Shark Detect Pro IW1111 Cordless Vacuum Cleaner

Okay, so we have big needs when it comes to a vacuum. We have two large dogs, three cats (two that are long hair) and a toddler (plus me and her mom) all living in a 1000sq ft single floor home. We MUST vacuum daily. We have a robot vacuum that does most of the heavy lifting when it comes to daily vacuuming, but it of course doesn’t get crevices, furniture, doesn’t do well in corners, under cabinets, etc. So, we had a corded Bissell to take care of big messes, and what the robot couldnt get. We went through three of these corded Bissell over the course of two years. THREE. All failed after 8-10 months. Plus, being corded, it really didn’t get used as much as it should. Who wants to dole out a 25 ft cord to vacuum one piece of furniture? Or do clean up the dirt the dogs just tracked in? Yeah, nobody.

So, we decided to try out a cordless. We settled on this shark here. We loved the fact it has auto empty feature. It may sound gimmicky, but let me tell you, it’s awesome! My wife especially used to hate emptying the bin on our old corded vac. Anyone with pets knows that when you let pet hair/dander sit in a vacuum for a week or two, it really starts to stink. So, the air coming out of the vacuum would stink, and emptying the bin in the trash would spread stink everywhere, along with dust and dander. The auto empty feature of this shark is awesome. Put it on the dock, and poof, everything’s gone and vacuum is ready to go for it’s next use. The amount of filters in the vacuum and the auto empty base ensures absolutely no smells or dust escapes. It is totally worth it and one of the main things we love about this vacuum.

The vacuum itself is also extremely good. We were worried about run time and suction power, being cordless, but on auto mode we have enough battery to vacuum the whole 1000sq ft floor, plus do our big sectional couch. You’ll definitely use the battery quicker when the roller brush and suction are on high, but it seems to have plenty of battery for us. If you have a large home or lots of rugs/furniture, you may run through the battery quite quickly. Suction on this shark is great as well. It is as good if not better than our old corded Bissell. The roller brush truly is anti-tangle as well. Our dogs are starting their spring shed right now and even with all the hair we have sucked up, the roller brush is completely free of hair. This is the first truly tangle free roller head we’ve ever had on a vacuum.

The only cons to this vacuum definitely aren’t deal breakers, more so just quirks. In detect mode, the vacuum is a bit slow detecting. It’s slow detecting amount of dirt, it’s slow detecting when it’s against an edge, and it’s slow when its detecting carpet or furniture. When I say slow, I don’t mean it takes forever, but if you’re vacuuming quickly, you can easily run across a door mat and the vacuum will just be kicking up the suction as you’re leaving the mat. If you vacuum a little slower on carpets or against walls, it easily detects them and will do it’s thing, but if you’re a quick vacuum-er, you’ll find the vacuum confused and varying the suction and roller speed constantly as it’s trying to catch up to what you’re doing.
Also, another quirk, the wheels are smooth hard plastic. Our laminate floors are very slippery against smooth hard plastic. So, again if you’re vacuuming quickly, and you try to turn the vacuum, it’ll have a tendency to want to slide around. Not overly annoying, and if you just slow down a bit it’s not noticable, but some rubber coated wheels (like our old Bissell had) would go a long way to fixing this.

Overall, this is a great vacuum. Battery life is on par for a cordless vacuum and is plenty for a smaller home, suction is great, auto empty dock is a must have. We find ourselves using this vacuum way more than our old corded model because it’s so easy to use. And, for the first few weeks, the auto empty is so fun to watch!

My husband does all the vacuuming in our home and when he wanted this for his birthday, I thought he was nuts. I’ve had other rechargeable small vacuum cleaners and none of them had any suction at all. They might pick up dust and that’s about it – anything heavier than a feather, forget it. This vacuum is small, easy to handle, and has suction power as good as our full-sized electric Dysons and Sharks. The charge doesn’t last long due to the suction power, so he vacuums just one room at a time. It’s lightweight enough that even I can use it for small jobs (I’m disabled and not able to push a full-sized vacuum.) My husband gets a big kick out of watching it suck the accumulated debris into the disposal receptacle when he puts it on the charger. We’re very happy with this purchase. Not sure how long it will last but hoping it’s durable and will keep its effectiveness for a few years.

Feel like this thing is getting all kinds of dust that’s usually hassle areas to clean. Extensions are easy to swap out, easy to get cobwebs from corners and close to the baseboard where carpet meats with the thin extension, straighten up the baseboards, ac registers and air intake vents with the bristle extension. The detection is nice for moving from Carpet to ceramic, it auto adjusts smoothly. Pretty lightweight. It will let you know if there is a clog in the tubing by flashing red and turning the battery indicator off, it was easy to disassemble clear the clog and resume cleaning. Don’t recommend using it for the fireplace the fine particles clog the suction quickly not repeating that again. Small downside is the battery, really wish the battery lasted a little longer, but I’ll take it over fighting with a coord. I may look into getting an extra battery it’s similar to a drill batter. If you made it this far thanks for reading hope your day/night is well.