Shark - AI Ultra Self-Empty Robot Vacuum (Base Model)

I’m on my second robot vacuum and I basically don’t use it. It can’t handle one room and can’t automatically empty the bin because the hair is so long it gets tangled in the tiny bin (and the spinny things just whip up little hair tornado balls) 🙄 I have all hard wood floors and 2 cats and 2 Great Pyrenees. One of them really loves her mud mound in the back of the yard 🙃so lots of hair and dirt This is the Shark AI Ultra Robot Vacuum with XL HEPA (RV2520A0US) and it’s worse than the old Xiamo Robot vacuum I used to have in every single sense. Among the issues with the hair, the mapping and navigation suck and the app is super slow. It frequently gets lost in my 1100sqft house Give me your experiences and model name, good or bad! I’d like to run it scheduled without babysitting it …

Make sure it has mapping otherwise it’s a waste of time. I have the shark ai one with self dumping and an optional mop attachment. I have three dogs, two cats and a 14 month old. I looooove it.

I have had both roomba and shark. Roomba needed a lot of maintenance. The good news is that it is completely rebuildable. Bad news, I know that because I changed our every part in that darn machine. My shark is more durable. Yes, I've changed our parts, but they are normal parts like filters and side brushes. I have yet to replace the motor or battery. My sister has an eufy. She has poor quality carpet, and the suction power has damaged her carpet. So... it is a powerful vacuum if your carpet can handle it. Robot vacuums are usually beat priced on black Friday. You might get lucky with Prime Day this year.

I have the Shark AI Ultra self emptying. It does not mop. It isn't a replacement for full vacuuming, but it does make the job much easier. I suffer from dust mite allergies, so I know it does a good job. However, I think it is important to point out to new robot vacuum users that you still need to do a weekly full vacuum regardless of how many times per week you want to run your bot

[Shark](https://www.sharkclean.com/sharkus.product_categories.robot_vacuums). Never seems to get mentioned in these kinds of threads, but they are rock-solid, no bags to replace, not Chinese, excellent vacuums and I highly recommend them.

Thing is - I don't need a new robo vac right now - my shark RV2520AOUS with auto empty is going strong. I run it every single day.. which is about how often it needs to run to keep up with the 3 pets, but it does keep up. It's been going strong for 2 years. As long as no one leaves clothing on the floor, it doesn't really get stuck, and one or two no-go zones take care of some problem problem areas. It does the recharge resume, it returns to base every 30 minutes to empty and resume. I mean.. it's a champ. I don't get all the "Shark sucks" hate.. maybe the Roborocks are better/faster. --= but the Shark is.. "Good Enough for me(tm)" I do have to empty the "60 day" bin every week, becuase it fills quickly, but once per weeks is not bad at all. I could not imagine replacing bags once per week, that would cost so much. I do the recommended foam filter cleaning once every three months, I swap the brush roller about once every two or three months, and the rotating side brushes more often. The best part is I only paid $150 for it as a refurb unit from woot.. so for the price, it has absolutely off the chart value. I have probably spent more on replacing filters, the roller brush and the side brushes than I did on the original unit.

Really like my shark ai ultra. Bought it on sale for $298!

We have a German shedder in the house and our shark has been amazing (AI ultra). Virtually no issues with hair stuck in the brushes and always amazed how much is picked up after a session

I just bought one of these too after doing some research for vaccumes in my price range (400$). I really hope you're talking US prices because mine was $450 with tax

I love my Shark AI Ultra. Honestly life changing if I want to be dramatic. I have a german shep and an american eskimo. I do have to clean the brush off daily because it will tangle with hair, but I don't mind doing that considering my floors are constantly hair free now. I have it on a schedule to run every morning at a set time, but I can also start it with the app even when I'm not home if. I can pick "no-go" zones and also pick specific spots for it to clean rather than the entire room. My only complaint is the tangled brush, but I have A LOT of dog hair between the two so I'm not too shocked...as long as I go and pop off the back and pull the hair out once a day I don't have any problems. My house is all hardwood so I can't give fair opinion on rug cleaning.

I have the shark ai ultra for 2 weeks and it's been good so far. I also didn't want to go with a mop version starting out. The shark does a good job, I was surprised how well it did, actually, bc I was skeptical that a robot vac could be strong enough.we have a long haired cat and a large shedding dog in those rooms full time and a German shepherd is in there sometimes, too. It has made a huge difference in the daily cleanliness, beforehand there were tumbleweeds of fluff everywhere along with the occasional scattering of cat litter and regular human dirt that we track around. Idk if it's better than the others , but I'm very happy with it.

Not exactly "negative", but we have been in a rolling upgrade for about 5 years. Each unit was purchased as "best we could afford at the time". They all still work, so I'm passing them on to kids and friends as they are replaced. 1. Eufy 11s. Best budget entry level. The random cleaning pattern is eccentric, it has very limited schedule options, and the brush roller was hard to keep clean, but it was still better than nothing at all. A good affordable entry point to see if we liked robots (I think I paid like $99, and I had a gift certificate so it was only about $50 out of pocket). 2. Shark self empty rv001. Got it as a refurb for a different part of the house. Pretty good for the price, snd the Shark roller is WAY better than the 11s for long hair/pet hair. Good at getting itself stuck in corners and the app sucks, but for the price I paid, an ok self-empty unit. Plan to continue using it until it dies. 3. Eufy g40+ hybrid (replaced the 11s). Mopping as well as self empty vac! That said, you have to remember to fill the tank and attach the mophead every time, and the pads get pretty yucky. Can't say it's a great combo, but still, better than no mop, and the self empty/self fill ones were still around $1800 at the time (vs $289). It is now going upstairs and I'm giving the 11s away. 4. Omni c20 - everything I've been waiting to hit my budget!! I'll keep using the Shark in the living room as it is kinder to area rugs - the mops in the c20 get caught on the edges as they lift (the only negative thing I have to say about it) - but after a week of trying it out I am sooooo happy with it. No going back - active mopping, self watering and self empty for life!

I had one of the higher end Sharks, can't remember the model, and I thought I liked it. It touted laser mapping, advanced schedules, etc. But then I got the Roborock Q Revo and it absolutely blew me away; made me realize how shitty the Shark was. At every level it's better: primarily it cleans way better, but also the app is better, it's actually easy to get replacement parts, and a ton of minor things that make it feel polished, like the robot will announce on its own device speaker what's happening, like why it got stuck or why it's returning to a dock. Contrast this with a few friends of mine that have even worse vacuums than the Shark: theirs get stuck all the time, can't find their way home to the dock, they end up not using it at all. Long story short, based on my experience it's absolutely worth spending good money to get a good robot vacuum.

Avoid shark robots . Just a year in, my shark lidar based robot died. My 4 year old roomba is still kicking fine

Well it's definitely not the BEST robot vacuum, because I'm a little on the cheap side and I don't have to have the best thing, but I really like my shark vacuum because they have a patented "lint roller" that keeps pet hair and string from getting tangled or building up on the roller. It's the lidar kind with the self empty base. The self empty base is a must have imo. Running this daily keeps the pet hair tumbleweeds from taking over the house. Doesn't do great on carpet though.

I have the Shark that empties itself. Only does one floor and mixed hard wood and rugs. Empties itself twice while cleaning and does a pretty good job.

I like my big Bissell Pet hair vacuum. It was like $250? I think I got it from target. We have a BC, a Sheppard mix, and a yorkie mix. So, with the 2 bigs we have a lot of hair lol ALSO.... if you do not have them already look at chom chom on amazon... it is a little hand held thing that gets hair off of furniture in a breeze!! I have one in the living room and the bedroom. It is like a lint roller without the sticky tape. you just run it back and fourth really quick on the surface you want to remove hair and it picks it up like a charm! I use that on my couch and bed daily! We also got a shark robot vacuum with a tank that it self empties into and we run that every day too. I have found that daily maintenance or every other day is the best way to keep the hair down

We have a self emptying Shark vacuum that is programmed to run in the living room and kitchen at night. As far as baby toys go. Most of that stuff lives in the giant playpen they takes up 1/3 of my living room. We have other toys for when she’s crawling and cruising around, but those get picked up when we’re done, so the dogs don’t get them.

I have 3 golden retrievers and 2 cats. I run a shark robot daily (I paid a little over $300, and is self emptying). I have to clean the brush every time it runs. If I don't run it daily, it just clogs up. Still it is less work than keeping up with all that fur. https://preview.redd.it/ddu3lbzejone1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=25f2be0c57e4ef63f85f3c8e507b9397df9d33aa

I have 3 cats, love the shark self empty. It empties 2 or 3 times before its done. They stand by their products, sent me a new unit when the brush failed, came with a 3 yr warranty.

I've been using Roomba's for a while. I have 3 from super dumb to self-emptying... They've been pretty reliable and do a decent job... but are pricier. This year I bought a black friday Shark deal... self emptying... In just a few times of use I find that Shark is behind on the game. This makes me leery to try other manufacturers...

lol saw your post right above this one in the other sub. I’ll copy my comment here too in case: I’m with you and the only robot vacuum that didn’t clog or burn out was the self emptying shark one. It was so expensive but it’s been going three years strong. I turn it on while they’re crated and I’m at work and empty it when I get home. I’ve seen on the camera the poor guy making multiple trips to self empty while in one room but it’s cut the hair buildup tenfold. To me it was worth every penny

I’m with you and the only robot vacuum that didn’t clog or burn out was the self emptying shark one. It was so expensive but it’s been going three years strong. I turn it on while they’re crated and I’m at work and empty it when I get home. I’ve seen on the camera the poor guy making multiple trips to self empty while in one room but it’s cut the hair buildup tenfold. To me it was worth every penny

You still have to empty the base but in my experience it allows it to do more than non self emptying. I use mine daily but I also empty the base daily once I get home. I also only use it when they’re up because they would absolutely eat it

Second the shark self emptying one. They do very well with all the hair.

We have a self-emptying Shark for our gsd, gsd/husky mix, and 2 cats. If it doesn't get run at least once a day, the roller brush will get clogged. We also do supplement vacuuming hard to reach spots with a stick vac.

I have a shark robot vac that does mapping and self emptying. It forces me to be a little more mindful of picking up every night and I love the mapping function because I can keep it out of certain areas depending on how good I was at preparing the house. Highly recommend!

Not BIFL, but our Shark (get the self emptying base!) has withstood 4 cats, a long haired dog, 3 adults, a toddler, and a long haired teenager for 4 years and still doing well. I was incredibly disappointed in the original roomba I tried. If you do buy a shark buy directly from them. Their customer service is phenomenal. I bought one through a home improvement store as it was on sale. It had a charging issue within 12 months and when I called Shark I was told that since I hadn’t bought from them they couldn’t cover the full replacement even under warranty. BUT if I paid shipping they would send me a new one - $34 later I had a new one on the way. Bonus points as I was able to fix the original and had two robot vacs for the price of 1+ shipping.

I have 3 and the best cleaner is by far the not smart ilife a4. They are inexpensive and run well on regular low pile carpet. Only complaint is that it sees black carpet spots as a drop and goes haywire. My ilife v80max Is finicky, battery sucks, same black carpet issue. My shark self emptying doesn't do corners and edges well due to the tiny single brush it has, the self emptying doesn't work 60% of the time due to cat hair. Just get the cheap ilife, hell, get 2 or 3 for the price. Mines lasted 8 years and counting.

I have a Shark with a base that it self empties into. Mine is scheduled to run three times a week and I empty the base once a week. I’ve got two cats, hardwood, and a lot of dust. You’d probably have to empty the base multiple times a week with two shepherds. Honestly I love my Shark. It saved me so much anxiety and time because I was constantly fighting to make my floors feel clean. Now I just have to spot clean and vacuum the corners where the robot can’t reach.

I second u/Huntit-Ownit ! Get one that has the auto empty dock. I empty mine every couple of days that way. One huge leg up for a Shark over Roomba is that the brush roller is similar to a vacuum (e.g. hard plastic), whereas the roomba is a plastic roller with a rubber cover that is DESTROYED by dog fur and you have to frequently replace. If you keep an eye on Woot they have refurbished sharks on sale pretty frequently, last one I got for $120.... Edit: Looks like Woot has one refurbished for $129!

I have a self emptying shark and it has changed my life lol.

Love our shark with self emptying feature.

I've tried shark and iRobot. Both self emptying. Shark lasted a few years, my iRobot is needing parts replacement after only 6 months. iRobot also requires you to buy their own waste bags. It doesn't work without them.

We have a shark with a self emptying and charging station and I love it so much more than the previous roomba. Sharks clean in a stripe or grid pattern whereas roomba is a seemingly random pattern that drives me nuts. Our shark also lets me pick the level of suction eco, normal, max (I almost always use max) but that feature gives more control over the noise, and also has an option for what they call matrix clean but it’s basically a grid, it’ll do stripes all one way then perpendicular to really get everything. I’ve got 3 kids home all day and it does great with tons of food, hair etc. I use my big vacuum weekly on the main rug, maybe monthly on kids room rugs and shark for all other nearly daily maintenance. The big thing for me is the app and the map. Once it learns the house you can send it to just individual rooms to clean which is a lifesaver with small kids as rarely are all the floors clean at once. My kids know and have learned how to get a room clean and “roomba ready” (shark vacuum just habit), so they go pick it up, I send the robot and it’s amazing. Occasionally with an app update your robot will act like it’s lost and doesn’t know the map and you have to remap the house which is annoying, but it’s still so worth it to me. 

Yeah, it was a process for us, but we finally got down to a manageable amount of toys to where my 3yo can help us pick up most nights, or at least get everything into the playroom and then we block that room off and run the vacuum as we're taking the kids up to bed. We have a small cabinet in the playroom so we can rotate toys, and I'll let her take one extra thing out at a time, but then she has to clean up before we get anything else out. I keep most of the multi pieces toys in there so it doesn't get too chaotic. With my 14mo walking around dropping crumbs everywhere it's nice to clean at least the downstairs most days.

I'm a SAHM and we just run ours as we're taking the kids up to bed each night. We also have an upstairs one (claimed our warranty for it running loud on our hardwood downstairs and they never asked for the other one back) and that one I run a couple times a week, but I just send it into the kids' rooms individually when they're downstairs playing and then run it for the rest of the upstairs. It doesn't seem to ever wake them from naps either, but we do have light white noise running in both their rooms. ETA: OP, if you're going to get one, splurge for the self emptying because if you have to empty it every time you're less likely to use it. We only have to empty ours like once a month and I have a 14mo and a 3yo who drop crumbs everywhere. I don't know the exact model, but both of ours are Shark and they work great for the price point. (And I think Costco sometimes has deals on them)

Not who you asked, but we have a Shark with a large self emptying bin and that thing is great for the price point. We've had it 2 years so far.

I’m obsessed with my shark robot vacuum that self empties. I run it 1-3 times and day, I’ve had it for 4 hours. Still works great and I love having a clean floor!

We got a shark vacuum from Amazon on a black friday/cyber monday deal, came out to about $300 or so. I specifically chose one with the base to auto dump into. We have a long haired 97 lbs dog and 3 cats. The vacuum goes through the house once a day every day. It is noticeable when it doesn't run. Sometimes it gets stuck, either physically on an object, or the long hair is too much and it clogs up the roller and we have to clear it before it can run again. But for the most part, itnis really good at maintaining the floors to look decent. We have a mix of carpet and hard floors. It doesn't get everything off the carpet, but it does enough for the hair to not be noticeable. Without the daily robot vacuums, there are noticeable puffs of fur all over the floor. It definitely was a relief on my mental worries of keeping the floors clean when we got it. I could tell the difference within the first few days.