We’re home cooks just like you—and we bring a home cook’s perspective to all of our rigorous testing. But unlike you, we have an extra 10 hours a day to spend geeking out over kitchen tools because it is literally our job. We don’t only use our recommended products in controlled settings, we bring the best ones into our own kitchens to help us put dinner on the table on a Wednesday night for our families, or to throw a dinner party for 12.
We did find it more effective on tile or concrete floor—it can scratch vinyl, so keep that in mind if you have vinyl flooring in your home. These vacuums will clean pet hair, kibble, and other messes with ease. We run each vacuum in a straight line across three different surfaces (hardwood, low-pile carpet and midpile carpet). My two small kids and my clumsy self often sprinkle fine, gritty substances like coffee grounds, powdered sugar, flour, and sprinkles all over the kitchen floor. The Vertex’s soft front roller is designed specifically to pick up these items, but in my experience the large vacuum head seems to only push the grit around. According to our price trackers, this vacuum hasn’t ever dipped lower than it’s currently on sale for, making it a smart time to buy.
Many of its other parts, including its washable filter, are replaceable, as well. While it’s a little heavy for a cordless stick vacuum, it’s still much more portable than most full-size vacuums, and you won’t have to worry about tripping over a power cable as you climb or descend. It delivers good overall performance on most surface shark pet vacuum types, and you can easily reconfigure it into a handheld vacuum to clean tight spots or switch out attachments. A typical cordless cleaner will run for between 40 to 60 minutes on a fully charged battery. You’ll typically find that if you run your cordless at max power you’ll get around one-quarter of the battery life.
When you’re done, there’s an easy-release button for the pad, so you don’t have to touch the mess you picked up. If we could wave a wand, we’d make it so you didn’t have to hold down the power switch while it’s in use. After six months of usage, the battery life has also depleted a tad, but the overall convenience is still definitely there. Few things are as satisfying as aiming a handheld vacuum at a mess of crumbs and zapping it all up in seconds, and the Shark UltraCyclone Pro Handheld Vacuum is as easy as it gets. You will need to cut hair out of the brush roll (that bristled piece in the head of your vacuum that loosens dirt and grime when the vacuum is in use) here and there. A self-cleaning brush roll is offered on some of our other favorite vacuums (like the Shark AZ1002 Apex), but it’s not a deal breaker for us that it’s missing from this one.
However, not only do Dyson products perform well, they’re also attractive and have design details that make them overall more enjoyable and easier to use. If you’re as ham-handed with your electronics as I am, you will probably want to get a Shark. shark handheld vacuum The vac is Alexa-compatible and has a user-friendly app (available for iOS and Android) that lets you set your cleaning schedule. However, we’re disappointed that iRobot left off the no-go zone and zoned-cleaning capabilities for the i3+ EVO.
If you’ve got a larger property, you might want to invest in a second battery to boost your run time. If you’re cleaning a relatively small flat, you should manage the whole thing on a single charge. I found this to be pretty much on the money, but that assumes you’re not going to use either the higher setting or the boost function for trickier patches of mess.
But the most noticeable difference was how much better the anti hair wrap function is. Both my flatmate and I have long hair which, previously, we’d have to cut out from the brush head every few uses. The Stratos sucked it up straight into the dust bucket with no issue. The Stratus picks up both short and long hair equally well, which will make it especially good for cleaning up pet hair.
No other stick vacuum is as innovative and adaptable as the Miele Triflex. Most stick vacuums can be used in two configurations — upright and handheld. This model runs for about 35 minutes in eco mode, enough time to vacuum a small or medium-size apartment and plenty of time for quick cleanups. Its battery recharges in under two hours—faster than that of any other vacuum we tested in our latest round. The Shark Cordless Pet Plus does a fantastic job clearing pet hair on many surfaces.
It’s also slightly more cumbersome than our top choice, the Dyson, as it weighs a reasonably hefty 4kg. No single vacuum is the perfect choice for every cleaning need, so we usually recommend keeping several styles in your cleaning arsenal, and a stick vac should certainly be part of the mix. Mary H.J. Farrell is a senior editor at Consumer Reports whose real passion is for cooking and all that entails.
Both perform well and have pluses and minuses, so which to choose hinges on what type of vacuum you’re looking to buy and how much you want to spend. The only category where the two brands really overlap right now is stick vacuums, though we expect to see a robot and maybe even a vacuum mop from Dyson soon. Several users expressed concern about the battery life being too short. “I wish the battery lasted shark handheld vacuum longer than 20 minutes, but I’m able to vacuum the first floor of my house with no problem,” said one, adding, “If you have kids or pets, this is a must. Dog hair is no longer an issue.” They are designed to allow clean air to pass through the motor without impeding suction or clogging. Instead of collecting in a bag, the debris collects in a reusable dustbin that can be easily emptied after each use.