The Best Pet Hair Removers

Face it: If you have a dog, especially a double-coated breed, you can expect to find scores of loose hairs on your clothing, furniture, carpets and other flooring, and inside your car. (And if you have a hairless dog, then instead of excess fur you’ll find oily spots on furniture and walls, so you can’t really win.)

That’s why a pet hair remover is your second-best friend. There are two ways to keep pet hair under control: removing it from your dog through regular brushing or combing and removing it from clothing and the environment. Both are essential but require different tools.

For this article, we’re going to look at rollers and other types of pet hair removers to help eliminate loose dog hair from around the house.

What We Looked For In A Pet Hair Remover

When it comes to good pet hair removers, we looked for several key features:

• Effectiveness: The product worked without difficulty to remove pet hair from items.
• Ease of use: The product didn’t require too much effort to use.
• Ease of cleaning: The product was not difficult to empty or clean.

Whole Dog Journal Rating	Product	Price	Notes
	Chom Chom Roller	$24.99	This pet hair remover is best suited for small rugs and furniture. It’s effective and easy to clean.
	Boshel Pet Hair Remover	$24.99	Similar to the Chom Chom, the Boshel does its best work on small rugs and furniture. It picks up pet hair well and cleans up quickly and easily.
	Sweep Large Industrial Broom	$29.95	While this rubber broom works great on large surface areas, it requires significant effort to wield.
	Big Wool Swivel-Head Dust Mop	$53.95	This classic wool mop does a good job on hard floors and walls, especially when it comes to corners. However, it needs to be hand washed and air dried.
	PetPals Furbolish	$14.99-$19.90	The Furbolish was easy to use but requires frequent cleaning and left some pet hair behind.
	Pet Parents Furball Laundry Hair Remover	$14.99-$16.99	Overall, this one wasn’t very effective. Clothing laundered with it came out with pet hair still attached.

Best Pet Hair Remover for Small Rugs and Furniture: Chom Chom Roller

When you ask around about the best pet hair removers, Chom Chom is always in the mix. Shaped like a tape roller, without the annoying requirement to peel off hairy tape to get to the next layer, the Chom Chom Roller is made of plastic with a synthetic fabric roller, which looks almost as if it has rows of tiny teeth. You roll it rapidly back and forth on your carpet, rug, or furniture and it picks up hair, depositing it in a compartment in the back. According to the company’s website, it works by generating an electrostatic charge, which helps to lift and bring in the hair.

To clean it, press the button on the back to pop open the top and pull out the hair. If the thought of touching it grosses you out, a tissue, paper towel, or cleaning cloth will protect your hands and clean out the inside of the roller at the same time. The website recommends cleaning the interior with a warm, damp cloth after every use. For more thorough cleaning, soak it for five minutes in warm water and a small amount of dish soap. Let it dry thoroughly before using again.

It does not work on hardwood or tile floors (I tried, and the website confirms), fuzzy blankets, or clothing unless it is stretched taut. All it picks up is hair, and there is certainly plenty of that on carpets and furniture for it to have a full-time job. With no power source required and no need to replace it like a lint roller that has run out of tape, it’s 100 percent sustainable, which is always a plus.

The drawback, at least for carpets and rugs, is that you have to bend over or get down on your hands and knees to use it. A question on the website asks if a version with a pole is available, to make it easier to clean large area rugs. That’s in the works, according to the company, in a response made two years ago. I would be interested in such an advance. Right now, it’s best for smaller areas where hair tends to visibly accumulate.

Another Good Option for Small Rugs and Furniture: Boshel Pet Hair Remover

Meet the Chom Chom’s twin from another mother. The primary difference between the Boshel Pet Hair Remover and the Chom Chom is that the Chom Chom is white with a red roller and the Boshel is blue and white with a blue roller. That’s it. They both have an “eyelet” at the top of the handle so they can be easily hung on a wall after use. They are both operated and cleaned the same way and have the same pros and cons. For use on area rugs, I could see no difference in effectiveness: both do a good job of picking up dog hair.

Although the Boshel claims to work on clothes, reviewers disagree, and I am one of them. I did not find a best pet hair remover for clothes among any of the items tested. For clothes, tape rollers remain the best way to remove pet hair.

Best Pet Hair Remover for Large Areas: Sweepa Large Industrial Broom

When I want a great core workout, I pull out my Sweepa Large Industrial Broom, which Amazon informs me I purchased on September 30, 2009. It is perfect for getting dust, debris, and dog hair off floors, and it works well on tight-woven area rugs, too, getting up the hair left behind by the Chom Chom and Boshel because I was too lazy to go over the whole rug with them on my hands and knees. The effort required to move it over the surface of the rug calls for really tightening those abs, and if it’s a serious cleaning day, I set my smart watch to Core Training and get sweeping. It’s kind of horrifying yet fascinating to see how much unseen hair the rubber bristles pull up.

The bristles are electrostatic for attracting hair, and the handle is adjustable, from 35 inches to 61 inches. It’s not noisy and it does a good job of corralling hair and dirt. It’s easy to clean by rinsing it outdoors with a hose or indoors in a shower or bathtub.

Now, the bad news: This particular Sweepa is no longer available, but Sweepa is still sold. According to the company, starting in January their products will again be sold on Amazon, with additional retailers to follow.

Similar rubber brooms are on the market from other manufacturers. I did not test them, but they include the Frisco Pet Hair Remover Broom ($14.99); the FURemover Sweep Pet Hair Rubber Broom ($15.99); and the Mr. Siga Pet Hair Removal Rubber Broom ($20.99).

Best Pet Hair Remover for Hard Floors: Big Wooly Swivel-Head Dust Mop

Usually, I use a mop with a reusable microfiber pad for both dry and wet mopping, but when I saw the Big Wooly Swivel-Head Dust Mop, and old-school made-in-the-USA wool swivel-head dust mop from The Vermont Country Store, I was inspired to give it a try. The lanolin in the wool is supposed to attract and trap dust, and it has a telescoping metal handle that lengthens to 51 inches, so it can also be used to reach high areas on walls and ceilings.

Like anything, it has pros and cons. The best thing about it was the ability to easily access corners and tilt it up and dust the baseboards. It does a good job of picking up hair, dust, and debris off the floor. One reviewer on the VCS website wrote “Great dust mop. It picks up all the small crumbs that my dog leaves behind and more.” Another said: “I bought this mop to dust my wood floors. Our dog sheds a lot, and this mop cleaned all that fur up. I shook the mop outside and it’s ready to go again.”

To be fair, the microfiber pad does an equally acceptable job—and it can be tossed in the washing machine when we’re done with it. The mop must be shaken out on the balcony and requires handwashing. However, it’s easy to pull out for a quick floor cleaning and to remove the mop head for washing. I’ll probably hang onto it for quick cleanups and keeping the baseboards dust-free. Handwash in cold or lukewarm water with mild soap and then air dry.

Other Pet Hair Removers We Tested

PetPals Furbolish

The PetPals Furbolish is described as a brush, but it’s more like a small scraper with tiny teeth on one side and more of a flat, squeegee-like edge on the other side. It’s only about five inches wide, so you’re not going to be using it on any large surfaces, although in the interest of research, I got down on my hands and knees and tried it out on my large area rug. The bristles do pull up hair and other detritus. It’s best suited to the 3×5 rug in the kitchen where Sparkles eats, and which seems to be constantly covered in Cavalier hair, as well as the carpeted stair runners and the small area rug at the top of the stairs, which is pretty fur-laden. The caveat, especially for stairs, is that you are constantly having to stop to remove hair from the teeth before you can continue. For stairs, it was after each step. Also, I used the Chom Chom and Boshel on the top-of-stair rug after using the Furbolish and got up still more hair.

The packaging recommends it for car seats, cat trees, and furniture. I would add pet steps to that list. I was not impressed with it for getting up hair and other debris from the carpet in the footwell of the car. A hand vac is better for that. It comes in a package of four, so you could have one in different rooms or hand extras out to pet-loving friends and family. It can be cleaned with soap and water.

Pet Parents Furball Laundry Hair Remover

Wouldn’t it be great if we could throw furry clothes in the washer and dryer and have them come out fur-free? That may or may not happen for you depending on the level of pet hair on your items to be laundered.

One product I tested was the Furball Laundry Hair Remover by Pet Parents. The premise is that you toss one of the oddly shaped rubber balls in the washer with your fur-bedecked clothes and the other in the dryer. The action of the balls is supposed to remove fur, prevent wrinkles and static, and soften laundry.

I am not persuaded that the balls are actually effective in these ways. I tried using them with the fur-covered kitchen mat, some clothing, the bedspread, and a furry sofa cover. I did not notice much change on the mat or the clothing; however, I wasn’t able to put the mat in the dryer because it’s rubber-backed, and my clothes don’t get that much dog hair on them anyway. I used my workout clothes because they’re black and show more hair. The t-shirt came out pretty clean, but the leggings still had hairs on them. With the bedspread and the sofa cover, I did notice that beyond regular lint, there was more hairlike “stuff” in the lint trap, so maybe it does work as described.

Reviewers on Chewy, where I purchased them, either loved them or hated them. There were more negative than positive reviews. The best pet hair remover for laundry has not yet been found.

Budget Pet Hair Removal Options

Finally, if you’d rather not spend too much of your money on cleaning products, there are a couple of ways to get up dog hair using items you probably already have in your home. A rubber dishwashing glove or a damp washcloth will both bring up pet hair. Simply rub them over furniture or carpets. Also, hound gloves or Zoom Grooms work almost as well on rugs as they do on dogs.