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. Moving onto the pet hair test, I combed cat hair into my test carpet and then gave the vacuum cleaner a pass through the mess. It was all pulled out of the carpet with not a strand left behind. As well as Lift-Away mode you can detach the handle or wand, using accessories on the end of them. With the wand’s reach, it’s easy to clean around the side of a room without having to bend over or cleaning up high around the ceiling. There’s a single floor head here, with rubber strips and bristles on the single brush bar; newer vacuum cleaners from the company have a DuoClean head, which uses a brush bar for the carpet and a soft roller for hard floors.

Despite the powerful motor, the Shark NZ801UKT is relatively quiet, coming in at 77.9dB. That’s good going given the suction power you have available here.The difference between the two powered modes is in how fast the brush bar on the floor head is spun, but suction remains the same for all modes. If you need to reduce suction to push the vacuum cleaner, then there’s a vent on the handle. While raw figures give an idea of performance, it’s the quality of the floor head and suction path that can make a bigger difference. So, onto the real-world tests. This level of power is an indicator that this vacuum cleaner is good enough for most standard jobs; if you’ve got bigger bulk to remove, such as dirt from DIY, then a more powerful bagged cleaner, such as a Henry would make more sense. In the box, you get a crevice tool, a multi-surface brush (it’s a hard brush that turns into an upholstery tool) plus the motorised mini pet power tool. The latter works wonders on sofas and stairs. If you don’t have pets, you can buy the Shark NZ850UK, which is a little cheaper and drops the pet tool from the box. From the outside, the Shark NZ850UKT doesn’t look too different to the previous Lift-Away cleaners that I’ve tested. It’s when you start to look closely that you see where the changes have been made.

It’s mostly minor differences between this model and the newer ones, such as the Shark Stratos NZ860UKT. For example, on the NZ860UKT, the hose clips into the wand to stop it from moving about; here, the NZ690UKTDB’s hose is loose. Next, I moved to the harder carpet tile edge test, with the Shark NZ850UKT charged with removing all flour right up to the skirting board. This it did easily, and I didn’t have to reach for the crevice tool to finish off the job. As the NZ690Uk is bagless, you don’t need to worry about purchasing replacement bags. Ideal for family households, it even has a high-capacity dust bin – just over one litre – so you can get more cleaning done without constant trips to the bin. When you need to empty the bin, you just push the button on top to remove it, then there’s an eject button that flips the bottom open. It’s pretty easy to empty cleanly, and the top also opens to get all of the dirt out. Switch between carpet and hard floor mode at the touch of a button. Simply select a setting using the handle control and the brush roll speed will adjust for the perfect clean. This adjustable control helps you clean your floors with just the right amount of power.Keep your carpets and hard floors spotless with the NZ690UK from Shark. This upright cleaner comes with Anti-Hair Wrap technology and Powered Lift-Away as well as a 1.1L dust capacity to help you vacuum through your home with ease. Multi-Purpose Vacuum Cleaner Power alone is an indicator of performance, but the real test comes down to the quality of the components and how well the brush bar can agitate and remove dirt. For that reason, I used my real-world tests. 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: That’s where Lift-Away mode comes in. Press the button on top and the main vacuum and bin lift off the cleaner. This gives you a handy cylinder cleaner that you can move where you want it.

I tested the Shark NZ850UKT with my standard tools to measure performance in airwatts (AW), an industry standard that combines both suction and airflow. On the had floor more I measured the cleaner at 260.02AW, which is about as powerful as you’ll get from a regular cleaner given that vacuum’s have a maximum power limit. Switching to carpet mode, power drops slightly to 233.96AW, and down to 130.19AW on deep pile mode. The latter might sound a bit low, but this power level stops the vacuum cleaner from clogging up. 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. There’s also a crevice tool and multi-purpose tool to get rid of lingering dirt in other areas, while the vacuum’s plastic tube and 1.5m stretch hose gives you ultimate cleaning flexibility. Ideal Cleaner 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. The Shark NZ801UKT is a Lift-Away model, which means you get all the benefits of a corded model (infinite run-time and more suction than a cordless model) with some of the benefits of a cordless model (you can lift out the cylinder and carry this around). It’s a fantastic idea and makes the Shark NZ801UKT one of the most flexible corded vacuum cleaners you can buy.

We also test their cleaning ability with measured spills of flour and Cheerios, on both hard floor and carpet. Each vacuum is given one pass to to see how much it can collect, and we weigh how much is collected to compare to every other vacuum we’ve previously tested.