A Vacuum for Pet Hair: the Shark Navigator Lift-Away Professional Upright
A Guest Article
I have owned a couple of high-end and low-end vacuum cleaners and tested a couple more. Call me a vac maniac.
I have never been a big fan of uprights, but after researching this one I had to get one.
After all, I thought, it would be well worth my while having two vacs in one.
It is the Shark Navigator Lift-Away Professional Upright (NV356E) vacuum (Affiliate Link)
Finding a Vacuum to Tackle Pet Hair
Being not at all new to the world of pet-parenting, I was hoping for a pretty good vacuum with all this unusual versatility to help me go micro in the war on little Fluffy and Grime. I was pleased to see that if comes with a small rotating brush attachment specially for pet hair.
I was pleased to find that the Shark Navigator vacuum is surprisingly meticulous as a cleaner, and a good vacuum for pet hair. The quality and performance is better than most vacuums I had tried, and it combines all the latest moving and detaching parts that make a vacuum superbly maneuverable and versatile.
Shark Navigator Lift-Away Professional Upright (NV356E)
I like the description in the Shark specifications:
Powerful pet attachments quickly and easily lift pet hair
My Take on the Shark Navigator NV356E
The Shark is a nice household item and pretty much holds its own against other brands in terms of design, usability, and performance, and it has excellent features.
I am a terrible allergic so I welcome a vac like this one.
A common flaw in a lot of bagless vacuums is the dust bin fittings. The Shark, on the other hand, is nicely fixed at four points – skintight against the filter casing. This just means even less leakage when the machine is blaring away.
Buy the Shark Navigator Lift-Away Professional Upright (NV356E) (Affiliate Link)
Two Vacs In One It was the idea of having two vacs in one that won me over.
I just love the ability of this vacuum to convert from a typical upright to a lightweight handheld (or stand-up) portable canister.
Lift-away mode just makes it that much easier to ship-shape tough-to-reach areas like steps and upholstery. Everything between my floor surfaces, upholstery and the ceiling gets covered that much more conveniently: being able to go between upright vacuum and portable Lift-Away – both without any loss of suction.
It couldn’t be easier to configure the Shark Navigator Lift-Away Pro vacuum cleaner into different cleaning modes to meet all those cleaning needs.
Unfortunately, the Lift-Away is not a drag-behind canister, and it doesn’t have wheels. The only wheels are on the powerhead. This means you must bring it with you by lugging it along – and handle it with one hand while the other reaches to vacuum the ceiling-fans. I’ve developed a nice and easygoing lug-and-drop cleaning pattern which works well to relieve myself ever so often of the lifting.
The canister provides better above-floor access.
Combine this with the accessories offered on this incredibly modular machine. It couldn’t be easier to convert the vacuum from upright to canister, extend the wand and add various brush attachments. There’s bound to be a brush for nearly every home vacuuming situation.
With just a slight press of the wrist, the vac twists and turns into every nook and cranny, around furniture and into smaller spaces. It’s the kind of maneuverability that can almost put the pleasure back into housekeeping.
It’s much less backbreaking to have a vacuum that you can steer with minimal effort. The most daunting maneuvers and your usual side-stepping are reduced to applying just a little bit of wrist-grease.
The Bottom Line
I say this very versatile vac can compete and hold it’s own against some of the most popular of them.
Dirt, Dust – even fruity Cheerios and pet-hair are no match.
It’s also a very adaptable land shark that comes with a couple of very useful attachments and accessories. Most of all, you can transition from an upright to a canister vacuum with ease. Anyone looking for an option that can get household chores done with fair suction power and versatility, should definitely give the Shark a try.
~ Guest ~
