The Shark vacuum cleaners have a reputation for being great machines that can clean up your home – especially if you have pets or long-haired family members. It’s down to one of its main functions: anti-hair wrap technology.
This prevents the roller brush under the cleaning head from getting smothered with hair. No need to attack the brushes with a pair of scissors to remove the hair, no having to take the head apart with the assistance of a YouTube video to get it all cleaned out for Shark owners, no siree! But do they really live up to the hype and do they clean well if hair on your floors and furniture is a big problem?
We took five different types of Shark vacuum cleaners through their paces to see which ones are worth the price and the reputation.
How to choose the best Shark vacuum cleaner model for you and your home
What’s different about Shark vacuum cleaners? Here are some of their key features to look for
- Anti Hair Wrap – this is the big draw for these cleaners. Combs take the hair off the cleaning brushes as fast as it goes on.
- DuoClean – this refers to the two rollers in the cleaning heads – a soft roller that catches dust and a brush that scrubs dirt out of the carpet.
- TruePet – an option on some of the cleaners, this is a separate handheld attachment to help lift away pet hair using a powered brush and suction.
- Flexology – not a yoga position but the ability of some stick cleaners to bend in the middle, so that the head goes under furniture.
What type of Shark vacuum cleaner should I buy?
Choosing the best vacuum cleaner for your home can be tricky but by thinking through a few things, you can make the best choice for you, your flooring types and your home. There is a Shark vacuum for every need and every type of house, so it makes a great choice if you are looking for an alternative to other premium brands such as Miele and Dyson.
They range from a strong and durable upright cleaner that’s ideal for larger homes with vast swathes of carpet, right down to cordless or corded stick vacuums that can get into every nook and cranny and then down to tiny handheld models that are great for quick, clean-ups and small homes.
While some have a preference for a certain type of cleaner, it pays to be a little flexible, as the types of floor you have and the actual square meterage of your surfaces may make you think again.
Upright models are great for cutting through large areas of floors, especially carpets, in no time. They usually have a generous dirt reservoir and a longish cord, though you will need to ensure you have power sockets you can use for each area of your home – or an extension lead! They are often quite heavy, though their motor will be durable and long lasting.
A stick vacuum cleaner is lighter, more compact and easy to use, especially if you can’t carry much weight or have a lot of stairs. Some come with cords, others are cordless and some convert into handheld vacuums, for quick cleaning tasks. While a cordless allows you lots of freedom and the ability to reach any area of your home, they do need frequent re-charging. A corded model will restrict you a certain amount to where there are power outlets, so ensure that it has a long enough cord.
A cylinder vacuum cleaner is great for most types of floors and can clean large or small homes. It’s stable and sturdy on the floor, won’t tip over and can be placed on the stairs as you go. It does have a cord plus a stick and flexible tube, so its reach may mean you can get to every part of your home, even high shelves, curtain pelmets and so on.
A handheld vacuum cleaner isn’t usually suitable as your only cleaner, though it’s great for getting into smaller spaces, or for using for quick cleaning jobs or small spills. It’s nice and light but will need recharging often. They can be used for different types of space, such as cleaning your car or garage.
The best Shark vacuum cleaners at a glance:
- Best handheld: Shark Premium Handheld Vacuum, £130, Argos
- Best for the best of both upright and handheld: Shark Stratos Corded Stick Pet Pro Model, £199, Amazon
- Best for: cleaning the whole house cordlessly: Shark Stratos Anti Hair Wrap Plus Pet Pro Cordless Vacuum, £549.99, Currys
- Best for: great, all-round cleaning and powerful suction: Shark Stratos Pet Pro Anti Hair Wrap Plus Anti-Odour Upright Vacuum, £429.99, John Lewis
- Best for: reaching large areas with a compact machine: Shark DuoClean & Anti Hair Wrap Bagless Cylinder Pet Vacuum, £169, Amazon
We’ve ranked the best Shark vacuums below, see what we thought of each
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Shark Stratos Pet Pro Anti Hair Wrap Plus Anti-Odour Upright Vacuum [NZ860UKT]
Best for: great, all-round cleaning and powerful suction
Weight: 6.7kg
Capacity: 1.3L
Filters: foam, washable
Hose length: 1.5m
Cord length: 8m
Reach: 10.06M
Dimensions: 117 x 28 x 26 cm
What you get: In addition to the main cleaner, you get a crevice tool, a multi surface tool and a turbo pet brush. There’s also an instruction booklet and quick start guide too.
Many prefer an upright cleaner due to their large motors as their manoeuvrability and this is a very powerful model that has all of Shark’s extra features.
Again, it offers anti hair wrap plus, its improved way to remove hair from the rollers and it is great if you have to clean large areas of carpet – so it’s good for large lounges, long corridors and more, though it is just as good in a smaller home and it also tackled my hard floors with ease.
It’s worth noting that even though it’s not a stick or cylinder, it has a longer reach than just its cord, as you can remove the reservoir and part of the tube to create a smaller, lighter handheld cleaner, which is good for all kinds of cleaning jobs, even cleaning stairs, getting up on a ladder to clean pelmets and picture rails and more.
It’s gentle on wooden and tiled floors thanks to the redesigned cleaning head with its soft front brush, plus a rear brush that flips dirt out of carpets and rugs. It has the anti odour technology cartridge in the cleaning head, which deodorises smelly pet dander and mess and so again, it’s good both for those who have pets and also those with long hair.
Cleaning the fairly generous dirt reservoir is fine – the bottom flips open and you just hold it over a bin. If you find that the dust won’t fall out, you can also open the top and push it through. This also means you can clean the reservoir properly every now and again. Dirt is held by a seal inside the reservoir and this model also traps 99.9 per cent of dust.
The controls are handily located on the upmost part of the handle, which is great and you also get a slider to change between cleaning modes and a vent that, when you open it, helps the machine move more easily on some surfaces such as rugs. Of course, you also get Shark’s classic lights in the front of the cleaning head so that you can see every speck. Store two tools on the cleaner itself, so you’ll always have the right one to hand instead of running back and forth between a job.
Overall, I found this to be powerful, flexible and able to tackle all jobs around my home.
Buy now £429.99, John Lewis
Shark Stratos Anti Hair Wrap Plus Pet Pro Cordless Vacuum IZ420UKT
Best for: Cleaning the whole house cordlessly
Weight: 4.07kg
Capacity: 0.7L
Run time: 120 minutes (60 per battery)
Dimensions: 114 x 27 x 17 cm
What you get: a crevice and multi surface tool, an anti-allergen brush, a pet tool, an accessory bag, two lithium-ion batteries and a dual charging dock.
This claims to have Shark’s best hair pickup technology – anti hair wrap plus, an improved method of removing hair from the rollers - and it also offers other Shark bonuses including what it calls “clean sense IQ” – this detects dust and dirt automatically and promises 50 per cent more dirt suction. In practice, there is a sensor in the cleaning head and as it comes across dirt, it turns up the suction power. Genius!
A cartridge inside the cleaning head neutralises odours keeping your vacuum smelling fresh while lights in the head allow you can see what you need to suck up. Because it comes with two batteries, you can clean continuously for up to 120 minutes (longer on low power), so if you’re in a hurry to get the whole house sparkling before the mother-in-law arrives, this is the machine for you. I also liked the fact that you can charge both batteries simultaneously, so you can charge both and then do a whole lot of cleaning. It moves easily from one surface to another, so from hard floors to carpets to rugs and it tackles all well, thanks to those dual rollers. The soft one is particularly good for hard floors and it handled both my wooden floorboards and the quarry tiles (and their fiddly grouting) perfectly. There’s no on-board tool storage but you do get an accessory bag to keep them in.
For those cat and dog lovers, there’s a motorised pet tool that brushes hairs from all sorts of furniture and stairs, even pet beds. In addition, for those families who have an allergy-prone person, there’s a long brush attachment that will help you to both dust your surfaces but also to pick up the dust and store it locked away, without it being blown around the room – it captures 99.9 per cent of dust and allergen. This brush felt nice and soft and I felt confident enough to use it on most surfaces, even French polished tables.
The cleaner’s controls are on the handle, which is great, though you have to tip the stick to see them. It also shows you the current battery status. You can remove the reservoir and battery section from the main unit to form a handheld vacuum that’s good for upholstery - attach the pet unit and you have a great way to clean up after your furry friends. The other genius feature is that the stick has a hinge in the middle so that the vacuum bends to clean under furniture. “It bends, so you don’t have to,” they crow, and it’s true.
Buy now £549.99, Currys
Shark Stratos Corded Stick Pet Pro Model HZ3000UKT
Best for: those who want both a large vacuum cleaner and a smaller handheld model
Weight: 4.55kg
Capacity: 0.3L
Filters: washable
Dimensions: 118 x 41 x 26 cm
Cord length: 10m
Reach: 11.02m
What you get: A crevice tool, a dusting brush and an anti hair wrap pet tool
With a corded model, you may be tethered to the socket on the wall but the motor inside is usually that bit more powerful than a rechargeable model. This has a good reach of just over 11 meters when you add the flex and the stick, so it should reach most places in your home. It has Shark’s usual special features – an advanced anti hair wrap plus function to remove both short and long hair from the brushes, the anti odour technology that slots into the cleaning head of the vacuum and the same Flexology hinged stick that the above model has.
This is a good model for pet owners and it will handle different floor types, including carpets and hard floors and because it is a slender shape and has the hinged stick and pivoting head, it will be able to reach tricky corners and under furniture all around your home. In addition to the anti hair wrap, there’s a separate pet tool that you can use for cleaning pet beds, stairs and furniture.
I loved that it can also be transformed into a neat little handheld vacuum when you remove the top dirt reservoir and handle, which comes off the main body of the machine with a short hose. You can add the crevice tool or dusting brush to this, or of course the pet tool. This is great for quick cleaning jobs and for deep-cleaning those areas that gather dirt, dust and hair such as the sofa cushions and the corners of rooms and it means you don’t have to buy both a larger vacuum and a smaller handheld too. Dust is held in the 0.3 litre reservoir, which is small but won’t need emptying as often as some models and the dust is sealed inside the machine thanks to an anti-allergen complete seal that traps 99.9 per cent* of dust and allergens inside, making this a good model for allergy and asthma sufferers.
I liked the position of the controls, which are on the handle and you can swap between carpet and hard floor settings without having to stop and look at the controls. Finished cleaning? It folds neatly in half, making it easy to store in an understairs cupboard.
Buy now £199.00, Amazon
Shark DuoClean & Anti Hair Wrap Bagless Cylinder Pet Vacuum CZ500UKT
Best for: reaching large areas with a compact machine
Weight: 7.99kg
Capacity: 1.6L
Filters: foam and felt
Dimensions: 26 x 90 x 118 cm
Cord length: 9m
Reach: 11m
What you get: In addition to the cylinder, there’s a handle, hose and Flexology wand, an anti hair wrap and DuoClean floor nozzle, a crevice and an upholstery tool plus an anti hair wrap power tool.
It’s great to get all of Shark’s anti hair-wrap technology plus Flexology in a cylinder, especially for those who prefer this type of cleaner. The CZ500UKT looks different to other cylinder models, with its compact, low-profile appearance, offering great stability especially on stairs. Its black and gold livery makes it look smart and luxurious.
The vacuum is quite heavy for its size – but that’s thanks to a strong motor. At the end of your wand and hose sits the main and fairly compact cleaning head with its self-cleaning brush roll and anti hair wrap brushes and combs. This model also has the helpful lights on the cleaning head, illuminating your dirt and dust so that it’s easier not to miss anything.
The cleaning head is not as wide as some vacuums and that does mean that it can be a little more tedious to vacuum large floors. It also doesn’t always get right into the edges, though that’s what the handy crevice tool is for. The stick also has the great Flexology function, which means cleaning under furniture is easy and in addition to the upholstery tool, there’s a powered anti hair-wrap tool that can give a thorough clean to pet beds and sofas. You can store tools on the machine, though these sometimes get a little in the way and pop off.
It can tackle all kinds of floor surface with three power settings and its reach is amazing when you add up the cord, wand and flexible tube. Controls are set on the handle, so are easy to reach and change. The dust and dirt are caught by anti-allergen seals and it’s easy to empty the machine’s reservoir at the push of a button.
Buy now £169.00, Amazon
Shark Premium Handheld Vacuum WV270UK
Best for: quick clean-ups and very small homes
Weight: 650g
Capacity: 0.1L
Run time: 15 minutes
Filters: washable
What you get: the main unit, a rechargeable battery, a crevice and an upholstery tool, the charging base and a dock.
This is one of Shark‘s newest handheld vacuums with a powerful and highly-efficiency motor that gives even more suction than similar models. It is fairly good-looking for a vacuum too, in a dark metallic blue and they make much of the fact that you can leave it out on display, ready to grab at the moment a spill has been made. I liked the fact that the base unit that it clips into also holds the two additional tools, meaning everything is kept in one place, which is very handy.
It’s lightweight, one of the lightest I have tried and although the 15 minutes run time (on the lower power setting) is not very long, it’s good enough for the purpose this has been designed for. It has just the one battery though with this run time, that’s not really a problem, even though some models offer two, so that you can charge one while you clean. You wouldn’t want to have it as your only vacuum in a decent sized home but it’s great for those tasks like cleaning the stairs, sucking up the crumbs from the kitchen worktop, getting into corners where a corded vacuum can’t reach and cleaning out your car or garage. It has two setting, a regular suction strength plus a boost function if you have stubborn dirt to clean up.
The attachments help with dusting, getting into small spaces and cleaning your furniture and curtains and of course it also deals with pet hair pretty efficiently, even if it doesn’t have the motorised pet tool that some other models do. The dust reservoir has a button that flips open at the bottom, so you can just hold it over the bin and release the muck you’ve sucked up – watch out the first couple of times you do this to make sure your bin placement is good, as it does open quite quickly! It also has a washable filter, which reduces waste.
A very neat, light and stylish wand vacuum that will be good for most homes as an addition to your main cleaner.
Buy now £130.00, Argos
Verdict
If you want the best of both worlds, you can’t go far wrong by choosing the SharkStratos Pet Pro Anti Hair Wrap Plus Anti-Odour Upright Vacuum as your main cleaner. Add the Shark Premium Handheld Vacuum as your quick and efficient cleaner.
