Shark Detect Pro Review: Vacuuming Made Easy

Value When Reviewed

$299

Finest Costs At present: Shark Detect Professional

$299.99

The Shark Detect Professional is Shark’s reply to Dyson’s mud detecting know-how. As you vacuum, it’ll reply to the situations round your house – how a lot mud and grime it finds, whether or not it’s on carpet or laborious flooring, if it’s vacuuming alongside a wall, how vivid or dim the room is – and swap its energy up or down accordingly, or activate its headlights.

The thought is that it saves you from messing round with settings as you vacuum, cleans as effectively as attainable and preserves battery life. However how nicely do these options work – and are they sufficient of a purpose to purchase? We’ve acquired the solutions in our full evaluation.

There are two shopping for choices for the Detect Professional: you will get the vacuum alone (£279.99/ $299.99 on sale on the time of writing) or with the Shark Detect Professional Auto-Empty Station (£329.99/ $379.99). We haven’t had the chance to check the station, so this evaluation might be specializing in the vacuum itself.

Design & Construct

• 0.4 litre bin
• Compact storage mode
• Swappable battery

The Detect Professional is boxed in all-recyclable cardboard packaging, with the person vacuum cleaner elements wrapped in paper – this dedication to minimising plastic waste is one thing we all the time prefer to see.

The vacuum itself has a white plastic physique with black trim and a matt gunmetal wand. The general design is a bit retro-futuristic in a means that may very well be divisive. The way you reply to the Buck Rogers aesthetic might decide how you are feeling in regards to the Detect Professional.

It has a transparent bin that’s small at 0.4 litres. This gained’t be as a lot of an issue for those who purchase the self-emptying station but when not, put together to make common journeys to the kitchen to empty it.

However the bin’s design is intelligent. It opens lengthways like a crocodile’s jaw, so it’s simple to empty with out having to dig round inside to free bits of fluff.

Prime tip: be sure you determine the place it opens earlier than you attempt to empty it the primary time. I’m talking from hard-won expertise.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Nevertheless, the bin’s design implies that there’s a protracted be a part of sealed with a easy rubber lip. Though the vacuum is marketed as having an “anti-allergen full seal” that may entice “99.9% of mud, allergens and irritants”, it gained’t be as environment friendly as complete machine HEPA filtration – and if any a part of the seal is broken or begins to put on, it’ll begin leaking mud. We wouldn’t suggest it for asthmatics or folks with hay fever or a sensitivity to mud.  

Within the field, you’ll get the vacuum cleaner physique, wand, most important motorised cleansing head, combi cleansing software and plug. Because the battery is detachable, you’ll be able to decide to pop it out and cost it individually, which suggests you don’t must retailer the vacuum by a plug level.

This additionally offers you the choice of shopping for a spare battery so you’ll be able to preserve one charged and prepared. It’s troublesome to search out spare batteries for the Detect Professional at this stage, however Shark usually prices round £80/ $80 for them.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

You may also take away the vacuum cleaner physique and sit it on a cradle connected to the wand for extra compact storage.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

I wasn’t wowed once I first unboxed the Detect Professional however I preferred it extra as I used it. All of the elements click on into place satisfyingly and it looks like a usually strong Shark construct.

Efficiency & Options

• Detection options work nicely
• Battery life show is fundamental

The Detect Professional’s controls are easy. Above the grip, there’s an On/Off button, and a mode button, which you employ to cycle by means of cleansing modes.

You may see the mode on the LED show above. There’s additionally a battery indicator but it surely’s very fundamental – simply exhibiting what number of quadrants of the battery life you may have left.

The main focus of the show is on grime detection, with a crescent indicator that’s both pink, orange or blue in response to the extent of mud and grime round. On this, Shark is following Dyson’s lead: the V15 Detect and Gen5detect show the scale and quantity of mud and grime particles which can be picked up.

For my part, these options are good to have, at finest, relatively than important and I’d want it if the Detect Professional had a clearer battery life timer, ideally displaying in minutes.  

Emma Rowley / Foundry

The Detect Professional is extraordinarily mild at simply 2.76kg and it’s simple to manoeuvre. Nevertheless it doesn’t lie flat because of the form of its grip, and its wand doesn’t twist, so it might not get all the best way underneath your mattress or couch.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Shark is promoting this vacuum as having “4 deep-cleaning applied sciences” which reply to their environment. To some extent, that is simply advertising hype: one of many 4 applied sciences is the strip of LEDs on the principle head, which swap on mechanically in dimmer rooms or alongside one aspect when edge cleansing.

It’s a helpful function however not precisely a deep-cleaning know-how. Plus, if all of the LEDs are on earlier than it goes into edge mode, it responds by switching off the lights furthest from the wall, which isn’t essentially helpful.

The opposite “deep-cleaning applied sciences” have extra to do with the precise cleansing aspect of issues. The Detect Professional will ramp up its energy when it finds extra mud and grime, or when vacuuming alongside a wall, to enhance pickup proper to the sting. It’ll additionally mechanically enhance the comb roll pace when it hits a carpeted floor. The ability decreases once more when it’s not wanted, saving battery life and also you the trouble of needing to change up a gear.

The detection options work as promised and do, indubitably, make vacuuming much less of a chore. You may just about simply pootle round and let the vac make the selections for you.

The battery life is given as as much as 60 minutes however that’s just a little deceptive. Like most vacuums, that’s solely the case for those who use it in Eco mode, which suggests forgoing any of the detection options. Eco mode is unlikely to be robust sufficient to correctly clear a carpet, both.

Realistically, for many types of cleansing, you’ll wish to use the Detect mode, which can solely offer you round 20 minutes of battery life. It’s laborious to provide a precise time, because the show doesn’t present minutes. There’s additionally a Increase mode, which can solely final a couple of minutes, however this doesn’t matter as a lot – you’ll solely want Increase for spills.

You may take away the wand and use the principle cleansing head on the physique of the vacuum to wash stairs. For different cleansing jobs, like upholstery, cabinets and blinds, there’s the combi brush and nozzle software. It’s not brilliantly designed and for those who use the comb setting, it’s laborious to get first rate suction.

Like many Shark vacuums, the Detect Professional has an anti-hair wrap fin on its curler. I discovered it to be very efficient, even on lengthy hair. Nevertheless, the tiny wheels Shark usually makes use of on the entrance will clog up rapidly with hair when you’ve got a pet. Eradicating it’s a fiddly job however you’ll must do it to maintain the wheels turning.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Shark is fairly cagey in regards to the Detect Professional’s suction energy, as an alternative making some comparisons between this and one other Shark mannequin. In our checks it carried out nicely throughout each laborious flooring and carpet, however solely in Detect mode – we didn’t discover Eco highly effective sufficient for carpet. On laborious flooring (once more in Detect mode), it didn’t scatter particles and had good pickup near partitions.

Value & Availability

It is a good time to purchase the Shark Detect Professional. Though it was solely just lately launched, Black Friday promotions imply that it’s dropped from an RRP of £349.99 to a broadly accessible worth of £279.99 within the UK. That’s with out the Auto-Empty station.

You should purchase it at this worth from Shark, Argos and Amazon, amongst different retailers.

In order for you the Auto-Empty Station as nicely, the set has an RRP of £399.99 however is at the moment accessible for £329.99 from Shark, John Lewis and Amazon.

Within the US, it’s priced at $379.99 and that’s what you’ll pay for those who go direct to Shark, however you should purchase it on sale from Amazon for $299.99. It’s $449.99 with the bottom, however you will get it for $379.99 from Amazon on the time of writing.

We predict that is fairly good worth for its function set. We’d solely warning that it’s not supreme as a heavy-duty vacuum cleaner, or the only vacuum cleaner in a big house.

Must you purchase the Shark Detect Professional?

All in all, the Detect Professional is nice worth for its sale worth level, so be sure you purchase on the proper time. It’s mild and nice to make use of and its detection options imply you don’t want to alter settings as you go. Nevertheless, we don’t assume it’s flawlessly designed.

We’d prefer to see higher battery life data and a simpler combi software for different cleansing jobs across the house, for starters.

If tis isn’t the appropriate vacuum for you, take a look at our round-up of the perfect vacuum cleaners we’ve examined.

Specs

• Weight: 2.76kg
• Dimensions: W: 26.4 D: 35.3 H: 109.2cm
• Dustin capability: 0.4L
• HEPA filter: No
• Max runtime: 60 minutes
• Energy settings: 3
• Wattage: 240W