Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This little beast does an amazing job of cleaning, but has a couple things that could be designed better. Setup is simple and straightforward - I’m blind and can’t read print, so I didn’t have the benefit of a manual. But one wasn’t needed, I was able to easily understand how the parts went together and they snapped right in. Then of course I had to try it out! I have a small one bedroom apartment and a huge German Shepherd service dog who sheds as if his life depended on leaving a carpet of fur everywhere. The self-cleaning brushroll apparently works - no stopping every now and again to unclog the hose and brushes of hair. And it left my linoleum kitchen floor with a nice buffed feeling underfoot. Very nice suction Power. Also I find it gets right up to the walls. Most vacuum cleaners I’ve owned I have to go around the edges along walls with the wand after finishing the main areas. This one though, there is no cover over the brushroll and if you steer it head-on up to the walls it will clean the edges nicely. This in itself means I finish vacuuming in half the time I used to. I then proceeded to lift it off the base and use the wand and brush to vacuum small rugs and do some dusting. The dust cup appears tiny at first glance, but after actually doing a vacuum job it is quite adequate. I had a Hoover T-series WindTunnel before which seems to have a huge dust cup by comparison that I was forever pulling wad after wad of hair out of. This one somehow seems to pack all that hair into one tight ball that doesn’t fill the small dust cup and it came right out into the trash. Jt make sure you empty it both from the top and bottom - seems all the hair goes into the round top cupand dirt goes into the vertical cup. OK, now for my complaints. First, for those complaining that this vacuum is heavy and those saying it’s light. Both are correct. By weight, this is probably the lightest upright vacuum I’ve ever seen. However, its design puts the motor near the top of the stick right under the handle, combined with a very light base. So all the weight is at the top right in your hands. Also the point where the stick joins the base has some rotation rather than the standard hinge. So you turn your wrist to “steer” the base rather than using force to make a turn. So once I got used to it, I found this one easier to maneuver and get into tight spaces. There’s definitely a learning curve, it’s quite different than what you’re used to. But, wow, it gets in between chair legs, under coffee tables, in corners. I love it! However, you are definitely going to be using different muscles. Instead of using your shoulder and pectoral muscles for the back-and-forth push-pull, you are going to be using your forearm muscles to carry the weight and also to steer the thing. I wish that Shark had placed the motor near the bottom of the stick, placing the weight lower down so I don’t have to carry it the whole time I’m actively vacuuming. However, I love the new steering design. Second, this thing blows air into your face. Since it has a HEPA filter, this theoretically should be okay as it’s “clean” air. But if you’re sensitive, it’s still a problem. Plus I just don’t like it. Putting the motor lower on the stick closer to the base and further away from me would also solve this problem. Lastly, you have to lift the vacuum off the base to use the wand. But 1) there is no way to carry it over your shoulder - you must hold it in one hand while you maneuver the wand with the other. That’s just not possible if you’re blind - I need my other hand to feel what I’m doing; 2) Sometimes I don’t want to carry it away, I want the stand to hold the unit in one place for me while I use the wand, say, to vacuum my dog or curtains. You can’t do that, as the hose is part of what holds it onto the base. I think this could easily be designed better to grant us access to the hose any time we want it. So these design flukes are why I give it a lower-than five-star rating, but all in all it is a good vacuum. The self-cleaning brushroll design is brilliant and coupled with its strong suction makes it a keeper.