Many of us (myself included) are pro-pets-on-the-couch, but I’m positive that NONE of us are too happy about the hair they tend to leave behind. So when we were coming up with useful product categories to test, pet hair removers were at the top. So today, we’re testing six of some of the highest-rated pet hair removal gadgets and gizmos on the market to see if they really will keep your sofa clean and picture-perfect.

Thankfully, we have the perfect test subject–Harvey, Em’s brother’s sweet Lab, whose two main jobs are barking at predators (mailmen) and maintaining his spot on the couch. He’s the kind of dog who will shed if you even look at him funny, so we weren’t surprised to see their sofa was covered in a solid layer of pet fur when we rolled up. Thanks, Harvey!

To give these tools a fair trial, we sectioned off the couch, one gadget per zone, and spread out the dog hair as evenly across them as we could. We tested a variety of tools–some meant to work like a squeegee, some with little teeth, and some rollers. Our winner pick is revealed at the end if you’d like to skip through our findings, but here’s how each one stood up:

Uproot Cleaner Pro VS Gonzo Pet Hair Lifter

Uproot Cleaner Pro | Gonzo Pet Hair Lifter

The Uproot Cleaner Pro (seen here on the left, the one that looks and works like a rake) worked “just okay”. It grabbed the hair as I pulled it along the sofa and did a fairly good job of collecting it into a pile, like a broom might. The tool has little teeth that cling to the hair but don’t hold onto it or lift it up. You have to go over the same spot a few times to really make it spotless and collect the hair pile with your hands or brush it toward yourself so it just falls to the ground. Not ideal. We tried this one on their rug too and found that the teeth worked a little better to really pull up the hairs (and loose rug fibers). Overall, 2/5 on the effective scale.

The Gonzo Pet Hair Lifter did no such thing. You can’t really tell in this photo, but this spongy contraption left tons of little yellow crumbs behind as it dragged across the fabric. We were NOT fans of this tool. Not only did it add to the problem by shedding some itself, but it was too squishy to properly grab any fur. The hair doesn’t stick to the sponge, it just gets sort of spread around. This one did not work at all. Wiping the dog hair with our hands was more effective. 0/5!

FurDozer VS Analan Mini Pet Hair Remover

FurDozer | Analan Mini Pet Hair Remover

These were two of our “squeegee” contenders. They each claim to have three “modes”. The FurDozer has a side with six short rubber ridges and a side with three tall ridges, including a fourth, taller squeegee edge. The Analan has three rubber sides with small, medium, and large teeth.

First up is the FurDozer and it gathered the hair very well! Online, it says to use the three-squeegee side for a more plush material like this couch, but we found that the six-ridge side worked best to collect the hair into a clump. This tool works by holding it flat to the sofa, pushing down hard, and pulling the fur toward you. It takes a good amount of work to gather all the hair, and while it did work pretty well for the surface hair on this sofa, I think this tool is more intended for stubborn, embedded hair. Plus, you still have to pick up your hair clump piles by hand. 3.5/5

The Analan Pet Hair Remover was easy to grip, more ergonomic, but worked pretty similarly to the FurDozer. In our tests here, we found the small toothed side performed the best to collect the hair into a pile. The larger sides didn’t pull the hair as well. Overall, this tool also felt more designed for embedded fur (like the kind trapped in a fuzzy car mat or carpet). Our biggest complaint was that on the velvet sofa, the teeth marks left behind a rake pattern. Nothing permanent, but we had to swipe them out by hand. The triangular shape did get into the cushion crevices nicely, but still required a good amount of work to make it all disappear. 3/5

Chom Chom Roller VS Black + Decker Pet Hair Remover

Chom Chom Roller | Black + Decker Pet Hair Remover

These two rollers seem nearly identical: the Chom Chom and the Black + Decker. Both were designed with the sort of classic lint brush fabric on a rolling mechanism, with a squeegee splitting it down the middle. With both rollers, you’re supposed to move in shorter front-to-back motions.

With each roll back and forth, the hair actually gets picked up more like a vacuum, and deposited inside, cleaning the lint rolling fabric each time. The Chom Chom worked like a charm charm! This side-by-side really shows that. There were maybe only one or two straggling pet hairs that disappeared with another quick swipe.

The best part? No need to scoop up a little hair pile with your hands! All of the fur clings to the roller and deposits itself inside the gadget as you clean. Then, when you’re all done, you pop open the back window and grab the fur ball from there to throw away. We thought for sure this one would be our winner at a 4.5/5 rating…

But then we tried the Black + Decker version and it worked just as well! Using the same small back-and-forth motion, all of Harvey’s hair effortlessly collected onto and into the roller in just a few passes.

The roller fabric picked up about the same as the Chom Chom, and there was a big chunk of collected fur waiting in the chamber after a few passes. We tested both of these rollers out on the rug, too, and were equally impressed. One thing we liked about this one was that you could see what it was gathering through the little purple window before opening it, which couldn’t be said of the Chom Chom.

But before we could dish out our final verdict and rating, we called Harvey over and had his help re-hairing a section of the couch so we could put these rollers head to head and see if, in one fell swipe, we could tell a difference in pick-up quality.

And we could not! Each roller swiped smoothly and snagged all of the new Harvey hairs in its path with just one pass. With this information, we rated the Black + Decker our winner at 4.7/5.

But then we did a price check… and at just under $13, not only does the B + D roller work the best, with a clear window to see what you’re picking up, but it’s more inexpensive than ALL OF THE GADGETS WE TRIED and literally half the price of it’s Chom Chom competitor, taking this rating to a full 5/5!

Now Harvey can maintain the dent he’s been carving out in the couch, and mom and dad can swoop in in-between dog naps to keep their sofa clean with the Black + Decker roller. It’s fun, fast and easy to use, collects the hair so you don’t have to, and doesn’t break the bank!

*Photos by Kailtin Green