A simple test procedure for determiningA‐weighted sound power emission from household vacuum cleaners was systematically developed. Representative units were tested in various configurations and on different carpets to determine the sensitivity of noise emission to various operational factors. With a single configuration selected, these units were then tested in various acoustic environments, using direct and comparison methods, to evaluate the effects of the test environment. Tests were also run with fewer microphones. Concurrently, human response tests were conducted to determine whether a pure tone correction was indicated. An analysis of modal overlap in relation to tonal content was undertaken, and several existing standards were reviewed. The resulting test procedure is a comparison sound power measurement, using four microphones in a “semi‐reverberant” room similar to the ISO 3743 “special test room,” but less restrictive. A round robin conducted using this procedure has indicated a measurement precision of about 1 dB.