Shark Rocket Pro Cordless Vacuum

Item: Shark Rocket Pro
Rating: 4.5
Author: Nigel Russco

s2sdefault

Details: Tuesday, 07 January 2020

Avg. rating = 91/100

The Shark Rocket Pro cordless stick vacuum is a lightweight machine that is very easy to operate. Owners like the low profile, the self-cleaning brushroll, and the swivel steering. In addition, this is a two-in-one vacuum and can be used as a stick vacuum and a handheld vacuum. Our cleaning tests showed very good debris pickup on both low pile carpet and tile flooring. Run times are reasonable but not stellar and the unit does feel a little top heavy. Also, it does not come with a stand or a wall mount and it will not stand on its own.

Quick Specs
Type	Stick Vac
Bagged/Bagless	Bagless
Best for...	Hard Floors & Carpet
Pet Hair Features	Yes
Approx. Weight	7.3 lbs
HEPA Level Filtration	No
Power Cord Length	Cordless
Motor Driven Brushbar	Yes
Warranty	5 Years

A Word on Models

Sorting out the Shark Rocket models can be a little confusing. To start, the Shark Rockets discussed in this review are cordless. Shark also has a different group of vacuums they call Shark Rockets but they are not the same design and they are corded (see our Shark Rocket Complete, Shark Rocket HV302, Shark Rocket Ultra-Light, Shark Rocket PowerHead reviews).

There appears to be three groups of the cordless Shark Rockets:
1) Shark Rocket Cordless - standard bristled brushroll
2) Shark Rocket Pro Cordless - self-cleaning brushroll, some models have flexible wand and LED headlights
3) Shark Rocket Pet Pro Cordless - self-cleaning brushroll, LED headlights, removable battery, sealed body, HEPA filter

Within each of the groups above it appears there are different models.
Shark Rocket Cordless - IX140, IX141
Shark Rocket Pro Cordless - IZ140, IZ140C, IZ141C, IZ142, UZ145
Shark Rocket Pet Pro Cordless - IZ162H, IZ162HC

We’ve got the Shark Rocket Pro - model IZ140C - which has the self-cleaning brushroll but not the flexible wand or the LED headlights. This is the unit we are reviewing and testing here.

Popular Shark Rocket cordless models currently on Amazon include:
Shark Rocket – model IX141 (see it on Amazon)
Shark Rocket Pet Pro – model IZ162H (see it on Amazon)

Consumer Ratings

Owner ratings for the Shark Rocket Pro (models IZ140 and IZ140C) were found at several online retail outlets – see table below. We averaged these ratings to get a vacuum score of 90.7 out of 100 (or about 4.5 stars out of 5). This is an excellent score and makes this Shark Rocket Pro one of our higher rated cordless stick vacuums. See all stick vacuum ratings.

Source	Consumer Rating	#Ratings
Amazon.ca	4.4 stars out of 5	20
Walmart	4.5 stars out of 5	92
Canadian Tire	4.7 stars out of 5	40

What Are Owners Saying?

A thorough review of owner comments along with our own testing and experience with the vacuum has provided the following pros and cons:

PROS
- Operates as both stick vac and handheld vacuum
- Brushroll limits hair tangle
- Slim, low profile, compact
- Very easy to use and maintain
- Moves and maneuvers well
- Great pickup on both hard floors and carpet
- Works reasonably well on hair
- Good for smaller homes and quick pickups
- Tools attach securely

CONS
- Feels top heavy
- No wall mount and cannot stand on its own
- Have to remove wand to empty dust canister
- A bit loud for a cordless
- No on-board storage for tools
- Handheld unit is a bit bulky
- Some folks feel run time is short in Boost mode

The number of high scoring ratings indicates that the majority of owners are pleased with their Shark Rocket. For the most part people feel that it is lightweight and very easy to steer and maneuver. Having worked with many cordless units we don’t feel that this vacuum is particularly lightweight but we do agree that it moves and steers quite well.

The overall consumer sentiment regarding this vacuum is: it is easy to use and maintain, it is versatile, suction is quite powerful, and it is fairly effective on both carpet and bare floors. Most folks also feel it is a great tool for an apartment or small home.

There are also quite a few comments that the vacuum is very good at dealing with hair. In our tests we found that hair pickup was effective and that the special brushroll and cleaner head did help - to some degree - to keep the hair from tangling in the brushroll.

Folks also like that the Shark Rocket can be used as both a stick vacuum and handheld vacuum. Many report using the handheld unit to clean their vehicle interiors.

There seems to be a fair bit of agreement with respect to the downsides of the vacuum. A number of people are not happy that the unit will not stand on its own and that it does not come with a wall mount. This does make for somewhat inelegant charging and storing solutions.

Also, owners are fairly unhappy that the tools cannot be stored on the vacuum. If you need to use one of the tools you will have to fetch it from wherever you store it. At the very least a tool bag would have been nice (you get what you see in the image above).

Finally, quite a few folks have reported that the vacuum feels top heavy. The handheld component is indeed a little on the heavy side and you can feel this in both stick vacuum and handheld vacuum modes.

A Different Brushroll

I have always liked Shark’s desire to innovate and while some of their ideas have not caught on, others have. It would appear, at least in some of the Shark Rocket cordless models, that they have tweaked their self-cleaning brushroll design and are now calling it a self-cleaning brushroll with Dirt Engage technology. According to Shark:

“Dirt Engage™ technology delivers unbeatable cleaning performance on carpets and bare floors compared to all Shark® cordless vacuums by removing deeply embedded debris on carpets and by directly engaging bare floors”

We have noticed that other Zero-M technology brushrolls (Shark’s brushrolls designed to stop hair wrap) have rows of bristles as well as rows of soft rubber/plastic blades. This new brushroll is a little different and has no bristles whatsoever, but rather short alternating rows of rubber/plastic blades. See images below:

Typical brushroll (from our Shark APEX AX952). Bristles only.

Other Zero-M technology brushroll (from our Shark AZ1002). Bristles and blades.

Shark Rocket Pro brushroll with Dirt Engage technology (seen from underneath). Blades only.

Note that NOT ALL Shark Rocket cordless vacuums come with this brushroll. Some have a standard bristled brushroll.

One thing we did notice after our vacuum testing was some wear and fraying at the edges of the brushroll blades (see image below). I’m not sure at this point if it is anything to be concerned about or not, but this is not something we’ve seen happen with other Shark self-cleaning brushrolls. We have also not read of any other owners having this issue.

Shark Rocket Pro fraying blade on brushroll

Cleaner Head

The cleaner head has a fairly low profile which helps it to get under low furniture. A bright light on top indicates the brushroll is spinning and clear plastic allows you to see if there is any obstruction or tangling at a glance.

If you need to clean the brushroll it can be accessed by opening the bottom of the cleaner head. Three locks on the underside of the cleaner head can be turned with a screwdriver or coin (one short twist will do). This opens the bottom panel and you can easily get at the brushroll. Unfortunately the brushroll itself is not easily removable.

We also saw a note written on the underside of the cleaner head stating that you should remove the battery before cleaning the brushroll in case the vacuum inadvertently starts and you get injured. Your call. The battery isn’t designed for easy swapping/removal.

Stick Vac & Handheld Vac

Like many cordless stick vacuums today the Shark Rocket is a two-in-one machine. This means it can operate as a stick vacuum or a handheld vacuum. By simply detaching the wand you have a handheld vacuum. Tools can be attached to the end of the handheld unit.

Shark Rocket Pro Handheld Unit

And if you want extra reach you can just detach the cleaner head and place tools on the end of the wand.

Shark Rocket Pro Handheld with Wand and Tool

Carpet and Bare Floors

The Shark Rocket is designed to clean both carpet and bare floors. A manual slider switch on top of the handheld component has three settings:

1) Off
2) Bare Floors and Area Rugs (Bare Floor mode)
3) Carpet (Carpet mode)

We notice that setting 2 above seems to result in the brushroll simply rotating slower than setting 3. So the brushroll is still spinning if you are cleaning a bare floor. Some folks who don’t want a brushroll to touch their delicate smooth flooring may not like this.

Battery Power

The Shark Rocket has a Li-Ion battery that will provide sustained power until it simply stops (when the battery requires recharging). The power will not slowly wane over time as the battery is discharged. It takes about 3.5 hours to recharge this battery. Three light bars on the handheld component indicate the extent of the battery charge.

There are two power settings on the Shark Rockets - Standard and Boost. The vacuum always defaults to Standard power and a trigger that you pull engages Boost power. You have to keep the trigger pulled to keep Boost power on (it cannot be locked in place). If you release the trigger Boost power will automatically turn off. We find this a little annoying if you want to do extended cleaning with Boost power.

Run Times According to Manufacturer:

	Standard Power	Boost Power
Handheld vacuum	approx. 40 min	approx. 10 min
Bare Floor mode	approx. 25 min	approx. 10 min
Carpet mode	approx. 20 min	approx. 10 min

We’ve tested run times for the stick vacuum on both bare floor (tile) and carpet (medium-pile carpet). The battery was fully charged before each test.

Tested run times:

	Standard Power	Boost Power
Bare Floor mode	24 min 42 sec	12 min 30 sec
Carpet mode	18 min 50 sec	10 min 45 sec

We were a little disappointed in the run time using standard power on both carpet and bare floors. We ran several tests and in no instance did the machine reach or surpass the manufacturer’s stated run times. It did perform fairly well using Boost power however and it exceeded the manufacturer’s figures.

Tools

Our model came with two tools - an upholstery tool and an 8-inch crevice tool. We were pleased to see that the tools do not use compression fit, but rather click securely into place and are removed by depressing a button. This “click fit” approach is, in our opinion, the best way to attach and detach tools or attachments.

The crevice tool is handy when cleaning vehicle interiors and the head of the upholstery tool can be pivoted for getting into awkward areas. The tools feel fairly solid and robust.

Cleaning Tests

CARPET
We tested pickup against the Shark IONFlex 2X IF252 and the Dyson V8 Absolute. We carefully measured out (by weight) an amount of chili flakes, flax seeds and split green peas. This material was placed in a line (about 5 ft long) on low pile carpet and the vacuums were run over the debris in about a 10 second pass. The amount of debris each vacuum picked up was weighed and the percentage pickup determined.

	% Pickup (by weight)
Shark Rocket Pro	99.9%
Shark IONFlex	98.4%
Dyson V8	96.2%

The Shark Rocket Pro did a great job at picking up the debris we laid down on the low pile carpet. We were frankly a little suprised how well this new type of brushroll worked.

BARE FLOOR
A similar test to that done on carpet was performed on a tile floor.

	% Pickup (by weight)
Shark Rocket Pro	99.2%
Shark IONFlex	96.5%
Dyson V8	91.8%
Dyson V8 (with soft roller cleaner head)	99.6%

Again, we were very impressed with the pickup of the Rocket Pro. It was very, very close to the Dyson V8 Absolute with the soft roller cleaner head which is one of the best combinations we have seen for bare floor pickup (Dyson cordless with soft roller cleaner head). However, with the Dyson you have to manually switch from the direct drive cleaner head to the soft roller cleaner head to get the top notch bare floor cleaning performance.

DEEP PILE CARPET
We placed some fruit loops on our very deep pile shag carpet. Pickup was poor but we really didn’t expect it to be particularly good (see short video clip below). Many smaller machines - and quite a few full size units - struggle on this carpet.

EDGE CLEANING
Edge cleaning is average to below average, depending on your baseline. It is on par with a lot of other cordless machines. But if you compare the Shark Rocket to a decent full size upright (like the Shark NV752) then the edge cleaning is below average. In the video clip below we perform edge cleaning with the Shark Rocket, Shark IONFlex, Dyson V8, and the Shark NV752.

All the cordless machines in the above video had fairly average (if not below average) edge cleaning capabilities. The last unit shown in the video is the full size, corded NV752 and you can see it does a much better job. It is in the video simply for comparison purposes.

HAIR
Hair pickup is quite good but we did find that when dealing with very large amounts of hair, the brushroll tended to get lots of wrapping. When we ran tests with reduced amounts of hair the brushroll was able to do its job (as a self-cleaning brushroll) and there was limited wrapping.

Note that continued vacuuming often helps remove hair tangled in these self-cleaning brushrolls. It gets “combed out” over time, although some stubborn hair wrapping can remain.

JAN 11 UPDATE - Fir Tree needle clogging

We used the Shark Rocket Pro for fir tree needle pickup after sending our tree to the chipper. We were surprised that the cleaner head kept getting clogged with the needles - see image below. We unclogged the cleaner head several times but it kept clogging right back up. It seems the opening in the cleaner head was just too narrow to handle the long needles. We then pulled out our Dyson V10 (simply because it was one of the cordless units we have that had a charge on it) and it picked up the needles without incident (it has a larger opening in the cleaner head). This may not be an issue if you don't intend to be vacuuming any long debris like tree needles but its something you should probably be aware of.

Noise Level

This is not the quietest cordless vacuum we have tested. We used a digital noise level meter and compared it to several other popular cordless vacuums on low pile carpet:

	Low/Standard Power	Maximum Power
Tineco Pure One S12	61.1 decibels	66.7 decibels
Dyson V8 Absolute	62.2 decibels	71.7 decibels
Shark IONFlex IF252	69.4 decibels	71.4 decibels
Shark Rocket Pro IZ140C	74.2 decibels	75.1 decibels

This is one of the louder cordless vacuums we have tested, especially in carpet mode. But it is still not as loud as many full size machines. It is also quieter in bare floor mode as it is running slower.

Filtration

The vacuum has 2 pre-motor filters and 1 post motor filter. All are very easy to access. The pre-motor filters consist of 1 foam filter and 1 felt filter. Both can be rinsed in water and should probably be cleaned about once per month (with average vacuum use).

The post motor filter on our vacuum (Shark Rocket Pro) is also rinsable in water and should be cleaned about once every 12 months. This is not a HEPA filter. If you want a HEPA filter consider the Shark Rocket Pet Pro.

Dust Canister

The dust canister is clear plastic so it is easy to see when it needs to be emptied. A slider on the side of the canister makes it very easy to open and to empty. However, we did note that the wand had to be removed before we could empty the canister. The dust canister door will not open with the wand attached to the handheld unit. This may or may not be an issue for you. When we empty most of our stick vacs we typically remove the wand anyway, simply because it is easier to manage without it.

Shark Rocket Cordless Vacuum Dust Canister

The Shark Rocket has a dust canister capacity of 0.34 quarts (0.085 gallons). Let’s compare that to a few other well known stick vacs.

	Dust Canister Capacity
Shark IONFlex / ION F80	0.075 gallons
Shark Rocket Pro	0.085 gallons
Dyson V7/V8	0.14 gallons
Dyson V10/V11	0.20 gallons

It would seem that the dust canister on the Shark Rocket is on the small side, however it is interesting that we have seen very few complaints about this (if any). We have a small home so this is not a significant issue for us.

Weight & Movement

We weighed the vacuum on our sensitive scale and it came in at 7 lbs 4.5 oz (or about 7.3 lbs). Whether you feel this is heavy or light depends on what you compare it to.

	Weight
Dyson V8	5.8 lbs
Dyspn V10	5.9 lbs
Dyson V11	6.7 lbs
Shark Rocket Pro	7.3 lbs
Shark IONFlex / ION F80	8.7 lbs

We found movement and maneuverability to be quite good. The swivel steering works well and the vacuum feels quite nimble. The only drawback is that it does feel top heavy and you can feel this a bit on your wrist.

The handheld component of the vacuum is also fairly large and heavy. It works just fine but I think extended use may get a bit uncomfortable. Also, if you add the wand and a tool to the handheld component you get great cleaning reach (especially overhead) but you may find yourself using two hands as it is definitely a challenge on the wrist and arm over time.

Warranty

- 5 year limited warranty on the vacuum
- 2 year limited warranty on the battery

You can read more about the warranty in the back of the manual provided below.

Summary

We were surprised at how effective the new brushroll is on both carpet and smooth floors. It really does a great job. It is also fairly good with pet hair, but we did find that large volumes of hair will still wrap and clog the brushroll. The Rocket isn't as lightweight as some of the cordless units we've reviewed (such as the Dyson V6) and the vacuum feels a bit top heavy, but at 7.3 lbs the overall weight isn't too bad. Tools that snap securely into place are a nice touch and something we don't always find on a Shark vacuum. Run times, in our opinion, are reasonable but not stellar. Our tests in standard power mode came up just slightly short of the advertised figures. But in Boost power mode our tests showed run times that were actually longer than those stated by the manufacturer. Overall this is a decent cordless stick vacuum with very good cleaning ability, but some shortcomings.

Note that this particular model is not currently on Amazon.com. The Shark Rocket Pet Pro is very close though and it has a few more bells and whistles (see it on Amazon)

Vacuum Cleaner Manual

The manual for the Shark Rocket cordless vacuum is written in English, French and Spanish. It covers such things as assembly, battery and charging, power settings, cleaning modes, emptying/maintaining the dust canister, cleaning the filters, other basic maintenance, troubleshooting, additional accessories, and the warranty. You can view a copy of the manual here: Shark Rocket Cordless Vacuum Manual

Nigel Russco Vacuum Advisor Nigel Russco has been reviewing and testing vacuums for over 14 years. He is a professional engineer and uses his review platforms to help consumers determine which vacuum cleaners are the best for their cleaning needs. Follow Nigel on facebook or view his vacuum review videos on the Vacuum Cleaner Advisor YouTube Channel.

Reviews by Brand

Shark Rocket Pro Cordless Vacuum

A Word on Models

Consumer Ratings

What Are Owners Saying?

A Different Brushroll

Cleaner Head

Stick Vac & Handheld Vac

Carpet and Bare Floors

Battery Power

Tools

Cleaning Tests

Noise Level

Filtration

Dust Canister

Weight & Movement

Warranty

Summary

Vacuum Cleaner Manual

Reviews by brand

Reviews by type

Best Vacuums

Ratings Tables

In the Press

Amazon Affiliate

Search

About Me

Hello!

Frequently Asked Questions

More helpful links

Related Items