Shark Navigator Lift Away Review

The Shark Navigator Lift Away is a good upright vacuum all-around but can't compete with the performance of more exceptional models available for a similar price.

Performance Comparison

Carpet Cleaning

We tested each model's ability to pick up rice, oatmeal, cereal, and flour spilled onto both high-pile and low-pile carpets to rank carpet cleaning performance. When it came to cleaning rice out of carpet, this model didn't do quite as well as other higher-end Shark models. It took a couple of extra passes to extract lingering grains. Thicker carpet also required additional passes to pick up the rice completely. Also notable, this model seemed to do a more effective job while pushing versus pulling.

In our second carpet cleaning sub-metric, oatmeal grains were picked up in two passes, requiring two additional passes to completely lift the remaining oatmeal dust. Its performance in this test was on par with the best models we tested. On cereal, the third carpet test sub-metric and a difficult task for many models we tested, the Navigator Lift Away exhibited a plowing effect, removing 95% of cereal by the fourth pass on the short carpet, but required some angling to work over the cereal. The head also needed to break the cereal into smaller grains, which it could completely remove with an additional pass.

Flour proved difficult for the Shark Navigator Lift Away to clean from carpets. After 15 passes, nearly all (roughly 99.9%) of the flour was picked up but still left a micro-film over the surface. Overall, the Navigator did an above-average job, but not a great job, cleaning carpets and wouldn't be a great choice for homes with large carpeted areas

Ease of Use

The Shark Navigator Lift Away performed decently in ease of use. Our testers perform and analyze each upright vacuum's edging ability, cable reach, under-furniture reach, and any features or functions that make a model easier to transition between carpets and hard surfaces.

The Navigator Lift Away is like many vacuums we've tested and has uneven edging performance. It tends to favor cleaning debris on one side and requires a few passes to pick up every morsel. It exhibited similar, less than great performance handling corners and proved to be a difficult task for this model.

Its cable reach, at 24.75 feet, is by no means short but is shorter than the average for the test group. The Navigator Lift Away has an impressive under-furniture reach of 10 inches, making it easier to keep things tidy. The reach is two more inches than the average and an inch shy of the best models we tested in our product test group. This model also adds surface transition convenience with roller adjustment located at the top of the basket.

Handling

The Shark Navigator Lift Away did significantly well in our handling tests overall. Handling accounts for 20% of each model's overall score. In each test, we measure maneuverability, level of effort, and ease of use on stairs.

The Lift Away is a nice vacuum to operate and handle, able to handle tight corners with good swiveling action, only falling a little short of excellence because of less than perfectly fluid movements. It also requires more pulling effort to stay on a line and maintain a steady flow.

However, when it came down to the effort required to handle the model, our test team found it easy to move back and forth.

Hard Surface Cleaning

Our hard surface cleaning test was again broken down into four common food substances distributed onto a hard surface: rice, oatmeal, cereal, and flour.

The Shark Navigator Lift Away did a fairly average job vacuuming rice from a hard surface. It didn't seem to have enough power to lift rice past the roller, and our test team observed rice on the floor, inside the clear portion of the vacuum head, that didn't budge until agitated. With a couple of additional passes, our test team managed to pick up all the rice.

While better than many of its peers, this model failed to do an exceptional job of picking up oatmeal left on a hard surface. On the first pass, the Lift Away pushed a lot of the grains around, but with an additional pass was completely able to pick up all the whole grains. It also struggled to collect the oatmeal dust that had settled into the surface's cracks.

When trying to pick up cereal, the Navigator navigated its way through the cereal like a plow, much like it did to oatmeal, instead of picking up cereal. It took quite a few passes and some angling of the head to eventually grab all of the cereal, but it was an undesirable struggle.

Even after dozens of passes, this model could not completely pick up all the flour from a hardwood surface in our tests. It did such a poor job, our testers suggested it would be better just to use a broom.

Pet Hair

Pet hair accounts for 10% of each model's overall performance. For this metric we vacuum up actual pet hair on fluffy and shallow carpets.

The Lift Away did well in our pet hair test and was able to lift away 99.8% of the hair from the carpet, leaving only a few strands over the entire test section of carpet. Overall, we were pretty pleased with its performance.

Should You Buy the Shark Navigator Lift Away?

The Shark Navigator Lift Away is a decent vacuum that performs well and has a reasonable price tag. We recommend this to anyone looking for decent performance but don't want to empty their savings.

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