Checking out the Shark Rocket DeluxePro Vacuum

We love the summer. The beach, the pool, lots of BBQ’s and picnics, and an open schedule to explore NYC and surrounding areas. But, with the long days spent outdoors and being indoors less, that means less time to clean up at home. After a long beach day you’ve got wet bathing suits and towels, sandy toys and sandals, and coolers to clean out. It’s also inevitable that sand and other outdoor dirt is going to find it’s way inside the house and all over the car. So we set out to find a vacuum that would do everything we need for our apartment and car, and allow us to get back to family time as quick as possible.

We were given the opportunity to test out the Shark Rocket DeluxePro vacuum. It’s a 2 in 1 vacuum: an upright vacuum that cleans bare floors but also deep cleans area rugs and carpets, and turns into a handheld for small jobs around the house and in the car. Living in a small Bronx apartment in NYC, a vacuum that can take care of our tile floors, two area rugs, and the car is exactly what we needed. Not to mention the size is perfect for an apartment with no storage options for large appliances.

Hard Floors

The Rocket comes with two settings- for bare floors and for rugs/carpets. The bare floor setting is great in the kitchen, bathroom, and any other room with tile or wood. We love that there is a light that really helps you see all of the dust and particles on the floor that even in daylight you would not have noticed. With kids in the house, there is always some kind of mess or crumbs to pick up, and the Rocket was great at getting into different spaces because of the way it can move side to side.

There is also a Dust-Away^™ Attachment that is included in the Rocket Booster pack. While the normal vacuum attachment is great at picking up everything, this attachment seemed to make the floor shine- picking up those little particles or dry dust that seem to want to linger. Also, with three girls and lots of hair in this house, it’s great to have something like this around. When you need to wash, simply take off the micro-fiber pad and throw it in the washing machine.

Carpets and Rugs

Being that we live in a small apartment with mostly tile floors, we have always opted for the cheaper handheld vacuums to do the job. But with two area rugs- one in the living room and one in the playroom (both high traffic areas), we knew we needed something stronger, especially when I found myself sweeping the rug and then vacuuming the hard floor! While I’ve always been complimented on how clean I keep our place, after vacuuming just once with the Rocket on our area rugs I could see a huge difference- not to mention how much crap was in the dustcup from just one time! Gross.

To try to demonstrate, I dumped some paper snowflakes left over from a holiday toy (really, who thought those would be fun?) on our playroom rug:

 

This vacuum is honestly pretty amazing on our rugs- from the dropped crumbs in the living room (I swear I reinstate the no eating rule once a week) to the Play-Doh crumbs and other unidentifiable crumbs on the playroom rug- this vacuum leaves the rugs looking as good as new.

The Attachments/Using as a Handheld

I’ll be honest- I don’t often use the attachments that come with vacuums. I’m usually pretty lazy about that and prefer to just dust or wipe down with cloths. But for this review I had to be sure to test everything out, and I’m so glad I did! I always joke that I think my family creates more dust than others- we don’t allow shoes in the house, we are on the second floor, and yet I still find myself wondering where all of the dust has come from. I used the dusting brush and crevice tool around our TV stand and got sooo much dust. I’m officially into attachments.

The Result

Pros

• Awesome suction power on both carpet and bare floor settings
• Lighting helps tremendously
• Attachments are great- especially the Dust-Away attachment
• Love how long the cord is- for a small apartment you can cover a lot of space before needing to move to another plug
• Tall and slim so it fits in tight spaces

Cons

• Since it’s top heavy, it doesn’t stand up well on it’s own- so we made sure it was leaning on a counter or against something when it wasn’t being stored away
• Being that is top heavy, it might not be the best Shark option for someone with carpal tunnel or arthritis
• We saw some complaints about not having a retractile cord- didn’t bother us, but wanted to share!

We really love this vacuum and it is going to get a lot of use this summer. Between sandy floors in the house and car and other dust and crumbs, we love that we can take just a few minutes out of our busy summer to make a big difference in cleaning so we can get right back to the fun. After all, two months flies by!

For more information about the Shark Rocket DeluxePro and other Shark vacuums, visit www.sharkclean.com

We were given the Shark Rocket DeluxePro to facilitate this review. As always, all opinions are our own.