The Best Shark Robot Vacuum
Shark's robovac ticks many of the boxes you'd expect from a machine in this price range. It has dependable cleaning performance and an easy-to use mobile app. It also creates accurate home maps.
It also comes with Matrix Clean navigation, a system that performs two passes that go back and forth, before moving from side to side to provide complete coverage. Its base is bagless, unlike many other robot vacuums.
1. Roborock S4
This is a great robot vacuum for bare flooring with a large dirt container and can take in debris. Its smart pathing works very well and the app allows users to control cleaning and docking. The app provides you with an overview of cleaning, which includes a map showing where the S4 was cleaned, as well as cleaning time and battery life.
The S4's maximum suction is 2,000Pa which is comparable to some full-sized vacuums. With 19CFM, the S4's side and combo brush is located more to the front than in other Roborock models, which could be an effort to reduce the amount of clogging.
The S4's advanced mapping system can map a home up to four levels deep and remember the areas that it has already cleaned. This makes it simple to set up a schedule for cleaning and not have to manually move robots around rooms. You can mark certain areas as "no-go zones" to stop the S4 from cleaning those areas.
It was able to vacuum an entire floor of our house with ease, and was very efficient on floors with no carpets. It had a difficult cleaning up dog hair. This is a typical problem with robotic vacuums. The only 8.5 percent was gathered in the dustbin. The rest was clumped together around the brushes and suction intake.
The S4 is lighter and smaller than other Shark vacuums. This increases its maneuverability. It can make tighter turning and avoid obstacles that slow down other robots. The low-profile design makes it easier to fit under furniture. It also has a better ability to navigate flooring transitions as well as different levels of flooring. It can reach down to the bottom of the stairs and is an excellent choice for homes with multiple levels. The app lets you create a schedule and comes with a manual vacuum control. It is also able to return to its charging station to recharge automatically between cleaning cycles. It is equipped with a 5200 mAh battery, which is expected to last for 150 minutes or 2691 square feet between charges in normal mode.
2. Shark EZ Robot Self Emptying
This Shark robot vacuum is a great option for pet owners looking for a machine that's easy to use and smart. Its bagless self-emptying base is a huge convenience particularly when compared to competitors that use disposable dirt bags in their bases. You can empty the bin in a trashcan by simply removing it. It can be messy, but it will save money on bags to replace.
The bin is also large, so the EZ Robot can handle a large amount of garbage. It's also a great performer on clean floors, but it has some issues with dirt embedded in low-pile carpet. It also has decent navigation capabilities and a compact footprint for the dock.
The EZ Robot may not be as efficient as Roborock S4, but it is still a great option for those who are looking for a robot that will perform well and is affordable. It's well-built, offers many features for automation, and boasts outstanding cleaning performance on carpet and floors with high pile. However its maintenance requirements are a challenge and it has high recurring costs.
Another great feature of this Shark robot is its capacity to recharge and automatically resume where it began when it returns to its docking station following an entire cleaning session. This is a fantastic option, especially in the case of a large home.
The IQ XL is also equipped with a variety of useful features, such as the ability to remotely schedule whole-home cleans and review cleaning reports via the SharkClean app. You can also control the device using voice through Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant to start or stop cleaning sessions. The row-by-row feature is an advantage. It makes your home clean in neat rows, not an in-between snake pattern like other robots do.
The IQ XL's biggest drawback is its inability to scale obstacles like power cords, which it might identify as solid barriers to avoid climbing over. It's also not as quick or efficient in navigating rooms that are stuffed with pet hair, which can make its brushes tangled and slow it down.
3. Shark AI Robot
This is a reliable robotic vacuum from Shark that offers a solid combination of features. It comes with a base that can store up to 30 days' worth of debris, and it also combines the cleaning power both of an automated vacuum cleaner and a mop. It offers a matrix grid cleaning mode, and it has advanced smart home integration that works with Alexa and Google Assistant. It is possible to schedule it to clean, activate it at any time, or set virtual boundaries to block the robot from entering rooms that contain rug or other items that are fragile.
The Shark AI Robot carries out a fairly thorough job of cleaning floors, picking up dirt like rice with ease. It isn't able to removing large, bulky particles from carpets with low pile and isn't able to maneuver around furniture with large dimensions. It is in a do not disturb feature so you can use it at home without it interrupting your daily routine.
It also makes use of LiDAR to identify your home. This allows it to locate and navigate around obstructions more precisely than devices that depend solely on gyroscopes or an infrared sensors. This allows it to avoid hitting delicate objects, and also optimize dirt collection on various surfaces. The LiDAR system also performs faster than gyroscopes. This could cause the robot to slow down and lose control when it encounters uneven surfaces.
Other features include remote control, automatic mopping and multiple vacuum modes. It can also charge and recharge while it's working. The biggest flaw is that it only maps out one floor. If you have two floors it's going to need to be manually transported to those areas and then programmed to repeat.
Another issue is that it could be a bit loud, particularly in mopping mode. It also has many parts which need to be changed or cleaned regularly, which increases the cost of maintenance. Fortunately, the self-empty feature reduces the costs associated with these items and it's compatible with bagless filters, which lowers its annual costs.
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, including solid cleaning performance and a great mobile app that creates accurate home maps. The bagless base eliminates the need to purchase new dust bags each year. In go now of cleaning it was able to eliminate 97.8% debris from low-pile and hardwood flooring, but was not as effective on high-pile. Its maneuverability makes it easy to navigate between furniture and onto high-pile flooring. It can also traverse over objects like electrical cords and rug fringes without getting stuck.
Its high-tensile bristles in a helix pattern are durable enough to manage and untangle long hair, string and other fibers and the brushroll comes with a retractable edge that can be used when it encounters obstacles. Its thin design allows it to glide over furniture and proximity sensors enable it to adapt and analyze the presence of obstacles. It can be set to begin cleaning at the press of a button or scheduled for a daily schedule through the app. Its sound levels are average however, it can be slowed down by using a do not disturb mode or a custom scheduling.
The RV700 is more manual than the Roborock S4 and iRobot Roomba j7+ and iRobot Roomba j7+, which is to be expected from a self-emptying model. But, it is more robust and easy to maintain, is faster in charging and gets rid of more debris on both bare floors and carpets with high pile. Its navigation system can create virtual boundaries, detect and avoid obstacles, and also create virtual borders. This makes it the best choice for robotic cleaners you can "set and forget".
The RV700 Series doesn't have a cliff sensor that prevents it from falling down a flight of stairs, which can be a problem for those living in homes with higher ceilings. It's not able of mopping and vacuuming at the same time and you'll need to switch between modes in the app. However, the RV700 Series is a less expensive alternative to the more advanced Roborock and iRobot models that come with self-emptying capabilities and cliff detection. Its most appealing feature is that it can be emptied and recharged while at its base, which makes it a good choice for those who don't want to deal with the inconvenience of emptying the dustbin after each use.