I purchased this back in Oct 2015 and have had no major issues with it so far. Not sure if things have changed since I bought this, but mine came with the dust-away floor, crevice tool, dusting brush, and pet power brush attachments. The photos on Amazon show a "Hard Floor Hero" attachment, which is new to me. My hard floor attachment is the dust-away floor attachment that comes with microfiber pads. It's basically a Swiffer + vacuum in one, which makes it awesome. Initially, I didn't use the dust-away attachment for my hard floors since it was a pain to hold the portable lift-away component in one hand and use the other hand to do the physical vacuuming. That said, I initially used both a Swiffer and the Shark's motorized floor brush (bare floor setting) to clean my hard floors, which was double work. I came up with an idea to grab an old backpack and use it to hold the lift-away component so I could have more mobility. To avoid the vacuum from overheating in the backpack, I cut a hole in it so that it could vent out the filtered air. Ok, I have to say this is a very crude and not the prettiest setup, but since doing it, vacuuming hard floors has become 100% more efficient for me. I actually have fun Ghostbustering all the dust and pet hair off the hardwood floors. The dust-away attachment is now my most used attachment since my house is about 70% hard floor (tile and hardwood). My second most used attachment is the motorized floor brush (traditional vacuum) for my carpets. The suction when using the floor brush is really strong. I don't notice the strong suction so much on my carpeted floors, but on my Ikea floor rugs, it's super noticeable. In fact, it sucks so hard on the rug that I have to put quite a bit of force to push it through. It’s like getting a good chest workout when working the vacuum over my Ikea floor rugs. I use the other two attachments occasionally. The crevice and dusting brush are pretty useful to pickup my beard trimmings off the bathtub floor (I don't like washing all that stuff down the drain). Of course the dusting brush is good for other surfaces like window sills, but admittedly, I don't dust my window sills that often... After adding my crude Ghostbuster accessory, sucking up spider webs from the garage ceiling is practically effortless with the crevice tool. Lastly, I LOVE how this vacuum is bagless. I actually enjoy watching the dust cup fill up with fur, hair, dust, etc... each time I'm done vacuuming. It shows me that the Shark Navigator is doing it's job keeping my house clean. I didn't get to enjoy that fun with traditional vacuums with dust bags. The dust cup is also super easy to empty out and has a great design. Kudos to Shark for designing the dust cup so that it can be emptied from either the top or the bottom of it. So far, I've only cleaned and rinsed out the foam filter about 3 times. I haven't cleaned out the felt filter yet (I didn't realize that it was removable and washable until just recently). Despite that, I haven't notice a decrease in suction power, but admittedly I don't vacuum that often (maybe once a month). In the end, I love this vacuum especially after I'm able to carry it on my back.
The gf thought we needed more than a Roomba. (we also have 3 cats so she's probably right) Skeptical about buying another vacuum, I eventually gave in and bought this thing. Assembly was easy. The fitted joints all feel very sturdy and anything that comes apart/together has some kind of locking/release type mechanism to keep things from falling apart.
I have little cons but I'll name them:
-blows really hot air, making vacuuming on a hot day extra miserable in small quarters. (it's really humid where I live but this is a minor nuisance and worth overlooking, imo)
-it's a bit top-heavy, meaning it has a tendency to topple over when its on the wheels/base. Detached, standing on the canister it is just fine..
Day1, I decided to give this a 'test drive'. 6 hours later, I ended up cleaning the entire place; not just the floor but all the corners -- switching attachments was a super breeze. This thing goes around corners and turns with your wrist, it's a pretty well thought out vacuum. I had no idea they were actually this sophisticated these days but I wouldn't know; I would normally never clean.
That's right, 6 hours of free labor I never meant to give away, and the weird part is -- I ENJOYED it. The canister really made you feel like you were winning, as you watch it fill up.
And suction the power? We had a cat that passed away last winter, I am pretty sure if I kept vacuuming we would've brought her soul back from the afterlife. Really though, it cleaned the carpet and gave it a whole new feeling of traction I had completely forgotten about. I had trusted the last 2 years to the occasionally-trying-to-commit-robocide-by-wandering-onto-the-balcony Roomba and for the $300 I spent on the iRobot, I should've gotten this Shark the first time around.
Did I mention aesthetics? This comes in unofficial, coincidental Imperial Storm Trooper white. Half the fun is assembling different vacuum assault configurations and doing away with all the Rebel Scum under the couch. Seriously, get this thing. It's a blast you weren't expecting, an ambush of fun in an otherwise boring choreland, and you may end up living more cleanly!
I secretly can't wait to use this thing again...
If you find my review useful please let me know and if you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them below and I will answer them as quickly as possible. Thank you for checking out my review. :)
I had seen the good reviews about this vacuum and finally ordered it when we moved: our new house had a mix of thick carpet, linoleum, and wood floors and my old vacuum wasn't going to cut it.
It's awesome. It pulls the dirt out of next week, I swear to you. Almost every use we had to empty the container which made me feel full of regret for not ordering it sooner, because it was clearly having to do the work of my old vacuum on our area rugs. It transitions between the floor types with a quick click, and the wand and attachments are well stored and quickly accessible to make transitioning from floors to ceilings quick (when you find that giant cobweb and go OMG and need the wand like NOW)
Best of all - it's really pretty quiet! It seriously feels like a toy since it's such a fun little hard worker. Yes, some things could be better. The cord wrap is a bit awkward. The hook that keeps the cord off the ground is too wide and the cord falls out. But those are minor pains compared to how awesome this vacuum is. One warning: the first time I tried to remove the canister to empty it I did manage to empty the canister all over the floor. Whoops! Good thing my awesome vacuum could clean it all up again!
-1 star to me for waiting to order this vacuum!
I own all three versions of the Navigator, including this one. I am not a professional reviewer, and neither I nor anyone in my family has any connection to anyone in the vacuum cleaner industry. I bought my Lift Away Pro from QVC.
I really like the new Lift Away Pro. For about one-third the cost of a Dyson, you get virtually the same performance. Dyson still has an advantage in the quality of the engineering and materials used, but Shark is catching up. Like the two earlier versions of the Navigator, the Lift Away Pro has Pros and Cons.
PROs:
- Price. You can buy about 3 Lift Away Pros for the cost of one upright Dyson. Cleaning performance is comparable (I have 3 Dysons, so I know).
- Excellent suction. If you have never used a vacuum with suction this good, you are going to be appalled at how much dirt comes out of your carpet. It makes me laugh when I read reviews where people complain about how often they have to empty the dust canister. That means this vacuum is actually cleaning the dirt out of your carpet that your old vacuum left behind. Be happy.
- Easy to assemble.
- Larger dust cup that empties easily and cleanly almost every time. You had to reach into the dust canister on the older Lift Away and yank out dirt-encrusted clumps of hair and carpet fibers every time you tried to empty it.
- HEPA filter. Even though the original Lift Away was advertised as having a HEPA filter, until people started complaining, it did not come with one unless you bought it directly from Shark. This one has a HEPA filter.
- 30 foot long power cord - 5 feet longer than the original Lift Away. You don't have to keep moving the plug around to vacuum. Shark is finally using better quality electrical cord so it no longer bends and kinks.
- Light weight: about 14.5 pounds. In Lift Away mode, it weighs about 8 pounds.
- Bagless. A real time and money saver not to have to go buy bags.
- Tolerable noise level. It's a lot quieter than most vacuum cleaners.
- Swivel head. You can easily maneuver around things with just a twist of your wrist. It functions just as well as the Dyson Ball.
- Excellent cleaning of hard floor surfaces and carpeting.
- Adjustable suction. You can vacuum smaller rugs without pulling them up off the floor.
- Beater bar on/off control. Turn the beater bar off when you are cleaning solid surface flooring so you don't mar the finish. When the vacuum is turned on and in the upright position, the beater bar is automatically disengaged. No more carpet burns or scratched wood floors.
- The pet hair turbo-brush. It easily removes pet fur from furniture, stairs, bedding, etc., and is great for cleaning your car.
- Picks up chunky dirt. My Dysons snowplow anything larger than dust. I can vacuum up chunks of dry dog food without having to use the wand.
- The short hose that leads from the body of the vacuum to the beater bar head and provides the suction no longer comes loose like it does on the first Lift Away. You'd finish vacuuming only to realize the hose had detached and all you really did when you thought you were vacuuming was rearrange the dirt on the carpet.
- Better quality clips securing the dust canister to the body of the vacuum.
- The Lift Away function is simple (one press of a button) and works great.
- Easy release wand. With the press of a button, you can use the shorter hose with your attachments or the longer extension wand.
- Washable felt and sponge filters. Rinse them out and let them air dry and you're good to go again. A spare set would be nice since it can take a while for the filters to dry and you can't vacuum without them.
- Small cleaner head. It's not a space hog, so it's easy to store. You can also get into tighter spaces more easily when you vacuum.
CONS:
- The hose that leads to the wand is way too short and has no give to it. You can stretch it all you like, but it won't loosen up. Turn on the vacuum, and the suction pulls it even more tightly back on itself. Cleaning with the wand and attachments is like wrestling with the vacuum. It tips over every single time and makes using the Lift Away mode a real workout. You hold the wand in one hand and have to lift the vacuum body up with the other in order to have any reach at all. If I want to lift weights, I'll go to the gym.
- The vacuum tips over really easily. If you use the wand or attachments, the slightest pull will make the vacuum fall over.
- No on-board storage for the turbo brush or another extension wand - two essential attachments. If the vacuum had a telescoping wand instead of the heavy clunky one it has now (it is covered by some of the heavy white outer shell of the vacuum), it would be easier to use and lighter, too.
- Once again, Shark has given us 2 crevice tools (a small one stored on board and a long one that you can't attach anything to) instead of just giving us another wand we can use with any attachment.
- Poor edge cleaning.
- Cord placement. To use the longer, built-in cleaning wand, you have to completely unravel the power cord and detach it from the cord hook. How about a telescoping wand that detaches above the hook?
- You still can't clean carpeted surfaces under furniture. The Dust Away attachment with the microfiber pads is for solid surface flooring under furniture, not for carpets. The hose and wand are too short, and there still is no attachment you can use to clean carpets under furniture.
- No light. A couple of LED lights would help in dark areas without adding a lot of weight.
- The turbo brush. It's my favorite attachment and it's so cheaply made that I usually have to order replacements (maybe that's the idea). This tool does an outstanding job getting pet hair off of furniture and stairs and it's terrific for cleaning your car. I spend far too much time unwinding hair from the beater bar and dislodging caked on dander and dust from the guts of the turbo brush. Yuck. Shark should take a good long look at the Dyson mini turbine brush (smaller, lighter, better designed, and better built) and learn something. That brush doesn't break or clog. It costs more, but it's worth every penny. If it fit on my Lift Away, I'd use it instead.
- The Lift Away needs a soft-bristled dusting brush like Dyson's. The stiff-bristled brush is fine for upholstery, but not for dusting or electronics.
- Customer Service. Shark finally appears to have noticed the years of negative reviews of their abysmal customer service. I called recently and they actually listened to my problem and were quite pleasant about it (huge improvement right there), but nothing was resolved. So no change overall. The call ended with an automated customer satisfaction survey where I could now rate my unsatisfactory experience.
- Worthless warranty. The Lift Away Pro is a decent quality vacuum cleaner, so you just have to hope that you won't need to deal with customer service. It has been my experience that they have no intention of solving your problem unless there is a way to charge you exorbitantly for it or seriously inconvenience you, or both. Buy your Lift Away Pro locally and give it a real workout while you can still return it to the store if you have problems. You can exchange it or get your money back without having to pay huge shipping costs or go without a vacuum cleaner for weeks like you would if you dealt directly with Shark. If it breaks, buy a new vacuum cleaner. Life's too short to deal with the hassle of trying to make Shark honor a warranty.
Bottom line: this is a really good vacuum cleaner for the price. It performs well, and it's lightweight and easy to maneuver. The dust collection bin empties easily and usually completely. There is still room for improvement, but I haven't found a perfect vacuum cleaner yet, including the much-hyped Dyson. Despite all of the cons, I would give the Lift Away Pro a solid 4 stars. I've been using it daily for close to two months, and it works great so far. There is no way to assess durability or reliability until this model has been out longer. I would recommend this vacuum cleaner as a moderately-priced alternative to other expensive cyclonic vacuums on the market. I see no difference in performance, so why overpay just for the cachet of owning a more expensive brand? If the reliability holds up, this less expensive model will prove to be the smarter choice.
Feature Product
- Lift-Away Press a button to lift the canister away and easily clean hard-to-reach areas
- Anti-Allergen Complete Seal Technology + a HEPA filter Traps 999% of dust and allergens inside the vacuum
- Powerful and lightweight Portable and versatile at 137 lbs
- Brushroll Shutoff Deep carpet and gentle bare floor cleaning; Cord length: 30 feet
- Wash the pre-motor foam and felt filters every 3 months under normal use For optimal performance of the post-motor HEPA filter, wash and air-dry once every 2 years, or as needed
Description
Shark Navigator Lift-Away Professional NV356E
I decided it was time for a new vacuum cleaner after the pile-height adjustment stopped working on my old one. I have a dog and four cats, so I vacuum frequently. At certain times of the year, my 50 lb dog becomes a shedding machine, which means I vacuum even more often. I wanted something light, maneuverable, yet powerful.
The vacuum arrived and assembly was pretty self-explanatory. I quickly had it together and gave it a test run in the one room in the house with carpet. The den isn't a huge room, but it's everyone's favorite room thanks to the sliding doors. Shark isn't kidding when they say this thing is powerful! I swear I'm not a horrible housekeeper, but I wound up emptying the bin twice before I even left the den. This vacuum picked up stuff my old one didn't and didn't lose suction at all.
It took a bit of trial and error to use the pet powered attachment on my chairs, but once I did I was impressed with the amount of pet hair it was able to get off!
From there, I ran it over the hardwood floors through the rest of the house. It picked up everything like a dream. With just a flick of the switch to turn the brush off and easing the suction using the ring of the handle, I made a pretty seamless transition from my hardwood floor to an extremely plush shag rug and back again.
And then the ultimate test: cleaning up around the litter boxes. My old vacuum would sandblast my legs with kitty litter no matter if I pushed or pulled the vacuum over the litter. Not so with this one. It sucked the litter up without the sting of blowback and without sending up a cloud of dust.
This has become one of my essential pieces of equipment!!
See the dog in the picture here? He's the reason I'm writing this review. Three and a half years ago, we got a Bernese Mountain Dog. I was warned that these are heavily shedding dogs. I had no idea how bad the shedding really was.They shed A LOT. An unbelievable amount.. It was then that my search for a fantastic vacuum cleaner began.
My husband did a lot of research on vacuums and, not wanting to spend $500+ on a Dyson, he bought a Hoover. I have hated--HATED-- that vacuum with a passion. I avoided using it as much as possible because of it's weight, it's difficulty pushing, etc. I resorted to using a hand vac for most of my vacuuming-- that's how much I hated the Hoover. This week, I couldn't take it any more. I too didn't want to buy a Dyson--too much money to risk not loving it-- so I bought the Shark Navigator.
Now, I am in love. It is so light. I can easily carry it up and down the stairs with one hand. It is a dream to use-- practically pushes itself unlike the Hoover which was 22+ pounds and so difficult to push.
The shark has tremendous suction as well-- you can easily hear it sucking up dirt and debris and despite having just vacuumed the day before with the Hoover, it was shocking (and very disgusting) to see how much dirt, and fur, the Shark sucked up in comparison to the Hoover.
Yes, I still have to stop and manually de-fur the roller brush frequently. But, I'm hoping that with more frequent use of a true vacuum as opposed to a hand vac, the fur build up will lessen as will the frequent need to de-fur the roller brush.
So, I fully recognize that there is no way to fully eliminate the need to manually disimpact the roller brushes and knowing that this is the only "downside" to the vacuum, it's not fair to judge it on that. Other than that, the Shark has AMAZING suction,is fantastically lightweight, is very easy to remove and clean the dirt chamber, and is nicely versatile. Extremely happy with my Shark-- and my Berner :)
I purchased this vacuum over 3 years ago - so I have some history using it. I'm just now prompted to write a review based on a recent experience. But...let's first review. We have a really busy house with 3 teenagers, a (shedding) dog....and a Guinea Pig :). So, needless to say, we put the vacuum through it's paces every day.
Before this vacuum we went through a new one every couple of years (or less), but this puppy was still going strong after 3. And, it was a great vacuum in every regard - until someone recently sucked-up a pencil and it got caught in the handle.
Try as I might, I could not get the utensil dislodged. So it was time to order a new handle/hose. I called Shark customer service and asked for a price. Before looking it up, the young lady asked when I purchased the vacuum. She said the unit was still under the 5 year warranty so she'd send me the part free. I said "even if it's my fault???". Yup.
Sure enough, after a couple of days, my replacement part came - and I became a fully-cemented fan of Shark!
The machine is really pretty. It's white though so I doubt it will stay that pretty very long. I put it together (easy) and used it to vacuum my master bedroom/bath/closet. It worked great although it was quite heavy and it took some time to get used to the rotator. Fast forward to today and I decided to vacuum the new shag rug that I got for my living room. I set it at the lowest suction because it said to do that for high pile. Let me tell you, it was a real workout. I had to use both hands and really push hard to get it to run across the floor and it was at the lowest setting so there was no choice but to continue. I swear if I had to do that every day for 30 days I'd be fit enough for a weightlifting competition and would probably win. Then I moved on to the hardwood floors and set it up with the dust pad and hard floor accessory. You have to remove the cannister and you have to carry the cannister around. That got heavy too, especially since a good portion of my house is hardwood and tile. It did work great and I just set the cannister down from time to time to get a rest. It was very easy to get the cannister off and dump the dirt out. I used both the pet brush accessory and the crevice tool. I'm not sure what good the pet brush was. I used it on some stairs my dogs use and it didn't get a lot of the hair off, although the stairs have a ridiculous felt carpet on them and I doubt there is anything that would get hair off of it. The crevice tool worked just like they all do with better suction than any vacuum I've ever had.
Pros:
The suction is great. The rotator aspect is a plus I think because it did help to get around and under areas that I couldn't get with my other vacuum. It especially worked great with the hard floor duster/vacuum accessory.
I think the price was good for a vacuum like this and I would bet it is just as good as a Dyson for a lot less money.
It is a beautiful vacuum and I never have thought of a vacuum cleaner as beautiful before.
The number one best thing about it for me was the hard floor attachment. It really worked well and I felt it got it a lot cleaner than a broom would.
Cons:
It is heavy and really hard to push over a shag rug. If you have a bad back or aren't very strong I would not recommend getting it. I have a bad back myself and I am pretty sure I will be paying for it in the morning. Still, if you think you have the strength, I believe it is worth it because it really gets the dirt out. When I saw the dust pads (and I had to use two) I was embarrassed of how dirty my floors were. That is how well it worked.
Also, I had a bit of trouble maneuvering the cannister around when I was using the hard floor accessory. The tube rotates around and makes it awkward and I had to keep readjusting it.
For whatever reason, I could not keep the cord in a position to keep it out of the way while I was vacuuming. I kept having to stop and try to situate it a different way in order to keep it out of the way of the roller brush. That has never happened with any other vacuum I've had. I'm hoping I will be able to work that out after using it for awhile.
All in all, I like it and since I don't vacuum more than once every two weeks I am sure I will be able to use it even though it is heavy. Because it was heavy, I only gave it four stars.
I’ve had a Dyson for the past 12 years. And I’m still a big fan of them. It was a great vacuum. When mine died, I didn’t want to spend that much on another. I read the reviews on the Shark Ultimate Navigator and thought I’d give it a try. I’m amazed. The Shark seems superior to me in almost every way than my old Dyson was when it was new. But things change and maybe that’s expected. The suction of this vacuum is unreal. Everything comes up, it’s easy-to-use and lightweight, (a little top-heavy), the waste canister is clipped so it cannot spill accidentally (a common problem with my old Dyson if you didn’t hold the bottom when walking to the waste bin with the detached canister in hand), it has more attachments (and they’re all very functional), and it’s also much quieter. Overall, I’m extremely pleased. A couple of older shag rugs look brand new because they aren’t crushed down anymore.
My only downfalls for this are that the cord is way too short. I used to be able to vacuum each level of my house without ever switching outlets. With this vacuum, I can barely make it room-to-room. (A minor trade-off I’ll get used to). Second, vacuuming area rugs that aren’t thick is a challenge. The suction is so powerful that on the carpet brush setting it just wants to lift it off of the floor, and it requires a strong arm to get it moving in that situation.
Buy it. I can’t imagine you being disappointed.
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