Shark anti-hair wrap HZ400UKT bagless upright vacuum cleaner performance review

You can easily clean stairs and surfaces with lift-away pod and extendable hose of Shark anti-hair wrap HZ400UKT bagless upright vacuum cleaner. It has Pet tool that easily removes pet hair from carpets, stairs and sofas and includes crevice tool & dusting brush. The unique twin tech floorhead contains two revolutionary technologies. Glide from carpets to hard floors with DuoClean’s signature double brush-roll design, while Anti Hair Wrap Technology actively removes hair from the bristle brush-roll so you don’t have to. Reveal more in Shark anti-hair wrap HZ400UKT bagless upright vacuum cleaner review.

Pros & Cons – Shark anti-hair wrap HZ400UKT bagless upright vacuum cleaner

Pros

• Easy, compact storage – it can be broken down into components
• Anti-hair wrap technology means hairs don’t get stuck in the rotating brush
• Permanent washable filters
• Crevice tool and dusting brush stored on board
• Long 10m power cord

Cons

• The rotating brush cannot be switched off

Specifications

• Suitable for carpets, hard floors, stairs and upholstery.
• Weight 5.4kg.
• Size H116, W26, D29cm.
• HEPA filter – traps small particles and pet dander, making it excellent for allergy sufferers.
• Motorised floor head.
• Adjustable floorhead.
• Pet tool included.
• Includes crevice nozzle, upholstery nozzle, dusting brush, turbo brush and combination floor nozzle.
• Length of hose 25.5m.
• Hose stretches up to 1m.
• Aluminium extension tubes.
• Capacity of dustbin 0.5 litre.
• Dustbag full indicator.
• 10m power cord.

• 80dB Noise level
• Model number: HZ400UKT .
• Manufacturer’s 5 year guarantee.

Key features – Shark anti-hair wrap HZ400UKT bagless upright vacuum cleaner

This lightweight stick vacuum is powerful, portable and packed with cleaning technologies. Anti Hair Wrap actively removes hair from the brush-roll so you don’t have to. Clean stairs and furnishings with Lift-Away and reach up high with the extendable hose. Perfect for homes with pets. DuoClean floorhead cleans carpets and hard floors.

Perfect for Pet Owners – Enhanced with Anti Hair Wrap, the purposefully-designed Pet Tool easily removes embedded pet hair from sofas, stairs and upholstery. Signature LED headlights illuminate hidden dust and pet hair pile-ups.

DuoClean Technology – Two brush-rolls in one floorhead. The bristle brush-roll cleans carpets, while a soft front brush draws in large debris, small particles and stuck-on dust from hard floors. Clean all floors without stopping to switch heads.

Anti Hair Wrap Technology – Tired of hair wrapping around your brush-roll? Anti Hair Wrap actively separates and removes hair with a unique bristle-guard, helping to leave the bristle brush-roll tangle-free. Perfect for long, short and pet hair.

Lift-Away Technology – Simply lift the pod away from the stick to transform into a lightweight portable vacuum cleaner. Comfortably clean stairs, furnishings and surfaces with the extendable hose and handy attachments.

Compare Shark anti-hair wrap HZ400UKT bagless upright vacuum cleaner

Shark anti-hair wrap HZ400UKT bagless upright vacuum cleaner Review

Design

Shark is best known for is its flexible vacuum cleaner designs, and the HZ400UKT is no exception. At its most basic, the vacuum cleaner is an upright stick. Yet, even here, Shark has been smart with the design.

Floor head

The main floor head is Shark’s DuoClean, which has a soft roller and bristles, built to deliver the best performance on both hard floors and carpets. It also has two extendible rollers that slide back when you attach the wand and main unit, allowing the HZ400UKT to stand up on its own. The extending wheels let the vacuum cleaner stand upright

Smart button

To start cleaning, just tap the power button on top. Note that its position is rather awkward at the back of the handle. A more natural place for this button would have been where your thumb falls. When the HZ400UKT turns on, the DuoClean brush stays static until you fold the handle down.

In terms of cleaning, the HZ400UKT offers excellent flexibility; it’s able to go almost flat. I felt the vacuum was a touch on the stiff side, not quite as nimble as some rival models. As such, I had to take a bit more care when directing the unit. However, with a 10m power cord, it has plenty of reach.

Various mode

The vacuum can be used in upright mode as a standard vacuum cleaner, plus there’s also the corded stick mode. The latter enables you to use the cleaner like a cordless vacuum, with or without the wand attached – or, you can extend the 1m flexible hose to really get into difficult to reach areas. The wand can also be attached to the flexible hose to offer reach and flexibility.

The Lift-Away mode adds yet more flexibility to the HZ400UKT, but it isn’t the most well-balanced vacuum cleaner we’ve used; much of its 4.8kg weight can be felt at the rear of the cleaner, where you hold it. As a result, I had to use two hands to reach up high, since I couldn’t hold the HZ400UKT steady. Still, the design has to be praised; tackling everything from stairs to upholstery and even the tops of cupboards is easy with this model.

You can clean up high, although you’ll most likely need two hands to hold the vacuum steady.

Accessories

You can get the vacuum almost flat, but it isn’t as dextrous as some of the competition. The wand can take the accessory clip, which can hold the dusting tool and crevice tool. Both are basic but perfectly serviceable, giving you options for getting right into tight areas as well as tackling blinds and curtains.

With the accessory holder you can carry around most of the tools you’ll need. The only accessory you’ll need to find a home for is the power tool. Unlike the main powered floor brush, the power tool’s bristles are spun purely by airflow.

Emptying dustbin

To empty the vacuum cleaner, simply remove the 0.5l dustbin. This is best done while the vacuum is stood up; try to remove the bin in handheld mode and it’s far too easy to drop the vacuum unit.

Once the bin is out, you can open the bottom and top to empty it. The bin is a touch narrow in the middle, so clumps of hair can become caught up in it; a good tap to get everything out usually works, although you can clean the entire bin under a tap with water and leave it to dry.

You may need to give the bin a knock or two to empty it, plus you have the option to wash it out from time to time

Removing the bin also gives access to the washable filters. There are two, including one HEPA filter to capture small particles, which makes this cleaner a good choice for those with allergies.

Shark anti-hair wrap HZ400UKT bagless upright vacuum cleaner performance review

To test the cleaner on carpet, I spread flour on the floor, then moved the HZ400UKT along in a single sweep to see how well it picked up the dirt. A single pass managed to pick up pretty much the entire spill, although there was a smidgeon of dust left right by the edge in one patch.

Hard floor test: Dirty hard floor (left) vs Clean hard floor (right) – move slider to compare

That’s impressive and shows that the HZ400UKT can move from hard floors to carpets without a change in cleaning performance or necessitating a change in floor heads.

Thanks to my four cats, we combed some pet hair into our carpet. A single swipe of the DuoClean brush pulled out most  mess, but some stubborn hairs remained. A couple of more swipes and it was gone.

Carpet test: Dirty carpet (left) vs Clean carpet (right) – move slider to compare

Presumably, the way that the fibres sat around that part of the skirting board meant that the DuoClean brush couldn’t quite reach these. The remaining mess was nothing we couldn’t tackle with the use of the crevice tool.

We also used the DuoClean brush to test cleaning on hard floors. This time, I used two teaspoons of rice on the floor, giving the HZ400UKT a single pass through the mess. Once again, the vacuum cleaner impressed, sucking up the dirt in a one sweep without flicking any grains out of the way or leaving anything behind.

Pet hair test: Dirty carpet (left) vs Clean carpet (right) – move slider to compare

For stairs, I used the HZ400UKT in handheld mode; the DuoClean brush is too large to fit on my stair treads. I used the turbo tool for most of the work, although the lack of an articulated head meant that I had to get the angle just right to get the brush to sit flat. I found that it was easier to use the extendable hose to do this, resting the vacuum component on a tread, then making my way up the stairs. Using the hose also meant I could quickly switch to the crevice tool to get around the edge of the stairs and pick up any mess that remained.

Shark anti-hair wrap HZ400UKT bagless upright vacuum cleaner customer review