We want to know how well each model picks up dirt and debris embedded into carpet, sprinkled on bare floors and trapped along wall edges. We test how adept each vacuum is at removing pet hair stuck to carpeting as well as ease-of-use concerns like how heavy it is to carry. We assess the ease of removing and emptying the dust cup or bag, the usability of the attachments, a vacuum’s maneuverability and more.
Even though the V15 Detect’s motor has more muscle, it did not clean significantly better than the V12 Detect Slim in our tests. This model has a three-year warranty—longer than the coverage on most other stick vacs we’ve tested. Keeping her multi-pet home clean is one of her more acceptable obsessions. Its 1.9-liter dust canister is the largest here and holds shark stick vacuum 150% more debris than the Dyson V15 Detect Absolute. The cleaning head is also wider than usual to cover more ground than others. Even though we liked the swivel head and the different suction settings for various surfaces on the Shark NV356E S2 Navigator Lift-Away Professional Upright Vacuum, we found it hard to pick up hair and kibble on surfaces.
Runtimes vary between minutes to an hour, with an average charge time of four hours (although many are a lot quicker). If the machine has a turbo button, the battery will run lower quicker, but the best machines work so hard on this mode that you may find this seemingly short runtime is actually enough to clean your home. If muddy footprints or pawprints are brought into the house, this multi-tasking appliance will suck and mop floors clean in about a quarter of the shark stick vacuum time it would take to get a mop and bucket. There are no streaks either, as the crosswave has two tanks, so clean and dirty water are kept separate and you’re never wiping dirty water over your floors. When finished, it has a self-cleaning cycle to flush out dirt and debris, leaving it fresh for the next time you need it. Remove the main wand and attach a different tool for use as a handheld and you can tackle stairs, inside a car and hard-to-reach places with ease.
My one niggle with the vacuum is that it’s quite hefty for a cordless vacuum at 4.58kg, making it slightly more cumbersome others. Design wise, it’s smart looking with a bend in the middle both for storage and for reaching under beds or coffee tables, accessible via a button on the back. It’s also kept up with the market by introducing an LED light in the head so you can really see the dirt and dust before vacuuming it up (sometimes a little better than you’d like). I’ve previously used Shark’s Anti Hair Wrap Cordless Upright Vacuum and I’d say this new Stratos model is definitely worth the upgrade. Well, the DuoClean (essentially, two brush-rolls in one) floor head is now bigger and more powerful.
At 8 pounds, the vacuum is heavier than others on the list and the battery is bulky. But it’s nice that it stands upright on its own when the power unit is near the bottom. As you turn it, fine dust is knocked from the filter into the cup for better cleaning and emptying. Each mode and surface has a different battery life, with the Dyson website listing run times as low as five minutes and as high as an hour, but averaging around 20–30 minutes (which is a bit low). Run TimeTo test battery life, we run cordless vacs on high and then again on low until the battery is depleted, then we note the times. If the vacuum has a medium setting (not every vacuum does), we test that too.
Plus, along with being one of our favorite Shark vacuums, the multipurpose Shark Vacmop is one of our favorite inexpensive vacuum cleaners, too. While one pad lasted about three days for us, depending on how much we were cleaning, we would love it if this pick used reusable pads. Stocking up on disposable pads is a must, and also very easy to forget about, in our experience. Plus additional pad packs only come with 10 pads, so it’s almost worth adding multiple to your cart at a time. It feels like three vacuums in one—but even if you’re not interested in the different modes, it excels in the upright setting, too.
This cordless stick vacuum employs Shark’s anti-hair-wrap tech to remove hair from the brush roll as you clean, saving you a particularly tedious job. If the Floor One S7 Pro sounds too techy—or too expensive—I recommend the iFloor 3. This older Tineco model lacks edge cleaning on either side of the motorhead, but it cleans efficiently and quietly. While it’s technically not a smart device, it does have a backlit LED display with visual alerts for battery level, power mode, and brush roll tangles. It will also let you know if the dirty water tank is full or if the clean water tank is empty.
Sales and other price fluctuations may cause a vacuum to move within the scale for a given period. Julien Levesque is the vice president of Global Product Development and Program Management at SharkNinja and offered insights into how Shark vacuums benefit consumers for this article. (I realized after a while it’s to put your foot on it to unlock the brush head.) The Dyson doesn’t need you to put your foot on it for any reason, nor does it need such a marker. Rather than investing in another Dyson destined to break my heart, I decided to investigate the Shark line, widely touted as the Dyson killer.