Shark Stratos Upright Vacuum AZ3002, Navy

Update 9 months

Update 9 months. Couldn’t be happier now that I’ve used this for a long time. My husky mix sheds like crazy on a dark carpet. This is the best at picking up dog fur!!! Love the lights on the wand – can see fur in all the hidden places. Anyway, I don’t think you can go wrong with it.

Update 3 months. Was working fine. I was starting to really like it. Then the brush rollers stopped working. The led lights were flashing and the power button was green. Looked it up online and many comments about the problem. I tried cleaning the wand connectors as suggested but did not work. Called Shark customer service. They did a video call and confirmed the problem. Said I needed a new roller unit but it was not covered under the warranty. Only the motor was covered. What? 3 months? When I balked they agreed to a “one time special” to send another replacement but I’d have to pay shipping. I balked again so they agreed to pay shipping. The point is why is this an issue (as reported by others as well) and why is the WHOLE vacuum not covered for a year?!!!

Original. Was not quite as powerful as I thought when using it on carpet. For example I don’t see the lines as clearly as I did with my old one. However I do like it and I love the features that allow you to lift away the canister and wand (note the hose is kind of short and pulls the rest over if you pull too much). I like the tilting mechanism when using to go left or right but find it is difficult for my wrist to turn it easily. I need my other hand to help. Maybe if my arm was stronger this wouldn’t be an issue. Overall I’m happy.

Great vacuum and picks up a lot of dust my old vacuum didn’t. It is a little heavy and maneuvering can be a bit heavy in some cases and there could be a few other attachments that don’t come with this but normality come with other vacuums. However the performance of so good that have to give it a 5 star review.

Okay, so, I’ve been looking for a vacuum so that I have something when moving into my new place. I was only really hoping to have a few certain yet important features.
– No bags.
– Strong suction.
– At least a 6ft hose (or around there).
– Fully sealed (no allergens get ejected back out).

This unit met all of that & more! I won’t bother going over everything that’s shown since you can just read about it in the descriptions or even look up a video on the unit (I’d suggest doing simple research like that anyway). So instead, let me point out the features that surprised me or just plain pleased me to confirm. To note, I used this for about 40-60 minutes in 2 bedrooms & a hallway, all carpet (that tall stringy type), as well as a hard wood floor living room. For the carpeted area, I ran over everything the day before with what could only best be called a cheap simple store bought vacuum. Enough to do the job on hardwood & still sucks up plenty on carpet, but it isn’t gonna win any prizes.

1: The suction power. Let me put it this way. Just having the vacuum on, you could feel it trying to pull forward. Dragging backwards was the same. If you use this on carpet, I highly suggest you leave the main body of the unit (the engine & dust bin) attached instead of separating it from the rest of the unit. Their weight will help counter this.

2: The noise. It’s a vacuum, so it’s gonna make noise, but it was much quieter than I thought it’d be, especially for the level of suction it has. I could have a conversation with someone sitting 10ft from me & barely have to raise my voice at all.

3: The versatility. It’s an upright, but you can pull the main “engine” & dustbin unit off, turning it into a handheld that has long reach & can get under furniture with just a bit of bending over. Both the head & handle have a light to see into dark spaces. You can remove the tube running from the handle to the suction head & use it that way if you so wished. Never mind the attachments that come with it.

4: The instruction manual. I know, I know. “You look at the instructions?” My uncle already laughed at me for it, but I prefer to go through the manual so I can know how to put things together the first time & even find nice little tidbits. Which is EXACTLY what I found going through this one. Let me just say that not only does this show you how to put it all together, but it shows exactly how to clean everything & even perform your own maintenance. No calling the support office, no scratching your head to figure out what’s wrong. Just look through the manual & it’ll give you guides on cleaning, troubleshooting, why it may be doing this, etc. I LOVE when a brand actually gives you the ability to properly & fully maintain & troubleshoot the product you paid for yourself.

5: The filters. Four of them total. A mesh hair filter in the collection bin, a “barrel” sponge-like filter & a finer cloth pad filter before the suction engine & then finally a HEPA filter before any air gets shunted back out. All of these sealed up with rubber rings. I checked the filters (all removable & washable by the way, so you can keep them for much longer if you take the extra few minutes to rinse them after each session or so) & was very impressed with how much they grabbed. Honestly, not gonna lie, I sat there for a moment looking at these filters & thought “… is that what I’ve been living in?”.

Now, I couldn’t finish this review off without mentioning the one downside I had to this vacuum. The extra attachments. Ya know, the little tool heads that come with it & sit in slots on the back of the vacuum. I got a narrow hose head for tight spaces, a furniture head & a “pet brush” (ya know, like a little mini suction head with it’s own brush roller). The first is simple & works fine. The second does it’s job as much as I’d expect it to as well. The third however… Never mind the fact that the unit only has space for 2 of the 3 attachments, but the pet brush didn’t even work. The reason why is just as simple. It felt cheaply made. Out of everything that came with the vacuum, these were the cheap parts. The first two, as I said, work fine since they don’t have to do much. The pet brush however didn’t even have a proper seal between the top & bottom half. In fact, it had vent slits in the back so that the moment I set it down (lightly I might add) onto fur covered furniture, the brush stopped moving because it was too much & could just pull in suction from those vent slits. I should also mention that this was done on fabric upholstered furniture, not any kind of leather or similar material.

Thankfully, I did not buy this vacuum for pets. My parents have them, sure, but I won’t. I don’t need this vacuum to tackle pets. So, long & short is this. Besides the pet brush attachment not having anywhere to sit & being cheaply made, I don’t need it so I’m fine with that being the cheap part. Everything else on this vacuum has already made me decide that the $300 spent on it was very much worth it.

This is an absolute fantastic vacuum cleaner. It cleans better than anything I have ever owned. My berber carpets are 20 years old and this is the only vacuum cleaner that has brought the life back into them. It works equally as well on floors. It is a bit on the heavy side but it glides like silk across surfaces so the weight is not bad at all and I am 68 years old. I was skeptical about the weight but it is no problem. Also it converts to a canister if needed. It includes a lighted handle for attachments also. That is not mentioned in the description. That was a pleasant surprise. Shark has a real winner on this one.