Shark PowerDetect 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum and Mop review — hands-off deep cleaning for under $1K

At just under a thousand dollars, the Shark PowerDetect 2-in-1 Combo robot vacuum and mop aims to offer the performance and smart features of pricier hybrids like the $1,400 Roomba 10 Max Combo or Dreame L40 Ultra for less. Like those flagships, the PowerDetect even includes a hands-off dock that empties the vacuum for 60 days, washes the mop, and refills the water for up to 30 days.

It’s easy to get swept up in the promise of a fully autonomous all-in-one system for less than a grand. But does it sacrifice suction power and mopping performance to keep the price down? I’ve spent two weeks cleaning my floors using Shark’s PowerDetect 2-in-1 hybrid robot vacuum and mop to find out. Read on to see how its features hold up and where it stands among the best robot vacuums.

Shark PowerDetect 2-in-1 Combo review: Price and availability

The Shark PowerDetect 2-in-1 Combo robot vacuum I tested comes bundled with the auto-empty Never Touch Base and costs $999 on Shark.com. In addition to storing 60 days of dirt, Shark’s dock automatically refills the robot mop’s onboard water tank with clean water while also cleaning its mop for up to 30 days before needing a refill.

Shark PowerDetect 2-in-1 Combo review: Design

This robot arrives in a solid 25-pound box with the vacuum itself and Shark’s NeverTouch Base docking and refill station. Since everything comes fully assembled, I simply slid out the docking station, attached the ramp, plugged it in a few inches off my kitchen wall, and clipped the side brush onto the bottom of the Shark robot itself. 

On the top of the base sits three panels consisting of a larger debris chamber towards the back, two water tanks in the front (for dirty and clean) with easy-to-grip handles, and a circular indent for the odor-neutralizing canister to keep scents at bay. This disposable cartridge plugs and twists into the indented chamber, much like Iron’s Man’s Arc Reactor. It was this piece served as the driving inspiration behind naming my robot “Tony Shark” in the app.

To get started, I poured water and the included solution into the clean water tank, then rolled the PowerDetect bot onto its station. While sizable at 14 inches, the PowerDetect’s 5.5-inch high body easily slid under tight appliance and cabinet overhangs while tightly caressing corners. Three buttons on its top let you select a dry vacuum clean, wet mop clean, and return the robot to the dock. Along the bottom is the rubber brush roll, mopping pad, and side brush, in addition to a litany of sensors (floor, cliff, and wall detection). 

The PowerDetect navigates your space using a rotating 360-degree LiDAR turret at the top in addition to a 3D sensor module to locate and avoid potential obstacles. It had no problem curving around shoes and dog toys, but ran over a thin 6-foot USB-C charging cable. There’s no “P.O.O.P. promise” like iRobot offers with the Roomba J9+ that will replace your unit if it runs over pet waste, so make sure to clean it up before you send it out. 

Shark’s “NeverStuck” leg lifting technology actively raises the robot 0.8 inches, which was helpful for the rugs and wood saddles between rooms I have in my home. A button on the back right side of the bot releases the onboard water tank and dust bin combined into a compact crescent shape.

Shark PowerDetect 2-in-1 Combo review: Performance and test results

Throughout each session, the robot vacuum adjusted itself to suck debris harder, extend its mop out, and dive deeper by passing over dirtier areas several times. It effortlessly avoided stairs even in the dark, which can be terrifying when you’re investing $1,000 on a device. Plus, its ActiveLift leg easily climbed over rugs and saddles like the ones that divide my bedroom and bathroom from my hallway, which other robots like the tiny SwitchBot K10 I’m currently testing have struggled with. 

In addition to using the Shark across my house, I set up a controlled lab environment for more controlled tests. These runs took place in a 5x5-foot space of my basic hardwood floor, and then a 5x5 rug over the area to test carpet. I was impressed by the bot’s cleaning pattern in both settings, which starts with edges and works down neat rows.

Shark’s 2-in-1 Combo has three cleaning modes; vacuum only, mop only or deep clean, which first vacuums your carpets then returns to the dock to attach its pad to vacuum and mop simultaneously on hard floors. After the initial mapping run you can send the vacuum out again to detect carpets. That way it can mark those areas and know when mopping to avoid them.

When vacuuming hardwood floors, the side brush pushed debris forward but worked the outside and into rows to grab even the most granular materials like crushed Cheerio dust or kitty litter. The kitty litter test set off the Shark’s DirtDetect sensor for more suction, as announced by the bot and purple light indicator. The two single specks of remaining litter couldn’t be weighed on my scale. Technically, that’s a 100 percent score but I leaned towards chalking it up to 99.9% effective at cleaning sand off wood floors. 

As with many robot vacuums, pet hair was a challenge.The Shark’s row-by-row cleaning approach pushed it around the hardwood planks and made multiple passes over to actually run it over and absorb almost all of it. Of the 15 grams of pet hair, just under one remained (5% of the total). That impressive performance speaks to its suction prowess—at least on hard surfaces. In real-world usage, this has been a lifesaver for picking up everything from small strings to popcorn in vacuum-only mode.

Carpet cleaning performance is almost as thorough, as you can see from those crisp rows of suction in the rug test area in the picture above. Like on hardwood, Cheerios proved to be a gimme for the robot, which sucked them up gently without running them over and crushing them into sand. It's also still capable with pet hair, cleaning 90 percent, save for the longer strands that it embeds deeper into the fabric. 

But the test carpet held onto the kitty litter like poop on a blanket. Just 86% of kitty litter was picked up. As the Shark passed over it, it spread in a pattern throughout the carpet. I had to bust out a central vacuum with a double motor attachment just to get my test carpet back to normal for the next material.

The PowerDetect’s overall scores of 91.5 and 92.5 for kitty litter and pet hair, respectively, weren’t enough to top the very best robot vacuums for pet hair. Still, with both scores in the 90s, it certainly merits consideration if you have a furball at home.

Shark PowerDetect 2-in-1 Combo review: Mopping performance

Outside of the kitty litter carpet conundrum, I found the Shark Detect Pro an excellent robot vacuum. And it proved to be one of the best robot mops, too. Between the water and cleaning solution, the PowerDetect shined my wood floors spick and span while removing grime. I was most impressed by its ability to remove a strange gray stain that had been caked on the planks for the past week. Admittedly I have no idea what it was, but I’d compare the texture to a sticker-backing-like residue; it had no problem passing over this difficult goop until it was gone.

In everyday use, the PowerDetect removed chocolate and red sauce easily. My test space is primarily my kitchen—no I’m not a slob dropping food between rooms. But even if I was, I have no problem using the Shark across my entire main floor since it detects carpets and can raise and detach the mop pad to drop it off at its base at will. It thoroughly cleans the pad after each job, complete with a song and dance where it announces, “I’m cleaning my mop”. 

I expected the bot to either soak or barely wet the floor without any water level adjustment controls, but it lays down an even spread that doesn’t streak and dries quickly. Where other hybrid models like the Roomba J9+ drag a straight pad along the robot's backside, the Shark’s overhanging edge gets into corners for plenty of coverage. It’s still not a multi-disc system, but it’s wide and thorough enough to get the job done right as if done by a person.

Shark PowerDetect 2-in-1 Combo review: App

The PowerDetect offers button-based cleaning functionality without Wi-Fi. However, the vacuum's big draw is in its SharkClean app, which you can use to connect the robot to your Wi-FI network to control it from anywhere and access its smart features. 

The SharkClean app’s home screen shows you a map of your floor plan. You can press the “Clean” button at the bottom to send out the bot to vacuum only, mop only, or deep clean (both). Above that button is “Rooms”, where you can set No-Go Zones, name specific rooms, and drop a pin on an area to spot clean. This is as easy as stretching a polygon shape over your floorplan to denote layouts or block out areas and worked well throughout testing. I created borders along furniture edges to see if the bot drove along its invisible barriers, which it did to a T.

A hamburger menu tucked away in the top left corner of the app shows you cleaning report history and takes you to a scheduling page. You can set the bot to head out at specific times to vacuum only, mop only, or deep clean, which vacuums carpets first then grabs the mop pad to both vacuum and mop the remaining hardwood floor. You can also connect it to Alexa or Google Home’s smart platforms to trigger a cleaning with the best smart home devices. Shark’s app relays every step in real-time from dampening up the mop pad to when it returns to its base.

Shark PowerDetect 2-in-1 Combo review: Bottom line

If you want dirt-free, polished floors without having to lift a finger for over a month at a time you can’t beat the Shark PowerDetect 2-in-1 Combo for the price. Its extensive feature set and high-end performance give the best robot vacuums you can buy a serious run for their money. Its cleaning performance scores only come a few points behind. 

This cleans better than the Roomba J9+ Combo I reviewed earlier in the year and costs much less. However iRobot’s app suggests scheduled cleanings, you can adjust water levels for the mop, and its pad fully retracts overhead so it doesn’t need to drop off its pad, like the Shark does before working on carpet.

Outside of a boost in carpet cleaning power, the hybrid PowerDetect is a beast that’ll take all of the heavy lifting off your shoulders so you can spend more time doing other things in your day.

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