The Best Shark Robot Vacuum
Shark's robovac ticks most of the boxes that you would expect from a machine in this price range. It's reliable in its cleaning capabilities as well as a mobile app that is easy to use and produces precise home maps.
It also comes with Matrix Clean Navigation, a system that performs two passes in a row, before moving to the side for complete coverage. The base is also bagless, unlike many other robot vacuums.
1. Roborock S4
This is a top-quality robot vacuum designed for floors with no floor that collects debris and has a massive dirt compartment. The app lets you manage cleaning and docking. Its smart pathing is highly efficient. The app also provides an easy overview of cleaning, including a map of where the S4 has been cleaned, cleaning duration, and battery life.
Its maximum suction of 2,000Pa is high enough to lift an AA battery off the floor and rivals those of full-sized vacuums. The S4's side brush and combo brush are located closer to the front of the machine than other Roborock models. This may be to prevent clogging.
The S4's advanced navigation system is able to digitally map your home up to four levels. It will remember the areas that it has cleaned, making it easy to establish a cleaning schedule without having to manually move the robot around rooms. You can mark certain areas as "no-go zones" to deter the S4 from cleaning those areas.
It was able to vacuum the entire floor of our house easily, and was very efficient on bare floors. However, it was not successful in cleaning up dog hair that is a typical problem for a lot of robotic vacuums. The only 8.5% of the dog hair it picked up was captured in the dustbin, and much of the rest was clumped around the brushes and suction inlet.
The S4 is lighter and smaller than other Shark vacuums. This increases its maneuverability. It allows for tighter turning and avoid obstacles which slow down other robots. The low-profile design also makes it easier to place under furniture. It has improved climbability to navigate flooring transitions and different flooring levels. It can reach the bottom of the stairs and is a great choice for homes with multiple levels. The app lets you set a timer and also has a manual control for vacuuming. It can also return to its charging station to recharge automatically between cleaning cycles. It comes with the largest battery, 5200 mAh that can last for up to 150 minutes in normal mode or 2691 square feet between charges.
2. Shark EZ Robot Self-Empty
This Shark robot vacuum is a great choice for pet owners who need an easy-to-use, smart machine. Its bagless self-emptying base is a major benefit particularly when compared to other vacuums that use disposable dirt bags in their bases. You simply detach the bin and empty it over a trash container. This may be messy, but it also saves you money on replacement bags.
The bin is also quite large, meaning that the EZ Robot can handle a large amount of debris. It's also a good performer on clean floors, but it struggles with embedded dirt on carpets with a low pile. 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 option for those who are looking for a robot that can perform well and is priced reasonably. It's well-built, has many features for automation, and boasts impressive cleaning capabilities on carpet and floors with high pile. Its maintenance requirements are high and the recurring expenses are very high.
The Shark robot comes with a unique feature: it can automatically resume the same place it left off when it returns to the docking station. This is an excellent feature, especially when your home is big.
The IQ XL also comes with various other useful features. It is possible to schedule entire-home cleanings remotely and also review cleaning reports through the SharkClean App. You can also initiate clean, stop and restart cleaning sessions with voice control through Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. The row-by-row feature is an important benefit. It will clean your home in neat rows, rather than a back and forth snake pattern like other robots do.
The IQ XL has a major drawback in that it cannot climb over obstacles like power cords. It may mistake them for solid barriers and fail to climb over them. It's also not as efficient or quick in navigating a space if it's stuffed with pet hair. This can cause tangles on the brushes and slow it down.
3. Shark AI Robot
This is a reliable robotic vacuum from Shark, offering a good combination of features. It comes with a self-emptying base that can store up to 30 days of debris and combine the cleaning capabilities of the robot vacuum and mop. It also comes with a precise matrix grid cleaning mode as well as advanced smart home integration with support for Alexa and Google Assistant. You can set it to clean on a set schedule or on demand or set virtual boundaries to keep it from entering rooms that may have fragile items or rugs.
The Shark AI Robot does a good job cleaning bare floors. It picks up debris easily, such as rice. It has a hard time taking large, bulky debris from low pile carpets and isn't able to maneuver around furniture with large dimensions. It does have a do-not-disturb mode, so you can program it to work when you're at home, and it won't interrupt your routine.
It also uses LiDAR to map your home. vacuum mop combo robot allows it to identify and navigate obstacles more precisely than units which depend solely on gyroscopes or an infrared sensors. This allows it to avoid collisions with fragile objects and optimize dirt pickup on various surfaces. The LiDAR system is also more efficient than gyroscopes that could cause robots to slow down or lose control when they encounter uneven surfaces.
It's got a lot of other features, such as a remote, automatic mopping and a variety of vacuum modes. It is able to recharge and charge itself while working. The main drawback is that it will only trace only one floor of your house therefore 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.
Another drawback is that it could be quite noisy, especially in mopping mode. It also has a lot of parts that need to be replaced or cleaned regularly, which adds to its ongoing costs. The self-empty function is the basic feature that can help reduce some of these expenses. It's also compatible with a bagless filter that further lowers the cost annually.
4. Shark ION Robot RV700 series
The Shark ION Robot RV700 Series ticks all the boxes you'd expect from a mid-range robot vacuum, with reliable cleaning performance and a great mobile app that creates precise home maps. It also comes with a bagless base that means no annual purchase of dust bags to replace. In our test of cleaning it was able to remove 97.8 percent of the debris from low-pile and hardwood flooring, but it was not as efficient with high-pile. Its ability to maneuver makes it easy to navigate between furniture and onto high-pile flooring. It is also able to pass over things 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 strings, as well as other fibers and the brushroll comes with a retractable edge that can be deployed when it encounters obstacles. Its slim design lets it slide under furniture and proximity sensors detect and adjust to the surrounding obstacles. It can be triggered to start cleaning with a press of a button or scheduled for a daily schedule using the app. It is quiet at a moderate level, but can be slowed down using the do-not disturb mode or custom scheduling.
The RV700 is more manual than the Roborock S4 or iRobot Roomba J7+. This is to be anticipated from a model that does not self-empty. But, it is more durable and is easier to maintain, and charges faster and gets rid of more debris on both bare floors and high-pile carpeting. Its navigation system can create virtual boundaries, and also detect and avoid obstacles which makes it the ideal option for "set it and forget it" robotic cleaners.
The RV700 Series doesn't have a cliff sensor that prevents it from falling down the stairs, which could be a problem for people living in taller homes. It's not able to mop and vacuum simultaneously and you'll need to switch between modes within the app. The RV700 Series offers a cheaper alternative to more sophisticated Roborock and iRobot robots with self-emptying capabilities and cliff detection. Its most appealing feature is that it can be emptied and recharged while docked at its base, which makes it an ideal choice for those who do not want to go through the hassle of emptying the onboard dustbin after every use.