We often get asked what are the best vacuum heads and attachments for different floor surfaces, so in this article we're looking at the different types of vacuum attachments, and what are the best options for different floor surfaces around your home.

All of these heads and attachments are universal 32mm size to suit all ducted vacuums and most portables.

Combination vacuum heads are usually supplied as the standard attachment with most vacuum cleaners (ducted and portable) since they do a decent job over a variety of different floor surfaces. The typical combination vacuum head design features a retractable brush so you can vacuum different flooring without needing to change the attachment mid-way through vacuuming.

Here's a look at some of our favorites.

Combination Heads for Carpet and Hard Floors

Universal Carpet & Hard Floor Head

 

This head has the longest retractable brush we have seen, making it ideal for homes with large areas of tile or timber floor, and it's 30mm wider overall than other combination heads, so you might get through the vacuuming just a bit quicker!

All it takes is a flick of the lever to switch between carpet/rug and hard floor mode, and it's easy to change whilst vacuuming. The base plate has a deep enough air-channel to clean most carpet styles and the hard floor bristles feature a cut-away design to ensure dust and debris is not just pushed along the floor.

 

Deluxe Universal Carpet Head

This is the best option if you are looking for vacuum heads mainly for soft furnishings and smaller areas of hard floors - or if you already have a hard floor brush, and just need a vacuum head for carpets.

With a large rear roller and unique dual-pivot neck design, this vacuum head makes light work of the heaviest, plushest pile carpets. It features an enlarged air-channel in the steel base plate to ensure the your vacuum power is constant when vacuuming carpet, and a retractable brush for use on all hard floor surfaces. 

 

Universal Carpet Head

The Universal Carpet Head is one of the most widely used vacuum heads around the world. It's supplied as the standard issue vacuum head with many brands of ducted and portable vacuum, and performs reliably on most carpets and hard floors.

We don't recommend this vacuum head for use on very thick or deep pile carpets, nor is it suitable for large areas of hard flooring - but for general use it's hard to beat and great value for money.  

'Gulper' Multi Surface Vacuum Head

 

The Gulper has the lowest profile of any vacuum head, making it the best choice for extensive vacuuming under furniture or other obstacles.

Designed with an all plastic base, and four rollers, the Gulper is unbeatable when vacuuming areas with a variety of floor coverings, and is particularly effective at cleaning commercial carpets and carpet tiles. 

 

 

Turbo Heads: Air-Driven Power Heads for Carpet

Turbo Heads harness the power of your vacuum motor to drive a roller brush in the vacuum head without the need of an electric motor. Combining the suction of your vacuum with the 'beating and sweeping' motion of the roller brush ensures deeply embedded dirt is not left behind when vacuuming carpet and rugs.

Turbo Heads are unrivaled for picking up pet hair from carpets, and the driving motion of the roller brush cuts down the effort required to push your vacuum across the floor.

The improved cleaning performance of a Turbo Head does come with one downside, which is the potential for "hair wrap". This is where long hair (or fine string/cotton if present) can be wrapped around the roller brush of the turbohead.
Unfortunately all vacuum heads with a roller brush are susceptible to this, and regular maintenance is the key to ongoing cleaning performance. 
Simply snip or cut the wrapped hairs on both sides of the brush and let the vacuum suction clear it out for you. 
The Turbocat and Turbocat Zoom both have a larger diameter roller brush which is less likely to suffer from hair wrap, and the larger roller opening makes cleaning easier, so these two are our top picks.

Turbocat

The Turbocat is a best-seller for all ducted vacuums and deserves to be at the top of every buyer's list.
It has a low profile design - less than 7 cm's - making it easy to vacuum under furniture, and a wide 32 cm cleaning path. The roller brush features a bristle design which ensures a constant sweeping motion and automatically adjusts to any carpet pile height. We've been selling these Turbo Heads for over 20 years now and can confidently say it is built to last. 

Turbocat Zoom

 

The next generation, Turbocat Zoom, is our second pick for ducted vacuum Turbo Heads. It has the same design architecture as the TP210, with a few nice enhancements.
The two biggest benefits are increased power from the air-turbine, and less noise from the roller brush. The Zoom also features a large, soft rubber bumper to eliminate accidental marks on furniture. We find the Turbocat Zoom heads performs best when used with a fairly young ducted vacuum system (less than 10 years old) as these modern motors spin the relatively heavy roller brush with ease. That's the only reason the Zoom isn't our No.1 pick for this category.  

Wessel Turbo TK286

 

The new generation, TK286 is the latest design from WesselWerk perfect for systems with low airflow. With a very efficient turbine design and light weight roller brush, the TK286 is suitable with almost any ducted vacuum system, even older models.
The adjustable air-flow valve ensures even suction performance and continuous roller brush rotation on plush carpets. Safe to use on hard floors thanks to the built in rollers, this head can be handy for homes where surfaces change from carpet to hard floors in one cleaning zone. Please note we recommend using Turbo heads only on carpet for best results as this is what they are designed for primarily, keep reading for our best attachments to vacuum hard floors!

CleanUP Turbo Head 

The CleanUP Turbo Head is a compact attachment ideal for smaller living areas and rugs. It's the only Turbo Head we currently recommend not from the Turbocat family.

The CleanUP Turbo Heads best feature is the addition of a rubber blade behind the roller brush - this makes it quite effective when vacuuming hard floors , unlike most other Turbo Heads. The lightweight design, and the inclusion of a 35mm adaptor make this suitable for just about any vacuum cleaner - ducted or portable. 

 

Hard Floor Brushes & Heads for Timber, Tile & Vinyl Floors

Floor coverings are constantly evolving with new home decorating trends, in particular the increase in hard floor surfaces has been a big change in homes everywhere. Don't limit your vacuum to just cleaning carpets - there is a huge range of vacuum heads for cleaning other floor surfaces as well.

Here's our top selections for hard floors.

300mm Hard Floor Brush

A natural bristle hard floor brush is the most versatile vacuum attachment for hard surfaces.

Suitable for tiles, timber, vinyl, floating floors, polished concrete, and especially good on slate or any other textured surface. Thanks to the durable natural bristles and raised base plate, there is no chance of these vacuum heads will leave marks on your valuable hard floor surfaces. 

Dust Up Dry Mop Head

Dry mop heads with micro fibre dusting pads are a very efficient way to clean all smooth hard floor surfaces. The split micro fibres grab onto minute dust particles and let the power of your vacuum suction do the rest.
For highly polished timber floors, micro fibre vacuum heads are the best choice for gentle cleaning with no chance of accidental scratches. Due to micro fibre being so effective at 'grabbing on to things' we don't recommend for use on any slate or textured surfaces - that aside these are great vacuum heads for all other types of hard floor surfaces.  

CentraMop

If you like the idea og mopping and vacuuming at the same time, the the CetraMop is the attachment for you.

The unique design vacuums and mops (using a damp pad) simultaneously for two-in-one cleaning of all hard surface floors. With front and rear vacuum channels to pick up debris in both directions, and a thick electrostatic micro fibre pad to lift up grime, CentraMop vacuum heads really do save time. The micro fibre pad is machine washable and lasts a long time.  

As mentioned at the start of this guide, all of our vacuum heads and attachments are a universal 32mm diameter to suit all ducted vacuums and most portable vacuums.

 

Universal 32mm diameter, Suitable for most popular makes and models of vacuum including:
Ducted Vacuums - Aussie Vac, Auskay, Astro Vac, Beam, Central Vac, Cyclic, Cyclo-Vac, DAS, Electrolux, Electron, EVS, Filtex, Hoover, Hills, iCentral, Lux, Premier Clean, Smart, Silent-Master, Vacumaid, Valet, Volta, Vactron,
Portable Vacuums - Electrolux, Hoover, Kambrook, Nilfisk, LG, Panasonic, Sanyo, Samsung, Volta, Vax, Wertheim
Backpacks - Pullman, Origin, Numatic, Nilfisk, Pacvac, Superpro, Hako

If you need any more information on these products, or anything else to do with ducted vacuums, please feel free to give us a call on 03 9763 6777 or contact us through our website. We've got a team of dedicated staff that can help with any of your ducted vacuum questions.