Customer Ratings & Reviews

I’ve gone through so many battery-powered stick vacs over the past 15 years–their batteries only last so long–that I finally decided to give a corded stick vac a try, in this case, the Shark Stratos. While there are some things that I like about it, I have some considerable gripes as well. [ Pros ] - The motor and rollers do a good job of pulling pet fur out of carpet. - Good maneuverability. The wand can move laterally to a decent degree relative to the floor nozzle. - Comes with three attachments that can be applied directly to the hand-held vac unit, or in conjunction with the wand. Many stick vacs don’t come with any attachments. - Power and carpet mode buttons are easily thumb-accessible while comfortably holding the handle. While this seems like an obvious design decision, this is not done on all stick vacs. - Unlike most stick vacs that I’ve used, the floor nozzle rollers continue to operate when the wand is soft-locked into the upright position. This makes it easier to use on stairs when used with the wand. [ Cons ] - The biggest issue I have with this unit is its incredibly paltry dust cup capacity. I had to empty the dust cup four times when vacuuming just my upstairs carpet. Each additional trip increases the chances of an accidental dust spill mishap. Granted I do have a cat and it’s shedding season. But still, the battery-powered stick vac I had been using previously has a collection cup I estimate to have three times or greater capacity than this unit. The separate compartment housing the cone screen can be visually misleading, as this doesn’t add to the fill capacity. - The unit does not remember the floor type setting when turned off, defaulting to the bare floor mode when turned on again (even if turned off for only several seconds). I find this to be quite annoying, as I routinely–by habit–turn vacuums off when moving them between rooms. - In its fully-connected configuration, the unit will not stand on its own (it will fall backward). The hand vac can be detached and placed on a small hook on the front of the wand which helps, but the off-center alignment of the hand vac causes the wand to lean to the left, and it already naturally leans back at an angle even when soft-locked into its upright position. Besides looking odd, it makes the vac somewhat prone to tipping over. - The small roller attachment is not electrically powered. Instead, the roller operates purely by the airflow produced by the motor. The roller would slow down very significantly on high-friction surfaces, much worse than with similar attachments on other vacs I’ve used, all of which were electrically powered. Despite this, it still managed to pick up a decent amount of cat fur. - The attachments don’t snap into place. Instead, they are held into place by simple friction. They are more difficult to put on and pull off compared to snap-on attachments I’ve used with other vacs. In my experience, this type of fitting wears down over time with attachments becoming loose and easily popping off during use, but only time will tell if that’s the case with this unit. Lacks a safety feature to prevent power-on when the dust cup is not in place. [ Other thoughts ] - The cord length seems standard compared to other corded vacs I’ve used. - The speed and strength of the rollers in the floor nozzle tend to automatically pull the vacuum forward on carpeted floors. - Ran into problems with carpet mode on throw rugs, but switching to bare-floor mode helped a lot. - Unlike many vacs I’ve used, *both* rollers in the floor nozzle operate in bare-floor mode (but at a reduced speed). [ Conclusion ] The Shark Stratos has decent cleaning potential. However, its low cup capacity and various annoying properties can make it tedious to use, especially in households with pets.

This is a stick vacuum, so you're not going to get the suction of an upright, but it is corded, so I think you're getting more suction than you would from a battery-powered device. It has a couple of powered rollers, one of which is supposed to help lift hair out of the carpet. In my experience, it did a pretty good job of picking up cat hair, of which my carpet had plenty. There's a smaller attachment with a roller that's driven by the air flow, and it doesn't work as well, but you're not really going to use that one to groom carpet or rugs. The roller will get stuck if you have it set for hard floors instead of carpet, and you'll have to power it off and back on again to get the roller to start working again. Having most of the weight up near the handle makes it easier to maneuver than a regular upright, but it also makes it more awkward to store. To ameliorate that drawback, you're supposed to disconnect the top from the stick and hang it on a hook at the base before winding the cord back up. That works well enough. The dirt catcher is fairly easy to pop off and empty without getting your hands dirty. All in all, this is a good compromise between a battery-powered stick vacuum and a standard upright vacuum.

I have been relying on cordless vacuums for a while now and I wasn't sure how I would feel about going back to a cord. It did take just a bit of learning how to maneuver... but the power of this corded vac blows my cordlesses out of the water! We have hard floors and runs on our main floor and carpet going up and up the stairs and all over the upstairs. I was able to keep the main head on the vacuum and clean every corner and cranny downstairs without any issue, which was awesome! I've gotten used to having to take the head off of my other vacuums and just use the stick part to get up against cabinets but this guy's suction is so powerful that it got it all without any additional effort on my part (which I really appreciated since I was deep into a Sunday Afternoon Rage Clean). The dust that it got up was fantastic too! Also, rather appalling since I thought that my house wasn't too disgusting... but apparently I was wrong and the good news is that now it truly is clean! I used the specialty hair attachment going up the stairs and we have four humans, a dog, a cat, and a chinchilla and the amount of "stuff" that it cleaned out of the stairs on my carpet was incredible. I HIGHLY recommend this for anyone who is looking for more of a "clean" rather than the "power sweeping" that I was getting with cordless vacuums.

I chose this particular vacuum wand because of its claims of function ability. Thus far, it has met every expectation required by me, in order to move from Floor to floor with ease. The suction is powerful, and the ease at emptying the canister is good.

Shark is no stranger to the stick vacuum game. The Stratos Corded Stick Vacuum, for the most part, does not disappoint! Lets get the obvious out of the way. It is a stick vacuum so it, of course, fits in small areas. This is great for storage. The motor portion of the vacuum detaches from the vacuum head and wand portion. It has a built in hook that the motor portion can hang from. This makes the vacuum a lot less tall for easier storage in closets or cabinets. The motor portion also has a selection button that allows the user to choose between bare floors or carpet. Once the button is pressed there is a significant increase in power (when going from bare floor to carpet mode). The vacuum detaches from the brush roller and can be used as a wand with the included brush attachments. Two of the coolest features I noticed were the LED lighting on the brush roller, and the odor eliminator cartridge. The LED lights are extremely bright and when the brush roller has an issue, the lights begin to flash red to alert the user. The odor eliminator cartridge smells really good. You simply screw it into a designated slot on the brush roller. While vacuuming, the air in the room smells great. My only issue with it is that there is now way for that smell to last. I feel like most people will not buy a replacement odor cartridge once it is gone. Now, for my largest gripe about this vacuum. It will NOT stand up on its own. When the vacuum is in the upright, unused position, it leans back. The vacuum will not stay standing and, if you let it go, it will fall backwards. I do not like this at all. I feel like I should be able to "park" the vacuum and leave it standing upright in the middle of the room. This is, in my opinion, the largest downfall of this vacuum. It does a great job of pulling dirt from the surface being vacuumed, but that is lost on trying to find something to prop the vacuum up against when you need to walk away from it. All in all, it isn't a bad product, but it should be able to stand at attention.

The vacuum has plenty of suction and it's very lightweight. We are very happy with the purchase.

Love this guy!! Powerful, light. Does a great job on our hardsurfaces and our lower pile rugs.

This is a little workhorse and I love it. Very easy to empty and clean, works like a charm.

This vacuum cleaner takes some time to get used to compared to previous vacuum cleaners. There is a slight awkwardness as you get used to having a vacuum that is top-heavy, so you can’t simply just stand it up and walk away. however, if you’re looking at this vacuum, it’s not because you want something that is bulky and traditional. You’re looking for something that is a bit more flexible. personally, I find this vacuum. Perfect for my home, which is mostly hard floors which means the vacuum is needed for floor rugs and furniture. I’m this regard, it’s flawless. This vacuum cleaner also a great if you are limited for space because it is possible to store this in a small place. Another design comment is the size of the dust bin. If you have pets or lots of carpet, you will find yourself clearing this often. This isn’t a “con” but it’s worth mentioning if you have a larger home, let’s or children. Overall, I think this is a very powerful vacuum for a small apartment or home and it’s great for hard floors as well as rugs.

It's an excellent vacuum i have not seen any other vacuum like this one leaves the house spotless

It’s been great so far. I find it works great on carpet and ok on hardwood. It’s a bit heavy but overall a good vacuum. ◡̈

Very powerful suction. Nice light weight. Only issue on some lightweight rugs suction too powerful and can't adjust.

Great a picking up anything and everything , o my reason it doesn’t get 5 starts is because the top half is heavy and falls over