Name: Shark AV911S EZ Review
Item: Shark AV911S EZ
Author: Alan Morrison

Shark is a popular brand among vacuum enthusiasts, and its robot vacuum cleaners are among the best in the market, alongside those from iRobot. Thanks to a combination of innovative technology and powerful suction, the newest Shark AV911S EZ seeks to compete with our favorite iRobot Roomba i7+, with a self-emptying dustbin, something that has been missing on Shark’s excellent vacs.

At first glance, the self-emptying version of the Shark robot vacuum would seem to be a winner: at its list price, it’s a bargain costing several hundred dollars less than the iRobot Roomba i7+.

Compared to the pricier Shark AI Ultra Robot which also has an automatic base station, the AV911S EZ robot vacuum doesn’t have a LIDAR mapping sensor which could result in less precise navigation, but it does a fine job in picking up and disposing debris, at a very reasonable price.

If you’re looking for a robot vacuum with self-emptying features and can’t just afford the Roomba i7+, Shark finally has an affordable alternative. But at a time when the best vacuum robots offer solid cleaning performance for less than half that, is the self-emptying feature worth the extra price tag? Let’s find out in this Shark AV911S EZ review.

Design

The Shark AV911S EZ is a nice-looking and well-built robot vac. It’s similar in design to other Shark robot vacuums, like the Shark AI robot, with a matte-finish hard plastic body and twin drive wheels with rubber treads. However, the hard plastic dirt compartment feels a little flimsy.

The design includes a tasteful mix of glossy black and matte black plastic with brushed silver accents on the top and sides. It’s a far nice-looking robot compared to the utilitarian grey and black found on the Shark Ion R85 and signals the company is going for a premium look. This design and color more closely resemble the Roomba i7+, from the body color right to the oversized front bumper.

Out of the box, the EZ vac is easy to assemble, requiring only that you snap its twin side brushes into place and place the self-emptying dock station on the included matt. Shark recommends that you place the mat on carpets to prevent it from slipping around on hard floors. The shiny black plastic on the sides of the AV911S looks sleek right out of the box, although they quickly attract dust.

About the Shark AV911S EZ

The Shark AV911S weighs 6.97 lbs, making it pretty portable. It’s easy to carry around, but it doesn’t have a carrying handle to make it easier to carry from one room to another.

We like the size of the Shark’s self-emptying bin and dock a lot. It’s less obtrusive than the Clean base bin and dock on the iRobot Roomba i7+ and it doesn’t look as imposing sitting on the floor. While the Roomba i7+ would easily get in the way, the Shark’s smaller footprint makes it less of a trip hazard. Like the Clean Base, the Shark sucks debris upward and into a holding bin.

Shark says the bin needs to be emptied once in a month and there’s a small window into the bin to view its fullness. The company says the Shark bin is bagless and easy to empty, with a button near the handle to release the bin from the dock, and a second at the base drops the bottom out to release the debris.

In the box

Robot vacuum body
Internal dust bin
Base Station
Pre-motor filter
2x Side brushes
Brushroll
Brushroll door
Owner’s guide

Setting up the Shark AV911S EZ on your smartphone is easy and straightforward. You simply follow the steps within the app, and it takes less than five minutes before you’re up and running. The Shark EZ is a mapping robot vacuum, meaning it will generate a map of one level of your home as it goes about its cleaning. Unlike other robot vacs that clean haphazardly, this robot cleans rows by now, ensuring every space gets thoroughly cleaned.

Performance

Once you send the Shark AV911S on a cleaning task, it goes about its work with precision. It cleans in a concise row-by-row pattern, unlike other robots that use a back-and-forth snake pattern, which can sometimes leave some space unvacuumed. Its maneuverability is efficient and organized and can even return to areas that require more cleaning.

It’s also small enough to clean under most couches and tables. It doesn’t struggle cleaning most rugs, though some tassels can get entangled in its brush roll on some rare occasions. Unfortunately, it struggles with low-lying obstructions like electrical cords, which the vacuum may identify as obstacles and avoid.

On bare floors, the EZ does an excellent job. It clears away small debris like rice effortlessly, but it may require a second go to clear away bulkier debris like cereal. On the other hand, performance on low-pile carpet is poor as compared to the iRobot Roomba i7+. It clears most larger debris like sand but struggles to clean finer debris like baking soda from this surface type.

When used on high-pile carpets, it does a good job when it comes to clearing larger debris like sand, but like on low-pile carpers, this vacuum cleaner struggles with finer debris.

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For cleaning pet hair, its performance is great but heavily depends on the floor type in your home. It doesn’t struggle with pet hair on hard surfaces like vinyl or hardwoods, and it is fairly good on high-pile carpets, but it struggles with pet hair on low-pile carpet fibers.

Since it automatically empties its internal compartment when docked, it doesn’t lose suction performance. Like most robot vacuums, however, the EZ Robot Vacuum has poor suction performance at its floorhead. The suction inlet is placed a little too high above the ground, thus, it doesn’t generate a tight seal on bare surfaces.

Finally, the SharkClean app is feature-packed and intuitive to use. The app allows you to change the vacuum’s suction power mode, send it on a cleaning mission and return to the dock, schedule cleaning sessions, check the cleaning history, monitor the charge status, update the vacuum’s firmware, and send push notifications. You’ll need a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi connection to control the vacuum via the app. It also connects to Alexa or Google Home devices, should you prefer to control it using voice commands.

Bottom Line

Practical and powerful, the Shark AV911S EZ vacuum robot remedies most of the problems customers have with robot vacuums. There are a few drawbacks – especially the fact that it struggles with low-pile carpets – but considering that the EZ Robot is more affordable than other robots in its category with self-emptying features, I am still impressed with the vac overall.

The main competitor to the Shark AV911S is the iRobot Roomba i7+ which is an excellent piece of machinery with stellar mapping capabilities and exceptional cleaning performance. The two major differences between the Shark AV911S and the Roomba i7+ are the price and the fact that the Shark is bagless.

With smart home compatibility, the Shark AV911S is technologically right where it should be. Features like self-emptying and row-by-row cleaning take it up a notch, bringing it slightly ahead of the curve. If you don’t want to worry about vacuuming at all, the Shark AV911S EZ robot vacuum is a good investment.

The Review

Shark AV911S EZ

4.4 Score

The Shark AV911S EZ robot vacuum is an excellent home appliance that features useful functions including self-emptying capability and long battery life, making for a truly automated cleaning experience.

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