The Best Shark Robot Vacuum
Shark's robo vac checks off many of the boxes you'd expect from a machine of this price range. It is reliable in cleaning, an easy-to-use mobile app and provides accurate home maps.
It also has Matrix Clean Navigation, a system which makes two passes back and forth, before moving to the side for complete coverage. Its base is free of bags, unlike other robot vacuums.
1. Roborock S4
This is a top-quality robot vacuum for bare floors that sucks up debris and has a huge dirt compartment. The app lets you manage cleaning and docking. Its intelligent pathing is highly efficient. The app also gives you an easy overview of your cleaning needs, which includes maps of the areas that the S4 has been cleaned, the cleaning time and battery life.
Its maximum suction of 2,000Pa is enough to lift an AA battery off the floor, and is comparable to that of some full-sized vacuums. The S4's side brush and combo brush are located closer to the front of the machine than the other Roborock models. This may be to reduce the possibility of clogging.
The S4's advanced mapping system can map a house up to four levels deep and remember the areas that it has already cleaned. This makes it simple to set up a schedule for cleaning without the need to manually move robots around rooms. You can also mark off zones as no-go zones which will stop the S4 from entering those areas during a cleaning cycle.
It was able clean the entire floor of our house with ease and was extremely efficient on bare floors. It had a difficult to remove dog hair. This is a typical issue with robotic vacuums. The only 8.5% of the dog hair it picked up was actually collected in the dustbin and the majority was clumped up around the suction inlet and brushes.
Comparatively to other Shark vacuums, the S4 is noticeably more compact and lighter, which enhances maneuverability. It is able to make more precise turns and avoid obstacles which slow other robots. The low-profile design allows it to be placed under furniture. It also has improved climbing capabilities to navigate flooring transitions and different levels of flooring. It can reach the bottom of the stairs and is a great option for homes with multiple levels. The app allows you to create a schedule and also includes a manual vacuum control. It also has the ability to automatically return to its charging base to recharge between cleaning cycles. It is equipped with a 5200 mAh battery that is rated to run for 150 minutes or 2691 square feet of space between recharges in normal mode.
2. Shark Easy Robot Self-Empty
This Shark robot vacuum is a great option for pet owners who want a smart, easy-to-use machine. Its bagless self-emptying base is a major plus, especially when compared to other vacuums that use disposable dirt bags on their bases. You can empty the bin over a trashcan by simply removing it. It's messy, but you save money on the replacement bags.
The bin is also large, so the EZ Robot can handle a huge amount of debris. It's also a good performer on bare floors, though it struggles with dirt embedded in carpets with a low pile. It has excellent navigation capabilities and has a small footprint.
While the EZ Robot isn't as good as the Roborock S4, it's still an excellent choice for those who want a good-performing, budget-friendly robot. It's well-built and has a variety of automation features. It also has an impressive cleaning performance, both on bare floors and carpets with high pile. Its maintenance requirements are very high and the recurring expenses are very high.
Another great feature of this Shark robot is its capacity to recharge and automatically resume where it was when it returns to its docking station after a full cleaning session. This is an excellent option, especially when your home is big.
The IQ XL also comes with many other useful features. These include the ability to schedule entire-home cleanings remotely and also review cleaning reports via the SharkClean App. You can also initiate clean, stop and restart cleaning sessions by speaking through Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. The row-by -row mode is an important benefit. It will clean your home in neat rows, not an in-between snake pattern, as other robots do.
The IQ XL has a major disadvantage in that it is unable to climb over obstacles like power cords. It may consider them to be solid barriers and not attempt to climb over them. It is also less effective or fast at navigating a space if it's stuffed with pet hair. This can tangle the brushes and slow it down.
3. Shark AI Robot
This is a great robotic vacuum from Shark and offers a great combination of features. It has a self-emptying base that holds up to 30 days of debris and it combines the power of both a robot vacuum and a mop. It also comes with an exact matrix grid cleaning mode and advanced smart home integration that supports Alexa and Google Assistant. You can set it up to clean on a regular basis or activate at any time, or create virtual boundaries to keep it from entering rooms that may contain fragile items or more info rugs.
The Shark AI Robot carries out a fairly thorough job of cleaning floors, picking up debris like rice easily. However it has a tough to remove larger, bulky debris from low-pile carpet and does a poor job of moving around furniture. It does have a quiet mode, which means you can program it to work when you're at home, and it won't interfere with your daily routine.
Another benefit is that it utilizes LiDAR technology to map out your home which allows it to detect and navigate obstacles more precisely than units that rely solely on gyroscopes and sensors. This helps it avoid hitting delicate objects, and also optimize dirt collection on different surfaces. The LiDAR system is also more efficient than gyroscopes which could cause robots to slow down or lose control when they come across uneven surfaces.
It's got a lot of other features, including an automatic mopping feature, a remote, and multiple vacuum modes. It can charge and recharge itself while it is in use. The biggest drawback is that it will only trace only one floor of your house therefore if you have two stories, it will be necessary to manually move it to those areas at the beginning of the run, and then program it to repeat.
It can also be a bit loud, particularly when in mopping mode. It also has many parts that need to be changed or cleaned frequently, which adds to its cost per year. Fortunately, the base self-empty feature cuts down on some of these expenses and it's compatible with bagless filters, which reduces its annual expenses.
4. Shark ION Robot RV700 series
The Shark ION Robot RV700 Series ticks off all the boxes that you would expect from a mid-range robotic vacuum. It has a reliable cleaning performance, a fantastic mobile application that creates precise maps of your home, and a great cleaning performance. It also comes with a bagless basis that means no annual purchase of dust bags replacement. In our test of cleaning performance it was able remove 97.8% of debris from carpeting with low pile and hardwood floors, though it wasn't as effective on high-pile carpeting. Its ability to maneuver makes it easy to move through furniture and even climb onto high-pile flooring. It can also easily go over objects such as 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 the brushroll comes with an edge that retracts and can be utilized when it comes across obstacles. Its thin design lets it slide under furniture and proximity sensors detect and adjust to the surrounding obstacles. The app allows you to schedule cleanings and activate the machine with the press of a button. Its noise levels are average however it can be quieted down by using a do-not-disturb mode or custom scheduling.
The RV700 is more manual than the Roborock S4 and iRobot Roomba j7+ and iRobot Roomba j7+, which is to be expected from a non-self-emptying model. It is nevertheless more durable and simpler to maintain. It charges faster and gets rid of more debris from high-pile and bare floors. Its navigation system is able to create virtual boundaries, recognize and avoid obstacles and can also create virtual borders. This makes it the ideal choice for robotic cleaners that you can "set and forget".
The RV700 Series doesn't have a safety cliff sensor to prevent it from falling down a flight of stairs, which can be a problem for people living in taller homes. It's not able of mopping and vacuuming simultaneously and you must switch between modes in the app. However the RV700 Series is a less expensive alternative to the more advanced Roborock and iRobot models that come with 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 an ideal choice for those who don't want the hassle of emptying the onboard dustbin each time they use it.