Shark Vacmop Pro Review
A lightweight mop with basic vacuuming
Verdict
The Shark Vacmop Pro works well to clean up hard floors, but vacuuming performance was poor in tests, and the disposable plastic mop heads feel wasteful.
Pros
- Tough pads clean well
- Easy to use
Cons
- A lot of plastic waste
- Poor suction
- Requires a lot of manual work
Availability
- UKunavailable
- USARRP: $99.99
- Europeunavailable
- Canadaunavailable
- Australiaunavailable
Key Features
- Vacuum mopFeature a small vacuum action to pick up dirt, as well as a mop for cleaning.
- Battery lifeYou get 13 minutes of suction from a full charge; if you’re just mopping, the battery will last a lot longer.
Introduction
Why vacuum and mop separate appliances, if you can do both with the same device? That’s the idea behind the Shark Vacmop Pro: a combination vacuum cleaner (of sorts) and hard floor mop. It’s lightweight, easy to use and does a good job of mopping floors – but the plastic waste and poor vacuuming heavily detract.
Design and features
- Requires mopping pads
- Vacuum and spray controls
- Easy to assemble
From the box, there’s a some assembly required before you can get going with the Shark Vacmop Pro. You have to clip the body into the floor head and then click the handle into place. It takes only a few minutes, after which the mop is ready for action.
Well, almost. To use this vacuum/mop you first need to fill the detergent tank with cleaning solution. Shark provides a 12oz bottle of its own cleaning fluid in the box, but you can buy a 2-litre bottle for $11.99 once you’ve run out.
Next, you have to attach the floor mop pad – Shark uses disposable floor heads. These mount a cleaning cloth onto a hollow plastic chamber, which has an inlet at the front. In effect, the mop pads are also a disposable vacuum bag.
Given that you’ll need to replace the mop heads regularly, that’s a lot of plastic you’ll be throwing away; plus the heads aren’t listed as being recyclable. I think it’s hard to justify this amount of waste.
Replacement pads cost $27.99 for a pack of 32 (87 cents each) or $47.99 for a pack of 60 (0.8 cents each). You can use them until they’re saturated with dirt (or full of vacuumed mess), so depending on the size of the area you need to clean, each pad may last for two to three cleans.
You’ll need to charge the Shark Vacmop Pro, too, via the magnetic adapter that connects to the back of the machine.
There are two controls for this model. First, there’s a trigger that you grab to turn on the vacuum. Shark recommends that you vacuum the area first, then come back for mopping.
To help, the Shark Vacmop Pro feature a series of LEDs at the front to light up the floor.
To mop, you press the spray button to squirt out detergent onto the floor, then you move the mop pad over the area to pick up dirt. You need as much elbow grease here as you’d apply with a regular mop. However, the Shark’s lightweight body (it weighs just 3.34lbs) certainly helps, since it isn’t too heavy to carry around. A steam cleaner, such as the Karcher SC5 easyFix, makes lighter work of mess, using steam to initially loosen dirt.
Performance
- Poor vacuuming
- Decent mopping
To test the Shark Vacmop Pro, I put it through a combination of hard floor tests for vacuum cleaners and floor cleaners. Since this is a combination device, I ground dirt into the floor and then sprinkled a teaspoon of rice onto the top, leaving it all to dry. Note that this isn’t a wet vacuum cleaner, so can’t tackle spills.
First, I ran the Shark Vacmop Pro over the mess in vacuum mode to pick up the rice. Since there isn’t much suction power, and only a small inlet at the front of the mop head, only some of the rice was picked up on the first sweep; the rest was pushed around the floor. Trying to get everything meant carefully positioning the floor head around the mess, approaching it at the best angles.
Using a regular cordless vacuum cleaner for this kind of job is much faster and far more accurate. Aside from dealing with smaller amounts of surface mess, I wouldn’t bother with the vacuum mode on this cleaner.
Next, I tackled the floor cleaning. Spraying detergent onto the floor, I swept the Shark Vacmop Pro through the mess. Here, the mop head did a good job, picking it all up and leaving me with a clean floor.
Evaluating the cleaning pad once I’d finished, I’d say that it would probably last for another cleaning session.
Inside, there was a small amount of dirt, but the pad would last for at least another session before having to be replaced with a fresh pad.
I measured the VacMop at 75.6dB, which is about average for a regular cordless vacuum cleaner.
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Should you buy it?
If you want a simple floor mop, then this certainly fits the bill. Spraying detergent is less wasteful than using a bucket full of detergent for a regular mop, too.
Using plastic mop heads feels quite wasteful, and there are alternative cleaners that use washable pads or rollers. Vacuuming performance was poor, too.
Final thoughts
Shark presents a nice idea, but not one that particularly well thought out. Poor vacuuming performance means you’d be better off using your regular vacuum cleaner first. For mopping, the Shark Vacmop Pro does a good job, but the plastic waste makes it hard to recommend. A steam cleaner or alternative hard floor cleaner makes more sense, or you can go automated with the excellent Roborock S7 robot vacuum cleaner and mop.
FAQs
Since it only lets you spray a small amount of detergent, the Shark Vacmop Pro is good to use on pretty much all hard floors, as long as they’re sealed.
No, it’s designed for hard floors only.
It depends on the size of area you’re cleaning and how dirty it is. It’s recommended that you replace a pad when it’s saturated with dirt and is no longer cleaning well. On average, I’d say every two to three cleans for a new pad.
Specs
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Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.