when my husband The first time he saw me vacuuming with the Shark vacuum, he asked me hesitantly, “Is that a Dyson?” The British company has become synonymous with cordless stick vacuum cleaners that just didn’t seem possible for us to have. I wouldn’t do it have one. It’s like buying generic brand Q-Tips. Who does that? Even the Shark’s color scheme is deliberately reminiscent of Dyson’s.
I’ve been testing Shark’s latest cordless vacuum for a month to answer my husband’s question and also yours: No, the Shark is not a Dyson. Overall, the engineering and attention to detail that make the Dyson the best premium vacuum isn’t quite there. The screen is not that pretty. The build quality is not that solid. I have to periodically unclog a section of the vacuum tube with a toothpick.
But does it keep my house spotlessly clean? Does it have a lot of things that most Dyson vacuums don’t? And it has all the features you need, and more, for a quarter of the price? Also yes. This vacuum cleaner is absolutely worth it: “it doesn’t mean a lot of dollars.”
A place to land
As you can see, the Shark vacuum is comparable in dimensions to the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine, which is the Dyson I currently own. The Shark is only a few inches shorter, but overall it takes up more space because it comes with a separate cleaning station. I loved this cleaning station. While every Dyson comes with a stand that you can easily screw to the wall, I’ve had a hard time finding the right spot in my house that’s also near a working outlet.
If you’re not willing to rewire your laundry room, a freestanding docking station makes it much easier to plug and play. It’s also a convenient place to store your vacuum’s extra accessories, like the various cleaning heads – the Shark comes with a crevice tool and a small pet multi-tool head to get into hard-to-reach places.
I also especially like that it has a 2 liter self-emptying container at the base. One of the most inconvenient parts of Dyson’s design is how you have to open the tube to empty the bagless container from the bottom. You have to stick your beautiful premium vacuum cleaner in your dirty and possibly wet trash can and beat it around, making it dirty and sending dust and dog hair everywhere.
