Speaking of the battery, it performed well in our tests, outlasting the one on the previous model. This might be an improvement in battery technology, or it might be because it’s now only powering a single roller. 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. If there’s one element I didn’t particularly like it’s the position of the power indicator lights on the battery. During operation these are well out of sight, so there’s no at-a-glance guide to how much power you have left without rotating the vacuum around to see the lights. Spoiler alert: I shouldn’t have worried. Shark has left plenty of space at the front to allow larger particles through, and although it doesn’t trap them quite as well as the best fluffy rollers, it performed surprisingly well. However, the battery life isn’t anything particularly out of the ordinary. Shark quotes it at 40 minutes, although this is without the motorised floor head attached. In our tests, we found it lasted 22mins 34secs when tested on carpet with the motorised head attached, falling to 16mins 10secs in Boost mode.

At first glance, you’d hardly notice that the Shark Anti Hair Wrap Cordless Vacuum IZ202UK is any different to Shark’s more expensive cordless models. It has a similar design, with the vacuum engine and collection bin combined into a handheld unit at the top, separated from the floor head by an articulated extension wand. It’s 270 x 1,190 x 170mm (WHD) in size and weighs 4.7kg. In testing, our suction test confirmed the similarity between the two models, with the handheld unit producing almost the same suction results as the IZ201UK, as you can see in the chart below. 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. 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. Shark calls its folding extension wand “Flexology”, and it’s worth giving a name to. A button on the wand releases a catch that lets the wand flex at knee height. This can be used to slide the floor head under low furniture, or to fold it right over to reduce the height of the device to 680mm for storage – a state in which it can also support itself in an upright position.

The device has a couple of main controls. A thumb switch on the top is used to turn the vacuum on and off and swap between hard floor and carpet modes. With carpet mode selected, the rollers spin faster to agitate the fibres more and clean deeper into the carpet. This doesn’t alter the suction, but you can give it a boost by pulling the trigger that sits just in front of your forefinger as you hold the handle. As with other Shark Flexology vacuums, the extension wand has a bend in it, which serves two purposes. Release the clasp on the wand and you can clean under low-lying furniture without having to get on your hands and knees. The bright LED headlamps on the front help you see what you’re doing. Second, fold the wand all the way over and, cleverly, the vacuum supports its own weight, allowing it to be stored temporarily in a corner without you having to lean it against a wall. In terms of attachments, it’s limited to the bare essentials. You get a crevice tool and a simple upholstery tool, the latter being just a funnel with felt-like brushes around the edge to tease hair and other fine debris out of your furniture.

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. We were very excited to test the brand new Shark Detect Pro for a few reasons. The first is that it's unbelievably lightweight, at just 2.76kg, so your days of lugging around a heavy vacuum are behind you. The Shark cordless did a fair job in our standard cleaning tests. On hard floor, it collected 24g of a 26g spillage of Cheerios. The missing Cheerios were sent flying across the room by the enthusiastic soft roller, but that was nothing that couldn’t be sorted out by hunting them down afterwards.There's no doubt that our testing process proved that this vacuum is worth the large price tag that it carries. Even if you don't have pets, the ease with which this vacuum does away with hair is astounding, and our Ecommerce Editor Molly found that it was unmatched when it came to suction. 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 main unit looks identical to that of its predecessor, the Shark IZ201UK, which is still available at some retailers but costs a little more. The controls are extremely simple, with a three-way thumb switch on the top that takes it through its three modes: off, hard floor and carpet. There’s also a trigger loop for your index finger, which you pull to engage the Max boost mode.

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. 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.

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. READ NEXT: The best cordless vacuum cleaners to buy today Shark Anti Hair Wrap with Flexology IZ201UKC review: How well does it clean?

There’s a battery attached to the base of the handle, which can be removed easily. The port for the supplied charging cable is on the end, and you can charge it while connected to or separated from the rest of the equipment. There are three LEDs on the side of the battery that show whether the battery has full charge, medium charge or low charge. If the last light starts to flash, it’s an indication it’s nearly empty. LiftAwayoffers a removable central canister that can be lifted around to clean stairs and upholstery. This makes is easier to access tough spots, even cars. Our flour spillage test is tougher and I was conscious that this vacuum doesn’t have the strongest suction, but perhaps the brush and fin combo on the brush bar helped here, because it performed very well. 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.For the price, the Shark Anti Hair Wrap with Flexology is a terrific vacuum cleaner. The two-in-one motorised floor head means you don’t have to keep swapping floor heads to get the best performance, so it’s always ready to clear up mess, whatever surface you’re cleaning. If you can manage its weight and stiff handling on carpet, this Shark is an excellent buy. When using it to clean her car, Helen was very impressed with the overall performance, with the vac effectively removing dirt from her car. It did struggle a little more to collect hairs from the carpet, but overall the suction was strong.