Shark Navigator Lift Away Deluxe NV360 Review

One thing we didn't appreciate about the Shark Navigator Lift-Away Deluxe is that it was tippy. When we pulled the top handle off to use the suction tube to nab large debris or clean stairs, this model could fall over easily, making us hold on to it to keep it upright. The company's Lift-Away feature, however, lets us pull the detachable pod off the cleaner head, making the system much more maneuverable for furniture or awkward situations, solving the tip-over problem while giving us a handy new cleaning option. It still doesn't power the roller at the head, unlike the Shark Stratos, so it might not be as effective at nabbing stubborn debris under furniture.

Performance Comparison

Carpet Performance

While some modern vacuums are great for hardwood floors, most people still look to upright vacuums for cleaning carpets as their primary need. We start our tests on low pile carpets because they are more common, but we also evaluate how vacuums perform on high pile carpets, like those popular shaggy rugs you might have in your own home. Our in-depth results consider suction power and cleaner head features because those characteristics can affect how well a vacuum functions in different situations — or seasons of the year. For instance, kids and pets might track in heavy clumps of dirt in the Spring and lightweight leaves in the Fall.

To start our carpet tests, we measure 1/2 cup each of sand, rice, and Cheerios, representing typical household debris sizes. We spread this mixture over 9' x 3' sections of both carpet varieties, which gives us enough room to run each vacuum forward and backward with some lateral shifts. What about timing? We give each vacuum just 24 seconds to collect as much debris as possible, representing vacuuming at a brisk pace most of us prefer to use when vacuuming in our homes. This is a challenging test that pushes all the vacuums we test to their limits, including cordless vacuums and canister vacuums. We conduct each test 2-3 times to obtain accurate average results.

Low Pile

The Navigator Lift-Away Deluxe, like other past Navigatores, did a great job sucking up 92% of the total mess we made. To put this in perspective, it's just 5% behind our leaders in this category, which is a small gap that's hard to see visually, which is why we weigh the amounts collected.

How did this model get the job done? With its relatively low-profile cleaner head design, I was at first disappointed by how it snowplowed Cheerios, pushing them around rather than running over them. But when I hit the piles on the reverse, it sucked up all the debris sizes very well. For larger, lightweight materials like leaves or grass clippings in your home, you might need to back over the debris to get it under the cleaner head where it can be collected.

Before Testing After Testing

Because this machine did so well on the backward passes, I was able to clean low pile carpets easily in our short test time allotment. With an extra pass or two, I think most people will be satisfied, but the similarly priced Kenmore Intuition 3-in-1 did even better, sucking up 97% of test debris and earning a “Best for Carpet” top pick award in our guide the best upright vacuums.

High Pile

Deep shaggy carpet fibers in high pile carpet make it harder for vacuums because small debris falls deeper into the weave and large debris tends to “float” high on top of the fibers, creating a tough challenge for cleaner heads to collect it all.

If you have a cushy thick rug that gets a lot of foot or snack traffic, this test is for you. The Lift Away Deluxe sucked up an average of 62% of sand, rice, and Cheerios in this test.

I was, however, able to reverse over the lightweight Cheerios effectively, but the suction power and cleaner head seemed unwilling to grab some of the more deeply embedded sand and rice.

Overall Carpet Cleaning Performance

Overall, this vacuum scored above average on carpet, ranking midway between our average and the best of the best.

Based on my experience using the Lift-Away Deluxe, most people should be able to successfully clean their low pile carpets without much effort. However, if you have a household with a cool shaggy rug that gets a lot of traffic or dirt tracked over it, I'm not confident that even extra passes will get it all up.

I was hoping that this “Deluxe” model would outperform the similarly designed Shark Navigator Lift Away, but it did not. The older option ranked slightly higher on carpet (but slightly lower on hardwood). These two Shark vacuums offer similar all-around performance. If you care primarily about carpet over hardwood, the aforementioned Kenmore Intuition surprised me by how well it sucked up sand on high pile carpet, making it a better option for those with a lot of carpet in their homes.

Hardwood Performance

As more people switch to vinyl and hardwood floors, homeowners and renters want vacuums that can clean multiple surfaces and transition between different areas of their homes. For instance, if you have a large area rug in an open-space living room and kitchen area, a versatile vacuum that can transition from your rug to a hard floor might be the ticket that lets you avoid breaking out a broom. To find out how well these machines can handle hard surfaces, we test them on flat floors, how they handle gaps and crevices, and along the edges of walls.

To test how well each vacuum functions on vinyl flooring, we follow the same measurements and procedures we use for carpet testing. This allows us to compare how vacuums perform across different floor types.

Cleaning Performance

The Lift-Away Deluxe easily collected 96% of debris on hardwood in our timed tests, performing well above average.

The brush roller on the cleaner head on this model uses older, traditional stiff bristles that could be rough on some hard floor surfaces, so I used the brush roller shutoff switch for our hard floors, as the manufacturer recommends. If you spin the brush roller on hard floors, it will still function but can spray debris.

Crevice

Transition areas between different types of flooring can often become dirty due to crevices where debris accumulates. Additionally, tile floors with deep grout lines need vacuums to clean these spaces effectively. To evaluate performance, we spread sand into a single crevice on a bamboo mat and measure how much each vacuum removes after a set number of passes. This test is especially challenging, as the vacuum's roller bristles can't reach the sand, relying entirely on suction power for cleanup.

This model sucked up 47 percent of the sand in our crevice test, which is not horrible, but I can't recommend it if you have a lot of crevices, such as tile with deep grout lines or lots of transitions in your flooring where dirt can hide. If you're going to invest in a new vacuum, I always recommend going for the machine that will make your cleaning life easier, faster, and more effective. Of course, if you only have a few trouble gaps that collect dirt, the handheld crevice tool might be necessary to get them clean — you'll have to pull it out every time with this model.

Edges

Some vacuums do a fantastic job on next-to-wall vacuuming, but others aren't designed to suck up debris from the sides or just in front of the cleaner heads. To test edge performance, we spread coffee grounds next to a wall and assessed the results with parallel and head-on passes.

This model left one little clump when I attacked the edge head-on, which is pretty good, but I really want my vacuums to get all 100% head-on because it means you can more easily pick up crumbs that fall on your kitchen floor and get pushed up against counter cabinets. As for the parallel pass, it was not very good. I was able to make ineffective little dents in the line, so I had to pull out the crevice tool to clean it all up. Sigh.

Overall Hardwood Cleaning Performance

Considering all three hard floor tests, the Lift-Away Deluxe did outstanding on our floor test but ranked below average over crevices and along walls.

I was impressed with this model's success at collecting debris on flat hardwood floors despite its lack of a moving brush roller to whisk debris to the suction intake. This vacuum is versatile enough to handle most messes for those needing occasional hardwood floor cleaning. Larger debris likely won't slide under the relatively low cleaner head, and cracks and crannies will generally require the handheld suction tube to clean.

Although it costs a bit more, the Eureka QuickShift OmniVerse collected nearly as much debris on hardwood but also crushed our crevice test and next-to-wall tests. I recommend considering it, too, if your budget can stretch.

Pet Hair

Pet owners know cleaning up fur can be challenging, especially during shedding seasons. To find out which vacuums best handle pet hair, we perform tough tests on low and shag carpets.

We begin our pet hair stress tests with a fistful of dog hair that we smear over 13-square-foot sections of carpet. We then spread 1 gram of long hair extensions on top, representing the hair shed by humans in a home. We mash it down into the carpet with a heavy press wheel to simulate typical household foot traffic over time.

Before Testing After Testing

During my pet hair test, I believed this little machine was doing pretty well until I turned over the cleaner head and found messy clumps of pet hair trapped in the bristles.

The long hair was wrapped in the brush roller, which was also difficult to remove. In my experience, as long hair builds up on a roller, performance gets worse as it grows larger as more hair tangles, forcing me to remove it frequently. If pet hair is a challenge in your household, check out the Shark Rotator LA502, which was one of the best upright vacuums I tested on pet hair.

Filtration & Suction

We thoroughly test filtration and suction to reveal a vacuum's quality and performance. Proper filtration is essential because vacuums with inadequate filtration can release tiny particles into the air, which may pose health risks, especially for those sensitive to poor air quality.

Suction power is also important because it indicates the vacuum's ability to remove deeply embedded debris from carpets and crevices effectively. Understanding a vacuum's suction capability can help explain its performance in our tests, highlighting why it excels or falls short in different cleaning scenarios.

Filtration

To test the containment efficacy of each filter system on the vacuums, we set up a standardized test that challenges each vacuum to pick up a 1/3 cup of flour without emitting any particles into the air. If any tiny flour particles escape — or are spread into the air by the brush roller or a vortex of air swirling at tornado speeds underneath the vacuum — those particles will spike the particulate air quality sensors we have in the room.

Our sensors are set to identify both small (0.5-2.5 microns) and large (>2.5 microns) particles. For reference, pet dander is often smaller than 1 micron, while pollen can range from 10 to 100 microns. We recorded no remarkable spike from the room's baseline, indicating excellent filtration characteristics, as well as a suction path that moves the particles up into the suction tube without spraying. Dylos ranks reading increases by its air quality monitors from 0-75 as excellent. If you have household members sensitive to pet dander, pollen, or dust, a vacuum with a quality filtration system can help maintain a healthy environment.

Suction

Instead of measuring suction at the intake tube, which mainly affects the power of a vacuum's hand-tool attachments, we measure it at the cleaner head because this is where most people need suction when vacuuming.

We measured just over 100 pascals with this product. When I consider how poorly this model did sucking up deep sand in our shag carpet test, I believe its relatively low suction power is a key culprit. For those who live in sandy environments or have kids who track in debris from a sandbox outside, I would guide you toward a stronger suction vacuum, like the Shark Stratos.

Ease of Use

When we began testing upright vacuums, we were amazed by the vast differences in how each one performed. Some were heavy and difficult to maneuver, while others effortlessly powered through carpet, glided over hardwood, and easily navigated around furniture. For those facing challenging home layouts or dealing with strength or balance issues, our ease-of-use tests dive deep into how each vacuum handles real-world conditions.

We break down this category by testing maneuverability, ease of maintenance, and upholstery cleaning to rank the different models.

Maneuverability

While I could roll this vacuum onto and off of a bamboo mat easy breezy, I found it surprisingly difficult to push on low pile carpet when moving around cones — it really took some muscle. However, it has a decent swivel action at the cleaner head, which makes it nice to move around and behind table legs, especially on hardwood.

For extra maneuverability, I could lift the dustbin canister and handle off of the cleaner head, letting me use the hand-held hose with an attachment to clean furniture, stairs, or tight spaces.

This “Lift-Away” feature differs from the “Lift-Away” feature on the Shark Stratos, which acts more like a canister vacuum: You can detach the dustbin from the cleaner head and still use the cleaner head portion of the vacuum to reach under furniture.

Maintenance

If there's one thing few of us enjoy, it's dealing with cleaning appliances that are a hassle to clean and maintain. They just make household chores more of a headache than they need to be. I like how the dustbin opens easily from both sides, but it is a bit large so I had to be careful when I was opening it over a small trash can so I didn't spill and create a new mess.

The brush roller has plastic barriers that make removing wrapped hair harder than it needs to be, which is annoying but not unexpected for budget-priced vacuums, especially older designs.

Upholstery & Attachments

Upholstery attachments show the versatility of a vacuum. We want to know if a vacuum is only good for floors or if it can effectively clean multiple surfaces. Testing attachments on upholstery proves whether the vacuum is an all-around cleaner for both floors and furniture.

While it's common for budget vacuums to include these two types of attachments, we believe a mini motorized brush offers superior cleaning power on upholstery. The motorized bristles effectively agitate the fabric, loosening debris for a more thorough clean.

I could clean up most of the coffee grounds from the throw pillow in my test using the upholstery tool, but it took extra passes compared to those other motorized attachments.

Should You Buy the Shark Navigator Lift-Away Deluxe?

Close to a decade after it was first released, the Shark Navigator Lift Away Deluxe NV360 is still one of the most popular upright vacuums on the market today. Despite a standard bristle-based brush roller, it excelled on our new and improved difficult low pile carpet test, and when you turn off the brush roller for hardwood floors, it got the job done there, too. It wasn't the best with pet hair, and it struggled with deep crevices, but if you only need it for simple flat-floor work, it's hard to beat.

What Other Upright Vacuums Should You Consider?