The setup process is a little complicated for this model, as the individual vacuum pieces are not labeled, which makes the directions slightly confusing. When it came time for testing, our first two rounds of testing on carpet and hard flooring did not go smoothly. The vacuum shut off repeatedly and alerted us that it needed to be emptied, despite having no debris in the dust bin, and it spit larger debris across the floor. However, it suddenly started performing flawlessly when we moved to cleaning our set of testing stairs.
At this price point, you can’t beat the performance and easy-to-use design that makes this vacuum a favorite among our team. We stay up to date on Shark’s inventory and test new vacuum models as often as possible. We’ve tested over 30 Shark vacuums in The Lab and at home, evaluating them on the same attributes as the rest of the vacuums we test. Each model went through rigorous testing for setup, maneuverability, noise level, effectiveness, and ease of emptying.
This canister vacuum isn’t cheap, and you’ll also pay for new filters and bags pretty regularly. But a Miele canister can last so long that it works out shark canister vacuum to be an excellent long-term value. With those parameters, the Kenmore – Elite is a clear winner for anyone who also needs to deal with carpeted floors.
“I’ve never had an issue with it, and it’s easy to empty.” Senior editor Grant Clauser has had the Navigator for at least two years and likes it better than the more expensive Dyson upright it replaced. “The only thing I’d change is a better way to attach the attachments,” he says. Editor Signe Brewster says it picks shark pet hair vacuum up cat hair from a shag-like rug in a single pass. Sometimes she has to dig hair out of the dustbin by hand, but we’ve found that’s often the case for all bagless vacs. Senior editor Harry Sawyers mostly uses a cordless vacuum cleaner at home, but he whips out the Shark when he needs a deeper clean on his rugs.
We really enjoyed using the hard flooring mode, which turns off the brush roller to prevent debris from being spit in every direction. When using this mode, we found it’s best to vacuum directly over debris, as it does not easily suck up debris that may be tangential to the motor head without the extra shark pet hair vacuum help from the brush roll. We also tried out the Big Ball MultiFloor bagless canister vacuum, but it fell short during testing in similar ways to the Ball Animal 2. Although it does have two suction levels, they’re both too strong to work on shag carpeting or very light area rugs without choking.
If you have high-pile carpeting, you may prefer a Miele model with an electrified cleaning head, such as the Miele Complete C3 Kona. The vacuums in this line clean similarly, but the filtration isn’t quite as excellent, they run a little louder, and the hoses aren’t crushproof. We’d buy a C3 model, but a C1 isn’t a bad choice if you want to save the money now. Although the vacuum cleaner is relatively lightweight and easy to steer, we did find that the handle was prone to standing itself back into an upright position while we were pushing the vacuum across bare floors.