Shark HydroVac Cordless Hard Floor Cleaner WD210UK

Verdict

Compact and lightweight, the Shark HydroVac Cordless Hard Floor Cleaner WD210UK makes short work of most stains on hard floors and area carpets, with its cleaning solution destroying odours. It’s simple to use, auto dosing detergent onto the floor, and sucking up dirt as it goes. Edge performance could be better and those with lots of hard floors may find the battery life a little short; those who want to quickly bring regularly dirtied floors back to their best will find this a useful companion.

Introduction

It’s hard to believe, given Shark’s prestige in steam cleaners and vacuum cleaners, that the company has never delivered an all-in-one hard floor cleaner and vacuum cleaner. That is until now, with the Shark HydroVac Cordless Hard Floor Cleaner WD210UK.

Technically, the company has two new products, launching the Shark HydroVac Corded Hard Floor Cleaner WD110UK alongside this model. Aside from the power differences, both products are very similar, with the corded version costing £100 less. For the convenience of battery power, I’d happily spend £100 more.

Design and features

• Lightweight
• Easy-empty dirty water tank
• Self-cleaning

At just 3.95kg, the Shark HydroVac Cordless Hard Floor Cleaner WD210UK is one of the lightest hard floor cleaners that I’ve reviewed. That’s 1.5kg lighter than the Vax ONEPWR Glide 2.

Having something so light does mean that the HydroVac is quick and convenient to grab when needed, and it doesn’t feel like a chore to get it out.

Its design is similar to other combined vacuum cleaners and hard floor cleaners that I’ve reviewed. On top is a clean tank, which takes a combination of water and Shark’s anti-odour cleaning solution.

There’s enough start fluid to fill this tank seven times, with whole-home cleaning using around two clean tanks. The replacement solution costs £29.98 for two one-litre bottles, which isn’t bad value at all.

Dirt gets sucked up into the 500ml dirty water tank, which also houses the washable filter. Inside is a solids separator, which catches pet fur, dust and other solids. What’s nice about this tank is the spout on top. When you’re in the middle of a clean, you can just remove the tank when it’s full, pour the dirty water out of the top and carry on cleaning, worrying about the solid waste later on.

After completing a clean, the water should be poured out and solids emptied into a bin, with the tank rinsed off with cold water.

The ability to vacuum and clean at the same time is useful but, as with all similar products, cleaning out wet solids isn’t a fun job. In most cases, I recommend vacuuming first to reduce the wet mess you must deal with.

At the bottom of the cleaner is the single anti-microbial roller, which is designed to work on hard floors and area rugs.

Operation of the HydroVac is easy. Turn it on, pull the handle back and the system auto-doses detergent onto the floor, sucking up dirty water as it goes. I like auto-dosing systems, as you get the ideal mix of solution; however, the downside is that there’s no vacuum-only mode for cleaning up wet spills, as you get on the Glide 2.

There are two operating modes. Hard floor mode is the default option (suitable for all hard floors), but there’s also a Freshen Mode, which has been designed for cleaning up area rugs and floor mats. It doesn’t compete with a dedicated carpet cleaner, but freshen mode is useful for quickly covering most floor coverings.

At the end of the clean, the HydroVac can be dropped into its dock for charging, and the power button hit to run the automatic cleaning cycle. There’s no hot air drying, as with the Roborock Dyad Pro, so the roller should be removed and placed in the dock’s holder to dry, along with the freshly-rinsed filter.

Performance

• Quick and easy cleaning
• Edge performance could be better
• 20-minutes of run time

I tested the Shark HydroVac Cordless Hard Floor Cleaner WD210UK on a variety of stains around the house. I started with regular dirt that had built-up on the kitchen floor. Here, a few sweeps was all it took to remove surface dirt and bring my tiles back to their best.

Next, I moved to cat food that had got stuck to the floor. As it dries, this mess is hard to remove, and all cleaners need a bit of effort to tackle these stains. I found that the best option with the Shark HydroVac Cordless Hard Floor Cleaner WD210UK was to run over these messes, then leave them while the solution worked its way in; and then tackle them again.

For some stains, I had to leave the Shark HydroVac Cordless Hard Floor Cleaner WD210UK running over the top for around 30 seconds, but it did remove every bit of stain.

Edge performance isn’t the best on this cleaner, as the roller doesn’t stretch edge-to-edge. For dirt running along my kitchen plinth, I did need to tackle this manually. I found that the Glide 2 did a better job at the edges, although performance was similar for stains away from the edges of rooms.

I was impressed with the Freshen Mode, tackling an area rug where one of my cats had had an accident. Not only did it clean up the rug, the anti-odour cleaning solution removed any residual smells.

Battery life is rated at 25 minutes. For regular cleaning of a home, which isn’t too dirty, that kind of charge is enough to tackle most of it. I found that could clean all of my hard floors with this level of charge, bar the kitchen. Thanks to the cats, my kitchen floor needs quite a bit of work, and it took me most of my battery life to get through this.

I measured sound at a fairly hefty 71.8dB – that’s loud enough that you wouldn’t want to use this floor cleaner late at night or in a room where someone was trying to concentrate.

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