There’s also not a designated spot for attachments, which was disappointing, so you’ll need to repurpose a box or bin to keep the attachments together in your home. If we didn’t mention a particular model you’re curious about, we did actually consider it but decided not to recommend it. shark dustbuster Repair technicians tend to love Riccar, Simplicity, and Fuller Brush uprights (all made by Tacony Corporation). We tested the Riccar Vibrance R20D a few years ago, based on some techs’ recommendations. It is a sturdy, American-manufactured machine made to be repaired pretty easily.
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. Canister-style vacuums are less common than uprights in the US and Canada, but are popular in Europe.
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.
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.
I’m Nigel Russco, a 50 year old professional engineer who loves to review vacuums, and I’ve been doing just that since 2008. If you really want to get up tight against the wall in this case you would have to use the crevice tool. The underside of the canister has four 360 degree rotating caster wheels.
And compared with a $600 Miele canister vacuum, the Dyson might last half as long (10 years), if you’re lucky. Dyson makes good plug-in vacuum cleaners that cost way too much money by current standards. We’ve tested several Dyson upright vacuums shark robotic vacuums over the past few years, including the Ball MultiFloor 2, and haven’t found a great reason to recommend one over our other picks. The main reason we love Miele canister vacuum cleaners is that they’re impressively sturdy, without feeling clunky.
The Shark Vertex PowerFins Vacuum features powerful suction on all surfaces, a storage-friendly handle, and generally quiet operation. As we discovered in The Lab, it has the power you need to leave your carpets deeply clean and your hardwood floors sparkling. This model earned a perfect rating for its effectiveness and didn’t cause any debris to scatter in the process. In fact, it cleaned up every material in just a pass or two, regardless of flooring type. We found that the 1.4-quart dust bin empties easily, but given the vacuum’s powerful suction and long-lasting battery, we do wish it had more capacity. All of the Shark Navigator Lift-Away models in the NV350, NV360, or NV370 series are essentially the same vacuum cleaner, just with minor differences in their tool sets, colors, and button placements.
We tend to recommend the NV360 because it’s typically the best value at our favorite retailers. We’ve found that the Navigator Lift-Away Deluxe NV360 is the easiest to nab for a good deal these days, and it’s the same as the NV352, except for the shape of the handle and the placement of the power button. The NV351 is the same as the NV352, without the handheld motorized brush. The NV356 is the “pro” model with a slightly larger dust cup, and the NV370 is the “pro” model with the different handle and placement of the power button. The ADV LA322 is a new version of this great vacuum, a little bit lighter and better-looking, but with essentially the same performance in our tests as the classic Navigator Lift-Away models.
This is not too pronounced but you will also notice it when pulling the cleaner head back towards you – its fights you a little. Turning on carpet is average and while the two large wheels at the back of the cleaner head help, the cleaner head still doesn’t turn that sharply. The cleaner head and canister are easier to maneuver and turn on hard flooring. Most of the full size vacuums we test these days range from about 13 to 17 lbs. Of course the cordless units are much lighter (see Cordless Vacuum Reviews).