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- Never Loses Suction upright vacuum features 3 vacuums in one, a powerful upright, a lift-away pod for portable cleaning and a convenient canister vacuum
- Extra large capacity dustcup and Anti-Allergen Complete Seal Technology traps over 99.99% of dust and allergens inside the vacuum
- Ultra-maneuverable swivel steering provides the ultimate control to get in and around obstacles and furniture
- Powerful motorized brushroll can be turned on or off, providing superior performance on both carpets and bare floors
- Includes 5 Year Manufacturer Warranty
This Never Loses Suction upright vacuum features a unique detachable and portable canister that lifts away for effortless cleaning in and around the home. The extra large capacity dustcup and Anti-Allergen Complete Seal Technology traps over 99.99% of dust and allergens inside the vacuum. Ultra-maneuverable swivel steering provides the ultimate control to get in and around obstacles and furniture and super quiet technology allows for operation anywhere, anytime. The powerful motorized brushroll can be turned on or off, providing superior performance on both carpets and bare floors. Includes a premium pet power brush, extendable flexible crevice tool, and other specialized tools for versatile cleaning throughout the home. An extra long 3
vacuum
Very pleasantly surprised,
*** 8 Month Update at the bottom of this review ***
First let me start by saying that overall as a brand I strongly dislike Shark. I don’t have anything against them personally but the endless annoying and trashy infomercials and the fact that a lot of their older vacuums sucked beyond belief, I honestly am not too thrilled with them as a company.
A few years ago I got a Bissell Pet Hair Eraser vacuum, model 3920, and very quickly became disappointed with it. It sucked well, but within minutes the plastic piece at the top, the one responsible for making the airflow rotate got clogged up with fur and the suction went down dramatically. Emptying the dust cup was the worst part of it, it made a horrible mess all over the place. I suffered with that vacuum for a couple years and recently decided that my time was worth more than putting up with that crap. I started looking around Amazon for vacuums with the best reviews. Dysons, Hoovers, Eurekas etc, but the vacuum that caught my attention the most was the older white Shark Navigator Professional Lift-Away.
What caught my attention was how (extremely surprisingly!) high the reviews were. I was honestly not expecting it, especially after having my thoughts on the brand. I read the reviews, and then read them some more and after about a week I finally decided to give it a shot. Now at this point I have already gone to a store to see the Navigator Pro in person and was honestly not too horribly impressed by how it looked or felt. It looked like it was made out of PVC sewage pipes and it wobbled from side to side as if it was about to fall apart (though I am wondering if that was just because it was a display unit and was dropped one too many times).
Either way, moving on to this Rotator vacuum – about a day before I was planning on going out to buy the Navigator Pro I accidentally stumbled upon this new model thanks to the search suggestions on Amazon. Since Bed Bath and Beyond usually carries all the latest Shark products I drove over to one that was close to me and not surprisingly there it was. Cool thing about the BB&B stores is that the vacuums all have outlets next to them so you can actually plug them in to see how they work. I plugged this one in to play around with it a bit and my surprises started. First, it felt surprisingly very solid – none of that weird wobbling that I experienced with the Navigator Pro. Second, lets be honest here, this thing is damn pretty!
So then, supposed 5 year warranty, plus being able to return it if I didn’t like it, plus having a 20% off BB&B coupon (which you can easily get anywhere) – why the hell not! I bought it. With the coupon + taxes it came out to being around $215, not too bad at all.
Also slightly off topic, but while I was playing with this vacuum, I also had a chance to check out Dyson’s latest pink-ish purple DC41 Animal Complete and while it is gorgeous, and seems to suck well, I just can’t justify the 650 dollar price tag. I’m sure it’s good, but I honestly can’t imagine it sucks up 3x more crap to justify the 3x higher price!
Of course as soon as I got home and squealing like a little girl I unpacked the vacuum, quickly assembled it (assembly didn’t even take a minute) and started vacuuming.
THE PROS
– It sucks up dirt and pet hair amazingly well! We currently have 8 cats (don’t worry, 4 of them we’re juts temporarily fostering (does anyone want to adopt an annoying Norwegian Forest Cat? (seriously))) and so as you can imagine there is plenty of fur all over the carpets every day. I vacuumed with the old Bisell vacuum just the day before and as soon as I started the Shark completely filled up with dust and hair. wow…
– Even while the dust container is completely packed full, it doesn’t seem to loose any suction and keeps on collecting crap and packing it in somehow.
– It is pretty light. I I think if you’re upgrading from just about any older vacuum you’ll be pretty surprised by how light this one is.
– The Premium Power Brush (more about it in a minute) works amazingly well. Most of our cats sleep in bed with us and so every morning there is a ton of cat hair all over the sheets. I can collect 100% of it within a minute using this brush. Very very happy. The old Bissell came with a similar brush but it didn’t work for s*** on the exact same bed/fur.
– When the spinning brush in the base is turned off (love that you can turn it off manually + it turns off automatically when the vacuum is upright) it collects things off of hard floors without much of a problem (ie spilled cat food, litter etc). And the Straight Suction Nozzle that comes along with this vacuum picks everything up even better. We have the litter box in the bathroom and every morning there is a bunch of litter spilled all over the place – I can now collect it all within…
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|Best vacuum I’ve ever had the pleasure of using!,
After reading reviews for the Dyson and Shark Rotator for weeks I went with the Rotator, more specifically the NV502 model found at Bed Bath & Beyond. It was a CINCH to assemble and I was able to use it not more than 5 minutes after opening the box. The suction on this thing is AMAZING, it practically propels itself when on the vacuum base. It’s cut my vacuuming time to 1/4 of the time it took with my commercial Royal vacuum! I also own a small cleaning service with a handful of weekly accounts and its made my accounts so much easier to clean, my clients are AMAZED by how much nastiness gets pulled from their carpets (as am I).
So glad I read the review left by Michael Flux as he really did a thorough job explaining all the different models and accessories they include. I have yet to use the car cleaning kit but will soon.
I suggest anyone looking to buy this vacuum to get it at Bed Bath & Beyond, for a couple reasons. One, you get more accessories with the NV502 (sold exclusively at BB&B). Two, should anything go wrong with the vac you can return it directly to the store and avoid any shipping hassles. Finally, three, this is one of the few higher priced items at BB&B that’s eligible for the 20% off discount coupons! Another plus, should you have a BB&B 20% off coupon that you’d received in the mail and is expired, you can still use it at any BB&B retail location, no matter how long ago it expired! This does not apply to emailed coupons, coupons with the 10or20% off discounts or the $5 off coupons. Only the regular 20% off coupons may be used after the expiration date. If you have any questions about an expired coupon just call your local BB&B before going and they’ll be happy to assist you (& no I don’t work there, I just love the store!).
Good luck with whatever vac you decide to purchase and please leave a review so others can learn or benefit from your experience.
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|Wow!!!,
A little background. I live with two cats. I have both hardwood floors and carpet. My furniture is velour with soft cushions. I use Tidy Cats clumping litter for two litter boxes. Tidy Cats is a round pellet type litter and it gets everywhere. The cats, while short haired, shed quite a lot and I’ve only just been keeping up with the shed fur with regular vacuuming, grooming and sticky rolls. In short I desperately needed a new vacuum, but which one? I could take out a thirty year mortgage and buy a Dyson, but everything I’ve read says that there are several very good alternatives available to this. Ok, so once again, which one? After reading Micheal Flux’s(thanks Michael!) review and the fact that it’s almost less than half the Dyson DC41 Animal Complete I decided to purchase the Shark.
This is going to be in initial review of the machine, I’m hoping to update it as I use it more and more.
First of all, I was surprised at how easy it was to put together. The unpacking took more time than the actual assembly. Second, the tools it came with are not only functional, but easy to maintain. The pet tool for example has an access hatch that allows you to clean or free anything caught on the brush. Lastly, it’s lighter than I expected. I know that this may seem like a small thing, but after using it to clean my entire apartment I was glad for the lighter poundage.
Ok, so now it’s set up and we’re ready to clean. It’s very quiet as compared to my other vacuum. The swivel feature takes a little getting used to, but once you do this machine is just fantastic on floors. Cleaning up errant cat litter on hard surfaces or carpet and in between every little nook and cranny this vacuum took it all up and left nothing behind. Now it’s not a miracle machine. I did have to go over some of the carpet areas more than once. Next I used the flexible brush wand to “dust” a bit. Window sills, curtains and ceiling corners were all left behind clean. I was impressed. But how well will it perform on my furniture. I eased into using the pet tool by vacuuming my recliner. It’s a smoother cloth and the pet tool did remarkably well. No hair left behind. Ok, onto the couch and loveseat. Both collect a ton of pet hair. I put the pet tool to work and got the seat cushions and the arms of the couch. The tool is a bit large and can be tough to negotiate, but the learning curve isn’t steep and I was soon cleaning everything well. On the softer back cushions it took several passes, but I expected that seeing as how the cushions are soft like pillows. I very much doubt that even the Dyson could have picked up every hair in one pass. It took a bit of time for me to finish both and as I later looked at them there was still a bit of hair on the back cushions, but I believe that to be my fault and not the vacuums.
I only emptied the canister once and while it was nearly full the vacuum never hinted that it was running out of suction. It was easy to dump and then seal back up.
Ok, now for the super final test. I pulled off my shoes and socks to see if I had missed anything and to see how well my new vacuum had performed. I walked everywhere I vacuumed and didn’t step on one loose piece of litter. Wow!! Ok, now I’m impressed. I figured the carpeted areas would be ok, but hard floors can be difficult. I had to use a swiffer dry just to get all of the litter out of the corners when using my old vacuum. I was really impressed with the job it did on my floors.
So, if you’re in the market for a powerful versatile vacuum, take a serious look at the Shark.
December 16, 2012 ******UPDATE!!******
So after a few weeks with the Navigator I wanted to give an update. I used it a few times during the week and it gets easier to use and cleans better each time I use it. I thought that the pet brush was going to require a learning curve to use and while it does it’s definitely a short one. I have been able to clean my couch, loveseat and recliner in two or three passes at this point. Now I want to give it a real workout. I let the vacuuming go for two weeks. I would dust pan up the loose litter from my cats, but no vacuuming. It was definitely a trial for all of us. At the end of two weeks I had enough shed cat hair on my couch to have made another cat and there was practically no corner of the apartment where there wasn’t litter. Ok, this is a definite work out for any vacuum. I figured that there was no way that I was going to get all the cat hair up and have the floors pass my barefoot test. So I set the navigator to the task. I did have to make extra passes on the floor to get up all the litter, but it did get every piece up and the floors did pass my barefoot test. Next onto the furniture. Again extra passes were required to get at all of the cat hair and since I did let it go I had to give them an extra cleaning, but lo and…
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