Customer Ratings & Reviews

When so called Robot Vacuums first came out, they were a novelty at best with short range, extremely small capacity dust bins and poor pick-up and cleaning performance. Their main utility was scaring the family cat and making amusing YouTube videos. They have improved tremendously since those early days. They are now a practical home floor vacuuming appliance with enough dust capacity and range to handle a fairly large floor plan. There are two general types of Robo Vacs today, defined by their navigation method. The more expensive and complicated designs (NOT THE SHARK ION) use sonar arrays which the Vac uses to create a map of the entire floor plan and every barrier in the rooms. This map has too much information for the on-board memory in the Vac to store by itself and therefore the map must be uploaded to a dedicated server on the company’s website. Once stored, this mapping allows the Vac to do a very logical cleanup of the rooms traveling in straight lines that rarely cross each other. It’s pleasing to watch in action, but the off-site storage of map data is often it’s Achilles’ Heel, since a momentary drop of the internet can leave the Vac lost and confused. The sonar mapping navigation method OF THESE OTHER ROBOT VACS leaves a straight lined square shaped pattern on the open areas of carpeted floors. The Shark - ION™ S87 App-Controlled Robot Vacuum uses the second common navigation method, the random billiard ball bounce. It has no RAM memory and every trip from the charger is a new adventure. It has bump/contact sensors and a computer program that tells it to proceed in a straight line for at least 10-15 seconds or until it bumps into something or senses the edge of a stair drop-off. It will then rotate clockwise about 95 (never exactly 90 or 180) degrees about 5 times in a row and then counter-clockwise the next 5 times in a row. This simple program EVENTUALLY randomly covers most of the open spaces in the rooms it travels through. When the battery begins to run low, it will start seeking out its charging station. The Shark Ion’s navigation method leaves a diamond shaped pattern on the open areas of carpeted floors. PROS: - The Shark - ION™ S87 App-Controlled Robot Vacuum does a good job of vacuuming the floor. However, because it uses the random billiard ball bounce method of navigation, it is much less complicated, has fewer ways to fail and is less expensive than sonar models. - No Robot Vac can get into tight corners, so the addition of a separate hand vac in the charging station is a handy bonus. The hand vac comes with several attachment wands that make vacuuming under stoves and refrigerators as well as cleaning wall vents easier. - The Shark - ION™ S87 App-Controlled Robot Vacuum has a lower profile than most Robo Vacs, which makes it more likely to be able to get under beds and sofas. - The free phone app gives the option of three different speeds which can make the Vac either quieter or able to complete its job in less time. - The phone app allows the owner to start the Shark - ION™ S87 App-Controlled Robot Vacuum and see its battery's charge state from anywhere in the world with an open internet connection. The app also has a simple to program scheduling function, that allows the owner to have the Vac do its job when no one is home. - The dust collection bin is relatively large which will usually allow the entire floor to be cleaned in one run. CONS: - The dust collection bin does not have an automatically closing intake opening when it is removed from the Vac (see the included photo). This and the opening's location on the bottom edge of the bin, often results in dirt being spilled out of the bin onto the floor when the bin is removed, unless care is taken to keep the bin level. - The random navigation method can sometimes make it difficult for the Vac to find its charging station when the battery gets low. - The fan and motor on the separate hand-held Vac create a loud high-frequency scream that is unpleasant to be near. It is so loud (even for my old ears), that I was prompted to use noise cancelling headphones when using it. Other than the noise however, the hand vac does a good job. CONCLUSION: The Shark - ION™ S87 App-Controlled Robot Vacuum is not a toy. It is a legitimate house cleaning appliance. If you had a Robot Vac a few years ago and found it wasn’t worth the effort, the current generation of Robot Vacs like the Shark-ION is worth giving a second look. They have really improved. Personally, I’m looking forward to the future generation Robo Vac that will climb and vacuum stairs as it does its thing in a multi-story home! In the meantime, I’ll keep my Shark Ion.

Best purchase ever for someone who is a stickler about crubms and grass on the floor. I run it almost every other night and am amazed how much stuff comes out of the carpet. Great suction power.

This vacuum works great, we have 2 large dogs that shed like crazy and it helps pick up the hair. You do have to clean it out pretty often but still a great product

Love the hand held vaccum works perfect for stairs. We named it baby shark and he gets stuck behind furniture once in a while. But over all does a great job.

It lasted about a year before we have to take it back. I love this product, but it didn't last. Thankfully we had the warranty.

Takes a while to get to all parts of the carpet, but completes the job. Sometimes I dock it and then have it continue to have a perfect clean.

This machine is quiet and efficient. It does a really really nice job.

Robovac does a great job on our floors all hardwood with area rug. Pet hair is not a problem and we have to Poms. The handheld vac is an excellent bonus and powerful for a handheld. Waiting to review after using it for a couple month of use we currently have it running 3 or 4 days a week. Overall we could not be happier with our purchase.

We really like this product. Shark ION works better than I expected. We were pleased with the price and the performance. It was a mother's day gift but I probably enjoy it more than my wife. Easy setup, easy operation. Cordless wand is a nice bonus as welll for difficult to reach spots and a quick vacuum of pet hair from sofa.

Works well quiet but powerful and efficiently... 2 brushes are the best . larger size than the last one I had...

I live I a small apartment with 2 cats that shed daily. I schedule my bot to clean every day right before I get home from work and I walk in to a relaxing clean apartment. I control I from my phone . if I have company coming over I set it to clean right before they arrive and if makes a huge difference.

Cleans well, but somewhat on the noisy side during operation. Runs for about an hour over multiple surfaces.

Perfect for the pet hair on laminate flooring. Tends to get stuck in close quarters though.

The handheld isn’t strong at all but the robot does good.

I returned my Romba 690 and purchased this. It runs really quite.

I love this vacuum!! I set it and forget it!! I can wash dishes, tend to my child, cook, run errands, all instead of having to vacuum or sweep because the Shark has it covered!! One of the best investment I've ever made!!

I like better than i robot and it comes with a hand vac

I would recommend, love the hand held portion of the device

The world of robot vacuums has gotten quite a bit bigger over the past 5 years. Shark first jumped into this world with the Ion 700 series over the past couple years. Following that up they have the S85 and S87 combo units that take the top end of their lineup. Unlike some of their competitors models which are filled with cameras, lasers, or other fancy features, the Shark attempts to bring a solid set of fundamentals at an affordable price. After all, this is what the Shark vacuum brand is known for: bringing a versatile set of tools that don’t overstretch their technology, but bring useful and flexible tools to the home. So does the S87 live up to that legacy? The Shark S87 brings a unique play to the robot vacuum world: specifically combining a hand vacuum and robot vacuum into one package/charging base. This combo makes it easy to quickly spot clean with the hand vac, and schedule full house cleanings with the robotic portion. This is a very different approach from the competition which almost always includes some sort of ‘spot clean’ mode or remote control capability to allow quick cleanups using the robot. This focus on the ‘best tool for the job’ is a welcome respite ostensibly allowing an advantage to the Shark Ion system. I think this is a great approach, as the success of the original hand vacuum was mostly due to people just needing to clean a small space. And let me say, the execution on the hand vac for quick pickups is quite nice. Specifically it’s slender, includes a powerful lithium battery for its intended use and has an easy to use dust bin empty switch. I wouldn’t want to clean a flight of stairs with it, but it certainly could be done. The package includes two attachments a crevice tool and a multi-surface pet tool which make it perfect for cleaning furniture. This tool is loud however, definitely quite a bit louder than the robot. The dust bin is released with a switch just below the handle which is convenient. Its spring-loaded nature mean that you better be not just over, but inside your trash bin when you use it as otherwise it’ll fling the dust you just vacuumed up. The robot vacuum portion is identical to the standalone S85 vacuum. First of all, let me underscore the reality of comparing this robot to its competition. Edge cleaning, navigation, suction power, and even ease of use are somewhat compromised here. I wouldn’t say the robotic portion is class leading in any field, other than perhaps mechanical simplicity. Essentially you have drop sensors (requiring at least 4” of drop to register appropriately according to the insert in the box), boundary sensors, and a pair of IR distance sensors on either side of the bot. The front half of the robot is a bumper, allowing it to gently bump into things and then adjust its course. This means that you won’t find floor plan mapping, carpet/hardwood modes, or other advanced features. Essentially the S87 bounces from edge to edge in your house making various degree turns as it goes. The distance sensors mean that it slows its approach as it gets closer to things, and can even avoid bumping if it assumes its close to a wall. Most of the time it’ll do a 90 degree turn, but depending on the data from the distance sensors, it might attempt to parallel a wall for a bit. Since it isn’t doing any mapping, it can take rather wandering trips around complex floor plans. Given the 60 or so minute runtime (afforded by the 2550 mAh lithium ion power cell) this means that cleaning can be very limited unless you’re dealing with a pretty open floor plan with minimal obstacles. When it finishes a cycle, I find it can wander around in low power mode looking for its dock. My floor plan is a bit more complex than I think it would like. That said, the Shark did an excellent job at transitioning from my hardwood to carpeted areas so that is definitely a good skill it seems to have mastered. It also hasn’t had any issues getting stuck in furniture that I’ve had issues with other robot vacuums with. The circular design has its advantages for sure. Given its limited runtime and navigational ‘challenges’, the included 8ft of magnetic boundary strip can help keep the S87 on track to cleaning what matters in your household. Unfortunately magnetic boundary strips (common outside of the Roomba world) have limitations, and are hard to hide (as the sensors might not read them properly if under a rug). That said, you might want to use them if you find keeping the Shark contained means it does its job better. Due to its circular design, the brushroll is relatively short in length. It’s a combo rubber/nylon brush that spans just about the maximum distance between the drive wheels. The side brushes work by spinning, brushing dust and debris in the path of the bot towards the brushroll. The bottom of the vacuum designed with more soft brushes to keep that debris in range of the suction of the motor/brushroll. In practice this works great on hardwood, linoleum, low pile carpet and other hard surfaces. Medium to high pile carpet this system seems less effective on. The brushroll spins dirt/debris directly into the removable dust bin, which has a built in set of anti-tangle teeth that work with the brushroll to keep it snag free. The dustbin is described as ‘XL’, and it is definitely larger than some - however I doubt you’d want to skip emptying it after running. Where this does come in handy is fur. The capacity pairs nicely with pulling up pet fur and dander, which is a huge boon for pet owners. The dustbin slides out and is generally easy to empty. I do like how easy it is to open up, and even take apart for a full cleaning. The filter is washable according to the manual, even though the dust bin has warnings on it not to wash it, but tap it only. I do like that the filter seems quite effective, and even has a rubber seal ensuring all dust passes through it. The vacuum does a great job at picking up larger debris, as my three year old successfully fed it pancakes one morning. The pancakes actually ended up in the dustbin whole, not chewed up or smooshed as one may expect. Usability wise, this is definitely one place where the Shark shines. On top of the vacuum you’ll find three buttons. These, along with the hard power switch on the side, are the only buttons you’ll find. The Shark presents two functions, ‘clean’ and ‘dock’. These are self explanatory, but the third button is ‘max’. This button enables the max mode for ‘powerful cleaning’. I’m unsure what impact it has to runtime, but it did seem to increase the suction a decent amount. To use more advanced features, you need to download the Shark app and hold the dock and max buttons for approximately 5 seconds. After that you can connect to a built-in WiFi network to perform initial setup. I had some difficulty the first time I attempted this, but a bit of trial and error later, things were working perfectly. The vacuum appears to only support 2.4GHz WiFi networks. I created my Shark account, and linked it with my Amazon Echo (Alexa) and I was in business. The app allows you to not only start your vacuum remotely, but also adjust its mode (it also has a quiet mode), setup a schedule, and view operating history. Unfortunately there is no manual vacuum control for spot cleaning, nor way of sending the vacuum on any other strategy of cleaning than just ‘clean’. The schedule is handy, but limited as it only allows one start time per day. It might be useful to have the ability to run it twice if you have a larger floor plan with hopes that it can clean a bit more. The history is useful as it gives you total runtime in the past 30 days, how many cycles the vacuum has run. Beyond that, you can setup notifications of errors, and setup quiet mode to work during a certain set of hours to keep its volume down. Speaking of noise, the Shark is definitely one of the quietest vacuums I’ve owned. It’s also light compared to many robot vacuums, weighing in at around 5 1/2 pounds. Shark also offers Google and Amazon skill support for home assistants. I used the Alexa variant without any issues. Saying “Alexa, ask Shark to start the vacuum” work great. I was even able to tell it to dock. There is something inherently cool about having this connection, but I found that using the app or schedule was just as easy. Again, my floor plan being somewhat more complicated means that it has to run for its full cycle to really hit all my spaces, so prompting Alexa to start it for say a spot clean isn’t really possible. Perhaps if it had floor mapping/room identification then this might be a useful feature, but unfortunately the Shark is rather limited here. So in conclusion, who is the Shark S87 system good for? If you are looking for an affordable vacuum, you have mostly hard floors (and perhaps pets with fur to pick up after), and live in a rather open floor plan then the Shark is a serious consideration. The hand vacuum combo means that you won’t need a separate vacuum for furniture and hard to reach areas. I could see the Shark being perfectly at home in a open floor condo layout main floor. If you have a complex multi-room floor plan, with carpet and irregular walls, the Shark’s lack of mapping technology will be rather limiting and you’d be better off looking at vacuums that can adjust to this workload better. Unfortunately there are much more capable bots in the market at this price and the hand vac addition doesn’t negate the inherent limitations of the S87 platform. Shark is quite solid on the software side, and competent when it comes to cleaning, but the limits of the battery and navigation mean that you may need to make up for its lack of thoroughness by running it more often unless it is tasked to clean a very small area. I’m a big fan of Shark vacuums (I love my Ion X40 and its wired brethren before it), but the S87 platform fills only the most basic of robotic vacuum needs

I was really excited to get a robot vacuum again, especially a Shark. With 3 pets, any extra assistance fighting the never ending battle of fur is welcome! Unboxing was easy and so was syncing the robot to the app! After charging up the robot and setting up a schedule I sent it on a test clean to find possible trouble spots for the robot. I was amazed by how quiet the machine was compared to my previous robot vacuum and loved that I can control the power. After the first test I emptied the bin and was pleasantly surprised by how much it had actually picked up on its sporadic cleaning! One of the best features is the hand vacuum that comes with it. It’s powerful, comes with great attachments, charges conveniently on the dock and works for cleaning almost every surface in my home. Overall this is a good robot. I think once they put some l navigation sensors on this robot to improve it room cleaning plan it will work great! Pros: Quiet Good Suction App Controlled Hand Vac Dock Cons: Battery Navigation (doesn’t seem to follow any particular path and gets stuck a lot) Does not pick up where it left off after recharge