Among friends and family, I’m known for having a spotless house. Perhaps it’s because I work from home and I need a clean space to work. Or maybe my father’s obsession with cleanliness rubbed off on me. Either way, I find myself pulling out my vacuum at least once a day to clean up dirt, debris, or food crumbs. My need to clean is why I enjoy testing vacuums, and my favorite this year – the Shark PowerDetect Cordless Stick Vacuum, complete with an auto-empty dock and charge station.
When the box arrived at my house for my Shark PowerDetect Cordless Stick Vacuum review, it took a few minutes to unpack and assemble the dock, and I was off to cleaning my historic hardwood and laminate floors, as well as two large rugs in my living room and study.
The Shark PowerDetect Cordless Stick Vacuum is designed to make cleaning floors easy in so many ways. For one, it’s outfitted with a DirtDetect system that automatically increases the suction when the vacuum recognizes dirt and debris on the floor. I was even able to watch the floor status go from dirty to clean on the screen and the vacuum head: a purple color indicated there was dirt and debris on the floor, and when the color turned white, I knew the floor was clean. Sometimes I needed to do a few passes over a single spot to clean everything up, which I wouldn’t have known to do otherwise without the DirtDetect system.
With EdgeDetect technology, the vacuum recognized edges and increased the suction power along the side of the floorhead that touched the edge. The new 'reverse cleaning' feature – where the floorhead is designed to be able to suck up chunky particles when pulled back over them, rather than just snow-ploughing them around the floor – was impressive as well. It only struggled to clear extra-large cereal pieces, which even the best cordless vacuums can struggle with.
If that wasn’t enough, the Shark was able to recognize what type of floor I was cleaning and increased the suction when necessary, such as when I vacuumed my rugs. Plus, the Shark’s headlights automatically turned on when I cleaned in dark corners or spaces. My house gets exceptionally dusty, and the headlights ensured that I could see the dust even in the dingiest corners of my floors and suction it quickly.
Although the vacuum is outfitted with Eco and Boost mode, I rarely used either since the DirtDetect mode performed so well. The suction capabilities of Boost were rarely needed, except with extra-large debris. Yes, Eco mode could let me extend the battery life to 67 minutes, but it didn’t work on rugs or carpet. Besides, it only took me 30 minutes to vacuum my house, and on DirtDetect mode, the battery lasted 47 minutes.
Magic wand
Technological aspects aside, my second favorite aspect of this vacuum is the bendable wand. With the bendable wand, I could clean under my bed, baker’s rack, couch, and under chairs without having to bend over, crouch, or reach my arm under furniture. This small design feature doesn’t get enough praise on the wider market in my opinion and I’m at a loss as to why more vacuums don’t have bendable wands. It’s what really sets the best Shark vacuums apart.
I ran a number of cleaning tests with the Shark PowerDetect Cordless Stick Vacuum and found that it excelled in picking up fine materials like dust, tea, and flour and even larger debris like dirt and cereal. With the accessories, I dusted my window blinds and cleaned my car and couch. I should note that when cleaning hair off my sofa, I had to use Boost mode, and the results were a bit average. To be honest, I haven’t found a single vacuum that impresses me when it comes to removing hair from a couch.
I don’t like doing a lot of maintenance with vacuums, so the auto-empty dock station was a blessing. When I was done cleaning, I just placed the vacuum on the dock, and it automatically pulled the dust and debris from the bin and into a vacuum sealed bag that doesn’t need to be changed that often. Once the dust and dirt were sealed away, the vacuum began to charge. A full charge took about four hours.
All in all, I enjoyed the ease with which I could clean my house with this vacuum, whether it was maneuvering the vacuum head around furniture, using the tall wand and accessories to reach spider webs in the corners of my 10-foot ceilings, or bending the wand to clean under my couch. The design combined with the DirtDetect technology ensured my home was the cleanest it could be, and I’ve no doubt that anyone who brings the Shark PowerDetect Cordless Stick Vacuum into their home will experience that too.
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