As a corded, upright model, you won’t have to worry about running out of battery power with this pick by your side. The 25-foot cord gives plenty of reach and the lift-away canister is useful for accessing hard-to-reach areas. Our tester did find the canister was best used from the ground. In addition, the hair easily collected in the stationary brush roll in our testing on hardwood floors, which blocked the vacuum from picking up debris very effectively. The model tended to push around heavier materials like popcorn kernels.
There’s a model for all households and budgets in our top 15. Most Shark stick vacuums have one mode for carpet and one mode for hard floors. In the carpet mode, suction is increased and the bristled brush roll rotates to clean deep into the pile. It’s even lighter than most conventional stick vacuums, making it very maneuverable, and delivers good performance on a mix of surfaces. However, its dirt compartment is tiny, and it can only run for just over 15 minutes in its most energy-efficient mode. On bare floors and low-pile carpet, but falls slightly short on high-pile carpeting.
She is an active member of the ASTM Committee on vacuum cleaners and chairman of the consumer information sub-committee. Cleaning the fine dust from hard floors, especially wood, that other vacuums miss is so much easier with this Dyson Omni-glide. The dual soft fuzzy rollers let you pick up dirt whether you push or pull it and the omnidirectional head cleans quickly in any direction, even sideways!
And on board storage keeps all of the tools—a dusting brush, crevice tool and extension wand—in one place and close by when you need them. It has good ratings from several other publications that test and review vacuums, but we didn’t find it to be outstanding on either bare floors or carpets. It doesn’t convert to a handheld vacuum, and the handling is stiff—though not top-heavy, as with most other cordless dyson robot vacuum sticks. Another useful feature on the V15 is Auto mode, which automatically adjusts the suction level depending on the situation to maximize the cleaning ability while preserving battery life when possible. For the V15, the suction automatically changes depending on the floor type, using a brush-resistance sensor, as well as on how dirty an area is, based on what the built-in particle counter finds .
The packs are expensive to replace, and we’ve found that several brands do not reliably keep spares in stock, so sometimes the lesser of two bad choices is to just replace a vacuum that’s only a couple of years old. Plus, sticks are still prone to the same clogs, cracked plastic, and other mechanical failures as plug-in machines. So if you choose a cordless vacuum, you can expect to create more waste and pay extra in the long run. But up until a few years ago, they were all weak cleaners meant for easy tasks like sucking a few crumbs or a tuft of hair off a bare floor. If that’s the role you still want your cordless vacuum to fill, you can choose nearly any cordless vacuum, and it’ll work fine.
Most Shark vacuums have several parts that need ongoing maintenance, depending on your usage. Provides flexible reach for under furniture and freestanding, compact storage. To start over, or to view all available products, click the Reset button. A HEPA filter plus a sealed system keep dust and allergens inside the vacuum, and out of the air you breathe.