Shark AV2501AE AI Robot Vacuum with XL HEPA Self-Empty Base, Bagless, 60-Day Capacity, LIDAR Navigation, Perfect for Pet Hair, Compatible with Alexa, Wi-Fi Connected, Carpet & Hard Floor, Black

I havent had my Shark robot long, but its put in a lot of hours in a short time. I have dogs, a dirt yard and my own hair has been known to kill old-version robot vacuums in no time. Based on the notifications I must not be the only one. If you forget to check the wheels for hair, no worries, the shark will stop vacuuming and let you know when its time to clean the hair out of the wheels. The spinning wheel pops right out and is easy to clean and the spinning brush has a door making it easy to remove and clean the hair out of. It also lets you know when the bin is full, so no stress about forgetting to check it. My expectations for the mop were pretty low. How much scrubbing power can this thing really put into my floors? I was pleasantly surprised. It did better than expected. Yes, I will have to mop myself, but this is great for in-between mops. The vacuum works well on hard floors and is pretty decent on carpets. It picks up short dog hair well but sometimes drags longer hair across the carpet. Im not complaining, I wake up to carpet lines and clean floors every day and I only have physically push a vacuum once a week now. Worth every cent!

I had been contemplating upgrading my iRobot 670 for some time. It wasn’t really doing the job. I have 2 dogs, both heavy shedders. Working full-time and going to school full time I wanted something to help maintain a clean floor. This isn’t a replacement for a regular vacuum but it really comes close and does a great job. The mapping created during initial exploration is very accurate and the robot follows it each time. The floor upon which it roams is probably 90% low pile carpet (the bane of my existence until I can replace it with vinyl plank). Keep in mind, if there are any loose threads they will get caught. This is common for me because my husky and German shepherd so if I see one, I cut it to avoid that problem. For those who are terrible at cable management such as myself, it will normally navigate around or over cords though I would keep them clear. Small cables like mini USB or charging cables can get sucked up. It has three suction modes (eco, normal and max). For my purposes I always use Max and it’s not incredibly noisy. It is far quieter than my old Roomba. I can still watch tv comfortably and hear perfectly fine while its running. The self-emptying bin works great. Some complain it’s loud but it’s not that bad, and c’mon, it only takes about 10 seconds. The first couple times I ran it, I had to manually empty the dust cup on the robot because of dog hair. I think it was just finding more than I got with my regular vacuum. Now, running it once daily I haven’t had to do it. Oh, another great thing about this robot is the roller. Dog hair will not get caught in it !! With my old Roomba, I had to de-hair the roller after each use. Overall, this unit was significantly more than I ever wanted to pay, but so far it’s been worth it because of its efficiency and low maintenance. I’m really happy that I pulled the trigger.

So I was told by several people how much they loved their robotic vacuums. I had a hard time believing they were that great. Ive been using an ancient rainbow vacuum which works great for my chocolate labs hair which is everywhere. But its a pain to take out and fill up with water and then empty. Which I did almost every day. So I finally broke down and we bought this one and oh how wonderful it works! I cannot believe how much human hair and dog hair it picks up. The self-emptying into the base is so cool! I empty the base about once a week to 10 days and its full! The mop does a fair job but its not like getting down on your hands and knees and scrubbing. But its great for just everyday touch ups. The Ultra clean is awesome as well. Im glad I went with this one and spent the extra money. The ability to start it up on an app when we are away from home is awesome. Its so cool to come home to freshly vacuumed carpets. It feels like a cleaning lady was in the house. :) We have it scheduled daily to start up at 7:00 a.m. Our dog just ignores it and walks away from it. Hes not frightened by it nor does it want to mess with it. Super satisfied!

Have owned a self emptying Shark robot vacuum for a few years. Previous robot started having issues and was offered a discount on same model (warranty had expired). Great customer service experience with Shark. Decided to upgrade to this model with AI. Couldnt be happier with performance. Superior mapping and matrix cleaning technology has helped keep our house with 2 large dogs, and a 2 year old much cleaner than before.

This is our third robovac, and the second model from Shark. The laser navigation is great because you can run it at night in a dark room. The app is better than once was. The self emptying option is great. But the vacuum itself get stuck on everything and then stops. It gets stuck on inward and outward facing corners, all types of chair legs, bookshelves, even straight sections of wall, and on edge of the straits where there is a “no go” zone set. Then you got to go find it…. Fortunately it will emit distress sound. Unfortunately, the battery will die and by the time you get home from work, it is dead in some corner somewhere. So you find it, put it on the charger and try again when it completely recharges tomorrow—when it will get stuck yet again). I can understand if a vacuum gets stuck on a rug, or a charging cable left lying in the ground, or a sock someone left under the bed, but chair legs, straight walls, wall corners that stuck out into a wide open room, that seems like it is failing a really basic task of a robot vacuum. I run it most days and roughly 60% of the time, it fails to complete its cleaning for the day because it vacuum next to a wall and somehow managed to get stuck. I rate it 2 stars. The app I’d give a 4 stars… the auto emptying I’d give 4.5 but this robot fails in the most basic sense of navigation failing leading to failure to complete clean cycles. 2 stars.

I bought this because Im disabled and I wish now that I had bought it sooner!

Most of the other reviews cover the great features of this robotic vacuum, so I will tell you of our experience in our two level house. I charged it and mapped the upstairs. It cleaned several times over the week transitioning from carpet to hardwood and hardwood to tile with a threshold and did a great job. Love the straight line pattern instead of the chaotic every which way program. Then I wanted to try the downstairs without loosing my upstairs map. I took Sharkie and the base downstairs, plugged him in and pressed clean on the app. We left to go out with friends and returned about 2.5 hours later and he was still cleaning! Half the livingroom had vacuum lines, but he was in another room. However, before he finished, the other half was done! He knew to come back and finish, even without mapping. We added hardwood floors over our old linoleum and this made the space up against the kitchen cabinets too short for the robot to go in. I thought I would just have to get that space by hand, but no! Somehow with the two sweepers and the edge blowing function, he got all the debris out of the toekick area. The only downside of not mapping before cleaning is that you can’t tell it to clean a specific room. If you want him to clean the whole level, just press clean. No map needed!

I’ve tried several different robot vacuums and the sharks are by far the best. Love that they go back and forth vs every which way. Self emptying is a great feature. I have one upstairs and one downstairs.

I had to return the robot because every time it went back to its base station, a burnt/smoky smell would come out and linger for hours. Besides that: Cons: 1. Alexa integration is not great. I say ask shark to ..., it always asks which robot, mostly two times. I only have one robot (!). Also when I say ask shark to clean the kitchen, it asks which robot and then says ok shark is cleaning the kitchen now. But then it goes on to clean everywhere. You have to get on to the app to get it to do anything. 2. return to station to charge makes the robot go back to the base too prematurely. There is still 40% charge when the robot decides to go back to charge. If it didnt, it could actually finish cleaning my apartment on a single charge. Not letting the battery go below 40% is bad for battery life. 3. It sometimes goes around the same area more than once, as if it is obsessed with it. I dont understand why. 4. It doesnt detect short objects and it goes at anything on the floor. So you cannot forget phone cables etc. lying around. Pros: 1. It doesnt easily get stuck and it usually finds its way back to the station. 2. The empty station is very convenient. 3. I dont think it has a very good suction power but since it doesnt get stuck and it can clean everyday without your intervention, I think it does a good job keeping the floors clean. Too bad I had to return for the burnt smell. Maybe I got a faulty unit but I wont risk buying another one.

As I noted in the headline, this is our third robot vacuum, as our Deebot 920 developed yet another issue with its lidar system and I finally gave up trying to fix it. I have been wanting to get something that had self empty, no mopping, and no bags. Which lead me to get this Shark AI. First some pros: The initial mapping went very quickly, and when it was done generating the map, accuracy was good. Seems to have taken the no-go zones I created to heart Battery life is solid, and its a major step up from my old machine with the Nickel metal hydride battery. Lasts longer and recharges faster Auto empty works! We have a giant German Shepherd whose shedding season never stops, which with the old vacuums meant that Id have to empty the bin halfway through the main living area, then again another half hour later. The auto empty bin keeps me from forgetting which keeps the machine cleaning decently. Noise is fine, about the same as my old Deebot, maybe a touch quieter. Except of course, when the auto-empty bin kicks off which is to be expected as it needs to get everything out fast! It uses a (mostly) logical path for cleaning, but this also falls into the cons which Ill talk about as well. Doing single high traffic rooms is easy. Build quality seems fine, nothing bad to say. Latches seem solid to start anyway. There are some cons however. Given that this machine is several years newer, Im baffled as to why it doesnt have any kind of progress that shows on the map. My old Deebot would dutifully record and report where it was via the app at all times. Which is really nice when you are cleaning the rest of the house along with him- that way you know whether or not you can mop an area. This seems like a basic gimme that Shark is really missing. Brushes are singles rather than triples. It does mean that Ive seen a bit of missed stuff where my old machine seemed to pick it up just fine. Vacuum power with any of these is not going to be like an upright, so with that expectation set, it does not seem to do as good of a job as the old deebot on the two area rugs. Which is okay, as I usually hit them with the upright from time to time anyway, but max power should at least get it as good I would expect, which it doesnt. Paths, although logical, are really oddly decided by the bot. The older machine would do a perimeter path, then start in a corner and work its way out. This guy goes right through the middle of the room and then starts going off and doing sections, which seems to take longer. He also tends to get confused a bit more under chairs and with some obstacles. So overall, are any of the cons a deal breaker? Not for me at this point, they are mostly just annoyances, although the lack of progress on the map almost made me pack it up and send it back. The auto empty covers a lot of sins, and for the price point compared to other auto empty models, it seems to be a pretty solid performer so far. Id give it 3.5 stars overall- if they update the mapping to show progress, I might well bump it up.