Pros
Very flexibleReplaceable batteriesGreat selection of tools
As good as cordless stick vacuum cleaners are, they all take a bit more effort to hold and use than a regular upright cleaner, as they put all of their weight in your hand. Not so with the Shark ICZ300UKT, which packs all of its power into a traditional upright form factor. With the performance to match plug-in models, this is our top choice for anyone that wants the convenience of a cordless cleaner with the ease of use of a plug-in model.
Coming in at 6.2kg, the ICZ300UKT is a little heavier than most cordless vacuum cleaners, although that shouldn’t matter too much, as we rarely had to lift it. As this is an upright, we just hit the power button, tilted the handle back and pushed the vacuum cleaner around. In that regard, this vacuum is lighter and easier to use than plug-in upright cleaners. Don’t forget the other advantage that this style of vacuum has: it stands upright by itself.
We love the position of the controls, too. For this model, they’ve been relocated from the cleaner’s body to the handle, just where our thumb goes. Toggling power and changing mode has never been so easy.
We found the ICZ300UKT easy to push around, and it’s far more nimble than you may think. That large 0.6-litre bin sticks out the front, which we found got in the way of the vacuum cleaner getting under dining chairs. Fortunately, this cleaner has Shark’s Lift-Away trick.
Hit the button on the side, and the cylinder lifts out, so you can use the long hose and floor head (or attachments) to get under furniture, tackle stairs, or get into tighter areas. We thought that this made the ICZ300UKT one of the most flexible cordless vacuum cleaners that we’ve tested.
From Shark’s plug-in range, the ICZ300UKT inherits the DuoClean floor head. This has both a soft roller and a brush, so it works just as well on hard floors as carpets, and you don’t have to switch heads as you do with a Dyson vacuum cleaner. It also has Shark’s Anti Hair wrap technology: try as we did, we never found any hair wrapped around the brush, even in a house with several people with long hair.
On the most useful middle level of power, we measured the cleaner at 57AW, which is towards the lower end of what we’d expect; on its high mode, power jumps to a more respectable 185AW: that’s plug-in levels of power for tough mess.
Fortunately, the medium power level combined with the efficient floor head proved good enough for most jobs. On carpet, a single sweep picked up dirt and pet hair, and only edge performance could be better (we had to get the last bits with the crevice tool. Hard floor performance was flawless.
Battery life is around 30 minutes on medium power, which should see you get through most of a house clean, given the power on offer. There’s a removable battery, so technically you could buy a second one if you wanted to extend run time.
Our minor complaint about this model is that while it has a lot of tools, there’s no onboard storage, so you need to find room to keep them all.
There are more powerful cleaners in this round-up, but if you want an upright cleaner but without the hassle of plugs, this is a great choice.
Reviewer: David LudlowFull Review: Shark Anti Hair Wrap Cordless Upright Vacuum Cleaner with PowerFins, Powered Lift-Away & TruePet ICZ300UKT Review
