The Best Shark Robot Vacuum
Shark's robovac ticks many of the boxes you would expect from a machine in this price range. It's reliable in its cleaning capabilities and a user-friendly mobile app and produces accurate home maps.
It also has Matrix Clean Navigation, a system which makes two passes in a row, before moving to the side for complete coverage. Its base is bagless unlike many other robot vacuums.
1. Roborock S4
This is a fantastic robot vacuum for bare flooring with a large dirt container and can remove debris. The app lets you control cleaning and docking. Its intelligent pathing is highly efficient. The app provides you with an overview of the cleaning process, with a map showing where the S4 was cleaned, cleaning time and battery life.
Its maximum suction of 2,000Pa is enough to lift an AA battery off the floor and rivals the suction of larger vacuums. With 19CFM, the S4's side and combo brush is located closer to the front than in other Roborock models, which could be an effort to reduce the possibility of clogging.
The S4's advanced mapping system can map a home up to four levels deep. It will also keep track of the areas it has already vacuumed. This makes it easy to design a cleaning schedule and not have to manually move robots from room to room. You can designate certain areas as "no-go zones" to prevent the S4 from cleaning those areas.
It was able to vacuum all levels of our house with ease and was extremely effective on floors that were not paved. It had a tough time picking up dog hair. This is a typical issue with robotic vacuums. The only 8.5 percent of the dog hair it picked up was captured in the dustbin, and much of the rest was clumped in the suction inlet and brushes.
The S4 is lighter and smaller than other Shark vacuums. This makes it easier to maneuver. It allows for tighter turning and avoid obstacles which slow other robots. The low-profile design also makes it easier to fit under furniture. It also has improved climbability to navigate flooring transitions and different heights of flooring. It can reach down to the bottom of the stairs, and is a great choice for homes with multiple levels. The app lets you set a schedule and includes the ability to control your vacuum manually. It can also return to its charging base to recharge between cleaning cycles. It is equipped with the largest battery, 5200 mAh, which can run for 150 minutes in the standard mode, or 2691 square feet between charges.
2. Shark EZ Robot Self-Empty
This Shark robot vacuum is a fantastic option for pet owners looking for a machine that's simple to use and intelligent. Its bagless self-emptying base is a major plus, especially when compared to competitors that use disposable dirt bags on their bases. You simply detach the bin and empty it over a trash container. This may be messy, but it will save you money on bags to replace.
The bin is large, which means that the EZ Robot can handle a lot of dirt. It's also a great performer on bare floors, though it has some issues 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 option for those who want a high-quality and budget-friendly robot. It is well-built and offers various automation features. It also boasts outstanding cleaning capabilities, both on bare floors and carpets with a high pile. However the maintenance requirements for this model are demanding and it comes with high recurring costs.
This Shark robot comes with a unique feature: it will instantly resume the same place it left off when it returns to the docking station. This is a great feature particularly if you own a large house.
The IQ XL also comes with various other useful features. This includes the ability to schedule whole-home cleanings remotely and view cleaning reports via the SharkClean App. You can also begin, stop and resumptuate cleaning sessions with voice control via Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. Its row-by-row cleaning mode is a big plus as it cleans your entire home in neat rows, not a snake-like pattern that is back-andforth like many other robots.
The IQ XL's biggest drawback is its inability to get over obstacles like power cords, which it might identify as solid barriers to avoid climbing over. It's not as fast or efficient at maneuvering the room when it's stuffed with pet hair, which could cause brushes to get caught 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 base that can store up to 30 days worth of debris, and it blends the cleaning power of an automated mop and a vacuum cleaner. It offers a matrix grid cleaning mode, and has advanced smart home integration that supports Alexa and Google Assistant. It can be set 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 does a good job cleaning bare floors. It can pick up dirt with ease, like rice. However, it has a hard cleaning larger bulky debris from low-pile carpet and does a poor job of maneuvering around large furniture. It is in a do not disturb feature which allows you to use it at home without interrupting your daily routine.
Another benefit is that it uses LiDAR technology to map your home which allows it to detect and navigate around obstacles with greater precision than units that rely solely on gyroscopes or infrared sensors. This helps it avoid collisions with delicate objects and also optimize dirt pickup on various types of surfaces. The LiDAR system also performs faster than gyroscopes, which can cause the robot to slow down and lose control when it encounters uneven surfaces.
It's got a lot of other features, including the ability to control mopping with a remote, an automatic system and various vacuum modes. It is able to recharge and charge itself while working. The biggest flaw is that it only maps out one floor. If you have two floors it's required to be manually moved to the areas, and then programmed to repeat.
Another drawback is that it could be a bit noisy, especially in mopping mode. It also has many parts that must be cleaned or changed frequently, which adds to its cost per year. Fortunately, the self-empty feature reduces some of these expenses and it's compatible with bags-free filters, which reduces the annual cost.
4. Shark ION Robot RV700 series
The Shark ION Robot RV700 Series fulfills all the requirements that you'd expect from a mid-range robotic vacuum. It offers dependable cleaning performance, a superb mobile application that creates precise maps of your home, and a great cleaning performance. It also comes with a bagless base which eliminates the need for annual replacement dust bags. In our cleaning performance test, it was able to remove 97.8 percent of the debris from carpeting with low pile and hardwood floors however it was not as effective with high-pile carpeting. Its maneuverability makes it easy to navigate between furniture and onto high-pile flooring. It is also able to traverse over objects like electrical cords and rug fringes without getting stuck.
The bristles that are high-tensile and in a helix pattern are strong enough to manage and untangle long hair, string and other fibers. The brushroll also features an extension side which cleaning robot mop and vacuum can be used in the event that it encounters an obstacle. Its thin design allows it to glide over furniture and proximity sensors allow it to adapt and analyze the obstacles. The app allows you to schedule cleaning times or activate the machine with the press of a button. It has a moderate noise level, however it can be slowed down using the do not disturb mode or custom scheduling.
The RV700 is a little more manual than the Roborock S4 or iRobot Roomba J7+. This is to be expected from a model that does not self-empty. It is still more durable and easier to maintain. It is faster in charging and removes more debris from high-pile and bare floors. Its navigation system can create virtual boundaries, recognize and avoid obstacles and can also create virtual boundaries. This makes it the ideal choice for robotic cleaners that you can "set and forget".
The RV700 Series doesn't have a the cliff sensor, which prevents it from falling down the stairs, which could be a problem for people living in homes with higher ceilings. Additionally, it can't vacuum and mop at the same time and requires you to switch between two modes of its app. However it is the RV700 Series is a less expensive alternative to the more sophisticated Roborock and iRobot models that come with self-emptying and cliff-detection capabilities. Its primary selling point is the ability to be recharged and empty while docked at its base. This makes it a great choice for those who don't wish to empty the onboard dustbin every time they use it.