Welcome to our Shark Stratos review! The Stratos is the most powerful Shark cordless vacuum we’ve tested. Its airflow was measured at 39 CFM, and its suction was measured at 92 in of water lift. These are also above average results for cordless vacuums in general.
Shark Stratos tests
Flour clog test
On the negative side of things, the Stratos loses suction quickly because its pre-filters clog easily with fine debris. In our flower clog test, the Stratos picks up the debris without issue, but a large quantity of flow deposits on its pre-motor filter. Compare this result to that of the Dyson V15. The Dyson picks up the same amount of flour, but almost no flour deposits on its pre-motor filter.
The Dyson uses multiple cyclones to filter out fine debris and drop it back into its bin. The Shark doesn’t have multiple cyclones; fine debris has a straight-line path right through its metal mesh filter and onto its pre-filter. These test results indicate that the Shark will lose suction quicker and require much more filter maintenance than the Dyson.
Read more: Dyson V15 Detect: All tests
Cleaner head design
On the positive side of things, the Stratos has a very high-quality cleaner head with two brush rolls: one for agitating carpet and another for picking up debris on hard floors.
Carpet cleaning
This cleaner head is highly effective at picking up small and large surface-level debris on carpet and hard floors. In our carpet stress test, the Stratos gets a perfect clean in a single pass.
Hard floor cleaning
In our hard floor stress test, some large debris does get stuck to the edges of its cleaner head. This angle shows how it happens; notice the two pieces of Cheerios stuck on the left side as the cleaner head is pulled backward. Overall though, the Stratos demonstrates very good performance in this test.
Carpet deep cleaning
The Stratos also performed very well in our deep cleaning tests. In our carpet deep clean test, the Stratos picked up 80% of debris after being pushed back and forth three times over an area of carpet embedded with fine debris. 80% pickup was the highest recorded result for this test, though several other cordless vacuums we tested also picked up 80% of debris in the same test.
Crevice test
The Shark‘s winning streak continues with our crevice test; it cleaned up the crevice in under 10 passes. This isn’t the best recorded result for this test, but it is a well above average result nonetheless.
Battery life
Moving on to battery life and performance, the Stratos was tested to run for 11 minutes on high and up to 50 1/2 minutes on its medium or Clean Sense IQ setting. On this setting, the Stratos only increases suction when it senses 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.
Again, the Stratos was tested to run for as long as 50 1/2 minutes on this setting, but this testing was done with its cleaner head off the ground, with it not actively picking up any debris. With its cleaner head on the ground, vacuuming carpet and actively picking up debris around the office, it was tested to run for only about 23 and 1/2 minutes.
This is a more realistic runtime to expect from this vacuum. This is still a very good runtime though, and on the setting, the Stratos still picks up debris very well. It was tested to pick up 70% of debris in our carpet deep clean test on Clean Sense IQ versus 80% of debris on high. Overall, the Stratos offers very good battery life relative to its performance on the Clean Sense IQ setting.
Fog test
The Stratos also keeps debris contained inside the vacuum very well; we didn’t observe any fog leaking or exhausting out of the vacuum during this test.
Hair tangling
The Stratos also performed very well in our hair tangling tests; its brush rolls didn’t tangle at all in our 8-inch long hair test and tangled with only a few strands of hair in our 14-inch long hair test. The only negative for the Stratos when it comes to long hair tangling is these smaller cleaner head wheels; long hair will occasionally wrap around one or both of these wheels, and when it does, it is quite difficult to detangle because these wheels aren’t removable.
Weight, handling and control
The biggest negative for the Stratos is the weight of its cleaner head. This head provides excellent pickup performance on carpet and hard floors, but it is heavy, and this makes the Stratos more difficult to handle and maneuver than cordless vacuums with lighter cleaner heads. It’s especially cumbersome when you have to pick up the head a lot when cleaning stairs, for example. Otherwise, the Stratos does very well in the ease of use category. It’s easy to control with an on/off button and a separate button to control suction.
Dust bin size
It has an above-average size dust bin with a maximum measured capacity of 700 milliliters.
Multiflex wand
We really like its MultiFLEX wand for easy cleaning under furniture. The MultiFLEX wand also allows for easy storage of the vacuum; you can flip over the top of the vacuum like this to store it very compactly as it stands without a wall dock.
Pros and cons of Shark Stratos (IZ862H)
Summarizing all of the pros and cons for this vacuum, the Stratos picks up surface-level debris on carpet and hard floors very well. Its brush rolls are also highly resistant to tangling with longer hair. This vacuum also deep cleans carpet very well, and it performed very well in our hard floor crevice test. It also offers very good battery life with excellent performance on its Clean Sense IQ setting, and it cleans underneath furniture easily and stores easily with its MultiFLEX wand.
The only real negative for the Stratos is its performance in our flower clock test; this test indicates that its pre-filter clogs up very easily with fine debris, which means that suction drops on this vacuum much quicker than it does on top-rated competitors, and it requires more frequent cleaning and eventual replacement of its filter than top-rated competitors.
>>>Dyson Gen5detect: All tests, Pros & cons
Recommendations
Moving on to general recommendations, the Stratos is a very good cordless vacuum new out of the box; it performed very well in all of our pickup tests. But with essentially brand-new filters, the problem for this vacuum is its long-term performance.
Its performance in our flower clock test indicates that it won’t perform as well as competitors over time, and it’s primarily for this reason that the Stratos isn’t higher in our rankings. For now, it’s only recommended as a good alternative to top-tier cordless vacuums. See the description for a link to the latest updated list of those top-tier cordless vacuums we recommend over the Stratos. Thank you reading our Shark Stratos review
