The flexible wand can bend in half at the midpoint, allowing it to reach under low furniture without the user having to bend down, a feature seen on many Shark upright vacuums. And for overhead cleaning the small tools can be attached directly to the wand. Likewise, the main floorhead can be attached to the handle for easier cleaning of small spaces like stairs.
It’s packed with familiar Shark vacuum features such as a flexible wand and an anti hair wrap brushroll. Performance is good, it picks up surface as well as deeper dust and debris for a thorough clean, but you will be tethered to a power cord. For instance, its lightweight wand features the brand’s MultiFLEX technology, which allows you to bend it to clean under furniture more easily or even fold it in half for more compact storage. The cleaner head has LED lights that illuminate dust and debris as you clean, and its smart display allows you to easily select cleaning modes and suction levels. Whether vacuuming carpet or hard floor, this vacuum didn’t go above 70dB, which is similar to a dishwasher or shower and pretty quiet in comparison to some other vacuums. The floorhead glides nicely on all floor types and it’s easy to maneuver around obstacles.
The flexible wand does its job and allows for easy cleaning under low furniture without having to bend. Although it’s not quite so easy to maneuver in this mode, we didn’t feel we had as much control over the direction of vacuuming as when it’s in standard mode. They said that it has very good power and performed really well on carpet and hard floors. On hard floors, it will go a decent job because it has decent suction. The lack of the duo clean head somewhat limits its capability and will not do as good a job at the large bits of dirt. It does have a funnel in the middle of the main nozzle to bigger piles of dirt but expect some snowplowing.
However, the light on the floor head allows you to see into the nooks and crannies of your home and catch debris hiding under furniture. Overall, this vacuum mop combination is an affordable and easy-to-use option for apartment dwellers or busy households that need a quick cleaning tool for daily use. If you’re looking for the powerful suction of an upright vacuum but the convenience of a cordless stick vacuum, this is the one for you. And with such a long battery life, you could vacuum your apartment multiple times or clean an entire two-story house before having to charge it. For all of these reasons, plus the easy three-minute assembly time, this is our top pick.
The dual brushroll configuration makes it a robust cleaner that’s designed to clean deep into carpets, without damaging hard floors. Canisters often come only with air-turbine-powered brushroll tools, though, which means that the flow of air spins a turbine that powers the brushroll. One accessory that sets apart the most expensive vacuums is a small powered rotary-brush tool, specifically designed for grabbing pet hair that sticks to furniture. Less-expensive vacuums sometimes include an air-powered version that might be worth trying out, but those are ineffective for tougher jobs like cleaning carpeted stairs.
You probably don’t need HEPA filters—for most people, regular filters are totally fine. HEPA filters are defined as those that remove 99.97 percent or more of airborne particles of 0.3 micron in diameter; nothing captures 100 percent, though, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (PDF). (You can read a lot more about them in our guide to air purifiers.) But HEPA filters are not a magic shark pet hair vacuum bullet, according to Caroline Blazovsky, the indoor air quality specialist. If the gaskets around the HEPA filter aren’t perfectly tight, the filter itself is pointless—the vacuum is still emitting dust. And even a perfectly sealed bagless vacuum cleaner will eject a bunch of dust whenever you empty it. We noticed that we got the same results whether or not we used an external microphone.
We also measured each vacuum’s raw suction with a specialized gauge and each one’s airflow with an anemometer. Suction allows the vacuum to lift debris off the ground, and airflow helps push the debris to the vacuum’s dustbin. In general, more suction and airflow translate to better cleaning performance, but brush-roll action is also important, especially on carpeting, because you need agitation to get at the debris embedded in carpet fibers.
For example, to see how many particles a vacuum emits, our testers stuff wood flour into each vacuum and measure the amount of particles released into the air using a laser spectrometer. For more details on our vacuum testing, check out our vacuum buying guide. In addition, we gathered insights on how well each pick transitioned from smooth floors to a carpet, while testing its maneuverability in our living room-inspired obstacle course. Our testers tested the ease of emptying the dust bins, noting if the process was messy, as expected, or thrillingly simple. At home, additional vacuums were rated on the same attributes in real-world environments and situations. Lastly, when determining the overall value of each product, we considered our entire experience with the product in comparison to the price.
The Miele Compact C1 Pure Suction (opens in new tab) which we gave 4/5 stars back in 2020 is a little cheaper, but you’ll have to take into account that with the Miele, there’s an ongoing cost of dirt bags to factor in. Both models offer great suction, but the Shark has a larger floorhead with dual brush rolls, whereas the Miele floorhead doesn’t contain brush rolls at all. The canister feels lightweight to pull along and when vacuuming stairs it’s compact enough to sit on a step. We did experience the hose twisting a couple of times, but a firm tug usually pulls it straight. We did utilize the flexible wand to vacuum under a bed and indeed it does give extra reach without the need to bend down, but having said that we found it difficult to control the floorhead in this mode.
On carpet when we sprinkled oats near the baseboard, it wasn’t as effective at removing this debris and as such we’d say edge cleaning on carpet is one of its weaknesses. Though it’s better if you approach the baseboards shark robotic vacuums with the side of the floorhead, as opposed to the front. Plus, with the tools conveniently on board, switching to the crevice tool is quick and easy and meant we could collect up anything left behind.