When we first got married, we got about the cheapest vaccum you could get that seemed to still be a good one. Based on Cosumer Report reviews, we bought the Eureka Boss for $100 (the price then). Not bad! We used that for a year, totally ruined it (our fault–forgot to change the bag!) and bought another one. So 9 years ago.
Alas, after almost 9 years of use, the Eureka was dying. It wasn’t working well. The hose had a hole in it. It was time for a new vacuum. 9 years is a not a bad run! I was totally willing to go with the same vacuum again. But I can’t buy something new without looking into all of the options.
I ultimately looked at Dysons and Sharks. It seemed like the Shark was a less expensive version of the Dyson. Dyson has a good reputation, but I was not sure how much of that was manufactured by themselves. I also saw a lot of unhappy reviews. Now, almost every product out there has unhappy reviews, but considering that the Shark was much less money and had better reviews, I felt more inclined to take that risk.
We settled on the Shark Rotator Professional Lift-Away (NV501). We LOVE it! Now, it isn’t really a fair comparison since the Eurkea was 9 years old and the Shark was new, but the Shark cleaned so much better.
There are a lot of features about this vacuum I love. I love that it is a canister. It is kind of gross because you can see what you are sucking up, BUT it has made me realize we did not change our bag often enough in the Eureka. I am shocked at how dirty the floors get. I shouldn’t be when I think logically, but I am shocked. You know how your vacuum works best on the first day with the bag? This way, you can have a “fresh bag” every time you vacuum. You could have on in every room if you wanted to.
This vacuum is much lighter than the Boss was. This is very nice for the children. Then can push it easier. With the Boss, the younger kids would have the part that sucks just off the floor. This vacuum is light enough that they can vacuum the right way. They also can get it up and down stairs themselves. Lots of bonus there.
It is easy to clean. The attachments work well and are easy to change out. It has a smaller area that actually sucks than the Boss did. I was wary about that. I figured it would take longer to get things vacuumed. However, it means I can get the vacuum into smaller spaces.
I highly recommend this vacuum. We have had it for almost 9 months and it continues to work well. I love how clean it gets my floors. I mean, look how gross this is! (by the way, I didn’t get paid for this nor did I get the vacuum for free or discount or anything. I just like it a lot).
Shark NV501 Rotator Profess...Shop on Amazon
