Shark Anti Hair Wrap Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner with PowerFins, Flexology & TruePet IZ300UKT review: Hard-working and uniquely powerful

The Shark IZ300UKT is Shark’s latest cordless vacuum cleaner. Introduced in late 2021, it comes with a number of new features, chief among which is a new brush roller, which is lined not only with bristles but also “PowerFins” – stiff fabric flaps, arranged in a chevron, that agitate the fibres in your carpet much more vigorously than a brush alone.

These, combined with Shark’s powerful cleaning capabilities and articulated extension wand, make this vacuum one of the most effective cordless stick vacuums around.

Shark Anti Hair Wrap Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner with PowerFins, Flexology & TruePet IZ300UKT review: What do you get for the money?

There are several different variants of the IZ300UKT doing the rounds, and they’re all very similar. The model reviewed here comes with Shark’s TruePet attachment (the T in the name) – a mini motorised head for use in the vacuum’s handheld mode. If you don’t want or need that, go for the IZ300UK instead and save yourself a bit of cash. It’s the same vacuum without that particular attachment and costs £400.

There are also variants of both these models that come with two batteries – the IZ320UK and IZ320UKT – for those who need longer battery life for extensive cleaning jobs. These cost £500 and £530 respectively.

READ NEXT: The best carpet cleaner

Fully extended, its dimensions are 260 x 245 x 1,180mm (WDH), and there’s a hinge in the middle of the extension wand that lets it fold down to 690mm in height for storage or be used for cleaning under low furniture. It’s quite heavy at 4.58kg, but this is evenly distributed between the floor head at the bottom and the handheld unit at the top of the vacuum.

In addition to the main motorised floor head and the motorised pet tool, our IZ300UKT review sample came with a dusting brush and a crevice tool and a handy bag to store them in. The collection bin has a capacity of 700ml, which is slightly more generous than most cordless sticks. The vacuum also comes with a five-year warranty.

Shark Anti Hair Wrap Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner with PowerFins, Flexology & TruePet IZ300UKT review: What’s it like to use?

On top of the vacuum is a screen with three buttons below it, all of which fall easily under the thumb. The middle button switches the vacuum on and off. The button on the left toggles between carpet and hard floor modes (the rollers in the floor head spin faster in carpet mode), and the button on the right cycles between the device’s three power modes: Eco, Standard and Boost.

The screen is mainly there to show you how much battery capacity you have left and it decreases in 10% increments. It isn’t as accurate as the battery gauge on the Dyson V15 Detect and V11 Outsize vacuums, but you get more information than is available on most cordless stick vacuums, which are more often limited to three or four lights on the battery itself.

The vacuum is easy to move around on hard floor, where it glides around with minimal effort, but it isn’t quite so smooth on carpet. Although it’s easy to push forwards, I found pulling the vacuum back again caused the floor head to lift slightly, with its rear wheels breaking contact with the surface. I didn’t notice this having a particularly detrimental effect on its cleaning capability, but it can’t be operating at full efficiency if it spends half its time not in full contact with the carpet.

On the plus side, Shark’s articulated “Flexology” elbow does make cleaning under low furniture very easy indeed, allowing you to stand up and swing the cleaning head underneath your cupboards and sofas from a standing position, without having to get down on your hands and knees.

Keeping the Shark emptied and clean is simple, too, with one button that releases the collection bin and filter unit from the device and a second button to open the trap door on the bottom to empty it. The filters can all be rinsed in running water and, since the vacuum also comes with Shark’s Anti Hair Wrap tech, you don’t need to worry about detangling regularly, either. This hasn’t transferred across to the pet tool, unfortunately, which gathered quite a bit of tangled hair during our testing.

READ NEXT: The best robot vacuum cleaner

Shark Anti Hair Wrap Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner with PowerFins, Flexology & TruePet IZ300UKT review: How well does it clean?

In our tests, the Shark IZ300UKT did a sterling job of picking up dirt and dust. The soft roller on the front of the vacuum is particularly effective, making short work of large particles and, in our 26g Cheerio test, it collected every last grain on both hard floor and short-pile carpet. The benefit of that soft roller can’t be understated here: it enables the vacuum to roll over large particles whole and suck them into the collection bin without creating any additional mess.

Flour proved a bit more of a challenge. On hard floor, the vacuum collected enough flour from a 50g spillage in a single pass to register 50g on my scales afterwards, although close inspection showed it wasn’t entirely perfect, with some flour still left over. A few subsequent passes on the Boost setting removed the rest effectively.

On carpet, the vacuum performed exceptionally, too, collecting 46g on a single pass. Most of our test carpet appeared visually clear of flour, except for a small amount that wasn’t collected near a carpet wrinkle. I suspect this had probably nudged the floor head enough to break its seal with the carpet. Attacking it from another angle with a second pass gathered the missing flour without any problems.

Overall, this is a superb performance, surpassing the abilities of the more expensive Dyson models, including the V15 Detect and the V11 Outsize.

READ NEXT: The best Dyson vacuum

Battery life is reasonable. It lasted 24mins 4secs in the vacuum’s standard power mode with the carpet cleaning roller engaged, which should be enough time to nip around a reasonably sized house. When I knocked it down to Eco mode, it lasted an even longer 37mins 18secs, while in Boost mode, it lasted 10mins 21secs before it quit.

The battery takes around four hours to charge, and you can either pull it out and charge it separately or leave it in the vacuum and charge it in place.

Shark Anti Hair Wrap Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner with PowerFins, Flexology & TruePet IZ300UKT review: Should I buy it?

The Shark IZ300UKT proved to be one of the best cordless stick vacuum cleaners that we’ve ever seen when it comes to picking up our test spillages. The results speak for themselves, with superb performance in both our flour and cereal tests, beating even the top-end Dyson V15 Detect (£599) and the Dyson V11 Outsize (read more on Dyson).

Most of the credit for this should go to the PowerFins, since we’ve run the same tests on the similar, but finless Shark IZ201UKC (£189), and it didn’t provide such a thorough clean.

There are other elements that make Shark’s cordless stick a compelling option. Having the hard floor and carpet rollers in a single floor head is a lot more convenient than switching between them, and doesn’t appear to have a detrimental effect on its cleaning potential on either surface. I’m also a big fan of Shark’s Anti Hair Wrap tech, which works well to keep the rollers clear of long hair.

There are a few refinements you don’t get with the Shark that a pricier model from Dyson will provide. I haven’t noticed the back of the V15 Detect and the V11 Outsize lift off the floor when being pulled back, and the screen on both models is more sophisticated. The Dysons also manage their own power levels, adjusting the suction depending on the type of surface they’re on, which helps them provide longer battery life.

Overall, though, the Shark IZ300UKT is a fantastic all-rounder, delivering superb cleaning power at a reasonable price.