Shark - ION™ S87 Wi-Fi Connected Robot Vacuum with Handheld Vacuum - Ash Gray

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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 5 out of 5 stars

  Love at First Use

  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • Top 1000 Contributor

  The Shark ION S87 Robot Vacuum is the top-of-the-line robot vacuum from Shark. Until I tried this out, my favorite robot vacuum was the Shark ION 750; and I’ve used robot vacuums from several different top brands. But now, the S87 has dethroned the 750 as my new favorite. First of all, it is not only a robot vacuum, but the dock also discretely houses a very powerful yet lightweight hand-held vacuum. Both work very, very well. The robot vacuum has updated Navigation 2.0 technology to help it get around the house without getting stuck. For really tough areas, you can use the included boundary strips (like under a couch where it might get stuck). The vacuum doesn’t have mapping technology, nor does it vacuum in straight lines, so if that is important to you, you may want to try something else. I think that its randomness actually allows it to vacuum the house as a whole more effectively. It also features three levels of suction to choose from, depending on your needs. On max suction, it is three times more powerful than the 750. It has a main rolling brush in the middle of the unit, plus two spinning brushes near the sides to push debris into the dustbin. The dustbin is very large, and in my house, always ends up full. The wide opening to the dustbin ensures that pet hair won’t clog the unit and render it ineffective. The dustbin and filter are easy to remove and empty. The vacuum is much more quiet than most and cleans equally well on carpets and hard flooring. Another nice feature of this vacuum is that it can be run remotely through the Shark ION smartphone app, or through smart home devices such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home Assistant. The handheld vacuum has incredible suction for its size and is really lightweight but it is also very loud. It has a one button empty feature for effortless dumping of your kid’s dropped cheerios into the trash after sucking them up. It comes with two attachments, one for use with picking up pet hair from upholstered surfaces; and one for picking up dust. Unfortunately though, the attachments can’t be mounted on the dock, so you’ll have to store those separately. Despite a couple very minor flaws, I love this vacuum and it is now my go-to floor cleaner.

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  Posted 7 years ago by The34Car

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  Good but not a big upgrade

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  • Top 100 Contributor

  The Shark Ion is supposed to be the latest one in the series that is an upgrade to its predecessors. While this is still a good self cleaner i beg to differ on it being that much of a big upgrade. In some areas i actually feel they downgraded some things. However you look at it this is still a good product but i wonder how much better it really is compared to its previous models. Lets dive in and find out if this is the right fit for your house. So right out of the box your going to receive the main vacuum, the base, the wand with three attachments, and four brushes which would leave you with two spare ones. The first thing i noticed about the two side brushes was that it only has one row of bristles. I uploaded a picture for you to see but the reason why this stood out to me was because i felt it was a down grade from last years model. I own another Shark Ion, last years model to be exact and when comparing the two together side by side i noticed some differences of course. My older Shark Ion has three rows of bristles instead of one single row on this newer model. More bristles means more stuff gets picked up. Also the claim on this model is that its good for pet hair. I have a German Shepard that sheds alot and i mean ALOT. The Shark Ion does a good job picking up the pet hair off the hard surfaces but really struggles to pull it from the carpet. And not just that but the main roller they used is your standard brush type roller. This means that hair in general gets tangled in the brushes very easily and needs to be cut out. With the release of the Shark upright duo which utilizes a soft roller i thought for sure they would of used this technology in the new Shark Ion. I have a vacuum that is specifically designed for pet hair and it uses a bristle-less soft roller that never tangles. Just something to keep in mind since its claimed to be good for pets. Now there is a power boost option for the vacuum that you activate under the app but this serves no real function in my opinion. When you activate the power boost its supposed to create more suction power and while you can hear it slightly increase it still struggled to pull up my pet hair from the carpet. All it really did was drain the battery down very fast. Lets talk about the app section for a bit. You can link this up to your internet via the app which allows you to access the vacuum wireless. One thing i will tell you is setting up the app can be frustrating as most self cleaners usually have a hard time getting past your firewall. Set up may be difficult and may take some know how if you have a touchy security system on your wireless internet. Once the app is set up you can go ahead and name your robot and set up cleaning schedules. If your robot ever gets stuck or has an issue it will also send an alert to your phone letting you know its in trouble and what its situation is i.e. "your robot is stuck." You can also order replacement parts for your vacuum through the app as well. One nice add on though to this latest model is the cordless wand that attaches to the base. The wand has some very strong suction power and while its dust bin may be very small it is sealed with a anti-allergen seal and hepa filter. The fact that you are given three extra attachments means cleaning your stairs, car, drapes, or whatever it is you are trying to get to will be a breeze. The suction power on the wand is so good that it had no problem pulling pet hair or debris from the crevices of my couches. Now lets talk functionality and how good it can maneuver. One thing i want to start off by saying is that i have tested 5 different models of self cleaners and Shark by far makes one of the best cleaners. Now understand when you use this model its going to move very erratic and may seem clumsy to you. There are a few things to know first. For starters wherever you position your base try to move it once its positioned. The Shark Ion will seem clumsy at first but that is because it needs to learn your floor plan. They have implemented two side sensors which the previous models didn't have which allows it to get closer along the edges of your wall. The more you use the vacuum from the same position the better it learns your plan and becomes more uniform with its cleaning run. While it will never run perfect straight up and down lines it will still do a very good job at picking up almost all the debris on your floor. I really liked how well this unit hugged the walls to get in to some of the tight spots. Just keep in mind this unit will still zig zag acting like its lost but its actually pretty smart in the way of knowing where its going and maneuvering around obstacles. When the battery gets low it will go in to low power mode and make its way back home to its base station and dock itself. The first several cleaning cycles it will struggle to find its base depending on how far away it is from it so don't expect it to make a straight shot home to its base station. Also this is why i said its very important not to move its base station once you set it up because over time it will learn where its home base is making its return back alot faster and more uniform. Here's my final verdict. All in all this is a great unit to own and the only reason i didn't give it five stars is because i see no real big upgrades that make it stand out other than the cordless wand it comes with. I can tell you from personal experience that Shark hands down makes really good units that last very long and work very well. While this may not be the top of the line in the way of self cleaners its still a very good competitor that works very well and is built to last. The app allows for you to control this unit anytime from anywhere rather your at work or at home you can turn this unit on or shut it off at will. The wand is a very nice add on that complements this unit very well helping to add more appeal to it. The suction power of the wand means that it can serve an actual purpose. Pros: -Wand with attachments -Good battery life -Decent suction power -Smart technology -Avoids obstacles -Bigger waste bin Cons: -Not so good with pet hair -single row bristles for the side brushes -Does not do too well with pet hair on carpets

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  Posted 7 years ago by Crasher

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Great cleaning and voice control

  • Top 500 Contributor
  • Tech Insider Network Member

  The Shark ION S87 Robot has a few quirks about it that I find a bit worrisome, but overall, I am impressed with the system and how it works. Cleaning power is great, and I have had no issues with how well it cleans. The amount of dust in the dust bin is always a surprise to me after a cleaning. The suction power manages to pull dirt and pet hair from the carpets on a daily basis. The addition of the cord-free handheld vacuum is a very welcome addition. However, I used to keep my old ION robot parked under a table in my dining room, but this model will not fit with the charging bay for the hand-held. A minor inconvenience I admit, but the previous spot I was able to minimize the amount of times my toddlers would “play” with the robot. The dust bin itself holds plenty of dust and debris and I have been able to run it three times without having to empty it. Run time has been a consistent hour each time. Even in max mode I get an hour but advertised run time is 2 hours in normal mode and less in Max mode. I have tested the noise level between quiet, normal, and max mode and my readings showed about a 5dB between each mode. Max mode wasn’t that loud, but it would be annoying if you are trying to watch a TV show perhaps. There is a bit of confusion with the HEPA filter. The dust bin says to clean weekly by tapping it and to not wash it, the manual says it’s ok to wash with water and fully dry out over a 24-hour period. I am not exactly sure which one is correct, but my old shark ION robot I did wash the filter (which had the same warning on the dust bin) and it worked out fine. Now for the quirks that I mentioned earlier. The robot has just stopped at different times and gone back to the base station, the app displayed an error that it got stuck on an ‘uneven’ surface. Also, it did get stuck under a chair and displayed the error that it got stuck on a boundary strip. That time it just stayed put and didn’t go back to the charger. Another quirk is how you have to open the dust bin…. it’s hard to explain, but you have to hold it with one hand and use the other hand to both depress the button and lift the top open at the same time. I prefer the old design much better. The dust bin filter seems to get a lot of dust trapped in it and I am not sure how well it cleans after that, but you will have a good amount of buildup on that. The navigation 2.0 seems a bit jerkier in it’s movements than the previous model, but I think this new version has a rougher time navigating around my home, but with that being said, it seems to have a better chance of not getting stuck which my pervious model would get stuck once in a while. I really like being able to ask Alexa or Google to start the cleaning and I find that feature to work pretty well. The app will give you stats like how long the robot has been cleaning, it’s current charge level, it will beep so you can locate it, pause cleaning, of course start cleaning. Over all, I am looking forward to this robot doing a good job keeping my floors clean between our regular vacuuming.

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  Posted 7 years ago by jago