I Liked the Shark PowerDetect Stick Vacuum’s Smarts and Power. Not So Much Its Weight and Recharge Time.

The main benefit of cordless stick vacuums is ease of use. They’re lighter and more maneuverable than upright vacuums, and they make more sense for hitting single rooms or if you have a smaller home.

Shark stick vacs, though, seem to skew large, with run times on the higher end compared with competitors like the Dyson V15 Detect (the one our resident vacuum expert Amber Joglar recommends as the best overall). The PowerDetect I tested recently fits that mold. It’s big and heavy for this kind of vacuum, but it comes with plenty of features that didn’t require much managing or interpreting from me.

In the end, this vacuum hits a pleasant middle ground. It’s certainly not cheap ($450 without the dock when it isn’t discounted), but it also doesn’t come at the premium price the Dyson name and engineering command. It’s also more powerful and helpful than the Bissell PowerClean FurFinder—the current best value cordless stick vacuum on the market. This is one to consider if you’re not on too strict of a budget. Read on for my full thoughts after testing.

I don’t know when this trend started, but I’m a fan of vacuum companies printing quick-start guides on the inside of their box lids. (Tapo did the same for a robot vacuum of theirs I reviewed earlier this year.) I didn’t feel like I had to pore over the startup pamphlet—though it was still included—to get an idea of what the PowerDetect could do and how I could best use it.

Inside the lid was a list of parts; primers on how to read the vacuum’s digital display and the different types of detection it’s capable of; and a QR code to download the owner’s guide, among other things.

Beyond that, setup was intuitive. Shark also placed stickers on the vacuum as pointers. One flagged that the battery comes partially charged and advised I plug the PowerDetect in for a top-off before I started vacuuming.

The PowerDetect was, well, powerful, pulling up crumbs, cat litter, and shredded bits my cat had ripped off his scratching post. It didn’t pick up a slightly larger chunk of cat tree, but if you’re trying to vacuum anything much bigger than dirt or litter, you’ll probably want an upright vac anyway.

I did appreciate that the airspeed didn’t push debris away before the rollers could pull it in. I never felt like I was chasing crumbs across the floor or had to carefully roll over them to avoid sending them skittering into a corner.

The PowerDetect has three modes: Eco, Detect, and Boost. It defaulted to Detect when I turned the vacuum on, and this was the mode I kept it in for most of my testing. It’s a helpful catchall, since the vacuum will sense when it’s on hardwood or tile and when it’s on rugs or carpet—and adjust the power accordingly.

I could hear the vacuum kick into high power when I rolled onto a rug. It’s nice to not have to press a button every time I change surfaces. The automatic suction only works in Detect mode. Eco mode keeps the rollers moving at a low speed for the sake of squeezing out battery life. Boost mode speeds them up if all you need is oomph.

I did have one hiccup with the vacuum automatically changing power on me. As I was moving from the hardwood in the kitchen to a thin area rug in the living room, the PowerDetect sensed the change and upped the power before it was fully on the rug. And it pulled the edge of the rug into the rollers in the process. So moving quickly or picking the vacuum head up when moving between surfaces couldn’t hurt.

I like the display on the back of the vacuum too. It’s simple, showing which mode you’re in and remaining battery life. One button starts the vacuum, and a trigger on the grip switches modes. It was easy to flip through them with one hand while I was testing.

The lights on the front and back of the roller head are nice touches. The front lights help with visibility, while the back ones that face you change color depending on how dirty the floor is. It was a helpful visual as I was vacuuming to see the back lights go from purple to white (showing that the floor was sufficiently clean) and to know I could move on.

It’s unclear, though, if the color shows the vacuum is detecting actual debris it can pick up or just spots on the floor. There were some muddy smudges by the door to the backyard that it seemed to be sensing but couldn’t pick up.

The PowerDetect also ramps up the suction if it senses it’s up against a wall or other surface. Say you’ve got the right side up against a cabinet; the right light will stay on while the left turns off, showing you that the vacuum is working harder.

This was a nice-to-have feature, fitting in with the PowerDetect telling you what it’s finding and doing. I wouldn’t call it necessary, though. Just note that these lights are only on in Detect mode. Eco mode shuts them off.

I appreciated the hinge on the stick too. As my fellow tester Tom Price noted in his review of the PowerDetect Speed, the feature is a boon to my lower back and knees. It took me a bit to get used to and remember that I didn’t have to stoop over to get under tables and between chairs. I’m tall but could stay almost upright with the hinge bent as I worked my way around the kitchen.

The 70-minute battery life (in Eco mode) is plenty for my home, which is around 1,500 square feet. I can easily hit every room with run time to spare while staying in Detect mode. This is better than the PowerDetect Speed and many other cordless stick vacuums we’ve tested, beaten only by the Tineco Pure One Station 5 Pro we recommend as the best with a docking station.

The battery pops out if you want to put it on a counter to recharge. (Shark includes a standard plug-in power cord.) And since the vacuum doesn’t have a dock or mount, taking the battery off means you don’t have to leave the whole vacuum standing out in the open next to an outlet if you want to leave it on the charger; you can tuck it in a closet while the battery refills.

But the recharge time is six hours! If the battery dies mid-job, you’re SOL unless you bought a spare. You’ll probably be better served by a plug-in upright if you have a big house.

The attachments—a crevice tool and a pet hair tool—are pretty standard. It’s a bummer there’s nowhere permanent to store or attach them other than stowing them in the included cloth bag.

The PowerDetect doesn’t have a self-emptying dock, so I had to clean out the dustbin manually. That’s not an issue, as the dustbin is big enough that I didn’t feel like I was having to make many trips back and forth to the trash. But the vacuum did feel a bit heavy in my hands. It’s on the high end of vacuums we recommend, weighing twice as much as the best for pets Levoit LVAC-300.

The vacuum does not stand up on its own. It’s too top-heavy. But another benefit of the hinge on the stick is that it allows the PowerDetect to fold all the way forward on itself. Folded like that, it does stay upright without having to lean against anything or taking up too much space.

I haven’t had the PowerDetect for long, so I can’t speak to its long-term durability. But I like how easy it is to remove the soft roller. Push forward on a bright green button on the side of the brush head and it pops out. Opening the dustbin and removing it from the vacuum entirely to access and change the HEPA filter were both easy.

So the question here becomes: Is the PowerDetect $450 worth of vacuum? I think so. Like I mentioned, it ain’t cheap. But it was intuitive enough and easy to use that it feels like an investment in easier cleaning and less of a workout for my knees and back.

That leaves us with another question though. Is $100 more too much to buy up for the bundle with the dock? I don’t think so. I did find myself wishing the PowerDetect had a dock so I wouldn’t have to take the battery off and tuck it away in a closet. But that’s a nice-to-have, not a disappointment.

If you don’t mind dedicating closet space for the PowerDetect (like you might already do for an upright vac) or just don’t want to spend more, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed either.

Shop the Shark PowerDetect Cordless Stick Vacuum