Review on Shark DuoClean IF201 Ultra Light Cordless Vacuum Cleaner by William Auditore

I was debating whether to buy the wired or wireless version. My intuition told me to use a cord as the run time is unlimited and rechargeable batteries cost a fortune and will likely need frequent replacement. We have a Makita cordless vacuum in our office and we have to change the $90 battery every year. Despite my reservations, I chose wireless because I don't have to deal with a long cable. Shark offers a 2 year battery warranty. I will update my review when the batteries run out. I bought a vacuum directly from Shark on Cyber Monday. It was discounted by 50% and they added an extra battery and dual charger. The Shark has a variety of configurations for what is essentially the same vacuum cleaner. Depending on how you buy it, you might not get certain accessories or a dual charger, which I find very handy. Before using the vacuum cleaner, I charged both batteries overnight. The charger will turn off automatically when finished. Blue lights indicated charging status. The guide recommends leaving batteries in the charger when not in use so you always start vacuuming with a full charge and fully discharge the battery before recharging. Both batteries lasted 13 minutes each on my first cleaning (with a stopwatch). ). I set the vacuum cleaner to parquet and maximum power. I'm glad I have an extra battery. After use, rechargeable batteries need about half an hour to cool down before they can be charged. The charger will warn you with a double blue light if they are too hot. You can leave the batteries in the charger and it will charge them once they have cooled sufficiently. Charging takes just over 3.5 hours. In fact, it's even 4 hours if you take into account the cooling time. After charging both batteries, I tried again, but this time I set the suction power to a lower power. This time both batteries lasted 21 minutes. The second time I used the vacuum the red indicator light came on. The rollers were blocked and had to be cleaned. According to the instructions, the brush roller is not removable. This makes cleaning difficult. Mine was covered in long hair. I was able to remove the hair with scissors and tweezers but it would be much quicker and easier if I could detach the roller. They have a slot in the roller that you can move with scissors, which speeds up the process. I recommend you clean the outside of the rollers as I got a lot of dirt on them. Overall the vacuum is very easy to transport and maneuver compared to my 20 year old vacuum. A small problem is that it's not that easy to move it in a straight line. He tends to deviate. It's not that important. I prefer to suckle in a straight line (probably OCD). By turning the handle, you can control the head of the vacuum cleaner. Multiflex is handy for penetrating low furniture, but it's even more difficult to navigate in this position. I'll probably still use the Roomba under my bed. The grip is a bit uncomfortable and after an hour of cleaning I got a blister on my thumb. Another annoying problem is that the scrub head tends to snap into a 90-degree locked position, especially in tight spaces like stairs. This will turn off the casters and will need to be pulled out with your foot. This makes cleaning stairs and other confined spaces a little tedious. The vacuum cleaner cleans extremely well. It picks up anything that gets in its way, especially at high power. I did notice that it doesn't clean the back very well. It only cleans well if you push it forward (rather than pull back). The vacuum cleaner is relatively quiet compared to my old vacuum cleaner, but has a very high-pitched hum. The instructions didn't help much. However, Shark has a great YouTube channel with short 30-60 second videos on completing the most common tasks. For example, I couldn't figure out how to empty the trash can. A short video showed that I had to remove the bottom of the vacuum for the release button to work. I also couldn't figure out how to remove the brushroll to clean it and another video made it clear that you can't and you have to clean it in place. Good thing there are no bags to buy. There are 3 filters, easy to clean with water. You have to wait 24 hours after cleaning for them to dry before you can put them back in the vacuum. So far I'm happy with the purchase, especially since I bought it at half the price. In my opinion, it's not worth the regular price.