(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
BERLIN—While the appeal of a robot mop and vacuum hybrid taking two chores off your plate at once is obvious, most models struggle to keep their wet mop pads away from your carpets when multitasking. Different companies have different solutions, but the latest option from Shark certainly looks the most interesting and might prove as effective as it appears.
When the Shark Power Detect 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum and Mop reaches a carpeted area, it lifts its entire rear end off the ground. Roborock and Ecovacs have used mop-lifting technology on their hybrids for years, but this is different. Whereas those only lift the mops roughly half an inch, the Shark Power Detect gives several inches of clearance. In other words, it should avoid mid- and high-pile carpets with much greater ease than many competitors. That lift should also help it more easily navigate obstacles and high thresholds.
During a controlled demo at the IFA trade show here, it worked as intended and cleared the carpet with lots of room to spare. With the back end lifted and the front end down, it still looked to be vacuuming effectively, and it seemed to gently set its rear back down after it returned to hard floors
We plan to put the Shark Power Detect's mop-lifting technology through its paces in the real world soon, but for now, iRobot's fully retractable mop, available on the Roomba Combo j9+ ($1,199.99), offers the best solution we've found for keeping carpets dry on 2-in-1 cleaning runs.
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For added convenience, the Shark Power Detect can automatically drop off its mop pad at the base for vacuum-only runs, a feature that is also available on the Dreame X30 ($1,699.99).
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)For a truly hands-off experience, the Shark Power Detect Pro with the NeverTouch Pro Base washes and dries its own mop pads, empties the dust bin, and refills the water reservoir in the robot. It can clean for up to 30 days without any interference on your part, according to Shark, and the dustbin in the base station has an odor-neutralizing cartridge to keep the dirt picked up by the vacuum from causing the base station to get a stink of its own.
As indicated by the name, the robot can detect and hone in on dirty areas, and it’ll scrub hardwood floors an extra time or two if it senses a stuck-on stain. It’ll move around obstacles and smartly cover your floors with a combination of LiDAR and vision navigation. It also uses air to blast dirt out of corners and can filter pet allergens and dust.
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)The Shark Power Detect 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum and Mop with NeverTouch Pro Base is expected to arrive in the US in the near future for $999.99. It’s priced on the premium end for robot vacuums but is slightly less expensive than most other flagship models we’ve tested. We’ll put it through our usual rigorous testing procedures and give it a full review as soon as possible. In the meantime, check out all of our favorite robot vacuums.