Shark Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner with Anti Hair Wrap technology, 120 Minute Run Time (2 Batteries), Flexible DuoClean Floorhead Vacuum Cleaner with Multi-Surface & Crevice Tools, Black. IZ320UK

Product Information

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. The slogan they use for this is makes me giggle, “bends so you don’t have to”, as I think really what they meant was “bends because you won’t be able to get up again if you get on your knees to hoover under the sofa” ;-). 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.

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. One of the attachments which comes with this Shark vacuum is the pet tool. As with many of the best vacuum cleaners for pet hair, it's was excellent at drawing out embedded hair from rugs, blankets and anywhere else your four-legged-friend likes to reside. Overall, this is a strong contender for those looking for a large capacity Shark vacuum that they can rely on.

Shark claims that it has all the power of a corded vacuum cleaner but in cordless form, and after testing we couldn't agree more. It's got DuoClean which makes switching modes immensely straightforward, and the controls make it easy to see how much battery you have left. To charge, simply lift out the battery on the side of the dust tank and pop it into its charging port. Shark continue to raise the bar each time they introduce a new range of cordless hoovers and this range is no exception.

And unlike the Dyson, the display doesn't work while the vacuum is charging. So you have to rely on three less precise indicator lights on the battery to know when it's fully charged. Flour proved a bit more of a challenge. On hard floor, the vacuum collected enough flour from a 50g spillage in a single pass to register 50g on my scales afterwards, although close inspection showed it wasn’t entirely perfect, with some flour still left over. A few subsequent passes on the Boost setting removed the rest effectively. A cordless Shark vacuum cleaner aimed at pet owners. It’s equipped with ‘Anti Hair Wrap Plus’ which removes long, short and pet hair from the brush-roll as you clean, according to Shark. It also comes with ‘Clean Sense IQ’ that automatically senses the invisible dirt and adjusts cleaning power. DuoCleanis Shark's self-adjusting brush roll that automatically adapts to carpet and hard floor without you having to switch over.Shark quotes battery life at up to 60 minutes per battery running on Eco mode without a powered tool. I tested with a powered tool and found that it lasted 61m 28s on Eco power, 33m 58s on Standard and an impressive 17m 58s minutes on Boost. Recharge time is four hours for both batteries. An easy-to-read LED Smart Display screen on the handle displays battery life, suction level and selected floor type, so you can easily choose from 3 power modes, switch between 2 floor settings and see how much charge you have left at a glance. 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, Multi-Surface Tool and Anti-Allergen Brush.

Table last updated: October 2023. Prices taken from PriceRunner and PriceSpy to give a general market overview – current prices might differ from the above. Table excludes pet variants. Our tortoise (Houdini, named so because of how many times he’s escaped!) doesn’t give us any problems in this department, neither does Aristotle the Axlyotyl, he just grins at us from his tank, and even if he decided to take an excursion to do some “carpet surfing”, he’s as bald as a coot (and my father-in-law) so no worries there. It's somewhat quieter in eco mode, but both the floor head and motor are still notably louder than some other cordless vacuums we've trialled. First they developed their Duo clean system, so that you could seamlessly clean hard floor and carpet without having to give it a second thought. 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 vacuumsThen they added anti-hair wrap so that you never have to get involved with digging the hair from the roller and now with this range they have added “powerfins” which provide an even greater level of cleaning performance than ever before (more on that later). Bear in mind though that the 60 minutes is not based on using it on full power. If like me you like to use your hoover on max power the whole time then expect about 20-25 minutes out of it which is still very good and probably good enough to whizz around most homes. 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. Shark has included its DuoClean head, which has a soft roller for hard floors and a brush for carpets. For this model, Shark has included its PowerFins tech, which adds fins to the roller to really get into carpet fibres and agitate dirt. It’s also got Anti Hair Wrap tech, which really works to prevent hair from wrapping around the rollers. All things considered, we think that when you weigh everything up Shark beats Dyson hands down and that is encapsulated in the IZ300 & IZ320 range of excellent, great value for money cordless hoovers.