Shark’s Stair-Climbing Vacuum Needs to Work Out Some Bugs

I admire Shark’s ambition. With its latest vacuum (most recently presented at IFA), Shark attempts to solve two major problems. The first is that in many cases, simply lifting the mop pads over the floor often isn’t enough to keep the yucky wet mop pad from dragging on your nice clean carpet. That’s why the newest Shark robot vacuum has a mop plate that automatically detaches when you’re vacuuming.
The second, and more interesting problem, is that robot vacuums tend to get stuck on little ledges or rugs in your house. That’s why the Shark now has what I have been referring to as a “booty hitch,” to hump itself over obstacles in its path. On its face, both of these improvements are very, very cool—and they work. “Is that robot vacuum humping the floor?” my husband asked, as it propelled itself into the living room from the kitchen. However, as if in recompense, the Shark is failing at some basic robot vacuum tasks. If you’re interested in this vacuum, I would suggest waiting for the price to come down and for the company to iron out some basic bugs.
Setup is very simple. It’s a good-looking robot vacuum, with a docking station that includes a clean water tank, a dirty water tank, a dustbin with a remarkable 0.33-liter capacity, and a refillable odor-neutralizer capsule that prevents the whole thing from stinking to high heaven. It’s compact at less than 18 inches high and less than 15 inches wide, and very easy to set up. I downloaded the app and added the vacuum to it; Shark even provides a list of cute, punny names. (I picked “Steve McClean.”)
The preclean mapping was fast and easy, and the vacuum did not get tripped up at all. The map is kind of bonkers and in no way accurate, but it gets the general orientation of the rooms correct, and the map’s inaccuracy is not reflected in how the robot cleans.
When you start cleaning, you can pick either vacuum or mop (not both), and if you vacuum, you can select either to clean or deep clean. I found this confusing, as you tap the Clean Button before you can select the mode—just a little residual PTSD from starting too many robot vacuums in the wrong cleaning mode and not being able to stop them, nothing to worry about. You can also opt to clean by room or to spot clean (more on that later).
It takes about 90 minutes for the vacuum to do a full vacuum run for 750 square feet, and about 60 percent of the battery, which means I could mop after I vacuumed, if I wanted to. Having a detachable mop pad meant that I didn’t need to plan out my cleaning beforehand—with ones that don’t detach, I have to make sure I vacuum before I mop. You also can’t trace the vacuum’s live progress in the map. It’s an easy way to ensure you got full coverage, or would be with an accurate map.
Ostensibly, the Shark vacuum has DirtDetect, which is a feature that first showed up in iRobot’s Roomba line. Sensors on the bottom of the vacuum can locate areas of unusual dirtiness and focus on them. It’s remarkably effective with an iRobot, but not so much with the Shark.
Every single time the vacuum started, it said DirtDetect couldn’t work because the sensors are dirty. I reached out to Shark to ask where the DirtDetect sensors are, exactly, because I’ve been wiping down all the sensors that I can see with a cloth and yet it continues happening. Maybe they’re hidden somewhere I can’t see? (As of publication, Shark has not responded.)
Second, the vacuum’s auto-empty function doesn’t really work. This was a common problem with some of the first auto-empty bins I tried—maybe there was a door that got stuck, a tube that curved just a little too much, or air pressure that was just a little low. For whatever reason, the Shark barely auto-empties at all. After three weeks, there is just a little poof of dog hair in the base’s dustbin. I have to empty and scrape the robot’s bin after every run by hand, thus defeating the point of a NeverTouch docking station.
Third, spot cleaning takes a weirdly long time. While I was testing the Shark, my puppy discovered that she can simply knock over the trash can and pick out anything delicious, which of course means scattering it all to find the best-tasting stuff. Conveniently, the trash can is located right next to the Shark vacuum, so it was relatively easy to have the vacuum spot mop right next to the station every morning. It took around 20 to 30 minutes, which is a really long time—long enough that I regretted spot-cleaning and should’ve just dragged out the Swiffer.
And finally, you can’t save multiple maps. I can’t, for example, drag poor Steve McClean around to clean all three floors of my house. I also don’t have hard data points for any of the cleaning times, because in addition to not live-recording the vacuum’s path to make sure it had full coverage, the app also did not record cleaning times accurately. It said that each cleaning run was between 0 to 5 minutes, which was not true.
Cleaning itself was, surprisingly, fine. I tested it with all the grime that comes with living with two kids and two dogs that love being outside, and that includes dog hair, river sand, crumbs after eating every meal, and interminable wood chips as the puppy has discovered the wood pile and has been bringing all her favorite sticks inside to her bed to chew.
Of these, only the wood chips—around the size of a half-inch—have evaded the Shark’s suction power. It’s wonderful to be able to de-sand your children in the laundry room, throw their clothes in the washing machine, start the vacuum when you’re bringing them upstairs, and come downstairs and not have your feet sticking to sand on the floor. Speaking of laundry, I also check for edging capabilities in my laundry room, with all the lint fluff that accumulates in front of the dryer, and the Shark addressed this nicely. It also has multiple filters, with a felt and washable foam filter before the motor and a HEPA filter afterward, which is fantastic if you have allergies.
However, so much basic functionality is missing, including things that you can find on more affordable vacuums. Shark’s appeal is that it offers maximum functionality for a bargain price, but at $1,000, this is not that much of a bargain. In a year or two it will be discounted and the bugs will be ironed out and I will be happy to recommend it. At least the cordless stick vacuum in this line works great.