Shark StainForce Cordless Stain-Destroying Spot Cleaner HX100UKT

Design and Features

• Handy caddy
• Separate spray bottle and wet vacuum
• Two cleaning heads

As someone with three cats, my carpet spot cleaner is likely one of my most frequently used appliances. As useful as this is, having to get it out, mix up the detergent and water, plug it in, and then clean it is a more consuming process than I’d ideally like.

The Shark StainForce is different. Built like a handheld vacuum cleaner (which it is, in reality, only for wet spills), this spot cleaner dispenses with the detergent tank and integrated sprayer that most spot cleaners have.

Instead, cleaning solution is provided in a separate bottle, which is used with the clip-on spray head. As you spray the formula, the spray head automatically mixes the Deep Clean Max and Oxy Multiplier together.

There’s one spray detergent in the box, and replacements cost £14.99 each, or you can buy a twin-pack for £24.99.

To help keep everything neat, Shark provides a useful caddy that holds the cleaner, the nozzle that you’re not using, and the detergent. It’s a great idea: the entire kit is ready to go whenever there’s mess, reducing clean-up time.

This caddy doesn’t provide power, though. Instead, there’s a magnetic charger in the box, which attaches to the connector under the handle. 

Shark provides two nozzles with the cleaner: a 2.5-inch tool for most stains, and a crevice tool for those hard-to-reach areas.

With the 2.5-inch tool you get reversible bristles. The brush is used for tough stains, and the hair-gripping side is for delicate surfaces and for removing hair. 

Fully assembled, the Shark StainForce weighs 1.3kg, which is super lightweight. And, as there are no cables to deal with and no hose, the spot cleaner can easily be used at any angle.

Using the StainForce is easy. For dry stains, you should scrub the stain with a brush attachment, then push the nozzle down and turn the StainForce on to extract what you can, then spray detergent, scrub and extract again. 

For wet spills, the initial scrub should be skipped. Repeat detergent sprays can be used for removing tougher stains that don’t come out in one go.

Dirt and liquid are sucked up into the small tank (size not disclosed). I can say that this tank isn’t massive, but it does have a clever feature for dealing with larger messes.

Once the tank is full, the quick-pour flap can be opened and the liquid mess poured out. This is a nice touch, making it fast to empty the tank to keep on cleaning without having to take the entire spot cleaner apart.

At the end of cleaning, the dirty tank can be removed, as can its three filters. All parts should be rinsed under a tap.

Then, to clean out the inside, the caddy has a self-clean reservoir. Fill this to the line, drop the reservoir back into the caddy, insert the StainForce and let it suck up all of the water. Repeat as necessary.

Performance

• Perfect run time for smaller messes
• Easy to use
• Effective cleaning

The internal battery is rated to last for 15 minutes and, in my testing, I’d say that’s about right, give or take a few seconds either way. That doesn’t sound like a lot of power, but the important thing to remember is that the StainForce is designed to deal with smaller spills, and you only need it turned on while sucking up a mess.

I set it to work on my normal stains, red wine and a dried-on mud stain. I started with mud stain, following the instructions to rub the mess and then to start vacuuming. Immediately, flakes of dirt started to appear in the clear bin, showing that some of the dirt was being removed.

I then liberally sprayed the stain with the cleaning solution, rubbed it in using the brush and started to suck up the liquid. Looking at the clear cover of the cleaning head, I could see dirty water being sucked up. It’s useful to be able to see this, as I could stop cleaning when no more moisture was being removed.

It took quite a few passes to collect the mess and, even though the StainForce is light, it’s heavier than holding just a hose and tool with a regular spot cleaner, such as the Vax SpotWash Duo. As such, the StainForce is definitely better for the small jobs that it’s designed for; I’d find it too tiring to use for a long period.

After one cleaning session, there was still a bit of mud left behind, so I repeated the test and, this time, everything was removed.

As this was a dry stain, and I just used some spray, there wasn’t a huge amount of liquid in the dirty tank at the end of cleaning.

Next, I moved on to the red wine stain. Starting with a dry vacuum, there wasn’t much change to the stain. Spraying the cleaning solution had an immediate impact, though, with the stain dissolving and disappearing before my eyes.

That just left me with the job of vacuuming over the mess until the liquid had been removed, which took around four minutes in total. At the end of cleaning, the stain was completely gone, showing how good the cleaning solution is.

I managed to tackle both of these stains on a full charge, and still had power left to tackle at least one more stain, and to run the self-cleaning cycle.

Using a moisture sensor on the carpet at the end of cleaning, I got a relative humidity reading of 28%. That’s a little higher than I’d get from a more powerful spot cleaner, but this kind of moisture should dry within a couple of hours.

Although the Shark StainForce Cordless Stain-Destroying Spot Cleaner HX100UKT is quite loud, at 79.5dB, it wasn’t a particularly annoying sound, and I found this spot cleaner more comfortable to use than a regular plug-in model.

Should you buy it?