Shark Anti Hair Wrap Upright Vacuum Cleaner with Powered Lift-Away NZ850UK review

Editor's Note

The Shark Anti Hair Wrap Upright Vacuum Cleaner with Powered Lift-Away NZ850UK review is no longer part of Shark's vacuum cleaner lineup, although it may still be possible to find models via third party retailers. For an alternative, head to our Shark Anti Hair Wrap Cordless Upright Vacuum Cleaner ICZ300UK review or browse the best upright vacuum cleaners in general. 

Ruth Hamilton

One-minute review

Shark has become a well-known brand in the floorcare market, and offers an array of models from uprights to cylinders, corded, cordless, and even handheld options - no matter what your cleaning need, there’s a design for you. While they aren’t exactly a budget choice, they are certainly more affordable than other rivals such as Dyson.

Shark’s vacuums are loaded with cutting-edge technology that’ll solve your cleaning frustrations, from hair getting tangled around the brush bar to ensuring it can reach in tight spaces with flexible wands. making the appliance more compact for storage, which is why some of their models are among the best vacuum cleaners you can buy right now. 

The Shark Anti Hair Wrap Upright Vacuum Cleaner with Powered Lift-Away is a corded upright vacuum that Shark claims is 25% more powerful than the previous model; the Shark NZ801UK. It also features the brand’s DuoClean technology that employs both a bristle brush-roll and a soft brush roll in one head so it can move seamlessly between carpet and hard floor, without needing the cleaning head to be changed

Meanwhile, anti-hair wrap technology ensures the vacuum removes hair from the brush roll, meaning you don’t have to tackle this unpleasant job yourself. It can also be converted into a more portable, lightweight vacuum for cleaning stairs, overhead areas, and other hard-to-reach spots, a feature that makes it much more versatile than your standard upright vacuum.

At £349.99/ $419.99, this vacuum doesn't come cheap but it's a worthwhile investment if you have different floor types as well as stairs or other hard-to-reach areas that need vacuuming, so long as you’re happy to have a power cord trailing behind you.

Shark Anti Hair Wrap Upright Vacuum Cleaner with Powered Lift-Away NZ850UK price and availability

•  List price: £349.99/ $419.99 

The Shark Anti Hair Wrap Upright Vacuum Cleaner with Powered Lift-Away NZ850UK, which is known as the Shark Apex Upright Vacuum with powered Lift-Away, Duo-Clean and Self-Cleaning Brushroll in the US will set you back £349.99/ $419.99 .

Both the US and UK models come with a crevice tool and multi tool as standard, but the US model also comes with a Self-Cleaning Pet Power Brush and MultiFLEX Under-Appliance Wand. In the UK, if you want the pet tool, opt for the Shark Anti Hair Wrap Upright Vacuum Cleaner with Powered Lift-Away and TruePet NZ850UK, which is priced at £369.99. 

Design

• 1.3 liter/ 0.88 quart dust canister
• 8 meter/ 30 ft power cord
• 3 floor-type settings

The Shark Anti Hair Wrap Upright Vacuum Cleaner with Powered Lift-Away is a chunky and bottom-heavy vacuum. It weighs in at 6.6kg, while the US version is 16 pounds. It can be broken down for easier storage but when fully assembled is measures  118 x 26 x 26cm / 46 x 12.2 x 11.2 inches (H x W x D)

As we already mentioned, one of the main features of this vacuum is the Lift-Away design, it allows you to remove the main motor and dust canister part of the vacuum and carry it. This turns it from an upright vacuum into a portable, more handheld option. When in lift-away mode, you can still use the main floorhead (while you carry the motor and dust canister pod), or the flexible hose can be used with one of the small attachments for tasks like cleaning stairs or upholstery.  And for greater flexibility, the wand can be used with a small attachment for overhead cleaning.

It doesn’t have variable suction levels, but there are three floor types to choose between thick carpet and area rug cleaning, carpet and low pile cleaning, or hard floor cleaning. The brush roll spins in all modes but the speed will be altered depending on which mode is selected.

The main floorhead has two motorized brush rolls, one of which has bristles designed to draw embedded dirt out of your carpets, while the other softer brush roll collects debris and removes dust from hard floors. The Anti Hair Wrap technology helps to keep both brush-rolls free of hair, which can be an issue on some other vacuums. The crevice tool and multi-tool can be stored on the vacuum for easy access.

Performance

• Only one power level
• Lift-away mode useful for hard-to-reach areas
• Strong suction

This vacuum impressed us with the dust pick up and strong suction, even when we used it on a recently vacuumed carpet, the large amount of dust and debris that was immediately visible in the canister was very surprising (and a little horrifying) and certainly demonstrated its ability for a thorough clean.

To give the Anti Hair Wrap technology a good test, we took hair from a hairbrush and distributed it on to the carpet. After vacuuming the whole room there was still a small amount of hair wrapped around the brush-roll but after further vacuuming, pretty much all of the hair had been sucked into the canister.

In general, it’s easy to maneuver, although we struggled a little around sharp corners and the bottom-heavy design makes it too bulky to push under low furniture such as sofas and beds. However, you do have the option to use the main floorhead in lift-away mode which actually means it can reach much further under furniture than most vacuums.

It glides smoothly over carpet and hard floor without too much effort and the switch for the different floor modes is on the handle, so you can easily transition between floor types. But despite selecting the thick carpet/ area rug floor surface, it was hard work to push on our long pile rug. And after prolonged use in upright mode, it started to feel heavy, but the Lift-Away feature compensates for this by making stairs easier to clean. However, we ended up using the upholstery tool to vacuum stairs, US users will benefit from the Pet Power Brush for deeper stair cleaning.

We did like the headlights illuminating the floor in front of the vacuum which was particularly helpful on a dull rainy day when we hadn’t switched the lights on. It would be nice to have the option of different power levels though, especially when using in lift-away mode for more delicate surfaces like upholstery.

When vacuuming overhead in Lift-Away mode the wand feels heavy, so this is best done in short bursts. Having said that, we doubt many people have significant amounts of overhead vacuuming to do, so this shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

The dust canister is simple to detach, and a button releases the dust from the bottom so it falls straight into your bin, mess-free. The washable filters will last around 2.5 to 3 years before they need to be replaced and they’re easy to access for cleaning or replacing. Our decibel meter measured 80db when cleaning hard floors, which is equivalent to a garbage disposal. However, it isn’t one of the loudest vacuums we’ve tested and as the noise will only be for a few minutes at a time, we think this is acceptable. 

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First reviewed: October 2021

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You might also want to check out our Shark Anti Hair Wrap Flexology Cordless Vacuum Cleaner review.