Shark Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner with Anti Hair Wrap, 120 Minute Run Time (2 Batteries), Flexible DuoClean Vacuum Cleaner with Motorised Pet, Multi-Surface & Crevice Tools, Black & Blue. IZ320UKT

Product Information

To clean, you can either shake out the dirt or - for a deeper clean - rinse it under a cold tap and then allow it to air dry. Type A cordless upright vacuum cleaner, the Shark’s Lift-Away mode delivers extra flexibility to allow you to reach into tight areas and get under furniture. The brushes won’t need much cleaning because the anti-hair wrap guards should stop any hairs from getting tangled up in the rollers, but you might still want to give it a once-over every now and then. Flexology wand: Clean under furniture with ease thanks to this clever design - you can bend the wand up to 90 degrees and vacuum as normal. Rival cordless vacs don’t feature removable batteries, so you have to charge the whole thing where you store it. Fine if your cupboard has a three-pin plug in it, not so much if it doesn’t. Each battery takes four hours to charge from flat.

With cordless vacuum cleaners, in particular, the raw figures give an idea of performance, but it’s only by testing them for real that you can see how good suction really is, as it’s a combination of power and tool efficiency that’s important. Anti-allergen brush: This extra accessory features felt and soft bristles to thoroughly clean spots that need a gentle touch, like your blinds or your laptop keyboard. Still, it’s quite a bit more expensive than a Gtech Pro 2 and equivalent Hoover H-Free, but cheaper than a Dyson V15. On balance, I think the price reflects the performance, and all things being equal I’d choose this over its rivals for those removable batteries and clever elbow joint in the tube. The fact it happens to be really powerful and agile makes it even more convincing. Verdict This vacuum cleaner comes in about average for noise, at 67.5dB on Eco, 72.6dB on Standard and 75.6dB on Turbo. You can clearly hear the Shark ICZ300UKT and can’t really hold conversations over it, but it isn’t so loud as to be annoying.

Our house has both carpet and hard floors and a staircase that harbours all manner of detritus ground in by outdoor shoes that one or both of my kids have forgotten to remove. Perfect for homes with pets. The Flexology wand bends so you can reach, store and charge anywhere. Go handheld to easily clean stairs, sofas and in the car. Easy to use with an LED Smart Display showing battery life, suction level and selected floor type. Anti-Allergen Complete Seal captures and traps dust and allergens.

Transform into a cordless handheld vacuum cleaner at the touch of a button, perfect for cleaning stairs, soft furnishings and in the car. From skirting boards and blinds to upholstery and behind the radiator, clean a wide range of surfaces and narrow gaps with the included Crevice Tool and Multi-Surface Tool. On top of the vacuum is a screen with three buttons below it, all of which fall easily under the thumb. The middle button switches the vacuum on and off. The button on the left toggles between carpet and hard floor modes (the rollers in the floor head spin faster in carpet mode), and the button on the right cycles between the device’s three power modes: Eco, Standard and Boost. The screen is also used to show the current power mode (Eco, Standard or Boost) and, if you have the floor head attached, the floor mode (carpet or hard floor). On the plus side, Shark’s articulated “Flexology” elbow does make cleaning under low furniture very easy indeed, allowing you to stand up and swing the cleaning head underneath your cupboards and sofas from a standing position, without having to get down on your hands and knees. There are three power modes to choose from (Eco, Standard and Boost), plus you can choose between carpet and hard floor modes, which adjust the speed of the floor head.There are two surface modes, one for hard floors and one for carpets, and three power settings to choose from too. In its least demanding setting Shark says each battery will last an hour, and there are two of them, so you can have one on charge while you’re vacuuming with the other. The Shark IZ300UKT is Shark’s latest cordless vacuum cleaner. Introduced in late 2021, it comes with a number of new features, chief among which is a new brush roller, which is lined not only with bristles but also “PowerFins” – stiff fabric flaps, arranged in a chevron, that agitate the fibres in your carpet much more vigorously than a brush alone. Performance is excellent, with Standard mode cleaning a path through my spilt rice grains, with nothing dropping out at the end.

That 60-minute run time is based on using the lowest speed setting and without the motorised head attached – in the middle speed using the roller head I get about half that, which is still more than enough to clean our three-bed semi-detached house. The Shark IZ320UKT was subjected to a month of high-intensity family use – it didn’t get away lightly with a couple of lab tests – I’m talking about broken glass, sand, mud, damp cereal, pet hair, trodden in garden debris and probably half a kilo of peas during that time.

I started off by measuring the Shark ICZ300UKT’s raw performance in AirWatts (AW), which is a combination of suction power and airflow. On Eco mode, I measured a result of 35.65AW, which is similar to a lot of handheld models; 56.98AW on Standard is similar to your average cordless; and 175.24AW on Turbo is a lot of power for really tough jobs. Detach the floorhead to comfortably reach ceilings, curtains and other high surfaces with the wand. Remove the wand to easily vacuum stairs, soft furnishings, car seats and other hard-to-reach areas with the extendable hose and included attachments. Lightweight and cord-free, it’s perfect for vacuuming car interiors. With its 4.58kg weight, the Shark IZ320UKT sits about in the middle of the cordless pile, balancing weight against power. I found it very easy to move around, with the floor head dashing around carpets and hard floors, and the LED headlights helping in darker areas.