Welcome to our Shark Cordless Pro review. Let’s go!
Shark Cordless Pro: Airflow and Suction
The Cordless Pro’s airflow was measured at 33 CFM; its suction was measured at 54 in of water lift. These are well below average results for a cordless vacuum.
Shark Cordless Pro tests
Flour clog test
The Shark’s suction will also drop significantly over time because its pre-motor filter clogs easily with fine debris. This is demonstrated in our flour clog test.
The Cordless Pro picks up the flow without issue, but a large quantity of that flow deposits on its pre-filter. Compare the condition of the Shark filter after this test to that of the Dyson V8, for example. The Dyson uses multiple cyclones to filter out fine debris and drop it back into its bin before it can reach and clog up its pre-motor filter.
These results indicate that the Dyson is much better able to maintain suction and requires much less filter maintenance than the Shark.
See more: Dyson V15 Detect Cordless Vacuum: All tests
Cleaner head design
When it comes to surface-level debris pickup, cleaner head design is even more important than suction or power. Most other Sharks do well in this area because they feature a dual brush roll design with one brush roll that’s soft optimized for pickup on hard floors and another brush roll with blades or bristles optimized for agitating carpet. The Cordless Pro combines these designs into one brush roll, a single soft roller with rubber blades.
Carpet cleaning
The problem is that it doesn’t work that well, at least when it comes to pickup on carpet. In our carpet stress test, the vacuum picks up large debris without issue but leaves behind some smaller debris after a single pass.
Carpet deep cleaning
In our carpet deep clean test, the Cordless Pro picked up only 4.7% of debris on maximum suction, a well below average result for a cordless vacuum and a far worse result than any other Shark we’ve tested this year.
Hard floor cleaning
In our hard floor stress test, the vacuum picks up large and fine debris without issue.
Crevice test
But in our hard floor crevice test, it again struggles a bit. It does eventually clean up the crevice, but it takes considerable effort to do so. The bottom line is that this vacuum only does one type of pickup reasonably well: surface level pickup on hard floors.
Battery life and Clean Sense IQ
On a positive note, the Cordless Pro does have excellent battery life, especially on the Clean Sense IQ setting, a setting on which it only increases suction when it senses that it’s picking up a lot of debris. There are multiple sensors along this inlet that sense debris passing through.
When they sense debris, suction increases automatically, and this is shown on the cleaner head of the vacuum. This is the cleaning mode most users will want to use most of the time to maximize battery life, and on this mode, the vacuum works very well, well at least on hard floors.
Fog test
Debris containment is another strong point for the Shark Cordless Pro. It features high-quality seals and a HEPA post-motor filter, which keeps fine debris properly contained inside the vacuum.
Hair tangling
Another positive is hair tangling. In our long hair pickup tests, this vacuum didn’t tangle at all with 8-inch long hair. It did tangle with 5 to 20% of 14-inch long hair, but this is still a much better than average result.
Weight, handling and control
When it comes to ease of use, the Shark Cordless Pro suffers from the same issues as most other Sharks we’ve tested: a very heavy cleaner head, which doesn’t make it particularly pleasant or easy to handle. On the positive side of things, this vacuum does feature an on/off switch, which makes it more pleasant to power on and keep on than certain competitors that require you to keep a trigger pull to keep the vacuum running.
Dust bin size: The Cordless Pro also has an above-average size dust bin, with a maximum measured capacity of 700 mL.
Storage: With some disassembly, it stands up on its own, which makes storing it very easy.
Pros and cons
Summarizing the pros and cons for this vacuum: The Shark Cordless Pro cleans surface level debris on hard floors very well. It also seals in fine debris very well, according to our debris containment test. In our hair tangling test, it didn’t tangle at all with 8-inch long hair, and it tangled minimally with 14-inch long hair. This vacuum also has an above-average size dust bin, and it stores easily because it stands up on its own.
On the negative side of things, it has low tested suction even with brand new filters. It also failed our flour clog test, which indicates that it will lose suction quickly and require extensive filter maintenance over time. This vacuum is also a poor choice for cleaning carpet. It struggles cleaning fine surface level debris and fine embedded debris on carpet.
Our recommendations
Moving on to general recommendations: The Shark Cordless Pro is generally not recommended if you mostly need to clean carpet because it performed poorly in our carpet cleaning tests. It’s a reasonable option for hard floors, but there are better options available that perform much better in all of our pickup tests, our deep clean tests, and our flour clog test. Vacuums that maintain suction much better and require much less filter maintenance over time than the Cordless Pro.
