Plus, accessories like the motorized brush, upholstery tool, and crevice nozzle can be used to deep clean specific areas of your home. The fully sealed system has a HEPA filter that locks in dander and allergens. We gave the process of emptying the machine a perfect score, and we’ll also noted that it’s pretty quiet for a powerful pick. While there are definitely less expensive upright vacuums on the market, this model from Shark is a great choice if your home has a mixture of flooring surfaces, and you’re hoping to stay in the $200 price range. All the canister vacuums in Consumer Reports’ tests do a terrific job cleaning bare floors, and some are very good at cleaning carpet.
We then compared all of the Shark vacuums to provide a variety—including handheld, stick, upright, and robot options—that will perform well in any home. We plan to try out the Airsign bagged canister vacuum, a design- and environmentally- focused model, and the Sebo Felix Premium, one of Sebo’s most shark dustbuster powerful (and most stylish) upright models. But the evidence we’ve seen leads us to believe that the Navigator Lift-Away is actually more reliable than most vacuum cleaners in this price range. Thanks to the long-lasting geared belt and reusable filter, performance shouldn’t decline much over time.
This vacuum’s five-year warranty gives us every reason to believe it will last at least that long for most owners. Some vacuum cleaners are notorious for “snowplowing” (or pushing around) large debris, such as breakfast cereal, on a bare floor. So we used each vacuum to try to suck up a handful of Cheerios and Chex. We started our research by making a list of every plug-in upright or canister vacuum cleaner we could find—seriously, all of them, from every brand. Over the years, we’ve assembled a spreadsheet of 560 different vacuums (though a chunk of them are now discontinued).
Miele reps have told us that the company designs all its products to last 20 years. Brian Driscoll, the Reddit vacuum guy, told shark canister vacuum us that he has seen 30-year-old Miele canisters. That’s incredible longevity for any kind of electric product these days.
The self-emptying dock is a game changer and we’ve even managed to squeeze six weeks’ worth of debris before emptying the dock (Shark notes that it can hold up to 30 days worth of dust). While we’ve noticed that it has a tendency to pull pet hair behind it, requiring several passes on carpet, we really appreciate the speedy clean it offers and fast charging time. Generally speaking, a canister vacuum separates the motor and dust receptacle from the tools you hold with a long hose. Most of the weight of the vacuum is in the “canister” that follows you around on the floor, so you’re more free to move around and reach tight places. But the features that make a vacuum excellent on tile floors may not be as good on wall-to-wall carpet, area rugs or hardwood.