Shark ZD201 Lift-Away Upright Vacuum with Powerfins, Self-Cleaning Brushroll, Anti-Allergen Complete Seal Technology, Eggplant

Here are my first impressions after using the vacuum.

Pros:
-I was pleased to see that most of the hair vacuumed up didn’t end up on the roller due to the zero M technology. I was vacuuming on carpet and there weren’t any piles of hair, but the vacuum only left about 1 or 2% of the hair on the roller, the rest made it into the collection bin.
-The pivoting connection between the upper handle part and lower base with the roller, this allows for great control and maneuverability.
-The base of the vacuum has a lower profile than my previous model and I liked how I could go further under dressers and beds by lowering the handle towards the floor.
-The power cord is nice and soft and wasn’t uncomfortable when I stepped on it accidentally with my bare feet.
-The additional attachments can be used with the lift away mode in such a way that you don’t need to include the extra 2 foot piping extension as well (although you can use this extra length if you prefer). My previous vacuum couldn’t get in hard to reach places, like behind the toilet, because it’s lift away type of mode had 2 feet of unbendable piping attached.

Cons:
-The power cord is about 10 or 20 feet shorter than my previous vacuum’s cord.
-I like to hold the cord in one hand while I control the vacuum with my other hand, the cord connects near the bottom of the vacuum (my previous vacuum’s cord connected closer to the top of the handle) so I end up having to bend all the way to the ground to pick it up.
-The additional attachments that are used in the lift away mode feel slightly cheap. They don’t click into the lift away handle, but rather just fit snugly over the end. This vacuum also only has storage for 1 of the 3 attachments at a time. I use 2 of the three attachments regularly, so this is going to be annoying.
These things aren’t deal breakers, but inconveniences none the less.

Nice compact vacuum. like the lift off feature. Easy to empty debris. Superior suction.
My only complaint is that the cord is way too short, hence the 4 star instead of 5 star. Otherwise it is great.

It’s a good vacuum to be sure, but I think the whole “self cleaning brush roll” thing is more gimmick than substance.

I received this as a mother’s day gift this year because my other one bit the dust the week before the holiday. I decided to try a Shark this time based solely on reviews because I didn’t want to spend as much as I would need to for a Dyson and while my previous Hoover was great, it sounded like the Shark’s had better suction. This one definitely had better suction than my previous Hoover of a very similar type. I am a mom of a toddler, an infant and a pitbull and they keep my floors nice and crumby, so I use my vacuum every other day (at least). I needed something “heavy duty”, strong, but easy to use. This fit the bill.

Pros
– Strong suction and it’s pretty lightweight. I’m a small woman (5 foot tall), so this is very important to me.
– After vacuuming just once I am AMAZED (and disgusted) by the amount of stuff (hair, dirt, crumbs, etc) this thing sucks up. We don’t wear shoes in our home, so it’s mind boggling.
– Long cord so you don’t have to keep unplugging and plugging it in constantly. I think it goes a bit further than my Hoover did.
– It’s easy to release the hose to use it. On my previous Hoover I had to detach the hose, attach it to a certain place on the vacuum and switch the mode on it. With this one I just hit a button and it detaches. No hitting a switch and no having to remove the hose and attach it elsewhere.
– It’s easy to dump out the cup.
– The roller has not needed to be cleaned yet. I was routinely cutting hair and string off the old roller of the old vacuum. My dog loves to destroy toys and so our home is usually strewn with stuffing, string and bit of fabric that eventually clog up the vacuum. No roller issues or clogging issues with this one so far.
– It looks nice and has a nice color to it. Yeah, okay, so that doesn’t “matter”, but it kind of does when it’s sitting in a visible place in your home. You don’t want a ugly eye sore hanging around.

Cons
– Okay, so this was a MAJOR one for me: The suction is SO STRONG that I can’t use it on the area rugs in my boys rooms. They have a thick shag rug in both of their rooms (same rug) and it definitely will hide debris. The suction is so strong that the vacuum just gets stuck in place. This was a major issue for me and I honestly thought “I need to send this back”, but I figured I could use one of the attachments (the wide one with nubs on it) and the hose to do their rugs. Fortunately, their rooms are small and the rugs are only 5×7. While I wish I could just use the vacuum normally to do their rooms, it’s a trade off for the suction power that it has. It doesn’t take too long to use the hose to get their carpets, but I’m always concerned about “missing a spot” because I’m using a little attachment and not the whole vacuum that covers a wide area.
– The canister part of the vacuum seems very wide and clunky. It doesn’t seem to affect my ability to tilt the vacuum to go under furniture, but it certainly “feels” clunky because it sits so far forward compared to the roller part.

Regarding the fact it does not work well on area rugs, I recommend getting a little Shark hand vac. I got a cordless one at the same time as this vacuum and it’s really super useful for small messes and for getting the area rugs when I don’t feel like getting out the big vacuum.

I love this vacuum but I do not like it for stairs at all, maybe I am not using it right but I find really hard to use on stairs.