The Best Shark Robot Vacuum
Shark's robot vacuum checks most of the features you'd expect from a mid-range machine. It is reliable in cleaning, an easy-to-use mobile app and produces precise home maps.
It also offers Matrix Clean navigation, a system that allows two passes that go back and forth before moving from side to side for total coverage. Its base is not bagless like many other 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 and is able to pick up debris. The smart pathing feature works well and the app allows you to manage cleaning and docking. The app also gives you a convenient cleaning overview including maps of the areas that the S4 has been cleaned, cleaning duration and battery life.
The S4's maximum suction is 2,000Pa which is similar to full-sized vacuums. With 19CFM the S4's side and combo brush is situated closer to the front than in other Roborock models, which may be a strategy to lessen clogging.
The S4's advanced mapping system can map a house up to four levels deep. It will also keep track of areas it has already cleaned. This makes it simple to create a cleaning schedule and not have to manually move robots from room to room. You can also mark zones that are not allowed to enter, which will stop the S4 from entering these areas during the cleaning process.
It was able to vacuum all floors of our house with ease, and was very efficient on bare floors. It had a hard time picking up dog hair. This is a typical problem with robotic vacuums. The only 8.5% of the dog hair it picked up was actually kept in the dustbin and the majority was clumped in the suction inlet and brushes.
Comparatively to other Shark vacuums, the S4 is noticeably smaller and lighter, which improves maneuverability. It is able to make more precise turns and avoid obstacles that bog down other robots, and its low profile design makes it easier to squeeze under furniture. It also has a better ability to navigate flooring transitions and different heights of flooring. It can easily get to the bottom of stairs and is a good choice for larger homes with multiple floors. The app allows you to create a schedule and also includes a manual vacuum control. It can also return to its charging station to charge automatically between cleaning cycles. It comes with a large battery of 5200 mAh that can last for 150 minutes in standard mode or 2691 square feet between charges.
2. Shark Easy Robot Self-Emptying
This Shark robot vacuum is a fantastic choice for pet owners searching for a device that is simple to use and intelligent. Its bagless self-emptying base is a major benefit, especially when compared to other vacuums that use disposable dirt bags for their bases. You simply detach the bin and then empty it into a trash can; this can get messy, but it will save you money on replacement bags.
The bin is also large, so the EZ Robot can handle a huge amount of dirt. It's also a good performer on bare floors, though it struggles with embedded dirt on carpets with low pile. It has good navigational capabilities and a tiny footprint.
While the EZ Robot isn't as good as the Roborock S4, it's still an excellent choice for those who are looking for a reliable, budget-friendly robot. It's well-built, offers many automation features, and has outstanding cleaning performance on carpets with high pile and bare floors. However its maintenance requirements are high and it has high costs that are recurring.
This Shark robot comes with a unique feature: it will automatically return to the same place it left off when it returns to the docking station. This is a great feature, especially if you have a large house.
The IQ XL is also equipped with a range of useful features, including the capability to remotely schedule entire-home cleaning and review reports using the SharkClean app. You can also control the device using voice through Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant to start and stop cleaning sessions. The row-by -row mode is a major plus. It makes your home clean in neat rows, rather than the back and forth snake pattern like other robots do.
The IQXL's main drawback is its inability to scale obstacles like power cords, which it might identify as solid barriers and avoid climbing over. It's also not as fast or effective at navigating the room when it's stuffed with pet hair, which can tangle its brushes and slow it down.
3. Shark AI Robot
This is a fantastic robotic vacuum from Shark that comes with a variety of features. It comes with a self-emptying base cleaning robot mop and vacuum that holds up to 30 days of debris and it combines the capabilities of the robot vacuum and mop. It also offers a precise matrix grid cleaning mode and advanced home integration, with support for Alexa and Google Assistant. You can set it to clean on a set schedule, activate on demand, or create virtual boundaries to block it from entering rooms that contain fragile items or rugs.
The Shark AI Robot carries out a fairly thorough job of cleaning floors, removing debris like rice easily. It isn't able to getting rid of bulky, large debris from carpets with low pile and is unable to maneuver around furniture with large dimensions. It does have a quiet mode, which means you can use it while you're at home and it won't interfere with your daily routine.
It also makes use of LiDAR to identify your home. This lets it identify and navigate obstacles more precisely than units that rely on gyroscopes alone or an infrared sensors. This lets it avoid crashing into fragile objects and to optimize dirt collection on various surfaces. The LiDAR system is also faster than gyroscopes, which could cause robots to slow down or lose control when they encounter uneven surfaces.
It comes with a variety of other options, including the ability to control mopping with a remote, an automatic system, and multiple vacuum modes. It can even charge and recharge while it's working. The biggest issue is that it only maps only one floor. If you have two floors, it's required to be manually carried to the areas, and then programmed to repeat.
It can also be loud especially when it is in mopping mode. It also has many components that need to be cleaned or replaced regularly, which increases its cost per year. The self-empty function is the basic feature that can help reduce some of these expenses. It is also compatible with a bagless filter that further lowers the annual cost.
4. Shark ION Robot RV700 Series
The Shark ION Robot RV700 Series is a complete package that meets all the criteria you'd expect from a midrange robot vacuum, including solid cleaning performance and a superb mobile app that can create accurate home maps. It also comes with a bagless basis that means no annual purchase of dust bags to replace. In our cleaning test, it was able to remove 97.8% of debris from carpeting and hardwood floors, though it wasn't as effective on carpets with high piles. Its ability to maneuver makes it easy to maneuver through furniture and even climb onto flooring with high pile. It is also able to pass over things like electrical cords and rug fringes without getting stuck.
The bristles that are high-tensile and in a helix pattern are durable enough to untangle and manage long hair, string, and other fibers. The brushroll also features a retractable side which can be used in the event that it encounters obstacles. Its thin design lets it coast underneath furniture and proximity sensors detect and adjust to obstacles. It can be set to begin cleaning with a pressing of a button, or scheduled for a daily schedule through the app. The noise levels are moderate, but it can be slowed down with a do-not-disturb feature or a custom-designed scheduling.
The RV700 is more manual than the Roborock S4 or iRobot Roomba J7+. This is to be expected from an item that doesn't self-empty. However, it still feels more durable and is easier to maintain, and charges faster and gets rid of more debris on the floors, including high-pile carpeting. Its navigation system is able to create virtual boundaries, and also detect obstacles, making it the best choice for "set it and forget it" robotic cleaners.
The RV700 Series doesn't have a safety cliff sensor to prevent it from falling down the stairs, which could be a problem for those living in taller homes. It also can't mop and vacuum simultaneously and requires you to switch between two modes in its application. However it is the RV700 Series is a less expensive alternative to the more sophisticated Roborock and iRobot models that have self-emptying capabilities and cliff detection. Its most appealing feature is that it can be emptied and recharged while at its base, which makes it an ideal choice for those who do not want to go through the inconvenience of emptying the dustbin after every use.