Shark’s long been known for its value-friendly home cleaning equipment. Now, the manufacturer is the latest company to jump into the carpet cleaning market with its CarpetXpert series of upright cleaners. The CarpetXpert with Stainstriker is Shark’s higher-end cleaner model, and it sports upgrades like Shark’s Stainstriker cleaning system.
But is the CarpetXpert worth adding to your home cleaning lineup, or should you stick with your current cleaner? Read on to find out our full take on Shark’s CarpetXpert With Stainstriker.
Shark’s carpet cleaner is a solid performer for routine home cleaning, but it’s hampered by a basic feature set and a price tag that’s higher than the competition.
What we liked about it
A solid performer
On paper, the Stainstriker’s specifications won’t necessarily knock your socks off. The carpet cleaner includes features like a mid-sized 0.53-gallon clean water tank and a 10-inch cleaning path. By comparison, most upright cleaners at the Stainstriker’s price point have larger tanks and wider cleaning brushes.
Still, the Stainstriker was a steady performer throughout our hands-on testing. We fully cleaned out an 8-foot living room rug after two water changes, and the Shark quickly handled food, coffee, and canola oil stains in handheld mode. The Shark doesn’t necessarily have best-in-class performance, but it works as expected for a mid-range model.
Integrated hose saves time
One of our favorite features is the Shark’s convenient integrated cleaning hose, which winds around the cleaner’s backside like a standard vacuum. Although the winding and unwinding process is involved—you’ll have to secure the 5-foot hose on five separate points — the convenience of having a built-in hose more than makes up for the extra legwork.
On most carpet cleaners, you’d have to carry around a separate bag with a hose attachment to do any spot cleaning. With the Shark, we easily unholstered the hose whenever we saw a tricky stain. We’d love to see more carpet cleaners adopt Shark’s system, which offers a best-of-both-worlds solution.
Great design touches
The Stainstriker’s filled with a lot of nice design additions that bolster its usability. For instance, the Shark’s tanks have flat bottoms, so you can easily refill them without having to hold them in place. The Stainstriker’s top side also has an attachment holster, so you can have the Shark’s pet hair and general cleaning tools with you at any time. The dirty water tank’s filter is also washable and removable, so you can quickly clean it out after a few cleaning sessions.
As with top models like the Hoover SmartWash+, the Shark is a triggerless cleaner — the Shark sprays cleaning solution when you push it forward and sucks it up when you reverse the cleaner. You can also toggle between standard cleaning and quick dry modes using a button on the top of the Shark. However, we wish Shark would’ve included a carrying handle on its midsection. At 18 pounds, the Shark’s far from lightweight (although it’s in line with comparable upright cleaners) and it could be difficult for older users to carry the Shark between floors.
What we didn’t like about it
Stainstriker is fine, but not essential
The Shark’s Stainstriker branding also refers to the carpet cleaner’s dual-tank cleaning system. The main cleaning tank is filled with water and cleaning formula, while a second tank gets filled with Shark’s Stainstriker cleaning solution. In handheld mode, the Shark will blend cleaning solution from both tanks for enhanced cleaning power.
In practice, Stainstriker works fine for tough stains, but it’s not necessarily a game-changing feature. After several cleaning passes, we broke down some deep stains in a foam mattress, but the Shark couldn’t entirely remove them. Competitors like the Hoover SmartWash+ also use a similar dual-tank cleaning system.
Doesn’t feature much beyond basics
Despite being a mid-range carpet cleaner, the Stainstriker doesn’t include many of the features seen on comparable models. Surprisingly, the Shark has only a single brush roll for cleaning — at the Shark’s price point, most carpet cleaners will feature a dual-roll setup to cover more surface area in a single cleaning pass.
Plus, the Shark’s accessory lineup only covers the basics — you’ll get pet cleaning, general usage and hose cleaning tools, but none of the maintenance and cleaning accessories you’d find from competitors. For instance, Bissell includes a small T-shaped tool for fishing out dust clumps from the cleaner head. Plus, the Shark’s 0.53-gallon clean water tank and 0.23-gallon dirty water tank are undersized compared to other cleaners; Bissell’s mid-range cleaners regularly sport gallon-sized tanks that’ll be enough for cleaning multiple rooms.
All of these omissions leave the Stainstriker a slight step behind the competition. Gaps like the Shark’s smaller tank and single brush roll mean that it’ll take more passes and water changes to finish larger cleaning jobs.
How it compares
At $300, the Shark is priced slightly above typical mid-range carpet cleaners, but it lacks many of the features found on more affordable competitors.
For instance, the Bissell ProHeat 2x Revolution Pet Pro features a dual-roll design and integrated water heater while costing around $20 less than the Shark. The Hoover SmartWash+ shares many Shark features like its triggerless cleaning and dual-tank system, but it typically costs less than the Shark. On the higher end of the price spectrum, the Bissell Revolution HydroSteam Pet costs around $400, but its excellent steam cleaning features will buff out the toughest stains.
Bottom line
On its own merits, there’s a lot to like about the Shark CarpetXpert With Stainstriker. The Shark is a solid everyday carpet cleaner, and its built-in hose is a nice innovation compared to the competition. However, the Shark is hamstrung with a higher price tag that runs up against its standard features. But if you can snag the Shark on sale, you’ll get a sturdy carpet cleaner that can handle typical cleaning tasks without missing a beat.