Add Shark’s lift-Away function, which allows you to separate the vacuum unit and cleaning hose from the floor head, to reach areas like stairs and upholstery, and you have a vacuum that is unsurpassed in both power and flexibility. Lift-Away mode also makes it easier to get the tools where you want them. You can use accessories on the end of the wand, which provides far greater reach: I could easily clean around the ceiling in this mode. You can also remove the wand entirely, which is ideal for close-up jobs. It performed excellently in our at-home tests, and the new detection features go a long way to improve day-to-day vacuuming sessions. I'm a huge fan of the stand system too, even though it comes at an additional price, and would be keen to try out the self-emptying bin system next, which seems like a lifesaver. Below it sits a slider switch, which lets you change the cleaner’s mode: Hard Floor, Carpet and Deep Pile. This slider adjusts an air valve to reduce power as you move from hard floor up to deep-pile carpet. It delivered pretty consistent results on the flooring, leaving carpet – including on the stairs – tiles, and parquet clean. The DuoClean floorhead had a big part to play in this as it can easily transition across the various floor types, on which its twin bristle brushes work their magic. Anti Hair Wrap – a feature designed to stop hair accumulating around the brush roll – had some impressive results, too. This meant that neither human hair nor the hair of small furry housemates lodged itself around the brushes of the floorhead or the motorised pet tool.

Similar to the company’s previous XL model, the Shark AZ950UKT, the PZ1000UKT is a big and bulky vacuum cleaner. Weighing in at 6.8kg, it comes with a generous 1.6-litre dust bin, which will happily get you around a large house without having to stop to empty it. The Shark IZ201UK Cordless Vacuum Cleaner is one of the best vacuum cleaners for pet hairon the market. It has a 0.7 litre dustbin which, while not the largest, is adequate for cleaning most homes without the need to empty mid-way. We also enjoy how lightweight it is, at just over 4 kg. She also loved the portable vacuum cleaner element that is accessible with just the push of a button. This is thanks to Powered Lift-Away which is super handy for using the suite of attachments to refresh upholstery or vacuum skirting boards. There's a suite of onboard tools which can be used with this vac too, Molly's favourite being the Anti Hair Wrap Power Tool which is great for upholstery and smaller jobs. How we test Shark vacuums If you want to complete a deep clean in your home without having to empty your vacuum, then the Shark DuoClean & Anti Hair Wrap Bagless Cylinder Pet Vacuum CZ500UKT will be a brilliant choice for you. It's large capacity, easy to use controls and excellent suction power on carpets shone through doing our review process, which was completed by our eCommerce Writer Molly.

Flexology means your vacuum can be pivoted under furniture using an elbow hinge at the centre of the tube. It saves you from bending and reaching, but it's only available on cordless vacuums. A handheld vacuum won’t replace either of the other types but is a very useful device to have around as a secondary option. These smaller units are easier to get out and use, particularly if you only need to gather up a small spill. They’re ideal for cleaning in places that are problematic for bigger vacuums, such as your car boot, and are useful to have close to hand in the kitchen, garage or utility room. Other Shark features to look out for:

We really like to get a hands-on experience with the products which we feature across Ideal Home, in line with our testing protocol. It means that we get tounderstand more about whatyouare getting for your money. The second was the wealth of new technologies that Shark boasted about with this vacuum when we got a first glimpse of it at IFA 2023. This vacuum has four detection technologies so that cleaning your home is more thorough than ever. When we were testing, we found dealing with high-traffic areas much easier thanks the the amped up suction and the FloorDetect technology makes transitioning into different rooms across your home much easier too. DuoClean: Shark’s DuoClean motorised floor heads have two rollers. The first is a soft roller designed to capture dirt from a hard floor. The second is a brush roller, which agitates carpet pile for deeper cleaning. If you have a bigger home, then the way to get it cleaner faster isn’t necessarily to up power – although that is useful. It’s to super-size everything, as seen with the brand-new Shark Anti Hair Wrap Upright Vacuum Cleaner XL with Powered Lift-Away & TruePet PZ1000UKT. This vacuum cleaner has an extra-large bin and a wide floor head to make short work of any job. DuoCleanis Shark's self-adjusting brush roll that automatically adapts to carpet and hard floor without you having to switch over.The only time you’re likely to hit an issue is when you want to get under a dining chair, for example, since the large bin gets in the way. That’s where Lift-Away mode comes in: you can remove the entire cylinder and bin and hold it in your hand while cleaning. This lets you use the floor head and get it right under furniture. Switching between carpet and had floors is very easy thanks to the DuoClean brushrolls, which switch over with the touch of a button. It's also possible to go between three power levels, although we found the lowest level perfectly strong enough for the majority of tasks. The bin itself detaches from the vacuum’s main body, flipping open at both ends for easy emptying and cleaning.

Tonnes of power, quiet operation and the clever Lift-Away mode make this the ultimate large vacuum cleaner.There are other handhelds that offer greater suction, but Shark’s clever design traps the collected dirt in a secondary chamber away from the vacuum workings, which helps ensure the vacuum doesn’t clog up or lose suction while you’re still cleaning. While raw suction performance is a good measure of performance, real-life results show how good a vacuum cleaner really is. To this end, I put the cleaner through my regular set of tests. First, I started with my carpet test, sprinkling a teaspoon of flour onto my test carpet. The Shark Anti Hair Wrap Cordless Upright Vacuum Cleaner with PowerFins, Powered Lift-Away & TruePet has absolutely everything you need (as you might've guessed from the name) to stay on top of the busiest of homes, in a cordless model. To ensure we can properly compare the performance of all the vacuum cleaners we test, we put them through a barrage of challenging tests. We measure suction to get an idea of how powerful each vacuum is. If they use batteries, we time how long it takes for them to run down. Where the device has more than one power setting, we repeat the tests on them all. The relatively new innovation to Shark's portfolio is Flexology which allows the wand to go from straight to angled, is a feature which we highly rate. It means that you can get your vac under the beds and various items of furniture that are raised up on legs. What we found, however, is that the floorhead wasn’t as easy to direct accurately as is the case when it’s used with the rigid wand.