacuum for $149. And even though it's affordable, the Stick Vacuum is still a reliable product, with customers giving it over 170 five-star reviews.

How did we choose these vacuums?

As we mentioned in the introduction, Ryobi has a couple of stick vacuums. They sell six different products on their website, so we included each of them in this list. The only exception is that the HP Stick Vacuum does not appear in our recommendations. We elected to not include it since it is more or less the base model and doesn't necessarily fit a specific scenario. 

The HP Advanced Stick Vacuum is stronger and better in almost every category, and the One+ Stick Vacuum is more affordable, making it a better budget-friendly option. Given the nature of this list, each product had to be manufactured and sold by Ryobi, and at the time of this writing, in stock on the company's website.