Tired of Dog Hair Everywhere You Look? Wondering What’s the Best Vacuum for Pet Hair?
Sick and tired of dog hair everywhere even after you just finished vacuuming?
I know what you’re going through! We had five dogs in our home for many years, which dwindled to only three now, and it’s still almost a daily thing to keep up on…well, it could be a daily thing, but…you know what I mean!
Lately, it’s just been too frustrating to vacuum every single day…I’ll get to that in a bit here if you keep reading, so hang in there!
>>(Click here Read Review at bottom of page)<<
Cleaning with a vacuum that doesn’t work right to pick up all that darn dog hair can be a very frustrating and never ending process! And, eventually, it begins to seems like a waste of time to bother vacuuming it up every day.
Tired of Vacuuming Only to Find This?
You’re vacuuming like a madman (or madwoman)….
Only to find when you look back…
A lovely trail of dog fur and little piles of dust, dirt, hair, and other junk you thought had been safely contained in the vacuum. But, instead, it’s somehow escaped the vacuum after being sucked up.
Why? Oh, Why!
So, you go back and vacuum it all up again, and it’s looking good…
Til you turn around.
At about that point you feel like throwing the vacuum right out the window, right?
Well, maybe it’s only me, and I just have a bad temper, lol!
Anyways, I found one that I really love! It works to suck up that dog hair and anything else in its path. Maybe sometimes too good as I found out after almost sucking the curtains right off the wall…
Don’t even ask how that happened!
The great thing about this wonderful vacuum is there are No more happy trails of dog fur, dust, and who knows what left behind like I’d experienced with so many other vacuums. Believe me, I’ve come to know a great many vacuum cleaners in my life with owning so many dogs, cats, guinea pigs, and well, you get the point.
The Shark Navigator Reaches Those Nasty Dust Bunnies Hiding Under Your Bed
What I really love too about the Shark Navigator vacuum is that it can reach under just about anything…vacuuming under coffee tables, desks, chairs, and other areas that are always great fur collectors.
Should you come across one of these low-profile areas, they’re no big deal to get into to clean.
All you need to do is bring the handle down on the vacuum cleaner as far as you want, and it’ll pretty much lay flat to the floor this way! .
Meanwhile the floor brush actually stays where it should…
on the floor!
Instead of popping up and vacuuming air like most vacuums!
Fur & Dust Bunnies Hiding Out on the Stairs?
Not for long! The ability to use the Shark’s lift-away feature turning it into a portable vacuum to clean the stairs makes life so much easier, not to mention safer.
I really don’t want to go tumbling down the stairs with a huge, heavy vacuum…
Well, I don’t exactly want to go tumbling down the stairs at any rate, but you know what I mean.
Hefting around a bulky vacuum on the stairs can be a hard thing to do since there’s not much room on stairs in the first place and it seems much easier to lose your balance while doing so.
But, since you can just pop off the Lift-Away canister on this vacuum I find it much easier to clean our stairs…no more trying to balance myself and a huge vacuum on the steps.
Pretty awesome I think!
Compared to other vacuums I’ve had, this Shark just leaves them in the dust!
The Shark Navigator Lift Away (NV352) Vacuum
Product: Shark Navigator Lift Away (NV352)
This nice little vacuum is surprisingly powerful! It has Shark’s Never Lose Suction Technology and it picks up an amazing amount of fur and dirt. Now, I’ve owned mine for many years and in all the time I used it, it was an amazing vacuum!
The Flexible Hose Problem After Years of Use
But, one little drawback…that happened to mine unfortunately…
The flexible hose that extends out of the vacuum started cracking. Just a little crack at first, then it kept getting bigger.
Now, I haven’t found much about this happening to others when reading reviews, but it happened to mine. Maybe it was the kids yanking and pulling on the hose, dragging the vacuum along with it when they wanted to use it to clean their room. Of course, I have to admit, they certainly didn’t want to clean their room, more like they had to do it…they made the mess, they can clean it up!
Whatever caused the hose to get these cracks in it I’m not positive…
But, Oh how I miss my Shark Navigator!
I believe I can order a replacement hose attachment, but for the time being, I’m using a different vacuum…
And I don’t like it!
Not one bit. It’s loud and clumsy to use, a pain in the arse to empty, and doesn’t suck things up like the Shark Navigator did. I barely get a quarter of the living room vacuumed and it’s completely plugged with fur…at the brush roller area, or stuck in one of the openings where the hose attaches either at the canister or the area where it connects to the bottom where the brush roller is located.
So, it takes forever to frickin’ get the floor vacuumed…
This never happened with my Shark vacuum cleaner!
Did I mention I hate this other vacuum?
Does The Type of Vacuum Really Make a Difference?
Oh, yes, it sure does! Some really suck at sucking up debris and fur. Plus, some designs cause the vacuum’s brush roller to clog up easily or the hose clogs up. Then you end up vacuuming and everything you thought was picked up wasn’t.
Okay, I should mention this other vacuum is the Dirt Devil CleanPath…
Well, what a name…it certainly leaves a path of something, but it sure isn’t clean! Not to mention, I feel like a dirt devil by the time I get done using it…emptying the dirt canister on it is just a ridiculous process in frustration.
The Plus Side of the OTHER Vacuum
I mean the Dirt Devil vacuum works to a point, and it does pick stuff up as long as you keep emptying it and making sure it’s still picking stuff up and not just blowing it around…so, if you need a really cheap vacuum for the time being, yeah, it works.
But, I guess I got spoiled using the Shark Navigator Vacuum cleaner…once you get used to using one that works like these Sharks, you’ll probably never want a different one. At least that’s how I feel.
Anyways, hopefully I can find a replacement for the hose attachment. Otherwise, I’ll be buying either this one, the Shark Navigator Lift-Away again, or maybe the Shark Rotator, which I’ve heard is another great vacuum for getting rid of dog hair. **(Please note: Affiliate Discloser below).
Thought I’d share a short video below showing what this amazing little Shark Vacuum can do…
⇓⇓ Review Summary below ⇓⇓Thanks for reading! Please share this if you like it. I’d appreciate it and our little doggies do too!
*(Pricing may be subject to change. Updated 7-1-2017)* *Please note: Affiliate disclaimer at bottom of page. Thank You!
Shark Navigator Lift-Away Vacuum (NV352)
Pros
- Powerful Suction - picks up everything from small to large dirt & debris
- Lift Away Feature makes cleaning stairways, ceilings, cars, etc. a breeze!
- Extremely Quiet
- Lightweight - only 12.5 pounds
- Pet Hair Power Brush Tool great for cleaning furniture
- Low profile - easy to get under furniture
- Price is cheaper & works better than many other
- Brushroll shutoff switch -cleans bare floors and carpet
- Anti-Allergen Complete Seal + HEPA
- Swivel steering makes it easy to manuever
Cons
- Hose attachment too short
- Hose itself cracks if you're not careful
Pet hairs get caught in the brushes and have to be cut off the brushes. What is the solution?
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for stopping by and asking! Well, as far as I know, cutting the hair off is about the only way to completely remove the pet hair that gets in the brushes. I’m not sure however if you’re referring to the floor roller brush or the Turbo Brush part for pet hair. I do know with mine I can take the extension tool apart quite easily by sliding the button down and it should come apart then…makes it much easier to get the hair out this way!
I’ll have to get some photos and add them here to explain it more though…however, you still might have to either pull or cut the hair off the brush roll, especially if it’s been collecting for awhile.
Here’s a link to the Owner’s Manual from Shark…Maintenance on Turbo Brush if you need it.
You also might want to try using a seam ripper to cut through the hair…it’s a bit easier to slide under the hair that is wound around the rollers or brushes than scissors. I’ve also read of others using a razor, which I’d guess would be much the same as a box cutting tool.
Hope this helps you out some…sorry I don’t really have another solution for getting the pet hair out of the brushes besides using a seam ripper to cut through it. Do you have the same type of Shark Navigator vacuum as this one? I know the floor roller brush is a bit difficult to get at fully on mine, so if it’s really tangled in there, you might be able to take it apart to clean it better by removing the screws on the bottom plate.
However, I can’t remember ever having to do this on mine, but I do believe I remember seeing screws on it, so I looked it up and found this which might help show it a bit better although it’s talking about replacing the floor roller brush. Yours might be a bit different than this, if you decide to go to the length of taking it apart just be careful to pay attention to which screws go where, since some may be of different lengths.
I do believe there are vacuums that are supposed to be tangle-free, which I just came across when looking up info on this problem. One is the Dyson DC65 Animal Upright Vacuum Cleaner that has this type of tangle free design or another one is the Bissell 1650A Pet Hair Eraser Vacuum.
Hope this helps you out some…let me know if you have any more questions on this and I’ll be happy to help if I can.
Best wishes 🙂 ~Sherry
This was a super informative article. Oooh, I have got to try this! My dogs emit hair likes it’s going out of style and cleaning it up it a daily thing. Very good and informative article!
Thanks for all the info! I loved that you even included the crack information.
Hi Anna,
Thanks for the comment! I’m glad you found the review informative and the info about the Shark Navigator helpful to know.
Yes, I thought people might want to know beforehand about the hose cracking in spots on mine. Although this didn’t happen until we had owned it for quite a few years and then the kids got a hold of it, which didn’t help either. So, maybe this doesn’t normally happen, but I thought I’d let people know about it.
Otherwise, I really have got to say, I love my Shark Navigator! It’s definitely been worth the price.
Thanks again for stopping by and let me know how it works out for you if you try one of the Shark vacuums out yourself. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Best wishes 🙂 ~Sherry
It´s clear that I will think seriously about Shark Navigator Lift-Away Vacuum in my research for next days because things like this are on my bucket list.
I special like how quiet it is, it´s horrible noise from many of this things when other persons are for example watching TV, and that it´s lightweight because I need many times to lift it up.
Are many colours you can select from?
Hi Johann,
Thank you for checking my review out and commenting! I absolutely love how quiet mine is! It’s never been a problem to vacuum while my hubby or kids were watching TV or even asleep.
I too, love that it’s so lightweight and easy to maneuver around and under furniture. Plus, since it has the lift-away feature it makes it even a bit lighter once you take the canister off to vacuum areas like the stairs or even ceilings. Just be careful of the curtains, lol! Of course, there is a dial to turn the suction down too if needed.
One thing is that for this model of vacuum, I can’t seem to find that there are other colors to choose from that are exactly the same as this model. However, there are other models available in different colors like silver and dark blue. But, these all seem to have a few differences from the Shark Navigator NV352 when it comes to the attachments they come with or certain other details such as different cord lengths, canister capacity and weight.
After doing quite a bit of research on the differences, I believe the one closest to it, but in a silver color is the Shark Navigator Lift-Away Professional with Dust-Away & 2-Microfiber Pads (NV356E). This one has a longer power cord, a larger canister capacity and weighs just a little bit more at 13.7 lbs compared to the 12.5 lbs of this model. It’s also about $20 more at this time anyways. I’m thinking this would be a great vacuum as well, but I’ve never owned this one myself…at least not yet!
The most recent vacuum of the Shark brand is the Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away TruePet (NV752) , which has a couple of different versions as well, but seems to be available in a dark Red for the most part.
I see there are other colors for some of these models available at Amazon, but I’m not quite sure if I’d trust these are actually the Shark vacuum or not. Maybe they are, but since I’ve never seen these available in colors such as dark blue or light blue which I did come across searching Amazon. However, there aren’t any reviews for these or much to go on to find out for sure whether these are the real thing besides actually ordering one. All of these are from a different seller there as well and some of these listings say they are refurbished vacuums…again, I’ve never seen them in blue anywhere. So, I’d be a bit leery of these.
Anyways, I hope this helps you decide on which new vacuum would be best for your needs once you reach that on your bucket list! Thanks again for stopping by and I hope you visit again sometime. Also, if you have any more questions, please ask away!
Best wishes 🙂 ~Sherry
Hi Sherry, I think my wife and I will like the fact that the vacuum is light because we have many stairs to carry it up. Towards the beginning you mentioned how you’ll see more hair after you vacuum and yes it’s ABSOLUTELY annoying but this vacuum seems pretty awesome for that price. I was actually a bit skeptical until I checked out the reviews myself.
Great video too, I didn’t realize hepa filters were so inefficient but I like the fact that this vacuum specifically is completely sealed!
Great review!
Hi Jaron,
Thanks for stopping by and commenting! Glad to hear from you!
I really love using the Shark vacuum on the stairs…it made it so much easier since you can just “lift away” the canister to carry along with you instead of having to balance the whole vacuum on the stairs. We have very narrow and steep stairs ourselves so there isn’t much room for a vacuum on them in the first place.
As for all that hair that gets blown around especially when vacuuming bare floors, this didn’t happen at all with the Shark Navigator that I have. It worked surprisingly well on both carpets and bare floors, especially if you turn off the brush roll switch when on bare floors.
I’m pretty sure you’ll love using the Shark Navigator vacuums since they’re light, easy to maneuver and work very well in my opinion. Plus, they’re not as expensive as some of the other vacuums out there.
Thanks again for stopping by! If you have any questions, feel free to ask them!
Best wishes 🙂 ~Sherry