I love vacuuming: Shark Rocket Ultra-Light DuoClean (Model HV382)

I like a clean home, because of that our home gets cleaned daily. I find it therapeutic, transforming a place ( through cleaning) into a place that enhances my happiness. Since I clean daily, I usually don’t spend a lot of time cleaning because those daily cleaning sessions add up to the home that is never in need of a massive cleaning intervention because of neglect or put off until another time. Of course, there are times when I don’t want to clean, but… I realize that even though my family, work, pets and the numerous other obligations added to my busy daily life keep me occupied the house won’t clean itself and so I always take a few moments daily to clean.

Daily Cleaning Makes It Look “Easy”

Clothes get washed, dried, and folded the same day. The same thing applies to the dishes. If we see something out of place we take a short time that is needed to restore order. Sometimes it’s seconds other times minutes such as folding items that have been washed or washing, drying and putting away dishes. We don’t use a dishwasher. I still prefer hand washed dishes. In allowing that time daily to restore order, I actually save myself from investing massive amounts of times restoring order to a messy environment. Daily cleaning is the method that works best for us, and regardless of the day our home always looks spotless. Guess what?  My daughter assists with the cleaning. I didn’t always have someone assisting me with this task when I was truly single it I was the only one cleaning and when she was an infant, the messes that come along with an active child made things (at times) a bit overwhelming.

I will be the first to admit that it is easy for me to get lost in my creative chaos. What might look like a mess to someone isn’t for me, there’s order there, but… I also realize that even establishing order within my creativity means less cleaning (in the long run) and so I organize, clean up the loose fiber and put my tools away after each use.

Going Carpetless

About six years ago, we made the switch to a carpetless home and I must say that was the best decision. We have granite, marble and laminate wood floors. I find a hard surface much easier to clean than carpet. All I need is a broom, dustpan, and a mop to keep the floors spotless. However, I admit (for myself at least) using a vacuum and a steamer to stay on top of floor maintenance can make things easier for us. Recently, I purchased the Dupray steamer. I’m still impressed with this purchase and it’s continuing to do an amazing job of making our floors spotless with minimal effort. While researching the steam cleaner, I was also researching vacuums. Now we do have a Bissel vacuum cleaner from our carpeted days, however, over the years its performance was not impressive. It started kicking up dirt on our carpeted floors and on the kitchen that was a hard surface,  it didn’t do well at all.

We have pets, which can mean more maintenance

We have two dogs. One compliment that we do receive is that people would never know we had pets. It doesn’t smell. Their bedding and toys get washed weekly. The areas that they frequent are swept, vacuumed and mopped. We treat our dogs and their belongings like anything else in the home. It all needs to be maintained.

Researching a vacuum that works best for me

After a lot of research, I narrowed my vacuum choices down to two upright vacuums; Dyson V8 and a Shark Rocket. Although I was impressed with Dyson, I chose the Shark because it did have a cord. The Dyson model that interested me was cordless. From my research, the charge lasted about 40 minutes (I think the V10 last up to an hour), and while my vacuuming typically doesn’t last that long (since the floors are cleaned daily) I didn’t want to have such a small window to clean.

Last week, I ordered a Shark Rocket (HV302) Corded Ultra-Light vacuum. I believe this is the base model in the Shark Rocket line. It arrived on Friday, but… the suction wasn’t all impressive. Since I’d read numerous reviews about the product, I was confident enough to realize that the fault was with a defective unit. Since I ordered it on Amazon, it simply was a matter of logging onto the site, requesting a return, packing everything securely back into the original box, and wait for UPS to pick up the item.

I did order another Shark, but this time I decided to choose a different version of the Shark Rocket. I ordered the Shark Rocket Ultra-Light DuoClean Model HV382

and just like the other Shark, this vacuum was packaged extremely well. Do you see what I’m talking about? When it comes to large items, I try to keep the boxes, just in case I have to return the item. Thankfully, I have only had to return one item. It’s one of the reasons why I do spend a lot of time researching an item before I purchase it since I don’t want to be dissatisfied with the item after it’s purchased. So no… I’m not an impulse buyer.

Assembling the Shark Rocket HV382 was easy. There wasn’t too much to put together and I was cleaning our floors in less than five minutes.

My daughter commented that she didn’t think the floor needed cleaning. The floors rarely look like they need cleaning, so that’s nothing new, after all, we clean our floors daily. But… that’s how we stay on top of a spotless home. The effort to sweep or vacuum floors daily is minimal compared to allowing them to collect dirt. The Shark did manage to pick up fine dirt and the suction on this item was impressive although she was right about the hard surface floors, the carpeted stairs revealed something else entirely different.

Look what was collected in the Rocket’s container. Oh, by the way, the container that holds the dirt is removable on the Shark Rocket HV382. It isn’t on the HV302. Those stairs appeared to be clean, but I knew they weren’t. Why?

As I’d already mentioned our Bissel wasn’t doing a great job cleaning and although I swept the carpeted rug, I knew it wasn’t doing an effective job since the finer dirt particles were just sinking into the thick pile carpeting.

To clean the carpet with my Shark Rocket, I swapped to the carpet setting and was able to pull out a lot of dirt, and if you look closely some tiny beads that I use with my jewelry making.  I’m used to upright vacuums, our last few vacuums were uprights. They definitely weren’t as lightweight at this one.

To prolong the life of my upright vacuums, I’ve always emptied the trash container after each use and I also rinse out the bin and let it dry. This vacuum has LED lights on the motorhead, when I read about that feature, I didn’t think too much about it when I was reading the reviews (although I’d read what others were saying about the lights) however, I will admit that it’s a nice bonus since it clearly brings to light (grins) any dirt that might be on the floor. Overall, I really like this vacuum.

My initial impression of the Shark Rocket Ultra-Light DuoClean Model HV382

Pros

1. Suction, this is picking up everything that is on our floors and carpeted steps.
2. Portability – This vacuum weighs less than nine pounds.
3. It converts to a handheld vacuum.
4. The canister that holds the vacuumed dirt is removable.
5. Easy access to the motorhead.
6. Tool to remove tangles caught in the brush head.
7. Fine threads/fibers. I’m a crafter, this vacuum is picking up all fibers without any issue.
8. LED light on vacuum head. It really does highlight dirt that might have been missed.

Cons

1. The cord isn’t detachable.
2. You have to lean the vacuum against something or place it on the floor. This makes sense since the motor is at the top of the vacuum. For myself, this is minor and it only takes a few seconds to do this.

I know the true test will be to see how the Shark Rocket performs after several months of use. I’ll definitely be sure to post an update on how I feel about this vacuum after I’ve used it for a while. Based on reviews, my experience should still be positive.

Resources

1. Prevent Your Shark Rocket Stick Vacuum From Losing Suction

This post contains affiliate links. Occasionally my posts will contain affiliate links referencing the various items I use. I don’t do it often and will only post items that I recommend.