The Best Shark Robot Vacuum
Shark's robo vac checks off most of the boxes that you'd expect from a product in this price range. It's reliable in its cleaning capabilities and a user-friendly mobile app and produces precise home maps.
It also offers Matrix Clean navigation, a system that makes two passes that go back and forth, before moving side to side for complete coverage. And its base is free of bags, unlike other robot vacuums.
1. Roborock S4
This is a top-notch robot vacuum for bare floors that can take up debris and has a huge dirt storage. The smart pathing feature works well and the app allows you to manage cleaning and docking. The app gives you an overview of cleaning, including a map showing where the S4 was cleaned, the cleaning time and battery life.
Its maximum suction of 2,000Pa is high enough to lift an AA battery off the floor and rivals the suction of larger vacuums. The side brush and combo brush are located closer to the front of the machine than the other Roborock models. This may be to prevent the chance of clogging.
The S4's advanced mapping system can map a house up to four levels deep. It can also keep track of the areas it has already vacuumed. This makes it easy to create a cleaning schedule and not have to manually move robots around rooms. You can mark certain areas as "no-go zones" to deter the S4 from cleaning those areas.
It was able clean an entire floor of our house easily, and was very efficient on floors that were not. However, it had a difficult time collecting dog hair, which is a common issue for a lot of robotic vacuums. The only 8.5 percent was gathered in the dustbin. The remainder was clumped around the brushes and the suction intake.
In comparison to other Shark vacuums in the market, the S4 is significantly smaller and lighter, which improves maneuverability. It can make tighter turns and avoid obstacles that slow down other robots, and its low-profile design makes it easy to fit under furniture. It has improved climbability for navigating flooring transitions and different flooring levels. It can reach down to the bottom of the stairs and is an excellent choice for homes with multiple levels. The app lets you set a timer and also has the ability to control your vacuum manually. It also has the ability to automatically return to its charging base to recharge between cleaning cycles. It has a large 5200 mAh battery that is rated to run for 150 minutes or 2691 square feet of space between charges in standard mode.
2. Shark EZ Robot Self-Empty
This Shark robot vacuum is an excellent choice for pet owners who need an efficient, user-friendly machine. The self-emptying bagless base of this model is a fantastic benefit, particularly when compared with other vacuums that have disposable dirtbags for their bases. Simply detach the bin and then empty it over a trash container. This may be messy, but it saves you money on new bags.
The bin is also large, which means that the EZ Robot can handle a huge amount of dirt. It also performs well on clean floors, but it does struggle somewhat with embedded dirt on carpets with low pile. It also has decent navigation capabilities and a small footprint for the dock.
Although the EZ Robot isn't as good as the Roborock S4, it's still a solid option for people who want a high-quality, budget-friendly robot. It's well-built, offers an array of automation features, and has impressive cleaning performance on both carpets with high pile and bare floors. Its maintenance requirements are very high and the recurring expenses are very high.
This Shark robot comes with a unique feature: it can automatically return to the same place it left off when it returns to the docking station. This is a fantastic option, especially when your home is big.
The IQ XL is also equipped with a variety of useful features, like the ability to remotely schedule home cleaning sessions and review the results using the SharkClean app. You can also start clean, stop and restart cleaning sessions with voice control via Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. The row-by -row mode is an important benefit. It cleans your home in neat rows, rather than a back and forth snake pattern as many other robots do.
The IQ XL has a major drawback in that it cannot climb over obstacles like power cords. It might mistake them for solid barriers and therefore not try to climb over them. It's also less effective or quick in navigating a space if it's stuffed with pet hair. This can cause tangles to the brushes and slow it.
3. Shark AI Robot
This is a great robotic vacuum from Shark and offers a great combination of features. It comes with a base that can hold up to 30 days' worth of debris, and it combines the cleaning power both of the robot mop and a vacuum cleaner. It also has a precise grid-based cleaning mode and advanced home integration, with support for Alexa and Google Assistant. It can be set to clean on a set schedule or on demand or set virtual boundaries to block it from entering rooms that may contain rugs or fragile items.
The Shark AI Robot carries out a fairly thorough job of cleaning bare floors, picking up debris like rice easily. It has a hard time removing large, bulky particles from carpets with low pile and is unable to maneuver around large furniture. It has a do not disturb mode which allows you to use it at home without it interrupting your routine.
Another advantage is that it uses LiDAR technology to map your home and allows it to recognize and navigate obstacles more precisely than those that rely on gyroscopes or infrared sensors. This helps it avoid hitting fragile objects and to optimize dirt collection on various surfaces. robot vacuum that vacuums and mops works faster than gyroscopes. This can cause the robot slow down and lose control when it encounters uneven surfaces.
It comes with a variety of other options, including an automatic mopping feature, a remote and various vacuum modes. It can recharge and charge itself while working. Its biggest disadvantage is that it can only map out one floor of your house therefore if you have two stories, it will be necessary to manually move it to those areas during the first run, and then program it to repeat.
Another drawback is that it can be quite noisy, especially in mopping mode. It also has many components which need to be cleaned or replaced regularly, adding to its recurring cost. The base self-empty function can help reduce the cost of these items. It also works with bagless filter, which further lowers the cost per year.
4. Shark ION Robot RV700 series
The Shark ION Robot RV700 Series ticks off all the boxes that you would expect from a midrange robotic vacuum. It is reliable in its cleaning performance, a superb mobile app that can create accurate maps of your home, as well as a great cleaning performance. It also comes with a bagless basis that eliminates annual purchases for replacement dust bags. In our test of cleaning it was able to remove 97.8% debris from hardwood and low-pile floors, but it was not as efficient with high-pile. Its maneuverability makes it simple to navigate through furniture and even climb onto flooring with high pile. It can also traverse over objects like electrical cords and rug fringes without getting stuck.
Its high-tensile bristles in a helix pattern are durable enough to manage and untangle long hair, string and other fibers. The brushroll also features an extension side which can be used in the event that it encounters an obstacle. Its slender design allows it to glide over furniture, and proximity sensors allow it to adapt and analyze obstacles. The app lets you schedule cleanings and activate the machine with a single button press. The noise levels are moderate, but it can be slowed down by using a do not disturb mode or a custom-designed scheduling.
The RV700 is more manual than the Roborock S4 or iRobot Roomba j7+. This is to be expected from the fact that it does not self-empty. However, it still feels better-built and easier to maintain, is faster in charging and clears more debris on floors that are not bare and carpets with high pile. Its navigation system is able to create virtual boundaries and recognize obstacles which makes it the ideal pick for "set it and forget it" robotic cleaners.
The RV700 Series doesn't have a the cliff sensor, which prevents it from falling down stairs, which may be a problem for people living in taller homes. It also can't vacuum and mop simultaneously and requires you to switch between two modes in its app. The RV700 Series offers a cheaper alternative to the more advanced Roborock and iRobot robots that have self-emptying capabilities as well as cliff detection. Its most appealing feature is that it can be emptied and recharged while at its base, making it an ideal option for those who do not want to go through the hassle of emptying the onboard dustbin after every use.