The Best Shark Robot Vacuum
Shark's robot vacuum checks all the boxes you'd expect from a product in this price range. It is reliable in cleaning, an easy-to-use mobile app and produces accurate home maps.
It also has Matrix Clean Navigation, a system which performs two passes back and forth, before moving to the side for full coverage. The base is also free of bags, unlike other robot vacuums.
1. Roborock S4
This is an excellent robot vacuum for bare floors that can take up debris and has a huge dirt storage. Its smart pathing works very well and the app allows users to control cleaning and docking. The app also provides an easy overview of your cleaning needs, which includes maps of the areas that the S4 has been cleaned, the cleaning duration and battery life.
Its maximum suction of 2,000Pa is high enough to lift an AA battery off the floor and rivals the suction of larger vacuums. With 19CFM the S4's side as well as combination brush is closer to the front than in other Roborock models, which may be a way to cut down on the possibility of clogging.
The S4's advanced mapping system can map a home up to four levels deep. It can also keep track of areas it has already cleaned. This makes it easy to design a cleaning schedule and not have to manually move robots between rooms. You can even mark off zones that are not allowed to enter, which will prevent the S4 from entering these areas during a cleaning cycle.
It was able clean an entire floor of our house with ease, and was very efficient on floors that were not. However, it had a difficult time collecting hair from dogs that is a common issue for many robotic vacuums. The only 8.5 percent of the hair was collected in the dustbin. The remainder was clumped around the brushes and suction inlet.
The S4 is smaller and lighter than other Shark vacuums. This makes it easier to maneuver. It can make tighter turning and avoid obstacles that slow other robots. The low-profile design also makes it easier to place under furniture. It also has improved climbability to navigate flooring transitions and different levels of flooring. It can even reach the bottom of the stairs and is an excellent choice for homes with multiple levels. The app lets you create a schedule and also includes a manual vacuum control. It can also return to its charging station to recharge automatically between cleaning cycles. It is equipped with a 5200 mAh battery, which is designed to last for 150 minutes or 2691 square feet between charges in standard mode.
2. Shark Easy Robot Self Emptying
This Shark robot vacuum is a great option for pet owners looking for a device that is user-friendly and efficient. Its self-emptying base that is bagless is a huge convenience particularly when compared to other vacuums that use disposable dirt bags for their bases. You can empty the bin over the trashcan by removing it. It can be messy, but you'll save money on replacement bags.
The bin is also large, meaning that the EZ Robot can handle a huge amount of dirt. It also works well on bare floors. However, it is unable to deal with dirt embedded in low pile carpet. It also has decent navigation capabilities and a small dock 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 robot that can perform well and is reasonably priced. It's well-built, offers many automation features, and has impressive cleaning capabilities on carpet and floors with high pile. However the maintenance requirements for this model are demanding and it has high costs that are recurring.
The Shark robot comes with a unique feature: it will instantly resume where it left off once it returns to the docking station. This is a very handy feature particularly if you live in a large house.
The IQ XL is also equipped with a variety of useful features, like the ability to remotely schedule home cleans and review cleaning reports via the SharkClean app. You can also start, 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 is able to clean your entire house in neat rows rather than 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 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 tangle its brushes and slow it down.
3. Shark AI Robot
This is a solid robotic vacuum from Shark that offers a solid combination of features. It comes with a self-emptying base that can hold up to 30 days of debris and combine the cleaning capabilities of an automatic vacuum and a mop. It also has an exact matrix grid cleaning mode as well as advanced smart home integration that supports Alexa and Google Assistant. You can program it to clean, turn on it on demand, or set virtual boundaries to prevent the robot from entering rooms with fragile items or rugs.
The Shark AI Robot does a great job cleaning floors with no carpet. It picks up debris with ease, like rice. However it has a tough cleaning larger bulky debris from carpets with low pile and is not capable of moving around furniture. It is in a do not disturb mode which allows you to use it at home without interrupting your daily routine.
It also uses LiDAR to map your home. This allows it to locate and navigate around obstructions more precisely than units which depend solely on gyroscopes or an infrared sensors. This helps it avoid hitting fragile objects and to optimize dirt collection on different surfaces. The LiDAR system also operates faster than gyroscopes, which can cause the robot to slow down and lose control when it encounters uneven surfaces.
Other features include a remote control, automatic mopping and multiple vacuum modes. It can recharge and charge itself while it is working. The biggest drawback is that it will only map out one floor of your house, so if you have two stories, it will be necessary to manually transport it to the two floors at the beginning of the run, and then program it to repeat.
It can also be loud especially when in mopping mode. It also has a number of parts that need to be cleaned or replaced frequently and this adds to the cost of maintenance. The self-empty function is the basic feature that helps to reduce the cost of these items. It is also compatible with a bagless filter that can further reduce the cost annually.
4. Shark ION Robot RV700 Series
The Shark ION Robot RV700 Series fulfills all the requirements that you would expect of a midrange robotic vacuum. It is reliable in its cleaning performance, a fantastic mobile application that produces accurate maps of your home, and a outstanding cleaning performance. It also comes with a bagless base that eliminates annual purchases for replacement dust bags. In our cleaning test it was able to remove 97.8% of debris from hardwood floors and low-pile carpeting although it wasn't as effective on high-pile carpeting. Its maneuverability makes it easy to navigate through furniture and even climb onto high-pile flooring. It can also easily traverse over objects like rug fringes and electrical cords without getting stuck.
Its helix-pattern high-tensile bristles are durable enough to manage and untangle long hair strings, as well as other fibers, and its brushroll has a retractable edge that can be deployed when it comes robot vacuum cleaner across obstacles. Its slim design permits it to slide under furniture and proximity sensors allow it to adapt and analyze the obstacles. The app lets you schedule cleanings and trigger the machine with one button press. Its noise levels are average, but it can be slowed down by using a 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 anticipated from an item that doesn't self-empty. It's nevertheless more durable and simpler to maintain. It is faster in charging and removes more debris from high-pile and unfinished floors. Its navigation system is able to create virtual boundaries, recognize and avoid obstacles and can also create virtual borders. This makes it the best choice for robotic cleaners that you can "set and forget".
The RV700 Series does not have a cliff-sensor to prevent it from falling down stairs. This could be a problem people who live in houses that are taller. It also can't mop and vacuum simultaneously and requires you to switch between two modes in its application. 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. Its most appealing feature is the possibility of being recharged and emptied while docked at its base. This makes it an excellent choice for those who do not wish to empty the onboard dustbin each time they use it.