This model also has Shark’s Lift-Away design, which means you can detach the main unit from the floor head and carry it to areas that might otherwise be difficult to reach with a full-size vacuum. The wand releases from the main unit, so you can add attachments and reach into awkward places, and you can also remove the wand from the handle if you need to just use the 1.46m hose for jobs like upholstery cleaning. The other recent innovation that Shark has brought to this model is the screen and control panel on the top of the handle, which debuted on the Shark IZ300UKT. This is mostly to display how much battery capacity you have left, shown as a percentage that decreases in increments of 10%. It isn’t as accurate as the battery gauge on the Dyson V15 Detect or V11 Outsize, but you get more information than on most cordless models. Next, I moved to the harder carpet tile edge test, with the Shark NZ850UKT charged with removing all flour right up to the skirting board. This it did easily, and I didn’t have to reach for the crevice tool to finish off the job. Shark provides a crevice tool, brush and a mini pet tool in the box, which is excellent for stairs and for getting hair off sofas.

It’s also a bit of a fiddle to remember how to release all the various bits and bobs. Where the wand meets the top of the main unit, there are no fewer than five different buttons and release catches to separate everything, from the hose to the collection bin. It’s all well labelled, but I still found myself having to pause and think about which blue catch to press to release the collection bin. Next, I moved to the edge test, sprinkling flour on carpet tiles right up to the edge. Again, the immense suction power gave me a perfect result; there was no mess left around the skirting.As well as Lift-Away mode you can detach the handle or wand, using accessories on the end of them. With the wand’s reach, it’s easy to clean around the side of a room without having to bend over or cleaning up high around the ceiling. In testing, the Shark ICZ300UKT performed extremely well. The soft roller is by far the best tool vacuum cleaners have at their disposal for collecting larger particles, because they trap them without crushing and guide them gently towards the suction tube. On both carpet and hard floor, the Shark gathered all 26g of a 26g Cheerio spill in a faultless, virtuoso performance. Last year’s Shark NZ801UKT was one of my favourite vacuum cleaners, delivering power and performance with a great selection of tools. This year, we have the Shark Anti Hair Wrap Upright Vacuum Cleaner with Powered Lift-Away and TruePet NZ850UKT, with an improved and updated design making it easier to use. With excellent suction and near-perfect cleaning on all surfaces, this is one of the best upright vacuum cleaners that you can buy. Design and features

The only time you’re likely to hit an issue is when you want to get under a dining chair, for example, since the large bin gets in the way. That’s where Lift-Away mode comes in: you can remove the entire cylinder and bin and hold it in your hand while cleaning. This lets you use the floor head and get it right under furniture. Lift-Away mode also makes it easier to get the tools where you want them. You can use accessories on the end of the wand, which provides far greater reach: I could easily clean around the ceiling in this mode. You can also remove the wand entirely, which is ideal for close-up jobs. It didn’t carry its perfect performance over to the flour test, but it still did a decent job. On hard floor, I measured 44g of a 50g spill making it into the collection bin. However, apart from a small residue near the start of our pass, it certainly didn’t leave 6g of flour behind. I suspect most of the missing flour was lining the tubes or caught in the floor head and would work its way into the bin eventually as I performed other cleaning tasks. Moving onto the pet hair test, I combed cat hair into my test carpet and then gave the vacuum cleaner a pass through the mess. It was all pulled out of the carpet with not a strand left behind.

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Below it sits a slider switch, which lets you change the cleaner’s mode: Hard Floor, Carpet and Deep Pile. This slider adjusts an air valve to reduce power as you move from hard floor up to deep-pile carpet. I tested the Shark NZ850UKT with my standard tools to measure performance in airwatts (AW), an industry standard that combines both suction and airflow. On the had floor more I measured the cleaner at 260.02AW, which is about as powerful as you’ll get from a regular cleaner given that vacuum’s have a maximum power limit. Switching to carpet mode, power drops slightly to 233.96AW, and down to 130.19AW on deep pile mode. The latter might sound a bit low, but this power level stops the vacuum cleaner from clogging up.

From the outside, the Shark NZ850UKT doesn’t look too different to the previous Lift-Away cleaners that I’ve tested. It’s when you start to look closely that you see where the changes have been made. While raw figures give an idea of performance, it’s the quality of the floor head and suction path that can make a bigger difference. So, onto the real-world tests. That’s where Lift-Away mode comes in. Press the button on top and the main vacuum and bin lift off the cleaner. This gives you a handy cylinder cleaner that you can move where you want it. If you have a bigger home, then the way to get it cleaner faster isn’t necessarily to up power – although that is useful. It’s to super-size everything, as seen with the brand-new Shark Anti Hair Wrap Upright Vacuum Cleaner XL with Powered Lift-Away & TruePet PZ1000UKT. This vacuum cleaner has an extra-large bin and a wide floor head to make short work of any job. Similar to the company’s previous XL model, the Shark AZ950UKT, the PZ1000UKT is a big and bulky vacuum cleaner. Weighing in at 6.8kg, it comes with a generous 1.6-litre dust bin, which will happily get you around a large house without having to stop to empty it.Pet hair performance was excellent, too, with the Shark PZ1000UKT able to easily remove all of the hair in a single pass. With the bin removed, you can reach the main filter; there’s a second post-motor HEPA filter at the bottom. Clean both regularly to keep the vacuum cleaner operating at peak performance. Performance To make it easier to find what you're looking for, we've broken up our guide into all the different categories you might need to consider when buying either a Shark or Dyson vacuum cleaner. Use our jump links to find exactly what you're looking for. Once you’ve released the bin, though, emptying is simple. There’s a handle on the top and a button on the front to release a trap door in the bottom, which allows the dirt to fall out with minimal further encouragement. Shark’s anti-tangle floor head works wonders at keeping the rollers free of hair, too. When you need to empty the bin, you just push the button on top to remove it, then there’s an eject button that flips the bottom open. It’s pretty easy to empty cleanly, and the top also opens to get all of the dirt out.

In the box, you get a crevice tool, a multi-surface brush (it’s a hard brush that turns into an upholstery tool) plus the motorised mini pet power tool. The latter works wonders on sofas and stairs. If you don’t have pets, you can buy the Shark NZ850UK, which is a little cheaper and drops the pet tool from the box. Shark has a series of LEDs on the front that light up where you’re cleaning, so you can see even where the lighting is poor. It’s a useful addition, even if it doesn’t quite highlight dirt as well as the laser on the Dyson V15 Detect. With the bin removed, you can see one of the washable filters, with a second HEPA filter located at the front of the vacuum. This, too, is easy to remove and clean.It’s an improved controller over the previous model, which had a manual air vent and just a slider for hard floor and carpet modes. Here, on the Shark NZ850UKT, the power selector lights up your choice with an LED but only when the wand is plugged in fully; remove the wand or handle and you can’t see which mode you’re on. That’s not such a problem, as with handheld tools, you probably just want the maximum power by sliding the selector fully forward. Tonnes of power, quiet operation and the clever Lift-Away mode make this the ultimate large vacuum cleaner.