Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Anti-odour puck to banish bad smells
- Cleans and dries mopping pad
- Can lift itself onto rugs or carpets
- Won’t get stuck
- Practically maintenance-free
Cons
- Doesn’t reach corners
- ‘Spot’ cleaning function hard to pinpoint
Our Verdict
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to have a live-in cleaner at hand (or at the click of a button), you’ll find out with the Pro 2-in-1. Not only does it vacuum, mop and refill itself like its predecessor, but it empties dirty water and washes and dries its mopping pad too, ready for its next clean. But, despite its clever Edge Detect tech, it didn’t reach food or dirt tucked away in corners.
Price When Reviewed
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Best Prices Today: Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro 2-in-1
$699.99
Launched in September 2024, the Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro 2-in-1 is the brand’s newest, swankiest and most maintenance-free robot vacuum cleaner, as it does all the mopping, vacuuming and tidying up after itself, so you don’t have to.
With two other robot vacuums in the PowerDetect NeverTouch line, it’s a step up from the 2-in-1 Self-Empty, Self-Refill Robot Vacuum and Mop and a giant leap forward from the Self-Empty Robot Vacuum.
Its USP? The fact that once you’ve set this gadget up, there’s little hands-on upkeep needed. It will deposit debris and dirty water in its main unit, keep everything smelling fresh with its anti-odour puck, and wash and dry the antibacterial mopping pad too, ready for the next run.
After four weeks of trying out the Pro 2-in-1, the clever robot lived up to many of its claims. It holds fresh water for up to 30 days, avoids objects when cleaning and its NeverStuck Technology meant – you guessed it – it never got stuck.
That said, there were a few challenges. Its Edge Detect didn’t suck up all debris from corners, while its Wet Edge Detect couldn’t mop as far into crevices. Plus, identifying ‘must-clean’ areas on the spot-cleaning function was a little tricky.
To find out whether the Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro 2-in-1 is worth it, keep reading. We’ve delved deep into the design and build along with its performance and features. And to see our top recommendations among rivals, have a look at our round-up of the best robot vacuums we’ve tested.
Design and Build
- Sturdy and aesthetically pleasing design
- Weighs 11.85 kg
- Dimensions: 44.6 (H) x 47.7 (W)x 36.4cm (D)
First of all, the Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro 2-in-1 is no eyesore. Shark places a lot of importance on its tech’s aesthetic appeal. Of course, when you’re spending just shy of £800/$1,000 on a gadget, you want it to do everything it says on the tin (and more).
But a home is often a reflection of its inhabitants. And thankfully Shark knows this, so the matt black and silver-coloured vacuum, along with its base, looks and feels well made.
The robot vacuum cleaner is a reasonable 34cm wide and, at 7cm tall, it makes drifting under low furniture look easy.
The dock, however, is quite tall and chunky at 44.6cm high and 47.7cm wide. Unlike the Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch 2-in-1, the Pro has a slightly different main unit as it comes with two separate tanks: one for 1.7L of fresh water and the other to store dirty mop pad gunk. These are located at the top of the base unit.
Rebecca Shepherd / Foundry
Towards the back right-hand side, you’ll find the clever bagless base, which is said to trap up to 99.9% of dust, allergens and irritants, and all debris won’t need emptying for up to 60 days. The beautifully-scented, odour-neutralising cartridge is under the flap at the top and it’s easy to click into place.
The matt black and silver-coloured vacuum, along with its base, looks and feels well made
The robot comes with clever 360° LiDAR vision which helps to map your home and avoid objects. Underneath the robot, you’ll find the cylindrical anti-hair wrap vacuum feature which can be removed to clean, a mopping pad, which lives in the base but gets attached when the vacuum cleaner is ready to mop, and a side brush, which sweeps dirt into the vacuum’s path.
Rebecca Shepherd / Foundry
Like most other robot vacuums, the Pro comes with some easy-to-use hands-on controls on top. These will let you send it home, mop or vacuum.
Rebecca Shepherd / Foundry
Performance and Features
- Easy to set up
- 5 deep-cleaning technologies
- Won’t get stuck
Once you’ve downloaded the SharkClean app and named your vacuum, it’s time to let your robot explore your space. In minutes you’ll have a map of your home.
For the purpose of testing, I let it explore my ground floor, which has mostly wooden flooring, a tiny patch of low-pile grey carpet and some door mats. It glided over all surfaces with ease, detecting the change underneath and lifting itself accordingly.
What’s nice is that you can set up ‘no-go’ zones and you can also divide your home up into different rooms and set up a cleaning schedule too, on different dates, times and certain days. You’ll also receive a ‘cleaning report’ on which areas the vacuum cleaner has mopped or vacuumed, so you can keep on top of your cleaning.
Rebecca Shepherd / Foundry
The Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro 2-in-1 comes with five deep-cleaning technologies. Along with the Floor Detect, which auto-adjusts suction power after sensing which type of floor it’s on, it’s also kitted out with Dirt Detect, which – as its name suggests – will detect dirt and increase its suction power to make sure the grime is gone.
Instead of smearing dirt into the surface, it made stains vanish every time
Third up is Edge Detect. This piece of tech uses blasts of air to force debris out of its hiding places and into the robot’s bin.
While the vacuum worked overtime to get rid of crumbs hidden in kitchen corners and used its side sweeping brush to brush dirt into its path, at the end of the clean, there were still rogue specks left by the wayside. To make sure they were gone, I either had to manually sweep them into the robot’s path or pick them up by hand.
The Pro also has a clever Stain Mode which increases the amount of time it cleans a messy area. This feature was tested multiple times on a small gravy spillage, a coffee stain and wet mud splodges. A recipe for disaster, right? Wrong. Instead of smearing dirt into the surface, it made stains vanish every time.
And better yet, you won’t even have to deal with the clean-up. Once it had finished the task, it took itself back to the base to self-clean and dry the antimicrobial mopping pad, ready for the next run.
After 30 days of using it, the pad still looked brand new. And, after peeking in the dirty tank, it was surprising to see how much dirt, bacteria and spillages the piece of kit had sucked up and stored.
Rebecca Shepherd / Foundry
That said, just make sure you don’t leave a stain in a corner. While the gadget’s Wet Edge Detect extends the mopping pad out to reach crevices, it didn’t reach the corners in my home.
Another flaw was the ‘Spot’ cleaning function. On the app, you can hover over the area you want to clean, but you can’t make this area larger. On one occasion when asked to vacuum a certain spot, the ‘area’ wasn’t large enough to cover it all, so I had to wait until it had returned to its base so I could set it to spot clean twice. I also struggled to pinpoint the area I needed cleaning, which meant I had to cancel the job and restart it.
Price and Availability
In the UK, the Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro 2-in-1 is available from a number of retailers, including John Lewis, Currys and direct from Shark itself, for £799.99. At the time of writing, there are no offers on it, but we expect it to come down in price over the next few months – perhaps as early as the January sales.
In the US, it has a MSRP of $999.99, but it’s already discounted to $699.99 on Amazon, Shark and Best Buy.
There’s no doubt that this is a pricey product, but compared to rival models from other brands with a similar feature set, it does represent good value – especially if you buy it on offer.
You can see how it stacks up against competitors in our round-up of the best robot vacuums we’ve tested. And if you like the look of the Pro model, but don’t think you’ll need all the features, you can browse Shark’s more budget-friendly models on its website.
Should you buy the Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro 2-in-1?
The Shark’s PowerDetect Never Touch Pro 2-in-1 excels in many areas – and I don’t say this lightly.
If you’re after a robot vacuum cleaner that has minimal upkeep, won’t get stuck and will clean your floors morning, noon or night, this piece of tech is more than happy to take on the challenge. The clue really is in the NeverTouch name.
Plus, this robot worked just as well on hardwood flooring as it did on carpet. And despite leaving dirty water and debris in the hub, the fresh-smelling anti-odour cartridge meant it didn’t kick up a stink.
Just bear in mind that you will have to get to grips with the SharkClean app’s quite basic design which can make pinpointing where you’d like to ‘spot’ clean a guessing game.
And that the robot vacuum won’t necessarily sweep or mop every crevice of your home. But having said that, there’s no denying that your floors will look a whole lot better than before your Shark started.
