Customer Reviews

Shark V1950 VX3 Cordless Floor and Carpet Cleaner

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

The people at Shark and Euro-Pro cleaning companies have always known how to make so many great products with vacuums, and carpet sweepers. Nevertheless, when it comes down to it, it really is on how well the vacuum really lasts. Shark's previous cordless sweepers have all done a great job at picking up after everyday messes, but they have been some glitches. I was honestly very skeptical with the latest model when I saw it on television, and I liked it a lot, but as I started to use it, I was hoping for just a bit more. Here is my verdict.

The Shark VX3 Cordless Sweeper is the latest in Euro-Pro's well-recieved carpet sweeper line. This one does a good job at picking up after pet hair and fuzz, and is very simple to setup. You can pick up actually a lot of pet hair, fuzz, or anything off your floors and carpets. It is easy to charge up, and does really works well. The no-mess dust cup is very simple to clean up, and easily removes all that was picked up from the floors. The vacuum is also very easy to carry around, and take from room to room, without feeling the drag of carrying around your vacuum and getting a backache.

That is what I think, even though there really are a few problems that still make could've been a bit easier to pick up after. The first problem deals with the battery. ou have to really keep the sweeper plugged in to your outelt for at least a day, inorder to fully charge a the battery. The VX3's battery also could've had a bit stronger battery life than just an hour long. The second problem deals with the backsaver feature. While the VX3 does pick up well, and is easy to operate, I had a tricky time manuvering the VX3 with the backsaver handle. While the concept is ingenius at folding the handle to make it easier at picking up under the beds and those hard-to-reach areas, it is honestly a little bit harder to control and steer the sweeper.

Still, despite a few problems with the Shark VX3 Cordless Sweeper, I still think it is a very good buy for anyone who wants a easier way to clean up after all those messes on the floor. It just does a great job at really cleaning up your floors and is great for small homes and apartments, or any home that works at a great pace. While you can get this though the As Seen On TV ads, you also can find this at your nearest Macy's for around $70, instead of getting both the VX3 and VX1 models like the infomercial says in its offer for $130. So, suck those problems on the floor away, and try this sweeper out.

Quality: B-

Price: B

Battery Life: C

Setup: B+

Easy To Operate: B 1/2-

Overall: B-

I was really optimistic about the Shark VX3 from the good reviews I'd read on Amazon and other sites about it. Unfortunately it just did not meet my needs. I have two very hairy dogs and hard wood floors in my house. I was hoping to find a cordless that I could just pull out every day or two to keep on top of the hair bunnies. The Shark, however, only pushes and blows the hair around. It only picked up maybe half of it, and the rest is still floating around out there. However, it did pick up my black lab's entire choke collar. And a corner of my rug.


Bottom line: if you like dropping pounds of screws on your floor and pretending you're on an infomercial, this vacuum is for you. If you'd rather pick up normal things like hair, dust, and dirt, don't bother with the Shark.

We purchased this sweeper in hopes that it would provide an easy way to sweep our laminate floors free of dog hair and kid debris. Well, it does get the dog hair, but requires many passes. It ends up taking longer to sweep the floor with this sweeper than it would have to haul out the regular vacuum. It probably misses about 25% of the hair in the first pass, and when you pull the sweeper back toward yourself, it brings a nice pile of hair with it. It does not work in reverse! Sometimes it spits out big clumps of dog hair, which will entertaining, adds to the length of cleaning time. Also, the rotating brush is getting full of long hair, which is a pain to clean out. It picks up dry pasta, sand and other similar bits easy, but who cares? If that's all I had to clean up I'd stick with a broom.
The feel of the unit is cheap. I always feel like it's going to break when I snap the dust tray back into place. Speaking of the dust tray, users will enjoy the fact that they will have to sweep the floor in the area where the pulled the tray out. You always end up with dirt and hair on the floor. You will need to pick up the base unit and empty it too, since it always has dirt in it too. A wonderful undocumented feature!

Now that I've vented about everything I dislike, here's a few of it's better features:
* Lightweight - Cheap stuff usually is!
* Long run-time on a charge - You will need it!
* Articulating handle - It works good and actually is handy.

Do NOT buy this if you think it will replace your vacuum. I have a 2 year old and a VERY good vacuum on hand that I use once a week (though I probably should vacuum twice a week). For all the messes that occur in between (probably 2-3x a day), I use the Shark to make my life easier.

I'm currently a stay at home mom with a toddler and she leaves crumbs EVERYWHERE. We live in a small apartment, so the dining room is a spit's throw from the living room and it's almost unavoidable to have toddlers (my kid, my kid's friends, my friends' kids...) carrying their muffins, snacks, crackers, pretzels around and about the living area. I got the Shark more because my daughter was terrified of loud sounds and my regular vacuum cleaner, but have found that the nice bonus is that it's so much easier to lug this one out 2-3 times a day to pick up crumbs right after snack time (and hence avoid having it ground into the rugs) than to pull out my heavy Bissell.

Pros: It's lightweight, very quiet, convenient, and effective for picking up visible crumbs if used correctly.
Cons: It doesn't do heavy-duty or deep cleaning; the price-tag can be steep; Shark sweepers are known to break down after a few months to a year.

My mom has an older version of the Shark sweeper, which is much more quiet than this one. She's a waitress and uses it to tidy up the floor under the tables in between customers. Obviously, she's subjecting it to pretty heavy use, and she's now on her third one. Her recommendations on making it last a long as possible: clean the sweeper thoroughly after a few uses (that includes pulling out accumulated hair in the brushes and washing the collection bin) and charge the battery according to directions (do not allow to sit for longer than 19 hours at a time charging, you will reduce battery life).

The Shark Vx3 is a little louder than hers. But I like the fact that it has two speed settings (supposedly for floor and carpet). The handle bends so that you can push it under furniture, which is a little helpful, but kinda awkward and (knowing that the Shark sweeper handles are notorious for breaking off) I prefer to not use it at all. The Shark Vx3 also has a little rotator brush on the side, which is supposed to pick up crumbs as you push it against the side of a wall, but I wish that they had thought to put a rotator brush on both sides. They claim also that you can push a button and dump out the collection cup without ever having to touch the dirt. This is true in theory, but in practice, the lid often catches or there is dirt stuck in the bin that you have to shake it out--so it's almost unavoidable to touch the bin or dirt. No big deal--just wash your hands afterwards.

The bottom line: don't expect to replace your vacuum. And here's the KEY to use the sweeper most effectively -- push it SLOWLY and repeatedly over the pile of crumbs that you intend to pick up. I found that if you tried to push the sweeper back and forth quickly like a regular vacuum, it didn't pick up anything, just pushed the dirt around.

If you found this review helpful, please let me know!

We have enjoyed using Shark sweepers for years and I absolutely loved the first one I bought several years ago. It was perfect for vacuuming up after a small child and I used it many times a day. I have rheumatoid arthritis, so if something is easy for me to use I am thrilled.

The Euro-Pro #V1950 Shark Cordless Sweeper, however was a big disappointment. Over the years the shark sweeper design has become worse with each "improvement". I could simply set my first sweeper in a convenient stand to recharge. But now I have to fiddle with a tiny attachment on a cord that goes into a tiny hole to charge the sweeper. This alone is cause for extreme frustration. It always requires multiple attempts to get the itsy-bitsy prongs in the right place.

The fancy handle that is supposed to save your back is extremely awkward and difficult to control. But the worst part is the hands-free dust container that is supposed to allow you to stand there and push a button and have the bottom of the sweeper open up and empty itself in the trash. But this compartment, which is connected to the absurd handle, is so poorly fitted into the base of the unit that it is always coming apart.

It doesn't empty completely if there is any hair or carpet fuzz in it, so you have to use your hands to scrap crap out of the container and off its TWO different doors, neither of which close securely. I end up sitting down with the whole filthy thing in my lap trying to reattach the hands-free container, all the while trying to manage that ridiculously cumbersome handle. Not only isn't it "hands free", but it ends up covering me head to foot with dust by the time I get the whole thing cleaned, reattached and plugged in to charge.

Today I took the damn thing and threw it in the trash. My ordeals with this Shark might have made a good I Love Lucy episode, but the design is so unbelievably poor I am not even sure it would make good television comedy.

I LOVE THIS CORDLESS CLEANER. Did not purchase from this dealer, however, this is a great product. I have hardwood floors throughout my house and this keeps them dust bunny free. I especially like the way the handle bends so you can get under furniture to vacuum. Also, the "no touch dust cup" is great. The only carpet in my house are a couple of throw rugs, which this works perfect on. Highly recommend!

I purchased this directly from the product website. I find the build quality to be ok and after using it half dozen times already, I definitely do not miss using a broom in the kitchen.

This does pick up any little spec of dirt on the floor but what is over rated is the ability to pick up pet hair. If pet hair is a routine task for you, then consider using your existing vacuum cleaner.

As far as other debris on the carpet, this will do just fine. Just keep in mind this will not replace the vacuum but it will pick up those little particles and messes efficiently.

Overall I would definitely recommend this unit if you have a lot of hard flooring and or low pile carpet.

Cons:
The unit always starts at high power. I feel this should start at low myself. I may look into rewiring the unit to accomplish this. This is the reason for the 4 star rating.

I have had this sweeper for about 1 year now. I have 7 childern so I was thrilled about receiving it. I really thought it would be a life saver. The handle is taped together after just the first 2 months. The dust cup is broken in three places. It does a terrible job picking up in corners and along the wall base. It is bulky and thus does not fit underneath the couch or counter bottoms and other tight places. The battery gets weak quickly. On carpet it only pushes dirt into the carpet so it certainly cannot replace a traditional vaccuum cleaner for carpet. Also, although it does adequately pick up food messes, including wet sticky food like rice, the sweeper brushes and dirt cup get very yucky and must be cleaned often in order to maintain the suction power that it has. Also, I have 4 sons and a husband. I thought this would be great for getting the hair up on family haircut day - WRONG! It doesn't pick hair up at all. To the contray, it scatters it around and makes a big mess. The tv offer entitled me to a 2 for one deal. I thought it was a steal but now I know the truth. They are trying to get rid of these things so they can make a better model. I just started using the second one about 2 months ago and already the handle is cracked. I am sure it won't last much longer. This is a really poorly made peice of equipment, and the warranty by the way is a joke because it doesn't cover any replacable parts, such as handles, which are the most likely things to break on this machine!!! I will give the machine half a star for sparing me the dustpan. I have to sweep all of the coners and tight spots first and then can use the sweeper to take up what I have swept up. And another half star because it does allo my children to joyfully participate in keeping the floors decent. If the machine had cost $15 or even $20 in a store I'd say it was worth it cause it does sweep, but for the quaility of the machine it certainly was not worth the money. DO NOT PURCHASE THIS MACHINE!!!

At about $70 at Target, I was reluctant to buy this thing. At about $30-$35, I'd say I'd be satisfied. Don't expect this thing to replace a real vacuum cleaner or anything. But I am glad that I have it. If I had to do it all over again, I might have still gotten the lower priced cousin of this sweeper.

It has a very real reason to live in my house... we use pine cat litter. The little pellets surround the area near the litter box and need to be swept up daily and the Shark cordless sweeper was born to do it. For that reason alone I am satisfied. If I could, I might award it 2.5 stars.

It also serves to give both hard floors and carpeted areas a quick cleanup without bringing out the big guns. Surface level dirt is wisked away in short order, giving this item a real usefullness. I was underimpressed by the edging feature however.

It does seem quite flimsy and I am sure the handle will snap if we are not careful. It is so nice however to have something light and compact and (mostly) at the ready. It went for about 2 weeks on a charge... 3-5 minutes a day sweeping up litter and nearby debris. We have yet to determine how long to recharge it as that info is not in the manual.

An expensive yet adequate solution to make life just a bit easier. Just know what to expect!

I was excited to see a commercial about all of the wonderful benefits of the shark vx3 for pet owners. a a proud owner of my own little indoor zoo, i was hoping that this would be super helpful to pick up all of the pet hair that deposits onto our carpet and stairs.

after you take the 20 hours to charge, there are two settings for hard floors and carpet. the carpet setting works fairly well. it picked up an adequate amount of pet hair and litter, however it seemed to reallly just push it around into little balls on the floor. (which i then had to pick up myself). the unit is very lightweight. i cleaned my floors of a two level house in just an hour, however you have to stop frequently to empty the dust cup. you will know because the unit makes a whirring sound and turns itself off.

the no mess dust cup was a breeze to locate and use, but it took 7 emptyings to make the entire house round. it did not work on my stairs at all like they demonstrate in the commercial and the unit gets agitated when you pick it up off of a floor and it is still on.

it does give a faint reminder that the floor has been cleaned, like a vaccum would, but it only lasted for an hour.

it works well on hardwood floors, but the supposed side rotators to get in the sides of the wall that push debris in front of the unit do not work successfully.

in summation, it is good for someone with a one pet household, but doesnt have the cleaning power to tackle the tougher jobs. a nice addition for someone who doesn't want to pull out the vaccum for smaller spills. very lightweight for traveling up the stairs.