One of the attachments which comes with this Shark vacuum is the pet tool. As with many of the best vacuum cleaners for pet hair, it's was excellent at drawing out embedded hair from rugs, blankets and anywhere else your four-legged-friend likes to reside. Overall, this is a strong contender for those looking for a large capacity Shark vacuum that they can rely on. We also test their cleaning ability with measured spills of flour and Cheerios, on both hard floor and carpet. Each vacuum is given one pass to to see how much it can collect, and we weigh how much is collected to compare to every other vacuum we’ve previously tested. Automatic cleaning mode This means you don’t need to worry about switching settings when you move from carpet to hard floor. LiftAwayoffers a removable central canister that can be lifted around to clean stairs and upholstery. This makes is easier to access tough spots, even cars. Even lower-priced Shark cordless models come with various features, such as LED headlights to show up stray dirt, a hinged cleaning tube, swappable batteries and the new anti-hair wrap that detangles the brush bar for you. They have a longer warranty, too.

As the current owner of two dogs and four cats and several predecessors, the carpets in my house aren’t necessarily as dazzling white as they could be. I didn’t expect the carpet cleaner to make too much of a difference. How wrong I was. Add Shark’s lift-Away function, which allows you to separate the vacuum unit and cleaning hose from the floor head, to reach areas like stairs and upholstery, and you have a vacuum that is unsurpassed in both power and flexibility. There's no doubt that our testing process proved that this vacuum is worth the large price tag that it carries. Even if you don't have pets, the ease with which this vacuum does away with hair is astounding, and our Ecommerce Editor Molly found that it was unmatched when it came to suction. Digital control display This tells you in minutes exactly how much battery life you have left, and updates depending on the cleaning mode selected There's a suite of onboard tools which can be used with this vac too, Molly's favourite being the Anti Hair Wrap Power Tool which is great for upholstery and smaller jobs. How we test Shark vacuums

Shark produces some of the best vacuum cleaners around, but which one is best for you?

DuoCleanis Shark's self-adjusting brush roll that automatically adapts to carpet and hard floor without you having to switch over. Battery life If you have a larger home or a lot of carpet, you’ll want more battery life so you don’t get caught short. Although it is a corded vac, the 9 metre-long cable will give you an adequate radius to work your way around the various floors in the home. Molly lives in a two-bedroom flat, and never found the cord to be an issue, with space to get to all of the rooms she needed to. Flexible hinge, lift-away unit, swappable batteries, LED headlights, dual brush floorhead, anti-hair-wrap floorhead These features can make a difference to how pleasant the vacuum is to use, but which brand you prefer depends on what your biggest vacuuming bugbears are, the size and shape of your home, and how big your budget is.

Around the same time as Dyson launched its V15 collection, Shark released a new addition to its popular Anti Hair Wrap cordless vacuum range.Most impressively, this model boasts Shark’s most advanced anti hair wrap technology to date, removing strands from the rollers as it goes along. Unlike previous Shark models it’s almost 100 per cent effective, and that’s coming from someone with four long-haired cats (and two Labradors).

I used the hair-capturing EcoBrush head on my carpets, which uses the suction of the vacuum to spin the brush, scooping pet hairs into an aperture that’s narrower than on the standard Henry head so that the suction power is more focused. It’s very noisy and not quite as good as the motorised brushes on costlier pet vacs, but did a decent job of lifting hairs and was easy to push around. The Shark IZ201UK Cordless Vacuum Cleaner is one of the best vacuum cleaners for pet hairon the market. It has a 0.7 litre dustbin which, while not the largest, is adequate for cleaning most homes without the need to empty mid-way. We also enjoy how lightweight it is, at just over 4 kg. Take a look at our review of the Shark Anti Hair Wrap with PowerFins and Flexology IZ300UK review to get our initial thoughts. The Shark Anti Hair Wrap Cordless Upright Vacuum Cleaner with PowerFins, Powered Lift-Away & TruePet has absolutely everything you need (as you might've guessed from the name) to stay on top of the busiest of homes, in a cordless model. I have a few small gripes with the carpet cleaner. Firstly, it leaked dirty water if I left it stood upright for a few minutes (though this was easy to clean up). Secondly, despite repeated passes, some stains were too deep-rooted to lift - although the SpinScrub hand tool attachment was the most effective. It didn’t struggle with the more recent stains, so I suppose I shouldn’t expect miracles. Thirdly, I found if I sprayed too much from the pre-treatment wand, then ran the floor head over the same spot, it became extremely soapy and hard to rinse.Lift-away canister, dual brush floorhead, LED headlights, anti-hair-wrap floorhead, claims around allergen filtration We were very excited to test the brand new Shark Detect Pro for a few reasons. The first is that it's unbelievably lightweight, at just 2.76kg, so your days of lugging around a heavy vacuum are behind you. The upholstery head is even smaller, for terrific suction, and has a lint brush ahead of the aperture. It’s best used in repeated, pulling-towards-you motions and took quite a bit of elbow grease, but achieved proper deep-clean results.

DuoClean: Shark’s DuoClean motorised floor heads have two rollers. The first is a soft roller designed to capture dirt from a hard floor. The second is a brush roller, which agitates carpet pile for deeper cleaning. Our buyer’s guide to the best vacuum cleaners explains the complicated matter of measuring suction, but as a rough guide, look for a 600W motor or higher. And, very importantly, remember to empty the receptacle as regularly as possible: a bag or cyclone cylinder filled to the brim with pet hair will drastically reduce the vacuum’s suction power. A handheld vacuum won’t replace either of the other types but is a very useful device to have around as a secondary option. These smaller units are easier to get out and use, particularly if you only need to gather up a small spill. They’re ideal for cleaning in places that are problematic for bigger vacuums, such as your car boot, and are useful to have close to hand in the kitchen, garage or utility room. Other Shark features to look out for: Flexology means your vacuum can be pivoted under furniture using an elbow hinge at the centre of the tube. It saves you from bending and reaching, but it's only available on cordless vacuums.This could be a good compromise if you’re after a more compact vacuum but your budget won’t stretch to cordless tech. It delivered pretty consistent results on the flooring, leaving carpet – including on the stairs – tiles, and parquet clean. The DuoClean floorhead had a big part to play in this as it can easily transition across the various floor types, on which its twin bristle brushes work their magic. Anti Hair Wrap – a feature designed to stop hair accumulating around the brush roll – had some impressive results, too. This meant that neither human hair nor the hair of small furry housemates lodged itself around the brushes of the floorhead or the motorised pet tool. Power trigger Most older Dyson models require you to hold down a power trigger while cleaning. This is to save battery, but if you have a lot of floor space to cover, it can get tiring. HEPA filters provide the best method of filtration,” says Katerina Petrova of the Happy House cleaning company. “You can find both bagged or bagless models and the prices range from cheap to considerably more expensive. Good examples of this type of vacuum come from Miele, Shark and Dyson.’‘ The lift-away canister, found on most upright models, allows you to hold the dust canister while using the flexible tube to vacuum the stairs, so it's less of an awkward balancing act; meanwhile, the anti-hair wrap can help reduce the amount of brush bar detangling you have to do.