The Best Shark Robot Vacuum

Shark's robovac ticks many of the boxes you'd expect from a machine in this price range. It's reliable in its cleaning capabilities and a user-friendly mobile app and produces accurate home maps.

It also comes with Matrix Clean Navigation, a system which does two passes in a row, before moving to the side for full coverage. The base is also free of bags, unlike other robot vacuums.

1. Roborock S4

This is a top-quality robot vacuum mop robot for floors that are not clean that sucks up debris and has a massive dirt storage compartment. The app lets you manage cleaning and docking. Its smart pathing feature is highly efficient. The app gives you an overview of cleaning, including a map showing where the S4 was cleaned, as well as cleaning time and battery life.

Its maximum suction of 2,000Pa is enough to lift an AA battery off the floor, and is comparable to the suction of larger vacuums. The side brush and combo brush are closer to the front of the machine than the other Roborock models. This could be to help reduce the possibility of clogging.

The S4's advanced mapping system can map a house up to four levels deep and keep track of the areas it has already cleaned. This makes it simple to create a cleaning schedule and not have to manually move robots between rooms. You can also mark zones as no-go zones which will stop the S4 from entering those areas during a cleaning session.

It was able of cleaning an entire level of our home easily and was very efficient on floors that were not paved. However, it had a difficult time cleaning up hair from dogs which is a common issue for robotic vacuums. Only 8.5% of the dog hair it picked up was actually kept in the dustbin and much of the rest was clumped in the suction inlet and brushes.

Comparatively to other Shark vacuums in the market, the S4 is noticeably smaller and lighter, which improves maneuverability. It is able to make more precise turns and avoid obstacles that slow down other robots. The low-profile design also makes it easier to place under furniture. It has improved climbing capabilities for navigating flooring transitions and different flooring levels. It is able to easily reach the bottom of the stairs and is a great option for larger homes with multiple floors. The app lets you set a timer and also has an automatic control for vacuuming. It also has the ability to automatically return to its charging base to charge between cleaning cycles. It is equipped with a large battery of 5200 mAh, which can last for up to 150 minutes in normal mode or 2691 square feet between charges.

2. Shark Easy Robot Self-Empty

This Shark robot vacuum is a great choice for pet owners looking for an easy-to-use, smart machine. The self-emptying bagless base is a major plus in comparison to other models that utilize disposable dirt bags on their bases. You simply detach the bin and then empty it into a trash container. This could be messy, but it saves you money on new bags.

The bin itself is also quite large, which means that the EZ Robot is capable of handling a good amount of debris. It also performs well on floors that are clean, although it has some issues with embedded dirt on carpets with low pile. It also has decent navigation capabilities, and a tiny footprint for docks.

Although the EZ Robot isn't as good as the Roborock S4, it's still an excellent option for those who want a high-quality affordable robot. It's built well, comes with a wide range of features for automation, and boasts impressive cleaning performance on both carpet and floors with high pile. Its maintenance requirements are high, and its recurring costs are high.

This Shark robot also has a great feature: it can automatically return to where it left off after it returns to the docking station. This is a fantastic option, especially when your home is big.

The IQ XL also comes with various other useful features. This includes the ability to schedule whole-home cleanings remotely and review cleaning reports through the SharkClean App. You can also start, stop and resumptuate cleaning sessions with voice control through Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. The row-by-row cleaning mode of the robot is a major benefit, too - it is able to clean your entire house in neat rows, not a back-and-forth snake pattern like many other robots.

The IQ XL's biggest drawback is its inability to scale obstacles like power cords, which it may consider solid barriers and avoid climbing over. It's also not as fast or efficient in navigating a room when it's filled with pet hair, which could make its brushes tangled and slow it down.

3. Shark AI Robot

This is a great robot vacuum from Shark that provides a range of features. It comes with a self-emptying base that can hold up to 30 days of debris and combines the cleaning capabilities of an automatic vacuum and a mop. It also offers a precise grid-based cleaning mode and advanced smart home integration that supports Alexa and Google Assistant. It is possible to schedule it to clean, turn on it on demand, or create virtual boundaries to stop the robot from entering rooms that contain delicate items or rugs.

The Shark AI Robot carries out an impressive job of cleaning bare floors, picking up debris like rice easily. However, it has a hard to remove larger, bulky debris from low-pile carpet and does a poor automatic vacuum job of maneuvering around furniture. It does come with a do-not-disturb mode, which means you can program it to work when you're away from home and it won't interrupt your daily routine.

It also uses LiDAR to identify your home. This allows it to detect and navigate obstructions more precisely than units that rely on gyroscopes alone or an infrared sensor. This helps it avoid crashing into delicate objects, and also optimize dirt collection on different surfaces. The LiDAR system is also faster than gyroscopes that can cause the robots to slow down or lose control when they encounter uneven surfaces.

Other features include the remote control, automated mopping, and various vacuum modes. It can charge and recharge itself while it is in use. Its 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 programed to repeat.

It can also be a bit loud especially when in mopping mode. It also has a number of parts that have to be cleaned or replaced regularly which increases the cost of maintenance. Fortunately, the base self-empty feature helps cut down on some of these expenses and is compatible with bags-free filters, which reduces its annual expenses.

4. Shark ION Robot RV700 Series

The Shark ION Robot RV700 Series ticks off all the boxes that you would expect from a midrange robotic vacuum. It has a reliable cleaning performance, a fantastic mobile application that produces accurate maps of your home, and a excellent cleaning performance. It also comes with a bagless basis that means no annual purchase of replacement dust bags. In our cleaning performance test, it was able to remove 97.8 percent of dust from carpeting and hardwood floors, though it wasn't as effective on high-pile carpeting. Its ability to maneuver makes it easy to navigate between furniture and onto high-pile flooring. It can also easily pass over things like rug fringes and electrical cords without getting stuck.

Its helix-pattern high-tensile bristles are durable enough to manage and untangle long hair strings, as well as other fibers, and its brushroll has an edge that retracts and can be utilized when it comes across obstacles. Its slender design allows it to slide under furniture and proximity sensors enable it to adjust and evaluate obstacles. The app allows you to schedule cleanings or activate the machine with a single button press. The noise levels are moderate however, it is possible to reduce the noise with a do-not-disturb feature or a custom scheduling.

The RV700 is a bit more manual than the Roborock S4 or iRobot Roomba J7+. This is to be anticipated from a model that does not self-empty. However, it still feels better-built and easier to maintain, charges faster and removes more debris from floors that are not bare and carpets with high pile. Its navigation system can also create virtual boundaries and recognize 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 a flight of stairs, which can be a problem for those living in homes that are taller. It's not able of mopping and vacuuming simultaneously, and you have to change between modes in the app. The RV700 Series offers a cheaper alternative to the more advanced Roborock and iRobot robots that have self-emptying capabilities as well as cliff detection. Its biggest selling point is that it can be empty and recharged while docked in its base, making it a good choice for those who don't want to deal with the inconvenience of emptying the dustbin each time they use it.