The Best Shark Robot Vacuum
Shark's robot-vac checks all of the boxes you'd expect from a midrange machine. 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 performs two passes in a row, before moving to the side for complete coverage. Its base is bagless, unlike the majority of robot vacuums.
1. Roborock S4
This is a fantastic robot vacuum for floors that are not bare that comes with a huge dirt container that can pick up debris. The app lets you control cleaning and docking. Its smart pathing is extremely efficient. The app gives you an overview of cleaning, including a map showing where the S4 was cleaned, the cleaning time and battery life.
Its maximum suction of 2,000Pa is high enough to lift an AA battery off the floor, and is comparable to the suction of larger vacuums. With 19CFM, the S4's side and combo brush is located more 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 the areas it has already cleaned. This makes it simple to design a cleaning schedule, without having to manually move robots from room to room. You can also mark off areas as no-go zones, which will stop the S4 from entering those spaces during a cleaning cycle.
It was able to clean the entire floor of our home with ease and was extremely effective on bare flooring. However, it had a difficult time collecting hair from dogs which is a typical problem for many robotic vacuums. The only 8.5 percent of the hair was collected in the dustbin. The remainder was clumped up around the brushes and suction inlet.
The S4 is lighter and smaller than other Shark vacuums. This improves its maneuverability. It can turn more quickly and avoid obstacles that bog down other robots. Additionally, its low-profile design makes it easy to squeeze under furniture. It has improved climbing capabilities for navigating flooring transitions as well as different flooring heights. It can easily get to the bottom of stairs and is a great option for larger homes with multiple floors. The app allows you to create a schedule and comes with the ability to control your vacuum manually. It can also return to its charging station to recharge automatically between cleaning cycles. It has a large battery of 5200 mAh. It can run for 150 minutes in standard mode or 2691 square foot between charges.
2. Shark Easy Robot Self Emptying
This Shark robot vacuum is a fantastic option for pet owners looking for a machine that's simple to use and intelligent. Its self-emptying base that is bagless is a major plus in comparison to other vacuums that use disposable dirt bags in their bases. You can empty the bin on top of a trashcan by simply removing it. It can be messy, but you save money on the replacement bags.
The bin itself is quite large, which means that the EZ Robot is capable of handling a good amount of debris. It also performs well on clean floors, but it has some issues with dirt embedded in low-pile carpet. It has excellent navigation capabilities and a tiny footprint.
The EZ Robot may not be as effective as the Roborock S4, but it is still a great choice for those who are looking for a machine that can perform well and is affordable. It's well-built, has many automation options, and offers outstanding cleaning performance on bare floors and high-pile carpet. Its maintenance requirements are very high and the recurring expenses are very high.
Another excellent feature of this Shark robot is its ability to recharge and then resume where it began when it returns to its docking station after a full cleaning session. This is a very handy feature particularly if you live in a large house.
The IQ XL is also equipped with a number of other useful features, such as the capability to remotely schedule entire-home cleaning and review reports using the SharkClean app. You can also begin, stop and resumptuate cleaning sessions by speaking through Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. The row-by-row cleaning mode of the robot is a major benefit as it cleans your entire home in neat rows, not a back-and-forth snake pattern like many other robots.
The IQ XL's biggest drawback is its inability to climb over obstacles like power cords, which it might identify as solid barriers and not climb over. It's also not as quick or efficient at maneuvering a room when it's filled with pet hair, which can make its brushes tangled and slow it down.
3. Shark AI Robot
This is a solid robotic vacuum from Shark, offering a good combination of features. It has a self-emptying base that holds up to 30 days of debris. It it combines the capabilities of an automatic vacuum and a mop. It has a grid cleaning mode, and it is equipped with advanced smart home integration that can work with Alexa and Google Assistant. You can set it up to clean on a schedule, activate on demand, or create virtual boundaries to block it from entering rooms that may have fragile items or rugs.
The Shark AI Robot carries out an excellent job of cleaning floors, picking up dirt like rice effortlessly. However, it has a hard time clearing larger bulky debris from carpets with low pile and does a poor job of maneuvering around furniture. It does have a do-not-disturb mode, which means you can set it to work while you're away from home and it won't interrupt your daily routine.
Another advantage is that it uses LiDAR technology to map out your home and allows it to recognize and navigate obstacles more precisely than devices that rely on gyroscopes and sensors. This helps it avoid collisions with delicate objects as well as optimize dirt pickup on different surfaces. The LiDAR system also works faster than gyroscopes, which can cause the robot to slow down and lose control when it encounters uneven surfaces.
It comes with a variety of other features, such as an automatic mopping feature, a remote and a variety of vacuum modes. It is able to recharge and charge itself while it is working. The biggest flaw is that it only maps out one floor. If you have two floors, it's required to be manually carried to those areas, and then programmed to repeat.
Another drawback is that it could be a bit noisy, especially in mopping mode. It also has many components that must be cleaned or replaced regularly, adding to the cost of maintenance. The base self-empty function assists in reducing the cost of these items. It also works with a bagless filter that further lowers the cost per year.
4. Shark ION Robot RV700 series
The Shark ION Robot RV700 Series ticks all the boxes you'd expect from a midrange robot vacuum, with solid cleaning performance and a superb mobile app that creates accurate home maps. The bagless base eliminates the need to purchase replacement dust bags every year. In our cleaning test it was able to remove 97.8% debris from low-pile and hardwood floors, but it wasn't quite as effective with high-pile. Its maneuverability mop vacuum robot is sturdy and it is able to maneuver around furniture, climb on carpets with high pile and climb over things like rug tassels, electrical cords, and rug tassels without getting stuck.
Its high-tensile bristles in the helix pattern are sturdy enough to manage and untangle long hair, string and other fibers. The brushroll also has a retractable side which can be used in the event that it comes across an obstacle. Its slim design lets it slide under furniture and proximity sensors detect and adjust to the surrounding obstacles. It can be activated to begin cleaning at the pressing of a button, or scheduled on a daily basis by using the app. It has a moderate noise level, but can be slowed down using the do not disturb mode or a custom scheduling.
The RV700 is a bit more manual than the Roborock S4 and iRobot Roomba j7+, which is to be expected from a self-emptying model. It's nonetheless more durable and easy to maintain. It is faster in charging and eliminates more dirt from high pile and bare floors. Its navigation system can create virtual boundaries and detect obstacles which makes it the ideal choice for "set it and forget it" robotic cleaners.
The RV700 Series does not have a cliff-sensor that would prevent it from falling down stairs. This could be a problem those who live in houses that are taller. It's not able to mop and vacuum at the same time and you'll need to switch between modes within the app. The RV700 Series offers a cheaper alternative to more advanced Roborock and iRobot robots that come with self-emptying capabilities and cliff detection. Its main selling point is the possibility of being recharged and emptied while docked at its base. This makes it an excellent option for those who do not need to empty the dust bin every time they use it.