Shark NZ801UKT

If the Shark Anti Hair Wrap Upright Vacuum cleaner with Powered Lift-Away and TruePet NZ801UKT (I’ll call it the Shark NZ801UKT from now on) looks familiar, it’s because I reviewed the Black Friday special, the Shark NZ801UKTDB. The latter model was on sale for a low price – so, the question is, can the Shark NZ801UKT still cut it at a higher price and with fewer accessories?

Shark NZ801UKT – What you need to know

• General vacuuming – Powerful suction and the flexible Lift-Away mode make this a vacuum cleaner capable of tackling almost any job; but getting under some furniture is difficult as a result of the  large bin on the front
• Carpet test – Picked up all of the dirt from our test carpet easily
• Hard floor test – Made a quick sweep through the mess on the floor, easily picking up all mess
• Pet hair pick-up – Superb power ensures all pet hair was pulled straight out of the carpet

Related: Best vacuum cleaner 

Shark NZ801UKT design – A perfect combination of power and flexibility

The Shark NZ801UKT is a Lift-Away model, which means you get all the benefits of a corded model (infinite run-time and more suction than a cordless model) with some of the benefits of a cordless model (you can lift out the cylinder and carry this around). It’s a fantastic idea and makes the Shark NZ801UKT one of the most flexible corded vacuum cleaners you can buy.

In Lift-Away mode, the relatively small cylinder can go where you need it, with the long hose and wand able to reach into more challenging areas. Whether you’re cleaning the stairs or the car, Lift-Away mode adds an extra degree of flexibility.

Lift-Away makes it simple to take the vacuum where you need it

Since much of the bulk of the vacuum cleaner (6.5kg) is in the Lift-Away section, you can place this part on the floor; then you have only the weight of the main hose to deal with as you clean. This makes it easy to vacuum in hard-to-reach areas, as once you’re within hose-reach, you’re only lifting the weight of the wand and attached accessory.

For most jobs, you only need to contend with the weight of the wand

To use the vacuum cleaner as an upright, the Lift-Away section clips back into the motorised floor head, the wand and handle clip into place, and the hose clips into the back of the handle to keep everything neat.

As with previous Shark vacuum cleaners, the NZ801UKT has a DuoClean motorised head, which comes with both a soft roller and a brush. The idea is that this head can be used as effectively on hard floors as it can on carpet. This brush head uses Shark’s Anti Hair Wrap tech, where a series of combs stop hair from clogging up the rollers: it really works, too! To ensure you get all of the mess in your house, the twin LED lights come into their own, lighting up the areas you’re cleaning.

The DuoClean head won’t become tangled with hair

On the top, there’s a control to select hard floor or carpet, with the latter running the brushes at a faster speed.

There’s no power control, although you can open an air vent in the hose to reduce pressure if you find that the Shark NZ801UKT is sticking to the floor too much. Upright mode offers a good deal of flexibility, although the large bin protrudes somewhat, making it difficult to get under furniture.

The large bin can make getting under some furniture challenging

The Shark NZ801UKT ships with just enough accessories to enable you to tackle most jobs. A crevice tool has a brush attachment that slides up, and you get an upholstery brush, too. Both clip onto the body of the vacuum cleaner for easy storage.

There’s storage onboard for the accessories

You also get a Pet Power Brush, which is useful for smaller areas. It’s designed for picking up hair, although it works just as well on the stairs. It’s powered by airflow alone and is super-loud: I measured it at 91.9dB.

The mini-brush is handy, but it’s loud

That’s it in the box, and you miss out on the special edition’s car kit and under-furniture brush – although both can be bought separately if you want them.

In both regular and Lift-Away modes, the 0.83l bin lifts out of the front. This exposes the washable filter, which should be cleaned regularly to keep the vacuum cleaner operating at its best. With the bin in hand, you can open the flap at the bottom to empty the dust. You can also open the top flap to clean out any stubborn dirt, although I found that I needed to give the cleaner a bit of a tap to get everything out.

It’s fairly easy to empty, although a sharp tap may be in order to get everything out

Shark NZ801UKT performance – Sucks up absolutely everything with ease

The Shark NZ801UKT is powered by a 750W motor, which puts this cleaner at the top of the suction table. In fact, there are times when the cleaner feels as though the vacuum is stuck to the floor in use: that airflow vent certainly comes in handy for some jobs.

To test performance, I put the vacuum cleaner through my usual set of tests, starting with the carpet test. Here, I spread a teaspoon of flour on the carpet right up to the edge of the skirting board. Giving the vacuum cleaner a single pass through on carpet mode, the Shark NZ801UKT picked up the majority of the mess, leaving just a trace amount right up against the skirting; nothing that a quick blast through with the crevice tool didn’t fix.

Carpet test: Dirty carpet (left) vs Clean carpet (right) – move slider to compare

Moving to the hard floor, I sprinkled a teaspoon of rice onto the floor. Giving the Shark NZ801UKT a single pass through the mess, every bit of rice was removed following a single sweep, with the vacuum set to the hard floor mode. This shows the power of the DuoClean head and how it copes with various floor surfaces.

Hard floor test: Dirty hard floor (left) vs Clean hard floor (right) – move slider to compare

Finally, I combed cat hair into carpet to see how well the vacuum could deal with it. Again, it was a perfect sweep, with the Shark NZ801UKT sucking up all of the mess on a single sweep.

Pet hair test: Dirty carpet (left) vs Clean carpet (right) – move slider to compare

Despite the powerful motor, the Shark NZ801UKT is relatively quiet, coming in at 77.9dB. That’s good going given the suction power you have available here.

There’s an 8m power cable connected to the vacuum cleaner, which is just shy of the longest cables that Shark supplies (10m). However, this length should be sufficient to clean most of your house using a single power socket; the majority of houses will most likely get by using two sockets.

Should you buy the Shark NZ801UKT?

When reviewing a vacuum cleaner that was previously sold as a Black Friday special, it’s too easy to compare prices and jump to the wrong conclusions. The truth is that the Black Friday edition of this vacuum was a one-off – and, in my review, I said that at full price it would still be an excellent vacuum cleaner. And that holds true today. With a decent number of accessories, the Lift-Away mode and powerful performance, the Shark NZ801UKT is an excellent vacuum cleaner for those who need the suction that mains power can provide.

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