Shark ZU561 Navigator Lift-Away Speed Vacuum

I purchased this a few years ago; and I just purchased another. One for upstairs; one for downstairs. The suction power on this is AMAZING. So easy to put together; so easy to clean. I actually hate to use my new one because I know it will be amazing and I hate to see it get dirty! Ha! I have two dogs; gets up all the hair. The box claimed the color was ‘marmalade’ but it was red just like my other one; so not sure why that was printed on box. Not much else to say except THIS VACUUM IS THE BEST and you won’t be sorry!!

I received this as a mother’s day gift this year because my other one bit the dust the week before the holiday. I decided to try a Shark this time based solely on reviews because I didn’t want to spend as much as I would need to for a Dyson and while my previous Hoover was great, it sounded like the Shark’s had better suction. This one definitely had better suction than my previous Hoover of a very similar type. I am a mom of a toddler, an infant and a pitbull and they keep my floors nice and crumby, so I use my vacuum every other day (at least). I needed something “heavy duty”, strong, but easy to use. This fit the bill.

Pros
– Strong suction and it’s pretty lightweight. I’m a small woman (5 foot tall), so this is very important to me.
– After vacuuming just once I am AMAZED (and disgusted) by the amount of stuff (hair, dirt, crumbs, etc) this thing sucks up. We don’t wear shoes in our home, so it’s mind boggling.
– Long cord so you don’t have to keep unplugging and plugging it in constantly. I think it goes a bit further than my Hoover did.
– It’s easy to release the hose to use it. On my previous Hoover I had to detach the hose, attach it to a certain place on the vacuum and switch the mode on it. With this one I just hit a button and it detaches. No hitting a switch and no having to remove the hose and attach it elsewhere.
– It’s easy to dump out the cup.
– The roller has not needed to be cleaned yet. I was routinely cutting hair and string off the old roller of the old vacuum. My dog loves to destroy toys and so our home is usually strewn with stuffing, string and bit of fabric that eventually clog up the vacuum. No roller issues or clogging issues with this one so far.
– It looks nice and has a nice color to it. Yeah, okay, so that doesn’t “matter”, but it kind of does when it’s sitting in a visible place in your home. You don’t want a ugly eye sore hanging around.

Cons
– Okay, so this was a MAJOR one for me: The suction is SO STRONG that I can’t use it on the area rugs in my boys rooms. They have a thick shag rug in both of their rooms (same rug) and it definitely will hide debris. The suction is so strong that the vacuum just gets stuck in place. This was a major issue for me and I honestly thought “I need to send this back”, but I figured I could use one of the attachments (the wide one with nubs on it) and the hose to do their rugs. Fortunately, their rooms are small and the rugs are only 5×7. While I wish I could just use the vacuum normally to do their rooms, it’s a trade off for the suction power that it has. It doesn’t take too long to use the hose to get their carpets, but I’m always concerned about “missing a spot” because I’m using a little attachment and not the whole vacuum that covers a wide area.
– The canister part of the vacuum seems very wide and clunky. It doesn’t seem to affect my ability to tilt the vacuum to go under furniture, but it certainly “feels” clunky because it sits so far forward compared to the roller part.

Regarding the fact it does not work well on area rugs, I recommend getting a little Shark hand vac. I got a cordless one at the same time as this vacuum and it’s really super useful for small messes and for getting the area rugs when I don’t feel like getting out the big vacuum.

best if you have a golden retriever!

IT’S AMAZING! I’ve never geeked out about a vacuum this much before!!! At first I was unimpressed bc the hair seemed to wrap around the roll like every other vacuum (first pic). But the second pic is 5 min later after running it for a while – it does as advertised and actually untangles the hair around the roll. No more unscrewing and having to cut the hair off the roll!!! Note: Since it takes a few minutes to untangle itself, I’d recommend vacuuming slower if you have a lot of hair so that it doesn’t get clogged. Dont just leave it on without moving it though, I tried that, but I think you have to keep pushing it around for the self-cleaning to work.

Also, the suction power is POWERFUL! It picked up SO MUCH dirt and hair my old one didn’t. The tank was half full just from vacuuming my tiny condo living room ONCE. No wonder my dust allergies were so bad this whole time!

Other pros: It’s way lighter than my old one and easy to maneuver. Everything clicks and locks into place so beautifully. Emptying the tank is super easy. You never have to get your hands dirty.

Downsides: Not recommended for high pile rugs. I tried on my shag rugs in the bathroom just as a test and it does not move at all even with the suction power on the lowest setting. But it works perfectly fine on my hard floors and low pile living room carpet, which is all I care about.

I have never had a vacuum work as effectively as this. Game changer for people with allergies. Easy to go from carpet to hardwoods. The very finest dust is trapped, with the pre and HEPA filters. Love it!