The Best Shark Robot Vacuum
Shark's robo vac checks off most of the boxes that you would expect from a product in this price range. It has reliable cleaning performance, an easy-to-use mobile app and produces precise home maps.
It also features Matrix Clean Navigation, a system that does two passes back and forth before moving to the side to provide complete coverage. Its base is bagless, unlike many other robot vacuums.
1. Roborock S4
This is a top-notch robot vacuum for floors that are not clean that can take up debris and has a huge dirt storage. The app lets you manage cleaning and docking. Its intelligent pathing is extremely efficient. The app gives you an overview of cleaning, which includes a map showing where the S4 was cleaned, the cleaning time and battery life.
The S4's maximum suction is 2,000Pa, which is comparable to larger vacuums. The side brush and combo brush are located closer to the front of the machine than the other Roborock models. This may be to help reduce clogging.
The S4's advanced mapping system can map a house up to four levels deep. It can also remember the areas that it has already vacuumed. This makes it easy to create a cleaning schedule, without having to manually move robots around rooms. You can designate certain areas as "no-go zones" to prevent the S4 from cleaning those areas.
It was able to clean all floors of our home with ease and was extremely efficient on floors with no carpets. It had a tough time picking up dog hair. This is a typical issue with robotic vacuums. Only 8.5% of the dog hair it picked up was kept in the dustbin and the majority was clumped around the suction intake and brushes.
The S4 is smaller and lighter than other Shark vacuums. This makes it easier to maneuver. It is able to make more precise turns and avoid obstacles that slow down other robots. Its low profile design makes it easier to get under furniture. It also has improved climbing capabilities to navigate flooring transitions and different levels of flooring. It is able to easily reach the bottom of the stairs and is a good choice for homes with a lot of floors. The application allows you to set a schedule and also includes the ability to control your vacuum manually. It can also return to its charging station to charge automatically between cleaning cycles. It has a large 5200 mAh battery, which is rated to run for 150 minutes or 2691 square feet of space between charges in standard mode.
2. Shark EZ Robot Self-Empty
This Shark robot vacuum is an excellent choice for pet owners who want an efficient, user-friendly machine. Its self-emptying base that is bagless is a huge convenience particularly when compared to other vacuums that use disposable dirt bags on their bases. You simply detach the bin and empty it over the trash can. This can get messy, but it will save you money on replacement bags.
The bin is also quite large, meaning that the EZ Robot can handle a huge amount of garbage. It also performs well on bare floors, though it does struggle somewhat with dirt embedded in carpets with low pile. It also has good navigation capabilities and a small footprint for docks.
While the EZ Robot isn't as good as the Roborock S4, it's still a solid option for people who are looking for a reliable affordable robot. It's well-built, has many automation features, and has outstanding cleaning performance on carpet and floors with high pile. Its maintenance requirements are very high, and its recurring costs are high.
Another excellent feature of this Shark robot is its capability to recharge and automatically resume where it began when it returns to its docking station after a full cleaning session. This is a fantastic option, especially if your home is large.
The IQ XL also comes with a variety of other useful features. This includes the ability to schedule whole-home cleanings remotely and view cleaning reports using the SharkClean App. You can also use voice control through Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant to start, stop, and resume cleaning sessions. The row-by-row cleaning mode of the robot is a big plus as it cleans your entire home in neat rows instead of the back-and-forth snake design of many other robots.
The IQ XL has a major drawback in that it cannot overcome obstacles like power cords. It could consider them to be solid barriers and not attempt to climb over them. It is also less effective or fast at navigating a space when it's full of pet hair. This can cause tangles on the brushes and slow it down.
3. Shark AI Robot
This is a great robotic vacuum from Shark that offers a solid combination of features. It has a base that can store up to 30 days' worth of debris, and it blends the cleaning power of a robot mop and a vacuum cleaner. It comes with a matrix grid cleaning mode, and has advanced smart home integration that supports Alexa and Google Assistant. You can schedule it to clean, activate it at any time, or create virtual boundaries to stop the robot from entering rooms with fragile items or rugs.
The Shark AI Robot does a good job cleaning bare floors. It picks up debris with ease, like rice. However it has a difficult time clearing larger bulky debris from low-pile carpet and is not capable of maneuvering around furniture. It does come with a do-not-disturb mode, which means you can program it to work when you're away from home and it won't disrupt your daily routine.
Another advantage is that it makes use of LiDAR technology to map your home which allows it to detect and navigate around obstacles with greater precision than devices that rely on gyroscopes or infrared sensors. This lets it avoid hitting delicate objects, and optimize dirt collection on various surfaces. The LiDAR system also performs faster than gyroscopes, which could cause the robot to slow down and lose control when it encounters uneven surfaces.
Other features include the remote control, automated mopping and multiple vacuum modes. It is able to recharge and charge itself while working. The main drawback is that it can only trace the floor of your home, so if you have two stories, it will be necessary to manually transport it to those areas at the beginning of the run, and then program it to repeat.
It can also be loud, particularly when in mopping mode. It also has many components which need to be cleaned or changed regularly, adding to its recurring cost. Fortunately, the self-empty feature cuts down on the costs associated with these items and it's compatible with bags-free filters, which reduces its annual expenses.
4. Shark ION Robot RV700 Series
The Shark ION Robot RV700 Series fulfills all the requirements that you would expect from a midrange robotic vacuum. It offers dependable cleaning performance, a great mobile app that can create precise maps of your home, and great cleaning performance. The bagless base makes it unnecessary to purchase replacement dust bags every year. In our cleaning test it was able to eliminate 97.8% debris from low-pile and hardwood floors, but it was not as effective on high-pile. Its ability to maneuver makes it easy to move through furniture and even climb onto high-pile flooring. It is also able to traverse over objects like rug fringes and electrical cords without getting stuck.
The bristles with a helix-pattern pattern are strong enough to handle and untangle long hair, string and other fibers, and its brushroll has an adjustable edge that can be utilized when it comes across obstacles. Its thin design lets it coast underneath furniture and proximity sensors detect and adjust to the surrounding obstacles. The app allows you to schedule cleaning times or trigger the machine using a single button press. It is quiet at a moderate level, but can be slowed down using the do not disturb mode or the custom scheduling.
The RV700 is more manual than the Roborock S4 and iRobot Roomba j7+, which is to be expected from a self-emptying model. But, it is better-built and easier to maintain, charges faster and removes more debris from both bare floors and carpets with high pile. Its navigation system is able to create virtual boundaries, recognize and avoid obstacles, and also create virtual boundaries. This makes it the best choice for robotic cleaners you can "set and forget".
The RV700 Series does not have a cliff-sensor to prevent it from falling down the stairs. This could be a problem for those who live in houses that are taller. It also can't vacuum and mop at the same time and requires users to switch between two modes in its app. The RV700 Series best robot vacuum for hardwood floors offers a cheaper alternative to more advanced Roborock and iRobot robots that come with self-emptying capabilities as well as cliff detection. Its most appealing feature is the possibility of being recharged and empty while docked at its base. This makes it a great alternative for those who do not want to empty the onboard dustbin each time they use it.