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Looking for a 2-in-1 robot vacuum and mop? The Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal offers a self-emptying base and advanced cleaning tech. In this review, we cover everything from unboxing and setup to its real-world performance on carpet and hard floors.
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00:04While impressively powerful and pretty well specced, Shark's Power Detect UV Reveal can
00:10be a little, well, stupid. When it's on top form, it'll vacuum and mop your floors within an inch
00:15of their life, using UV to detect even invisible stains and offering impressive, albeit occasionally
00:21oversensitive, object avoidance. Some mapping issues and its lacklustre act, however, left me
00:27wanting a greater focus on software. Let's dive into the full review to find out if this is a robot
00:32vacuum for you. But before that, make sure to scan this QR code to learn more about becoming a Tech
00:37Radar Insider. Membership is completely free and gives you access to exclusive perks, rewards and
00:43more. Now let's get on with today's video. The Shark Power Detect UV Reveal comes in at $1,299
00:52or £999. While it's far from cheap, it's pretty good value for what it offers. That being said,
00:59there are other robot vacuum cleaners with equally impressive features and better software at a
01:03similar price. Plus, you'll need to maintain some parts of the vacuum. In particular, refills for
01:08the multi-floor cleaner and the odor neutralizing puck, as well as the usual replacements for things
01:13like side brushes, mop pads and beyond. Over time, these costs can add up, but you'll scarcely find a
01:18Robovac that doesn't come with similar added costs these days. Out of the box, you'll find the vacuum,
01:26base, power cord, an anti-odor puck, one refill bottle of Shark's multi-floor cleaner, two side
01:31brushes, plus the usual array of instructions and warranty documents. The base stands at 17 by 18 by 14
01:38inches, and it comes in either black or white. Mine was the latter, and I think it looks a lot
01:43more
01:43premium than the tackier black colorway. Enclosed in the lid of the base are the clean and waste
01:48water tanks, which lift out easily thanks to the retractable handles, as well as the bagless dirt
01:52compartment. I really appreciate that Shark opted for this, so there's one less thing to routinely
01:57replace. You can remove the container with the press of a button situated on the side of the dock,
02:01and it's also HEPA filtered. There's also a set of two filters that you'll need to clean every one to
02:06two months, depending on how often you use your robot vacuum, as well as a slot for one of Shark's
02:10anti-odor pucks, should dusty smells be an issue for you. Moving on to the vacuum itself,
02:14it's a fairly standard, rounded two-in-one robot vacuum, but it is a little tall and hefty. The top
02:20of the robot vacuum houses its raised puck for lidar sensing. These all work in tandem to navigate
02:26your home and spot messes ripe for cleaning. If you'd rather not use the app, you can also use the
02:31four touch-sensitive buttons to activate mop and vacuum modes, send the vacuum home, and connect to
02:37wifi. There's a soft bumper that surrounds the edges of the vacuum to prevent damage from any collisions,
02:41but these are actually remarkably rare, thanks to some top-tier object avoidance I'll talk about
02:46later. You can also remove its dustbin and mop plate from the rear of the device. On the underside,
02:51you'll find the wheels, brush bar, side brush, and a singular flat mop pad. These aren't my favorite
02:57type of mop pad. A rondelle will typically offer a deeper clean, better post-clean drying, and a lot less
03:03water waste. However, Shark has designed the robot vacuum to wiggle this mop pad to agitate dirt,
03:08which goes some of the ways to make up the difference in performance.
03:14Speaking of which, let's talk about performance. The setup for the Shark Power Detect UV Reveal is
03:19pretty simple. Using the app, you'll connect the vacuum to your wifi, give it a name, I loved some of
03:24the suggestions like clean Latifa, and after that the robot vacuum will run its first mapping pass.
03:29Broadly, mine was pretty accurate, and it's really fun to watch it spin around your home.
03:33My apartment has a slightly tricky layout for robot vacuums, including a half-tiled,
03:38half-carpeted kitchen living room, and there's also a lot of doors to dodge, but I think it handled it
03:42quite well. After this first pass, the app will offer you a second mapping run, this time to detect
03:47floor types. If you plan to regularly mop hard floors and you have carpets or rugs to avoid, you
03:52must make sure you get this out of the way during setup, because there's no way to update the map
03:57after the fact.
04:00I performed my standard pick-up tests using oats, corn flour, and brown rice to compare performance
04:06to other robot vacuums I've tested, and the results were pretty good, but a mixed bag. When setting the
04:11Shark Power Detect UV Reveal off for a standard vacuum-only clean, I was immediately impressed as
04:16it zigzagged across my floors, leaving them visibly refreshed. On hard floors, it excels even more,
04:21thanks to a combination of its high-performance side brush, solid suction, and the jet of air it blasts at
04:27hard-to-reach debris, ensuring floors are spick and span post-clean. On carpet, however, it's slightly
04:32less impressive, especially in the edge cleaning department, but it does still do a decent enough
04:37job. Its pickup of larger debris was very impressive on carpet, leaving little to nothing behind,
04:42but powdery debris did leave a small amount of residue on my medium pile rugs. Next up, I tried a
04:48regular combination clean with vacuum and mopping, and that's where my experience with the Shark Power
04:53Detect UV Reveal became a bit more mixed. The robot vacuum starts by filling its water tank at the
04:58base, proceeding to concurrently vacuum and mop your floors rather than splitting out into two tasks.
05:03This helps to save time and battery, however, it does risk the chance of soggy carpets. To avoid this,
05:09the robot vacuum will lift its hind to keep the mop pad from drenching your carpets, but this then
05:14reduces its effectiveness at cleaning on carpets. As it crushes the side brush, and sometimes while
05:19navigating, it'll also spin around and spit water across the floor anyway. However, once it reaches
05:24hard floors, the results are pretty impressive. The mop pad agitates spills and stains with a back
05:29and forth scrubbing motion, lifting them with ease. And if you go for one of the higher power settings,
05:34it's even quicker and more effective. Regardless of the setting, it does use a lot of water, and
05:39especially if you're cleaning up larger spills, that means the Power Detect UV Reveal can leave a
05:43streaky mess in its wake. I noticed this even more so when there was a lot of debris to vacuum
05:48up during the
05:48clean. One time, the Power Detect UV Reveal left a clump of soggy oats behind like a little owl pellet,
05:53as well as white streaky marks across my floor. But then, I wouldn't typically recommend regularly
05:58using your robot vacuum to collect large volume spills like I was doing anyway. I have especially
06:03reflective kitchen tiles, so I noticed the streaking a lot more. However, on my less shiny bathroom tiles,
06:08it wasn't as much of a problem. So worth noting depending on what flooring you have at home.
06:15When the Shark Power Detect UV Reveal works, it really works. But I encountered a fair few bugs
06:21and limitations that do impact its overall effectiveness. For example, when doing a
06:25combination clean, it sometimes skips cleaning certain areas and rooms, or neglects to clean
06:30areas that I've specifically asked it to when choosing room-by-room cleaning. Its object detection,
06:35on the other hand, is incredible. Perhaps too good, as the robot vacuum avoided my low-hanging, but not
06:41floor-length curtains like the plague, giving a wide berth to even the most inconsequential of obstacles.
06:46Generally though, I'd rather have that problem. However, improved smarts like object detection by
06:51item would mean there's slightly less preparation required pre-clean to ensure your entire floor
06:57gets cleaned properly. I was also massively impressed by the ease with which it lifted itself up and over
07:03obstacles like thresholds, chair legs and the like, leading to quicker cleans.
07:10After its standard cleaning cycles, the RoboVac will return to its base. But the job's not over yet.
07:15It'll issue an ominous warning once it's refreshed itself.
07:18I detected stains. I'm heading back out to aggressively attack them.
07:22Here's where the magic of the Power Detect UV Reveal is really on show. Because as it's cleaning,
07:27it flares a blue UV light, with which you can see for yourself the stubborn and sometimes invisible
07:32stains on your floor. The RoboVac will then return after a standard cleaning run to clean these up.
07:38It was pretty cringe-inducing to see which areas I hadn't cleaned recently and just how much grime
07:43was left behind. Once it's done with its aggressive attack, it'll return for a final time to the base
07:49and begin the mop pad drying process quietly in the background with just a low humming noise.
07:54In my testing, the RoboVac lived up to its estimated three-hour battery life too. A 45-minute clean on
07:59standard settings dropped the battery by just 25%. That's pretty good for a robot vacuum,
08:04and the recharge time seemed really quick too.
08:09The app is quite restrictive when it comes to home and schedule customisation.
08:13You can only have one map, which means multi-floor cleaning isn't possible.
08:17No-go zones are always rectangular, and you can only create two schedules per day.
08:22That's not on a par with many other robot vacuums, especially those at a similar price point.
08:27I also noticed that the robot vacuum would often get confused when it initiated a clean,
08:31meaning it often forged straight into the corner of my living room and spun around there for a good
08:35few minutes before figuring out its path to the hallway and onto the next room. On closer inspection,
08:41this happened most frequently when I sent it to clean somewhere other than its homeroom. For some
08:45reason, it thought it could head straight through my wall instead of around and through the doorway.
08:49These issues, among other software quirks, make for the primary complaint I have surrounding the
08:54Shark Power Detect UV reveal. Its app and onboard smarts hold back an otherwise high-performance robot
08:59vacuum. I personally liken it to giving a power washer to a caveman. So what do you make of the
09:06Power
09:06Detect UV reveal? Let us know in the comments down below and make sure to hit the subscribe button
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