Shark - Shark® APEX® UpLight™ Lift-Away® DuoClean® with Self-Cleaning Brushroll Vacuum - Terracotta

My need in a vacuum is something that is portable, easy to use and clean and lightweight. My primary application is cleaning up after my 2 cats who are constantly shedding and leaving their own little tumbleweeds around the house. For this review, I cleaned my living room which is vinyl flooring and focused much of my attention to vacuuming their cat tree where they spend much of their time. Pros: For those looking for the perfect hybrid between a stick vacuum, canister vacuum, and a traditional upright, this might be a good solution. It weighs a little over 16lbs. Noise level is about average and cord length is sufficient to get across a room. Suction is excellent and it is fairly easy to push as an upright. Comes with multiple accessories to get into crevices, collect pet hair and dust. Cons: this vacuum includes 3 accessories for use with the canister vacuum function, but the included accessory holder can only hold 2 items The pet brush is much less effective than the full-size brushroll and does not pivot for getting into tight spaces The power button is located in a very odd space for upright use as it sits at the back of the handle rather than directly under the thumb placement, making you power it on before tilting the handle back Removing the dust cup is not highly intuitive for a new user and for those with pets, the cup doesn't have much capacity. In canister mode, Canister gets heavy for those with impaired arm strength as I have and would llkely not be a good solution for seniors. If you don't mind an awkward design, this vacuum will do the trick, but I would personally move on to a more intuitive option that has a more streamlined design.

The Shark APEX UpLight Lift-Away DuoClean - LZ602 is a lightweight in the corded vacuum market but is packed with power and features which rival the competition. I was please to discover that this was not just another cookie-cutter vacuum marketed for the masses but cheap and worthless. This Shark comes out of the box and assembles in 2 mins flat without the needs for tools or complicated manuals. As I usually do, I ran my old vacuum first and then used the Shark to play clean-up to see if it is any better or just makes noise. The proof is in the pictures as this unit not only picked up a normal carpet by itself, but got everything the old one missed. PROS - The growing trust and quality of the Shark name - Lightweight, portable - Long, heavy duty power cord limits the need to change plugs throughout a room or area. - Quick assembly, easy for nearly anyone - Stand up feature ensure it does not topple over, yet retracts when in use - Loaded with features one would expect from a modern vacuum, even a few only found on more expensive units - Excellent clean up, suction, and power - Great on carpet or hard/bare floors! CONS - Concerned with the plastic stand-up legs. Will they hold up over time? - The collection bin seems a too small for this to be a true vacuum replacement. It is more for touch ups and spot jobs in an upstairs closet.

This is a crazy good vacuum. Strong suction power. Nothing weak about it. Has multiple uses. Includes a suction powered brush attachment which works very well. Also includes crevice tool. Can disconnect canister and use apart from head and stick or include the stick for better reach. Works good on all surfaces. Super long 30' cord. Has rear feet that pop out when moved to the idle position that offers good stability and balance. Real convenient having canister on top for cleaning and emptying. The only drawback for me was the high pitched whistle noise during operation. Not sure if this is a characteristic due to the strong suction power. Too bad it can't be muffled somehow. Still, very cool indeed.

Assembly was easy. Took just a few minutes. Hard floor surfaces this vacuum did well. I was able to swivel the head easily under cabinets, chairs and tables. On carpets I would not recommend as it is too heavy and wrist and hand fatigue will get to you quickly. Also it is hard to pull back and forth because of the brush action. Also because you can't adjust the height of the rollers. Detached use as a portable is pretty good for small areas. Hose extends sufficiently for small close proximity use. The best attachment is the one for pets even though we don't have pets the roller on it is really good. It does not get tangled with long hair and gets dust off the surface well. The full upright also had a no tangled design for long hair. It works well as well. My wife and daughter have long hair and I tested it out and it did well. Emptying the canister is a 2 hand operation. Capacity is ok. The 2 filters foam and HEPA are easy to get to. It says they are washable and have about a 3 year life. LED lights on the full upright help in dark areas. Suction is pretty good and it will take in fairly large particles with ease. I would recommend this for hard floors and for small homes or apartments.

If there’s one thing the Shark APEX UpLight is lacking power isn’t one of them, this thing has serious power for a stick vacuum! Even on hardwood floors it has suction that is truly impressive, you truly feel the power this thing has when using it. The canister appears bigger than it is, it’s not terribly small but not as big as it looks. Two arms with wheels pop out that allow it to stand on its own like an upright vacuum. The one design element that left me scratching my head and knocking it down a star is the location of the power button. It is located at the back of the handle, not a big issue when you turn it on while it’s upright, but when you need to turn it off quick that’s when it becomes awkward. You naturally want to go for the front where your thumb rests. Not sure why it wasn’t put there or underneath the handle where you grip it. Though the UpLight weighs only .7 of a pound more than Apex Duo the balance of the weight and design of the handle can make it a little more awkward when using it with the crevice tool. Quirks aside with the handle and power button, Shark has created one seriously powerfully vacuum that takes up very little space.

OK...so...it's a vacuum. Cleaning really isn't my favorite hobby, so it's hard for me to get excited about a vacuum. I'm almost a little bit ashamed to admit that I enjoyed testing and reviewing the Shark APEX UpLight Lift-Away DuoClean. Let's get into the details.... First off the packaging was excellent. It was well protected in shipping via double boxing. I realize there is some waste in that method, but I appreciate the products I order being in good shape when they arrive. It was easy to un-box and all of the pieces were in a logical/reasonable configuration. When I first took things out, I was expecting assembly to be a pain. However, I found it be quite simple. Even though I am a guy, I actually used the instructions....I know...say it ain't so. The instructions where clear, visual, and simple. The product snapped together in minutes with zero hassle. All of the components are light and easy to handle. Once it was assembled, it was time to try it out. I ran my current vacuum BEFORE I tried this one just to see if it picked up anything that my old one missed. Just as I was getting ready to fire it up, my 12 year old son walked in and asked if he could test it. So, I thought...why not? I shadowed him while he tried it out. It was loud of course, but not as loud as my old vacuum. We have never had a pivoting head like this before. We struggled a bit with controlling the vacuum as we navigated around furniture, but by the time we had finished the living room and dinning room we had gotten the hang of it. I was surprised at how well my son handled the unit. He has a little trouble with the bigger/bulkier vacuum that we had been using, but he easily handled this smaller lighter unit.My son commented on how it could essentially lay flat when vacuuming under low furniture...something our old vacuum could not do. My 14 year old daughter walked out of her bedroom right after my son had finished testing the unit. The first words out of her mouth were..."ohhhh...the carpet is really fluffy". I think that speaks volumes when a teenager notices the difference completely unsolicited. The actual cleaning results were quite surprising. The suction was very impressive. Remember...I had just vacuumed. The entire canister was FULL of dust that this new unit had pulled out of my carpet. It was kind of gross, yet satisfying at the same time. Now it was time to empty the canister. Again, I went to the instructions to see how they recommended accomplishing this critical activity. Again, I was surprised at just how easy it was to remove the canister and then dump it into my trash can without making a huge dusty mess all over. My old vacuum is also canister, but it's so bulky that it's difficult to dump without making a mess. The Shark was a significantly better design in this area than any other canister vacuum I have used. It doesn't hold a lot in the canister but comparison to my old unit, but that is necessary in order to keep the overall size and weight of the unit reasonable. Just know that it will need dumped more often than a larger unit. Never fear though...it's very easy. Next it was time to try it out on the linoleum in the kitchen. The vacuum performed very well. My old vacuum was not for hard floors, so I don't really have a direct comparison in this area, but I can tell you that I was quite satisfied with the results. My next test was to try it in all of the different configurations. I found it very easy to detach the base unit and use the canister in a hand held fashion. I started by leaving the metal wand in place to vacuum a corner cob web up high. Worked great. Then I took the metal wand off and pulled out the flexible wand to vacuum around a baseboard. Again...worked great. I was very impressed with how easy it was to switch configurations. Even as a first time user of this type of vacuum, I had no trouble at all switching in and out of the various options. I do not currently have any pets. I do however have a wife and daughter who both have very long hair that gets EVERYWHERE. After I finished all of my cleaning, I flipped the unit over to see how much hair was wrapped around the brush....VIRTUALLY NONE. It was impressive. There were a few strands, but nothing like what I expected. Well done. So obviously, you can see that I do indeed like this vacuum very much. It is much smaller and lighter than my old full size stand up vacuum and cleaned significantly better. So why only 4 stars? There were just a few things that knocked it down a notch. 1. While it is much lighter than my old vacuum, it is still a bit heavy to lift up to clean a high corner. Not too much for me as a relatively strong 5'11" guy, but it was heavy enough to make me think that it might be a bit much for some people. 2. It comes with 3 attachments, but the holder that snaps on to the unit only holds 2. What?!?!?! Why do that? Just make a 3 attachment holder. Now I have to try not to lose one of the attachments. 3. It's a bit top heavy since the power head is on top of the unit. This makes the rollers down on the floor seem really light compared to the handle areas. It's not a big deal, but I did observe that as my son was using the unit, he would sometimes pull the roller off of the floor when pulling the unit back to himself. 4. I did notice that it had trouble with larger pieces of debris than my old vacuum. To be fair, I should have picked those larger pieces of paper up before I tried it, but I wanted to see what it could do. I think the double roller system makes it a little harder to pick up bigger stuff (that you probably shouldn't be trying to suck up anyway), Popcorn was also a bit tough to get picked up. A big fluffy kernel just kept getting pushed along. I made it my personal goal in life to get it sucked up, and eventually I triumphed, but it was noticeable. We eat a lot of popcorn and my teens are messy! I don't think it's a big problem, but just know that if you don't like to pre clean the big stuff off of your floor, you might get frustrated once in a while. So there you go. None of those cons outweigh the general ease of use and the outstanding cleaning power, but combined, they are enough to knock it down one star in my humble opinion. I would absolutely recommend this vacuum to anyone looking for a powerful lightweight (relatively speaking) stick style vacuum that pretty much anyone in the house over the age of 7 could use effectively. I'm also looking forward to trying it out in my travel trailer. It is small enough that I can fit it in the broom closet. It will be much easier to work with than the small workshop vacuum I have in there now. I hope you have found this review helpful. Have a wonderful day. Waggly

Alright I’m the guy with a French Bulldog who sheds so we try all sorts of vacuums to keep up with his hair. I have had some of the most elite machines out there and I brag how all the stuff that came up in those machines was because of the brand. Then we got this guy this week. Who am I kidding? I saw hair and dust... actual dust that my vacuum missed just days ago! At first I thought maybe the new Shark came with dust in a tube to trick me but no! I’ve gone from carpet to tile and it just keeps catching things. On one hand I’m super excited and on the other I feel like other vacuums have tricked me! Anyway, the slim design makes it easy to store, I am glad they were smart with the three extra attachments, and the cable is long enough to span a couple of rooms. The only downside for me is how the dust bin is deceptively small. I thought it was the size of the area below the handle but the well isn’t that wide or deep at the bottom. So just be mindful of how much dirt you have collected and you are good to go. The color is aesthetically pleasing and I’m glad it has an LED light on the head for under beds or tight places!

Absolutely in love with my new Shark Apex UpLight Lift-Away DuoClean with Self-Cleaning Brushroll Vacuum in Terracotta. The self-cleaning brushroll actually works, I have long hair and lots of animals in my house and it gets all of it, plus if it sucks up a sock or something it automatically stops, the fill cup is easy to empty, the handle is easy to grip and maneuver, there are a couple different configurations (attachments with hose etc) to be able to get into crevices that are super handy. Only cons (based on my last vacuums features) are its corded, and heavier.