Shark AZ1002 Apex Powered Lift-Away Upright Vacuum with DuoClean & Self-Cleaning Brushroll, Crevice Tool, Upholstery Tool & Pet Power Brush, for a Deep Clean on & Above Floors, Espresso

I bought this to use on hard floors. It works great at sucking up dust and dust bunnies under the bed. However, it will not pick up bigger pieces off of the hard floor. Things like a dry bread crumb, a tiny piece of popcorn, or a pine needle tracked in from outside will only get pushed along. You have to disconnect the wand part and pick them up individually. The suction from the wand is great, its just not what I was hoping for. I like the novelty of how the components are all modular and are easy to take apart for different jobs. The tool stowage (crevice tool, etc.) is terrible.

Suction post is great. This is one if the best vacuums Ive used for my couch. Gets ALL the dog hair. It has great turning and maneuvering and I recommend it for all vacuum needs Except stairs.... Its clunky having to hold the can and stick, but it does work well.

I seriously love this vacuum! It’s so easy to move around and clean! The reason I gave it 4 starts is because I’m not thrilled about how cheap the plastic is around the wheels. I’ve had this for less than 2 years and only use it in one carpeted room, and it started to crack, and each use it seems to get worse, to the point that it wouldn’t stand up without me leaning it forward against the wall. Well it fell over and completely broke, so now I have to buy a replacement part, which isn’t covered. So at least it’s only $90, rather than having to buy a whole new vacuum. Just wish the plastic wasn’t so cheap right there. Hoping it doesn’t happen again.

These are all the questions I had when I looked at the Shark Apex product details, questions and reviews but did not find clear answers to. I was trying to compare it to the Dyson Animal Ball Upright. Weight = No noticeable difference between the two Easy to lift and carry between levels of the house = Shark (Shark is easier to hold on to) Power cord = Shark. Maybe a bit shorter on the Shark but, quality is better on the Shark (more flexible) Plastic parts durability = Shark (many small plastic parts on Dyson that break easily, expensive and difficult to replace. Many times, you must buy an entire assembly when you only need one small part - which is generally true for most things these days). Shark has fewer parts and seem much more durable. This is huge for me. Ease to dump the canister = Shark Ease to operate vacuum = Shark (moves easier than Dyson, Shark controls are all on the handle (one control for power and one control for a three-way selection for high carpet, low carpet, hard flooring. These controls work well) Cleaning Power (suction) = toss up (both are very good) Maintenance = Shark (was constantly cleaning hair out of the Dyson roller. Had to replace many parts on the Dyson. Some I could not figure out how to replace… and I’m an Engineer). Eventually, the Dyson canister was constantly falling off. I finally gave up and said – that’s it – we’re getting something different. Note - I havent cleaned the Shark filters yet but, I can’t imagine that process being so miserable I would go back to a Dyson. Noise = Shark (seems quieter than the Dyson to me) Meaningful features on the Shark that Dyson doesnt have) = LED Headlights, Lift away canister, Dual brushroll system. I found the headlights to be very helpful to see in dark spots. Dyson has one brushroll- it does seem to make a difference) Meaningful features on the Dyson that the Shark doesnt have = I cant think of anything meaningful here. Notes: Shark Upholstery Tool & Pet Power Brush attachment that comes with the unit is powered by air suction from the main unit when it is attached - not by an electrical motor (Dyson works the same way). The attachment holders on the Shark do not work well (attachments always fall off). Not a huge deal to me. Nice try Shark Engineers. Value = I feel the Shark Apex is great value at $389 (however I got a “limited time deal” for $249 in June 2021 - probably wont see that again). That made it a huge value for me. I will update this review if I learn something worth reporting on.

Okay, so, Ive been looking for a vacuum so that I have something when moving into my new place. I was only really hoping to have a few certain yet important features. - No bags. - Strong suction. - At least a 6ft hose (or around there). - Fully sealed (no allergens get ejected back out). This unit met all of that & more! I wont bother going over everything thats shown since you can just read about it in the descriptions or even look up a video on the unit (Id suggest doing simple research like that anyway). So instead, let me point out the features that surprised me or just plain pleased me to confirm. To note, I used this for about 40-60 minutes in 2 bedrooms & a hallway, all carpet (that tall stringy type), as well as a hard wood floor living room. For the carpeted area, I ran over everything the day before with what could only best be called a cheap simple store bought vacuum. Enough to do the job on hardwood & still sucks up plenty on carpet, but it isnt gonna win any prizes. 1: The suction power. Let me put it this way. Just having the vacuum on, you could feel it trying to pull forward. Dragging backwards was the same. If you use this on carpet, I highly suggest you leave the main body of the unit (the engine & dust bin) attached instead of separating it from the rest of the unit. Their weight will help counter this. 2: The noise. Its a vacuum, so its gonna make noise, but it was much quieter than I thought itd be, especially for the level of suction it has. I could have a conversation with someone sitting 10ft from me & barely have to raise my voice at all. 3: The versatility. Its an upright, but you can pull the main engine & dustbin unit off, turning it into a handheld that has long reach & can get under furniture with just a bit of bending over. Both the head & handle have a light to see into dark spaces. You can remove the tube running from the handle to the suction head & use it that way if you so wished. Never mind the attachments that come with it. 4: The instruction manual. I know, I know. You look at the instructions? My uncle already laughed at me for it, but I prefer to go through the manual so I can know how to put things together the first time & even find nice little tidbits. Which is EXACTLY what I found going through this one. Let me just say that not only does this show you how to put it all together, but it shows exactly how to clean everything & even perform your own maintenance. No calling the support office, no scratching your head to figure out whats wrong. Just look through the manual & itll give you guides on cleaning, troubleshooting, why it may be doing this, etc. I LOVE when a brand actually gives you the ability to properly & fully maintain & troubleshoot the product you paid for yourself. 5: The filters. Four of them total. A mesh hair filter in the collection bin, a barrel sponge-like filter & a finer cloth pad filter before the suction engine & then finally a HEPA filter before any air gets shunted back out. All of these sealed up with rubber rings. I checked the filters (all removable & washable by the way, so you can keep them for much longer if you take the extra few minutes to rinse them after each session or so) & was very impressed with how much they grabbed. Honestly, not gonna lie, I sat there for a moment looking at these filters & thought ... is that what Ive been living in?. Now, I couldnt finish this review off without mentioning the one downside I had to this vacuum. The extra attachments. Ya know, the little tool heads that come with it & sit in slots on the back of the vacuum. I got a narrow hose head for tight spaces, a furniture head & a pet brush (ya know, like a little mini suction head with its own brush roller). The first is simple & works fine. The second does its job as much as Id expect it to as well. The third however... Never mind the fact that the unit only has space for 2 of the 3 attachments, but the pet brush didnt even work. The reason why is just as simple. It felt cheaply made. Out of everything that came with the vacuum, these were the cheap parts. The first two, as I said, work fine since they dont have to do much. The pet brush however didnt even have a proper seal between the top & bottom half. In fact, it had vent slits in the back so that the moment I set it down (lightly I might add) onto fur covered furniture, the brush stopped moving because it was too much & could just pull in suction from those vent slits. I should also mention that this was done on fabric upholstered furniture, not any kind of leather or similar material. Thankfully, I did not buy this vacuum for pets. My parents have them, sure, but I wont. I dont need this vacuum to tackle pets. So, long & short is this. Besides the pet brush attachment not having anywhere to sit & being cheaply made, I dont need it so Im fine with that being the cheap part. Everything else on this vacuum has already made me decide that the $300 spent on it was very much worth it.

I ordered this vacuum five years ago and it still runs perfectly!! We are very hard on vacuums in our home. I have three dogs, one of which is a German shepherd-Great Pyrenees mix who sheds nonstop. [Pic included to showcase his cuteness and mass amount of fur that I’m vacuuming daily! I’m talking big huge chunks of fur.] Additionally, we live in a 3700 square-foot house that is made up of hardwood floors and carpeting. This vacuum is fantastic. Never once had any issue with it. I love the suction power of it, how easy it is to clean and the light on the cover of the beater bar. The light is especially fantastic when it’s a little bit dark out and you can really see how filthy your floor is and how well the vacuum works. I highly recommend this product. You will not be disappointed!

Now that Ive had this vacuum for a year and a half, I feel like I can review it fairly. Yes, the honeymoon stage is over and now were having our problems, albeit small. When I first got this vacuum, I was in love. It was a beast: insane suction power, amazing swivel, and every part of it can easily be separated by a push of a button. My only complaints when I first got it: its size and no retractable cord. The retractable cord thing really got me. How do you make a vacuum this nice and not either have a cordless option or push button retraction? That answer is still beyond me. Its a great vacuum, dont get me wrong, but after owning it for this long, these are my problems: 1. It loses suction power. It will tell you to regularly clean the filter (reusable which is great) regularly, or it will lose suction power. However, even if you do this, you will still lose it. 2. The hose. Its great this thing can come apart for tasks like the stairs, furniture, etc. But the super scrunched up hose can only reach so far. How far? Not really far at all. Maybe a foot before the super slinky wants the nozzle back. Im sure you could get hose attachments, but for the pricetag, I barely feel like I should have to vacuum at all. When we first got it, it was a fight for who gets to vacuum. Now the first five minutes are vacuuming the tears of whomever is doing the vacuuming. Honestly, these 2 things, along with the bulky size and non retractable cord water my only gripes with it. It still works, just nowhere near as good as it once did, and lugging the dust compartment because the hose can only stretch so far (which isnt far at all) can be a real pain.

I upgraded my Shark Navigator True Pet to the Apex and I love the new rollers. They stay hair free for a while and are very easy to get to when I have to clean them. One of the rollers is kinda fuzzy and its perfect for hard floors because it actually sweeps up the dust that other vacuums cant pick up because its technically not debris. My only issue is that its not a smooth ride. My forearms get quite a workout pushing this thing around. The swivel is not as easy as my last two sharks.

I am the former owner of the Shark Rotator Pro Lift-A-Way. <--- this was my favorite vacuum ever. I have owned it for a few years and would have never considered giving it up until it quit, but my daughter is moving into a new home that is carpeted, so it turned into a hand me down. I thought about purchasing the same again for myself, but the one and only thing that drove me nuts was that hair (mostly my own, which is long) had to be cut from the roller often - so I opted for the Shark APEX AZ1002 DuoClean with Self-Cleaning Brushroll Lift-Away Upright Vacuum. This thing has great suction. I had just vacuumed the day before I got it, then vacuumed again when I got this new one. It picked up so much dust (and dog hair) out of the carpet I was shocked. It is definitely heavier and a little more bulky than my previous vacuum, but it is just a matter of getting used to it. The headlight works great, and I didnt notice until today (Im a couple of weeks in on this thing) that the part that you detach to use the hose (with attachments) has a light as well - thats pretty awesome. The roller has not had any hair wrapped around it. It did have a string that it sucked up from somewhere, but that was easily removed by using the handy hatch that sits above the roller (no need to turn this thing over to clean it). The control buttons are on the handle, up high where they are easily accessed with your thumb- the power button, and the adjustment button. All the things that detach/reattach (the hose, the wand, and the canister) are much better on this model than the last one, except the canister is heavier and take a second to get it on the tracks to remount it. The cord is a little longer than my other Shark, but both were absolutely sufficient and longer than cords on other vacuums I have owned. Would be nice if it was retractable - not sure Shark has a model that does that. Works well on hard floors, but would go with a lighter, more agile model if thats what I needed it for; Im a broom and dustpan kind of person, so no big deal there. If you are vacuuming area rugs, you will need to have someone stand on one end, because it will suck the whole thing up (or get acrobatically creative and do it alone). The area in which the vacuum is a bit lacking would be the hose, when using attachments, is so short, but I dont know how this might be fixed. Two attachments ride on the vacuum, but one of them gets knocked off easy because it sticks out away from the vacuum some. The attachments work find, but seem cheap compared to my previous Shark. The lift a canister is heavy when holding it (detached from the vacuum). I had gone around the house sucking cobwebs out of corners and near the ceiling so there was a lot of moving around - this thing will give you a work out. My other Shark came with a base with wheels that you could set the canister on and it would roll behind you - wish this one had that option. Someone in another review mention that the cord holder thing that keeps the cord up off the ground while you vacuum didnt work well - thats true. It gets knocked out of there pretty easy. It may have been the same review that someone also mention that the deal that holds the hose (like a ball into a joint) doesnt work well. Ive only knocked it loose once. The first time I used this vacuum, I noticed it doesnt really fluff the carpet up as well as my other Shark - I think it must have something to do with the hair free roller - I miss the stripes in the carpet. I would recommend buying extra filters so that when you wash them out, you can alternate while the ones that were just cleaned dry out. None of the less attractive things mentioned above is a deal breaker. This vacuum does the job.

I bought this new rather than saving $90 for a renewed unit because the renewed info page indicated attachments may not be original equipment. Remember this as you read on. Youll probably chuckle. I just unpacked the Shark APEX Upright Vacuum. Documentation was minimal but it was enough for me to assemble the device. One of the features that attracted me was power supplied to the handle and the end of wand. Handy as the vacuum comes with a powered pet tool. Anyway, I got it assembled then vacuumed a section of carpet. Wow! Look at all the cat hair in there! And its much quieter than the canister vacuum were replacing. Then, before putting the unit away until cleaning day, I tried to store the attachments on the indicated holders. Crevice tool; seated firmly, check. So the other attachment must go right on this holder labelled Powered Pet Tool. Nope; not that way. No, not this way, either. Check the documentation. Wait. The printed manual, such that it is, shows a different tool. Looking at the tool sent, its not even powered! The brush is moved by the air rushing through. This is for a vacuum that doesnt have power in the handle or thee wand. Glad I took photos in case I ever have to pack this up to return it. After posting this I will seek assistance from Amazon. If they correct this issue, pronto, Ill update my review. Update: Good news: I contacted Amazon and explained the issue. They shipped a replacement product, not the part, an entirely new vacuum. It arrived yesterday, June 17. Nice job Amazon. For your part in this, you get 5+ stars. Bad news: same issue; same wrong part. Clearly, this is not Amazons fault but Sharks. So I called Shark. After several but not too many minutes waiting, I got to speak to a customer service rep from Bogota, Colombia. I explained the entire story, the two separate vacuums I had received and both had the same wrong part. He is shipping me the correct part. Expected dlivery date (from California): June 24. Stay tuned.