The Best Shark Robot Vacuum
Shark's robo-vac ticks most of the criteria you'd expect from a midrange machine. It offers a reliable cleaning performance, as well as an easy to use mobile app. It also produces precise home maps.
It also comes with Matrix Clean Navigation, a system which performs two passes in a row, before moving to the side for complete coverage. Its base is bagless unlike the majority of robot vacuums.
1. Roborock S4
This is a great robot vacuum for flooring that is not in use that comes with a huge dirt container that can remove debris. The smart pathing feature works well and the app allows you to manage cleaning and docking. The app gives you an overview of cleaning, which includes maps showing where the S4 was cleaned, the cleaning time and battery life.
Its maximum suction of 2,000Pa can be enough to lift an AA battery off the floor and rivals the suction of larger vacuums. With 19CFM, the S4's side and combination brush is more to the front than in other Roborock models, which may be an effort to reduce the amount of clogging.
The S4's advanced mapping system can map a house up to four levels deep. It will also keep track of the areas it has already vacuumed. This makes it easy to set up a schedule for cleaning without the need to manually move robots around rooms. You can mark certain areas as "no-go zones" to stop the S4 from cleaning those areas.
It was able to clean an entire level of our house with ease and was very efficient on floors that were not paved. However, it struggled with cleaning up dog hair, which is a common issue for many robotic vacuums. It only 8.5 percent of the dog hair it picked up was captured in the dustbin, and the majority was clumped in the suction inlet and brushes.
Compared to other Shark vacuums, The S4 is significantly smaller and lighter, which increases maneuverability. It can turn more quickly and avoid obstacles that bog down other robots, and its low-profile design makes it easier to get under furniture. It also has improved climbing capabilities to navigate flooring transitions as well as different heights of flooring. It can easily reach the bottom of stairs and is a good choice for larger homes that have multiple floors. The app allows you to set a schedule, and comes with an automatic vacuum control. It can also return to its charging station to recharge automatically between cleaning cycles. It has a large battery of 5200 mAh. It can run for 150 minutes in normal mode or 2691 square foot between charges.
2. Shark Easy Robot Self-Empty
This Shark robot vacuum is a fantastic choice for pet owners looking for an efficient, user-friendly machine. The self-emptying bagless base is a fantastic benefit, particularly when compared with other vacuums that utilize disposable dirt bags in their bases. Simply detach the bin and then empty it into a trash container. This could be messy, but it will save you money on new bags.
The bin itself is also fairly large, meaning that the EZ Robot is capable of handling a good amount of debris. It's also a good performer on floors that are clean, although it has some issues with dirt that has been embedded on low-pile carpet. It's got good navigation capabilities and a tiny footprint.
The EZ Robot may not be as good as Roborock S4, but it is still a great choice for those who are looking for a robot that will perform well and is reasonably priced. It is well-built and offers a variety of automation features. It also boasts outstanding cleaning capabilities, both on bare floors as well as carpets with a lot of pile. Its maintenance requirements are high and its ongoing expenses are very high.
This Shark robot also has a great feature: it will automatically resume where it left off after it returns to the docking station. This is a great feature, particularly when your home is big.
The IQ XL also comes with a variety of other useful features. It is possible to schedule entire-home cleanings remotely and also review cleaning reports using the SharkClean App. You can also start, stop and resumptuate cleaning sessions by speaking via Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. Its row-by-row cleaning mode is a huge benefit and it also is able to clean your entire house in neat rows, not a back-and-forth snake pattern like many other robots.
The IQ XL's biggest drawback is its inability to get over obstacles like power cords, which it could detect as solid barriers to avoid climbing over. It's not as fast or efficient in navigating rooms that are stuffed with pet hair, which can cause brushes to get caught and slow it down.
3. Shark AI Robot
This is a fantastic robotic vacuum from Shark that provides a range of features. It has a base that can hold up to 30 days worth of debris, and it combines the cleaning power of an automated mop and a vacuum cleaner. It also comes with an exact matrix grid cleaning mode and advanced smart 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 prevent it from entering rooms that may contain rugs or fragile items.
The Shark AI Robot carries out an excellent job of cleaning floors, picking up dirt like rice easily. However it has a tough time clearing larger bulky debris from carpets with low pile and is not capable of maneuvering around large furniture. It is in a do not disturb mode which allows you to use it at home without it interrupting your daily routine.
Another advantage is that it uses LiDAR technology to map your home which allows it to detect and navigate obstacles more precisely than units that rely solely on gyroscopes or infrared sensors. This allows it to avoid collisions with delicate objects and also optimize dirt pickup on different surfaces. The LiDAR system is also faster than gyroscopes which could cause robots to slow down or lose control when they come across uneven surfaces.
Other features include the remote control, automated mopping, and a variety of vacuum modes. It is able to recharge and charge itself while it is in use. Its biggest drawback is that it can only trace the floor of your home therefore if you have two stories, it will be necessary to manually carry it to the two floors at the beginning of the run, and then program it to repeat.
Another issue is that it can be a bit noisy, especially in mopping mode. It also has a number of parts that need to be cleaned or replaced regularly, which adds to its recurring costs. Fortunately, the base self-empty feature reduces certain expenses, and is compatible with bags-free filters, which reduces the annual cost.
4. Shark ION Robot RV700 series
The Shark ION Robot RV700 Series ticks all the boxes you'd expect from a mid-range robot vacuum, with high-quality cleaning performance and a superb mobile app that creates precise home maps. It also has a bagless base which eliminates the need for annual replacement dust bags. In our cleaning test it was able to remove 97.8 percent of dust from carpeting and hardwood floors although it wasn't as effective on carpets with high piles. Its maneuverability makes it easy to navigate around furniture and climb onto high-pile flooring. It can get more info also traverse over objects like electrical cords and rug fringes without getting stuck.
Its high-tensile bristles in a helix pattern are sturdy enough to manage and untangle long hair strings, other fibers and the like, and its brushroll has a retractable edge that can be utilized when it encounters obstacles. Its thin design allows it to slide under furniture and proximity sensors detect and adjust to the surrounding obstacles. The app lets you schedule cleanings and activate the machine with the press of a button. Its noise levels are average, but it is possible to reduce the noise by using a do-not-disturb mode or a custom-designed scheduling.
The RV700 is a bit more manual than the Roborock S4 and iRobot Roomba j7+ that is to be expected from a self-emptying model. But, it is more robust and easy to maintain, and charges faster and gets rid of more debris on floors that are not bare and carpets with high pile. Its navigation system is able to create virtual boundaries and detect obstacles making it the ideal choice 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 those living in homes with higher ceilings. It can't mop and vacuum at the same time and you'll need to switch between modes in the app. However it is the RV700 Series is a less expensive alternative to the more advanced Roborock and iRobot models that have self-emptying and cliff detection capabilities. The most attractive feature is that it can be emptied and recharged while docked at its base, which makes it a good choice for those who do not want to go through the inconvenience of emptying the dustbin each time they use it.