Shark - APEX DuoClean Pet Stick Vacuum - Forest Mist Blue

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The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products, promotional considerations or entries into drawings for honest, helpful reviews.

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  Compact, cleans well, but can be tiring to handle

  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • Top 250 Contributor

  I’ve been using this Shark Apex for about a month now, and I have to say it does a really nice job of picking up a lot of dust, dirt, and debris. I like its small form factor and the general lightness as a unit, about 5 lbs for the handheld vacuum motor and 5 lbs for the motorized floor/carpet assembly. I’m also a big fan of the way it easily disassembles and empties for cleaning with few easy-to-press release buttons. That said, one thing my old canister vacuum has as an advantage over the Shark is that it was much less fatiguing to handle for whole house cleaning (more than 30 minutes) because most of the weight was in the canister and sitting on the floor, whereas when using the Shark Apex, you’re handling most of the weight in your hand. I thought it was a neat idea that the unit is modular, and you can attach any of the nozzles to directly to the handheld unit without the wand to use like a dust buster. While it works fine in terms of cleaning, you’re pretty much manipulating all the weight of the vacuum directly by hand, so it ends up not feeling as easy as it looks, especially with the motorized roller attached (10 lbs total!). The various nozzles and attachments give you a variety of options to suit each cleanup job: an upholstery brush for couches and chairs, snap-on bristle brush for dusting, crevice tool for nooks and crannies, and a precision duster for tight and tiny spaces. However, unlike most canister vacuums, there’s no clever built-in storage compartment for these accessories, since that would have added weight and bulk to the unit, so you do need to find a separate place to keep these when not in use. The other thing I had to get used to was that the vacuum can’t stand up on its own when the motor is attached to the top of the wand/floor assembly. Despite all the product images showing the vacuum fully assembled and upright, it does not stand on its own because it is too top heavy. You have to unmount the motor from the extension tube every time you want to step away, otherwise it will topple over. Fortunately, there’s a storage hook on the lower front of the wand to hang the motor for this purpose. This is also how you will put away the unit for storage. The extra step is not necessarily a bad thing, but different than what I’m used to. I did like that there are cord hooks on the side to manage the ample 30 ft cord, as it is neither retractable nor removable. The vacuum works great on carpets. It really pulls out dust and dirt from deep in the pile, and you can tell by looking in the canister afterward just how fine of particles it’s picking up. One thing that I didn’t expect was that when using it in ‘Setting 2’ for carpeting, the faster brush speed actually propels the unit forward, so in a sense it’s easier to push since you can exert less effort. Except when you pull the vacuum back towards yourself, it requires more effort to overcome the forward propulsion of the rollers. It has a silicone bumper in the front, so you don’t make marks or dents if you bump into furniture. The dual brush design is novel to me, and I think the soft brushes do a good job wiping up dust that electrostatic-ly clings to hard floors. It’s almost like a light polish for your floors. The main feature I was looking forward to is the self-cleaning roller which unravels long hair on its own, so you don’t have to cut and rip wrapped hair off the brush. So far, it seems to be working as I haven’t had to do so. Occasionally, I’ll check the rollers and a few strands of hair will be wrapped around the brush, though the manual indicates this is normal and that as hair accumulates the Zero-M technology clears it over time. I don’t have pets, so I can’t comment on how this would perform with pet hair. The LED lights on the unit were a nice feature because it illuminates the dust and debris right in front of the vacuum both on the roller (headlights) and when using the unit as a handheld vac (spot light). There are just areas and corners of rooms that aren’t well lit and the extra light helps me see all the dust that I might otherwise miss. The only other thing I felt could have been improved is the maneuverability of the motorized roller assembly. When pushing it around, the joint where it attaches to the extension tube does articulate, but sometimes the wheels don’t respond fluidly to directional changes as they are fixed in a linear orientation and don’t swivel to move in the direction you’re turning. This puts a little extra pressure on my wrist, which is already handling a fair amount of weight and adds to the ease of fatigue when using the vacuum over long sessions. I also thought it was a tad loud, but this is hard to avoid with powerful suction. Overall, the cleaning ability, suction power, and small modular form factor are very good. Hair doesn’t stay tangled in the rollers, and it can pull a lot dust/dirt out of carpeting. However, the vacuum is a bit loud, can feel weighty as a handheld unit and maneuverability as a floor vacuum isn’t always super smooth leading to fatigue over longer cleaning sessions.

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  Posted 6 years ago by ReviewedByPhil

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  No More Hair on my Toes!

  • Incentivized
  • Verified Purchaser
  • My Best Buy® Member

  I was very skeptical about spending this much on a vacuum. But I am so tired of picking up hair between my toes when I walk on the carpet! We have dark carpet so it is very hard to see unless the hair is clumped. Plus having to cut my hair out of the spin brush is just so time consuming. My first use actually picked up my hair into the dust barrel (photo). Sure I did have some wrapped around the brush( it was minimal, maybe what i clean out of my hair brush weekly). I have long hair, it’s expected, but it was so easy to cut the strands and remove them compared to the traditional upright vacuums. Probably the only down side was my hand got a bit cramped with trying to drive it around, it is a bit heavy, however even though the design is skimpy it is powerful and versatile and has solved my hair problem.

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  Posted 5 years ago by Jschro15

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Good for hard wood floors

  • Incentivized
  • My Best Buy® Elite Member
  • Verified Purchaser
  • Owned for 1 month

  Definitely removes dust and debris on hard wood floors. Strong suction when it comes to carpet!

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  Posted 6 years ago by Yoba