Product Review: Shark Navigator Upright Vacuum

I hope you've all been having a lovely holiday season! Since I last posted--and since my fiasco with the Shark Multivac--I've had a lot of time to test out the Shark Navigator Upright Vacuum. And I must say, I am in love!



The most important thing about this hunk of purple love is its simplicity. It is your standard lightweight upright vacuum--you push and pull it along your floors, no rocket science degree required--with some pretty awesome extras:

1. A super long hose and crevice tool that allows for vacuuming your curtains, behind your toilet bowl, in ceiling corners, in the floor track of your sliding doors, inside your over-stuffed closets, etc. My big pregnant butt doesn't need to do any bending and yet I've been able to clean my apartment in places it has never been cleaned before with this vacuum.
   
2. Super suction power and the option to turn the brush roll on and off means both my tile floors and carpet get super clean with one vacuum. The multivac didn't have a brush at all... which was super sucky in another way.
   
3. A pet hair power-cleaning brush which is great at removing our bunny's hair from the furniture.
   
4. A bagless dust cup which is really easy to empty (just hit a button and out pops the cup) as opposed to the multivac's cup (struggle to pull the entire hand vac off the base, hit yourself in the head, stagger to the garbage pail...), and re-washable lifetime filters.
5. Smart switch positioning which doesn't require you to bend down to turn the vacuum or the brush roll on or off. (The multivac's mid-vac switch position was just horrible.)
   
6. Great maneuverability in that it doesn't have one of those fancy swivel heads that seem like a great idea at first but actually tend to let the vacuum get away from you.

We purchased the Navigator at Bed, Bath and Beyond for $199 with a 20% off coupon. It is definitely more expensive than the multivac--which we bought for $99 but is now discounted to $79.99 I presume because of its inherent suckiness--but the Navigator is entirely worth the extra money. I actually really enjoy vacuuming now (and no, hell has not frozen over!)

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Product Review: The Shark Multi-Vac

I really wanted to like the Shark Multi-Vac, but, God help me, I'm about to throw it out the window! At first I thought having a vacuum with multiple uses (hand vac, upright vac, and canister vac) would be great, but changing from one configuration to another takes a degree in rocket science and a lot of energy. I'm generally a very tech-y girl, but I really don't want to be deconstructing and reconstructing a robot when all I want to do is vacuum the kitchen floor!!

Deep breath.

For ease of reading, I'll list the pros and cons (of which there are many):

Pros:

• Low Price: With one of those 20% coupons Bed, Bath and Beyond sends in the mail what seems like every day, I was able to buy the Shark Multi-Vac for about $80 at the BB&B on Queens Blvd.
  
• Small Size: Petite for a small home/apartment
  
• Powerful Suction: The suction was so strong it actually got hard to push on some of my carpets. (Wait, does that make the suction a con in this instance?)
• Back Saver Attachment: This attachment, used in canister mode, allows you to get under furniture without moving heavy pieces or straining your back. However, I couldn't even figure out how to convert the vacuum to canister mode and I strained my back with frustration anyway!
  
• Purple Vacuum: Need I say more?
  

Cons:

• Crazy Swivel Steering: I would have thought swivel steering would be a pro, but it is actually really hard to steer the vacuum where you want it. I had a hard time pushing the vacuum straight ahead and actually needed to lift it and replace it down on the floor a couple of times.
• Complicated Design: As I said above, it is difficult to transition from one vacuum format to another and putting the vacuum together out of the box was like building a spaceship (I exaggerate a little, of course). You also need to remove the entire hand vacuum from the stick to empty the dust cup, which is supremely annoying.
  
• Inconvenient Power Switch Location: Unless you have some serious monkey toes, you'll need to bend down to the bottom of the vac to reach the power switch, which out of multi-use necessity must be on the hand vac canister. This pregnant lady did not appreciate that.
• No Beater Brush: The upright vac does not have a beater brush, which means the vac won't kick up things and I had trouble picking up even a feather from our extremely low-pile carpeting. (I did have more success with the upright vac in our tiled kitchen.)
• Heavy: Despite being advertised as "light-weight," this Shark is actually a bit of a chore to push around. Perhaps this is an unfortunate side effect, however, of the difficult steering and super suction.
  
• Short Hose: Forget about cleaning your curtains when the vac is in upright mode. The most you're stretching this hose is two feet and it doesn't come with a long-reaching nozzle attachment.
  

The bottom line is that I must return this vacuum before it drives me crazy. I was blinded by how cool and gadgety the Shark Multi-Vac Looks, but I've learned a lesson that simple and dependable is generally the way to go with household appliances.

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