Welcome to Home Appliance Review. This is our Shark Vertex Pro review. Let’s go!
Airflow & Suction
The Vertex Pro’s airflow was measured at 35 CFM, its suction was measured at 78 in of water lift. These are both slightly below average results for a cordless vacuum. The Vertex Pro’s suction also drops significantly over time because its pre-motor filter clogs easily with fine debris.
Shark Vertex Pro tests
Flour clog test
In our flour clog test, it picks up the debris without issue, but much of the debris it picks up deposits on its pre-filter. Compare this result to that of a Dyson series vacuum; the Dyson picks up the same amount of flour, but almost none of it deposits on its pre-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 this fine mesh grill and into its pre-filter. The results of this test indicate that the Shark will lose suction much quicker and require much more filter maintenance than the Dyson.
Reference: Dyson V15 Detect
Cleaner head design
The Vertex Pro does have a very high-quality dual brush roll cleaner head that, for the most part, makes up for its lack of power. The first brush roll is optimized for pickup on hard floors, and the second is optimized for agitating carpet.
Carpet cleaning
In our carpet stress test, the Shark Vertex Pro doesn’t get a perfect clean, but it picks up most small and large debris without issue.
Hard floor cleaning
In our hard floor stress test, the Vertex Pro again does very well. The only issue we noticed is that large debris can get stuck to the edges of its cleaner head. On this pass, you can see a few Cheerios stuck to the cleaner head as it’s pulled back, but overall, this isn’t much to complain about. The Vertex Pro generally picks up surface-level debris very well despite its relatively low power and mostly because of its high-quality cleaner head.
Carpet deep cleaning
With its dual brush roll cleaner head, this vacuum also does well deep cleaning carpet. In our carpet deep clean test, it picked up 80% of debris after being pushed back and forth three times over an area of carpet embedded with fine debris. This puts it in a tie with several other cordless vacuums for the best-recorded performance in this test.
Crevice test
The only apparent weakness of this vacuum’s dual brush roll design is demonstrated in our crevice test. In this test, the Vertex Pro does not get a perfect clean of the crevice even with considerable effort, likely because the cleaner head, with its two brush rolls, has difficulty creating a seal over the crevice.
Battery life
Another point of strength for the Vertex Pro is its battery life relative to its performance. It was tested to run for up to 33 minutes on its medium power setting, and on medium, it still offers very good performance. Its carpet deep clean performance, for example, only drops down to 67% pickup on medium versus 80% pickup on maximum power. This vacuum also features a swappable battery, though no extra batteries were included with our purchase of the vacuum.
Fog test
The Vertex Pro also performed well in our debris containment test; we didn’t observe any debris leaking or exhausting out of the vacuum during this test.
Hair tangling
In our long hair pickup tests, Shark Vertex Pro tangled with only a few strands of 8-inch long hair and with between 25 and 50% of 14-inch long hair. Both results are better than the average, meaning the Vertex Pro is more resistant to hair tangling than most other cordless vacuums we’ve tested. The only caveat here is that its cleaner head does have these small wheels that can also tangle with hair, and it’s very difficult to detangle hair from these wheels because they’re non-removable.
Weight, handling and control
When it comes to ease of use, our primary complaint is the weight of the vacuum’s cleaner head. The cleaner head’s dual brush roll design works very well when the head is on the ground and stays on the ground, but it is quite cumbersome to lift off of the ground, especially when you need to do it often, when cleaning stairs, for example.
On the positive side of things, the Vertex Pro is easy to control with a power button that keeps the vacuum on after you press it once. It also has a button that alternates between low, medium, and high suction and a button that alternates between faster brush roll rotation on the carpet setting and slower rotation on the hard floor setting.
Dust bin size
The Shark Vertex Pro’s bin was measured to have a maximum capacity of 700 mL, which is an above-average size for a cordless vacuum dust bin.
Multiflex wand
Another feature of note in this category is the vacuum’s multiflex wand, which allows for easier cleaning underneath furniture. The wand can also be turned over into this position to store the vacuum. Because the vacuum can be stored in this position, it doesn’t come with a wall charging dock; you have to plug it into power to charge it.
Pros and cons of Shark Vertex Pro
Summarizing the pros and cons for this vacuum, the Vertex Pro picks up surface-level debris on carpet and hard floors very well. It also deep cleans carpet very well. This vacuum provides excellent battery life, still with very good performance on its medium suction setting. It’s highly resistant to hair tangling. It has an above-average size dust bin, and it stores very easily with its multiflex wand.
By far, the biggest negative for the Shark Vertex Pro is its performance in our flour clog test. Its performance in this test indicates that it will lose suction quickly as its filter clogs up with fine debris. It also indicates that its filter will have to be cleaned and eventually replaced frequently. The Vertex Pro also has relatively low tested airflow and suction. This doesn’t really impact its performance with clean filters; it performed well in most of our pickup tests with clean filters. But higher suction would have helped it perform better once its filter clogs up with repeated use. We also don’t like the weight of the vacuum’s cleaner head; we love its functionality, but the downside of its design is its weight.
Our recommendations
Moving on to general recommendations, the Shark Vertex Pro is generally not recommended because of its performance in our flour clog test. If you’re looking to buy a cordless vacuum in this price range, there are better options available. One of them is this vacuum’s predecessor, the standard non-Pro Vertex. The standard Vertex adds this plastic baffle to its bin, which reduces airflow but prevents fine debris from having a straight-line path onto the vacuum’s pre-filter.
Because of this baffle, the standard Vertex’s filter is much cleaner after the same test, and because its filter doesn’t clog up with fine debris as easily, the standard Vertex will be able to maintain suction much better over time and require much less filter maintenance over time. For these reasons alone, we recommend the standard Vertex over the Vertex Pro.
