Shark Rocket/ Rocket Pro

A viewer of my YouTube channel mentioned these vacs to me. I don't really like the look of the Dyson copy
model, but at least it's mains powered. I just wish Shark would launch the Rotator in the UK, either as a Morphy Richards or Shark branded machine. The only place that seemed to sell Shark brand vacuums was Lakeland
and they only sell the steam cleaners now.
 
I love

your youtube channel, have been watching lots of your reviews! I would love if we could get the full range of Shark cleaners here. I have to admit I really like the digital slim copy, especially as it's mains operated.

Hopefully Shark will realise they have a market in the UK, the Rotator Lift Away Pro is certainly on my wish list!
 
What Shark needs to do is get away from the single cyclonic dirt separation. It's incredible how much dust is passed, in one use, to the foam filters.

Here in the USA, there's no parts available for Shark vacuums at your local vac shop. The warranty forces the owner to pack the vacuum up, pay for postage to New York, wait a month or more for the repair, AND include $30 to cover return shipping. The warranty also excludes brushes, filters, (which is normal), but also "electrical parts". In essence, the warranty is on the body and the hose. If one of the wheels goes bad on the power nozzle, you MUST buy an entire new power nozzle assembly. Shark is betting you'll throw it away and buy another, as they make it extremely difficult to obtain warranty coverage. Their 'customer call center' is in India. Good luck understanding them when you call. Another disadvantage.
 
Infomercial Says a Little Different:

The half-hour infomercial I saw for the Rocket yesterday says that there's a five-year service plan on the unit, with shipping paid both ways.

That's IF you buy it through the infomercial, I'll bet. The deal I saw yesterday was 5 payments of $39.95 each, with one payment "free," for a total of about $160. That's a lot for a lightweight stick vac, and only the basic attachments are included.

If you want the bare floor pickup tool with the microfiber pickup pad, the pet hair tool and the snaky under-appliance tool, those are extra and the infomercial didn't disclose the price; you were told to ask the toll-free number's reps about that deal.

I will say that they made it look very good on TV - but as always, it's anyone's guess how it would work in real life. The carpet grooming ability looked particularly impressive; they ran it across short shag that was packed down and it fluffed it right back up. Who knows, though, how that carpet might have been prepared for the shooting of the infomercial?

Oh, well, I have a houseful of vacs and don't need another, so it'll be up to someone else to tell us how this stacks up as a vac, and as competition to the Dyson Digital Slim.
 
In stores?

Has anyone seen a Shark Rocket (Dyson look-alike) in a store? I'm trying to find one to review for my site and YT channel (VacBin) and really don't want to pay 30 dollar shipping plus wait about 2 weeks in typical Shark fashion unless I pay another 10.

If anyone sees in in a store and would let me know I would be quite greatful.
 
Having just visited your site I don't think it is the fault of the "people" who are demanding a versus test of the Shark Rocket and the Dyson Digital Slim, but rather the fault of the company who have not properly named the product distancing itself away from the Rocket / Pro thus causing possible confusion.

You can say what you like but I disagree wholeheartedly with the statement "The Shark Rocket is designed to be an upright vacuum in a new form factor, whereas the Dyson Digital Slim is designed to be a machine for quick cleanups..."

The Dyson and the Rocket are virtually the same - only one of them is corded and offers the older cyclone shroud for No Loss of Suction... Both can be used for short pick ups - and both have small dust bin capacities as proof of that, not just helped by the design overall.

May as well stick to the Miele Quickstep - offers a similar function and only weighs 4kg, a bit more than the Rocket hand held/whatever.
 
I agree that they are both designed to be quick cleanup machines, but Shark has decided to market the machine as an upright, and as such, that's the product class I will be judging the Rocket against.
 
Well unless you want your viewers to think you have egg on your face, they'll see from the specs that this is no way an upright vacuum cleaner but rather a hand held vacuum with a power nozzle. Even Shark say its a 2-in-1 vacuum...

Not sure about their claims though - in so far as their versatile cleaning goes.. but thats down to marketing speak, I guess.

sebo_fan++9-24-2013-16-57-0.jpg.png
 
I agree, and in the review I'll be stating my true opinions, but for now without the product in hand, I have to go off of their marketing.

Your picture even says "it performs as an upright."

I honestly don't believe it will live up to the claim, but I'll make claims and disprove the marketing speak after I have test results, not before.
 
It doesn't say it "performs like an upright" and leave it like that, but rather if you read what it says, it makes the statement of a stick vacuum that performs like an upright- when has a stick vacuum ever been considered to be a full sized upright vacuum? That's what most buyers will look at if Shark pap this vacuum off as - in my eyes it isn't an upright vacuum, but rather just a hand held vacuum with a long suction tube and power nozzle - cue the Miele Quickstep cue Black and Decker - plenty of other rivals.

Dont get me wrong, I dont dislike this vacuum at all - I'm just not sure about Shark's outlandish claims - it isn't unique, copying the likes of Dyson's complete design and just adding a PN with a mains cord to it. Perhaps Shark got wind of Dyson trying out a corded version...
 
I agree as I have said in previous posts, it is a stick vacuum, but if you were Mr. (or Mrs.) Average American and saw the Shark Infomercial come on and say "Out cleans full-sized vacuums" (that quote was copy/pasted from their rocket webpage) you too would be comparing it to full sized machines.

I am attempting to write a review and demonstrate the Rocket they way they are selling it. If they wrote copy that compared it to stick vacs I would be pulling out Stick Vacs to compare it with.

Like I have said before it is NOT an upright, but they are claiming through their ads that it "out cleans" and "performs like" a full sized vacuum. If that's how they want to try to sell it, that's they way I'll try to review it.

-Logan
 
I was at a different Wal-mart tonight than I usually go to and of course I had to stroll down the vacuum aisle. Of course when I noticed the Shark Rocket for 150, there wasn't a question as to whether or not it was going to follow me home... without even thinking about it, I plopped it in the cart just like it was a can of black eyed peas or something. Of course this is just a test... I'm going to "date" it for a couple of weeks and if I don't like it, I'll take it back for a refund.

Of course I had to play with it the instant I got it in. First observations were that the extension wand is metal, and the dusting brush is awful (stiff plastic bristles and not very long)... also, you don't get the motorized hand tool or the under appliance wand with the non-infomercial version.

I put it together and gave it a spin around my apartment... I hadn't vacuumed in about 4 days, and the last machine I used was the Miele Plus canister...

When I first turned it on, I noticed that it was pretty loud. I also noticed that the power nozzle was EXTREMELY aggressive... the thing nearly flew out of my hands and I practically had to hold onto it with two hands. It was so aggressive that I had trouble steering it and pulling it back wasn't easy.

It worked well on surface dirt and seemed to have gotten up a lot of smaller stuff too... but the filtration is awful, as you would expect with a single cyclonic machine. The foam filter is already discolored and there is already dust inside the filter chamber. After only one 7 minute use! I was shocked at how much it picked up!

The machine does not stand up on its own with the power nozzle attached to the motor, but the nozzle itself will stand up if the motor is taken off.

The power nozzle bristles are very long and stiff.

The motor being at the top is a bit weird... it fatigues the hand quickly, though the handle with rubberized grips is quite comfortable. It worked pretty well on shag, but not like a Kirby. It did kick some stuff back at my feet on the thin flat wall to wall carpet (kitty litter and sand)... The swivel action is pretty good, but not as good as it could be because the internal hose in the power nozzle neck is relatively stiff...

Pics to follow... the jury is still out on whether or not I'm keeping it... I have a friend who I'm planning a mini-meet with, and I know he will kill me if I return it before he gets to play with it, but we'll see. I technically have 90 days to decide if this is something I want to keep or not :)

I know that I bought the cordless Shark Navigator Freestyle 2 years ago with the intention of merely trying it out, and it never went back to the store... I still use it virtually every day. Shark isn't perfect, but like Kia and Hyundai, they are definitely improving. I've never used the Dyson version, so I can't compare them (but I didn't like the cordless part about the Dyson because it doesn't run very long... I know the power nozzle is more aggressive on this because I've seen the bristles on the Dyson and they are much softer). I think this Shark Rocket could be used to strip the finish off of a hardwood floor!






















I love how it says "Since 2011"... like that's something to brag about! They are pretty proud of themselves for this one...





 
Gosh - you must be well known at their stores : )

$150 is dirt cheap - that's equivalent to £92 approximately. That's quite price competitive. Having had a similar design before with my Black and Decker corded hand held, my hand gets a real hot work out - when you say "hand fatigue," does this mean the same thing with the motor being so near to the hand? Or does it feel uncomfortable?

I can't help but wonder why Miele haven't improved or made the Quickstep smaller as it does the same design quite well with the long pole reversed and clipped onto the end with a floor head.

Shark may well offer that in the future where effectively the motor/hand held unit can be swapped over to produce a proper stick vacuum. But then thinking out aloud, so could Dyson!
 

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