Review Shark Apex UpLight Corded Lift-Away Vacuum
LZ601
(LZ600 Series) |
Shark Apex UpLight Corded Lift-Away
Vacuum LZ601 |
September
2019
September
29, 2020 - Warranty Claim
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Background
Information
The comments and
review(s) on this page are my own. I paid the
full or retail sale price for the item(s) below.
I am not in contact with any representative from any
company. Nor has anyone contacted me with any offer
of money or free items in exchange for a good
review.
For the last five years I have been using a Shark
Navigator Vacuum. (Purchased in 2014.)
Within those five years I have had the unit replaced
once in 2016. This was because of a short in
the electrical cord/plug which caused it to power
down, if the cord was wiggled a certain way.
After calling Shark's customer service, the vacuum
was replaced with a whole new Navigator. I did
not have to send back the older vacuum. Very
good customer service. Shark lived-up to their
warranty.
There had also been a product recall in 2015 which
was problematic because this would leave me without
a vacuum, while the part was being exchanged.
However, the part was replaced so fast that it was
not too much of an inconvenience. Kudos again
to Shark.
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BUT after five years, my living situation has
changed:
1) I have moved to a different house.
2) Instead of 3 dogs to clean-up after, there are now 7.
3) I am now older, into my 60's. More aches and pains.
4) My old and trusty Navigator is screaming to retire, although it still does
a decent job.
With 7 dogs, my 2000 sq ft
house needs to be vacuumed every day.
Particularly in the bedrooms and main living area.
If I don't vacuum, there will be little fur balls
visibly skirting around the tile floor on the second
day.
One positive is that there are no more stairs, like
the El Paso and Lawton houses. Just one level.
Every day I vacuum.
Every day the Navigator Dust Collector (pod) is filled to
the brim when I am done.
Every day I need to vacuum on carpet, area rugs, and
tile floors.
Every day I also need to vacuum under all of the
furniture or move the furniture around.
Every day I need to vacuum dog beds and on top of
the furniture.
Every day there is about an hour when the house is
clean.....before it isn't.
Every day
My poor Shark Navigator has been abused over the
past five years. There are scraps and a few
dings. |
I have accidentally dropped it down
stairs a few times. It has been dragged across
the floor when using the hose attachment. It
has fallen over too many times to count and even
broke a pane of glass in a French door in El Paso.
I am brutally rough on vacuums, particularly when I
am not in the mood to clean......which is almost
always. Who is?!?
The beater brush on the floor section of my
Navigator has been worn down to little nubs.
So when I vacuum over carpet or an area rug, the
brush hardly touches the yarns. Which means I
have to depend on suction to pick up the fur and
dust. Which means going over an area multiple
times.
Also, because the brush has been worn down to little
nubs, the Navigator vacuum no longer self-propels
forward. Which means, I have to push and pull
it across the carpeting.
In addition, there are now cracks appearing
in the exposed section of hose where the
floor attachment meets the vertical tube
piece.
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Shark Navigator beater brush bristles worn down to nubs |
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Cracks appearing
in hose between floor attachment
and wand (vertical tube) on the Shark Navigator |
With other vacuums I've had in the past, I would just wrap
the hose with duct tape to seal the crack.
With the Shark Navigator, this hose is tucked into
the compartment so tight, you cannot wrap it.
Time to buy a new vacuum for my everyday use. |
Shopping for a New Vacuum
When it comes
to vacuums, I have a
not-to-exceed price programmed into my head.
Anything over $300, I will not look at, unless it is
on sale under $300. For such a high price, I
would expect the vacuum to do the work by itself,
including move the furniture.
Since I am rough on vacuums, I expect to replace
them every 5 years or so. The less I pay, the
better. Particularly if I need to replace the
vacuum before 5 years. It does not hurt my
wallet as much, being on a fixed income.
I had been watching the Shark Apex infomercials.
Price....$299. Almost like the Navigator
except for the addition of the soft fabric roll and
a self-cleaning brush roll (aka DuoClean). With the
Navigator, you periodically need to cut the hair or
fibers that wrap around a brush roll. So
self-cleaning is a big plus. But plus taxes,
the Shark Apex vacuum is over my $300 threshold.
So I looked online for other vacuums with good
reviews.
My criteria for a new vacuum was:
1) Lighter than the Shark Navigator
2) Able to go over all surfaces and clean each
surface equally well.
3) Longer power cord.
4) Be able to vacuum under most furniture
without attaching or disconnecting anything.
I did notice the Bissell CrossWave Pet Pro, which
would be nice to clean the ten area rugs I have
scattered around the house. However, the rugs
only need to be shampooed occasionally. Not
everyday. The price is also between $250 -
$300. Plus, I would be buying the cleaning
solution for it, as long as I owned it.
Dyson......yikes they cost too much. Maybe if
I win a lottery.
I came across the Shark Apex UpLight infomercial one
night, while channel surfing, during the Labor Day
weekend. My immediate reaction
was.....oh....this is different. After
watching the usual demonstrations with the vacuum,
they finally showed the price. $199.80 if purchased
on the Shark website with free shipping.
OK.... you got my attention. I noted the web
address and decided to research it the next day
online.
The Shark Apex UpLight Corded Lift-Away Vacuum is
classified as a stick vacuum. Which is nothing
more than a regular upright vacuum with a smaller
dust catcher on top, instead of a larger canister at
the bottom of the machine.
Shark does have another stick vacuum called the
UpLight Apex DuoClean with a tear drop shaped dust
canister. The Shark Apex UpLight Corded
Lift-Away Vacuum that I will be reviewing was
release in August of 2019 and has a square-ish shaped
canister, when viewed from the front.
Since this vacuum is new, there were not many
reviews yet. What I read sounded good and my
past experiences with Shark were good, so I went
ahead and purchased the Shark Apex UpLight Corded
Lift-Away Vacuum on the Shark website, Sep 1, 2019.
With taxes the total purchase price was $217.53.
https://direct.sharkclean.com/16/products/shark-apex-uplight-corded-lift-away-vacuum-lz601/17/drtv/ogvii/
Of note, is the TruPet upgrade
that Shark offers with this vacuum. For just
$100 more, you get a Steam Mop, an accessory bag,
multi-angle dusting brush, anti allergen dust brush
and the self-cleaning pet power brush. (As of
Sep 14, 2019)
If you have never owned a Shark vacuum
before, these accessories are a good deal for the
extra $100. In my case, we have 3 steam mops
in the house. One I got with my Navigator 5
years ago, the
other 2 my husband bought when we were living in two
households. I also have the bag and
multi-angle dust brush. All of the tools from
my Navigator fit on the Apex UpLight I received.
What I really need is the self-cleaning pet power
brush. This sells for $49 on the Shark
website, so I will buy that separately. |
Review - Shark Apex UpLight Corded Lift-Away Vacuum
LZ601
(LZ600 Series)
As mentioned above,
I ordered this vacuum on September 1, 2019 on the
Shark Clean website. They offered free
shipping, which means you will receive it via some
kind of Ground Shipping which is the cheapest option
for something that weighs a few pounds. In my
case, the vacuum came via FedEx Ground, shipped from
Maryland.
I received the vacuum on Mon, Sep 9, 2019. This was
over a 3 day holiday weekend. So counting from
Tue, Sep 3, 2019, it took 6 days to get to Oklahoma.
This amount of time was ok with me. I was in
no rush.
The box was received in good condition.
When unpacking the vacuum, it felt like a joke gift
box.
You know.....a box in a box...in a
box.
In other words, the vacuum was packed well. |
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The boxes
that my Shark Apex UpLight Corded Lift-Away Vacuum
came in |
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Inside of the
box, each part was securely packaged to minimize any
chance of a part breaking. So even with rough
handling, the vacuum should remain
unscathed.....providing an elephant doesn't step on
the box crushing it. |
After
unpacking the box, I laid out the parts on
the floor for the photo to the right and to
make sure I had all of the parts.
Box contents are:
1) Floor attachment
2) Pod (dust canister)
3) Wand
4) Duster crevice tool
5) Pet multi-tool
6) Accessory holder
7) Owner's guide
8) Quick start guide
Putting the vacuum together is simple.
1) The wand (tube) is inserted into the
floor attachment.
2) The pod is then inserted on top of the
wand.
That's it!
The accessory holder that holds the two
tools pictured to the left, snaps onto the
wand.
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What is inside
the box (minus all the packing material) |
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After a few days of using the
vacuum, I ended up removing the accessory holder.
This is because I occasionally need to grab the
vacuum and lift it over something, like the
electrical cord or the edge of an area rug.
The accessory holder was right where I wanted to
grab the wand to lift the vacuum. Also, I
don't need to use the tools every time I vacuum the
floor.
Let's return to the criteria I had mentioned above
for a new vacuum. |
My criteria for a new vacuum was:
1) Lighter than the Shark Navigator
Yes, the
Shark Apex UpLight Corded Lift-Away Vacuum is
lighter than my Shark Navigator by at least a couple
of pounds. Easy for me to use and maneuver
with an arthritic body and sore legs after walking
my daily 5 miles on my treadmill.
2) Able to go over all surfaces and clean each
surface equally well.
Yes, the
Shark Apex UpLight Corded Lift-Away Vacuum does a
decent job on my tile floors, carpeting, and area rugs.
Does well along the baseboard edges of the floor.
Compared to my 5 year old Navigator the suction is
equal to or better. However, remember my
Navigator had age issues.
Regardless, the suction power is strong and gets up
a lot of fur, dander, and dust you cannot see when
you are
looking at the floor. |
The fur, dander, and dust in my small
bedroom the first time I used the
Shark Apex UpLight Corded Lift-Away Vacuum |
In fact, the suction is so strong that I need to
take real care going over the edges of my area rugs.
I have sucked up the edge of my rugs a few times and
have had to turn off the vacuum and lay the edge back
down.
So, there is still the problem of going from a tile
floor area up to an area with a rug. Like with
my older vacuum, I need to lift the floor attachment a little over the
edge. This is when I need to grab the wand,
which might be ten times every day when I vacuum.
However, with this vacuum, because it is so much
lighter, it is easier to do this.
By the way, the fur and dust you see in the
photograph above is what I vacuum up in my bedroom
every day. The canister is filled to the top
every day after I finish my cleaning.
3) Longer power cord.
Yes, the
Shark Apex UpLight Corded Lift-Away Vacuum has a
longer cord than the Navigator. 5 feet longer
for a total of 30 ft.
4) Be able to vacuum under most furniture
without attaching or disconnecting anything.
Yes, yes, yes!!!!! Because this is a stick
vacuum with the pod (dust canister) at the top, you
can easily vacuum under most furniture without
taking off the dust canister. The floor
attachment has a low profile of just under 4
inches. Which means it can get under beds with
a traditional frame and many of the pieces of
furniture in my home that is not on wheels.
In my case, I can vacuum the entire floor, including
under the furniture, of my home without removing
anything or switching to a different tool. Not
only am I completing this daily task faster, my
house is cleaner under the furniture. |
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Low height of
the floor accessory makes it easy to get
under most furniture that is 4" or higher
off the ground |
November 22, 2019 - I needed to use the
vacuum for a couple of months
What I DO NOT like about this vacuum: |
Some of these dislikes may or may
not be a deal breaker for you.
These are things " I " personally have issues with.
Electrical cord too rigid
Huh? I have lived long enough and have owned enough
equipment or appliances to know the difference
between a supple cord and a rigid cord. A
supple cord does not twist upon itself and then tie
itself into knots. The cord on this vacuum is
so rigid, it needs to be un-kinked everyday.
To avoid some of this knotting and kinking, I gather
the cord in big loose loops at the end of the task
and either lay it down on top of a flat surface that
is near where I store the vacuum or loop it on the
top hanger on the back of the vacuum stick.
It is almost impossible, after you have used the
vacuum a few weeks, to wrap the cord around the cord
hooks. You will need to twist and contort the
cord back to its original state and then wrap it
around the hangers. I never use the hangers
anyways because of my bad back. It means
bending over 5 or 6 times to hook the cord on the
bottom hanger. |
The light is
only on the floor attachment
When you remove the
pod from the stick portion to use the hand-held
portion of the vacuum, there is no light. With
the Navigator the hand-held portion has a light.
This was soooooo helpful because when I am using a
dusting attachment, I am usually in an area with dim
lighting.
Now when I use this function of the vacuum, I need
to turn on room lights to see what I am cleaning.
Oh, and I do get it!! This is a downscaled
version of Shark's vacuum products, so they had to
cut back somewhere to keep the price reasonable.
I just miss that little LED light. |
Stretchy
hose for hand held attachment use.....NOT stretchy
The expandable hose, when you are using the hand
attachments, is not really stretchy. This was
also an issue with the Navigator and why I broke a
pane of glass on a French door. The hose does
not stretch out without a great deal of force (your
muscles) With the Navigator I pulled on the
hose and the rest of the vacuum fell over crashing
into the door I was working near and then.... I had
glass shards to vacuum up.
Also I don't know about everyone else, but I need 3
or 4 hands to do some tasks. If you are
running around the house dusting only on top of
surfaces, this hand-held part is for you. Like
in the commercials, the actor is floating casually
around the house holding the pod in one hand and the
dusting attachment in the other, happily cleaning
their ceiling fan and the top of a table.
Oooooo what fun!!
Reality.....you need that third hand to move
a piece of furniture or a vase on top of a table.
Then you have to put the pod down.....AND
THEN STEP ON IT WITH YOUR FOOT....to hold
it down while you extend the
NOT stretchy hose out. I have also
placed the pod between my legs and then pulled on
the hose. |
Dust
Canister / Pod is too narrow in some areas. Debris
gets stuck inside.
This is a stick vacuum. The
upper portion where the pod is, needs to be small
enough so the vacuum is maneuverable and light.
Therefore, the dust canister needs to be smaller
than a full-sized vacuum.
Occasionally, not every day, I need to stick my hand
in the canister to help the debris out when emptying
the canister.
If you only have dust, it should not get stuck.
I have fur, it gets stuck.
Deal breaker for some. Not a problem for me. |
Legs with
wheels that let the vacuum stand upright
With the older stick type
vacuums, there was nothing to hold them upright
except for your hand. Or you could lean it against a
wall or just lay it down. This vacuum has
retracting legs with wheels which allow the vacuum
to stand upright when you are not vacuuming.
When you are ready to vacuum, you place your foot on
the floor attachment and pull back while you push
forward, and the legs retract out of the way.
Stand the vacuum up straight, and the wheels pop
back out so the vacuum can stand upright.
Great! Right? Except if you are dealing
with the rigid electrical cord. A few times
now, the whole vacuum falls over while I am 10 feet
away trying to un-kink the rigid power cord.
Soooo.....the little legs and wheels (made of
plastic) do hold the vacuum upright
just fine, as long as there is nothing pulling or
pushing it. It does not take much force to
knock the vacuum over.
Also, sometimes it is a little difficult to get the
vacuum to stand upright while vacuuming over a tile
floor. It keeps sliding forward. I need
to place my foot on the floor attachment to keep it
still while I move the handle into the locked
upright position |
Soft
Roller Pops-off Sometimes
The soft red
and black roller at the front of the floor
attachment which is part of the Shark
DuoCLean roller system, pops-off sometimes
if you are going over a rigid carpet edge
like a Water Hog rug.
The very first time I used the vacuum I went
into my laundry room, where I have one of
these rugs because of the garage entrance.
I hit the edge a certain way and the roller
just fell off. "I initially thought,
"not even an hour and it is broken already".
Then I realized that nothing was broken.
The little latch that allows you to remove
the roller was hit by the edge of the rigid
rug.
One Power Setting
With the Shark Navigator you have the
ability to turn off the beater brush.
You would set the vacuum to hard floor
(wood, tile, laminate) and the floor
attachment would just suck up the dirt on
the floor. No brush spinning.
With this vacuum, there is only one power
setting once you bend the rod down to start
vacuuming. Both brushes on the bottom
spin until you place the handle upright into
the locked position.
It would be nice to turn those brushes off
once-in-a-while.....while I am on a hard
floor. |
Conclusion
I really do like this vacuum for my everyday
cleaning. Now that it is winter, the dogs are
shedding less, so I only fill the dust pod half-way
daily. Being lighter and more maneuverable has
shortened the amount of time I spend doing this
task, which is a BIG plus.
On a 5 star rating system, I would rate this vacuum
as a 4 star. Not a 5 because of the things I
don't like above.
Tips For Your
Purchase
- If you are currently shopping for this specific
vacuum online, you should not be paying more than
$200 exclusive of tax, added items, etc.
- I highly suggest buying the vacuum directly from
the Shark website. They usually (not always)
have the best price. Also, there are less
middlemen, if there is a problem. Your
purchase is part of their database, therefore they
can look up the date of the sale quickly to verify
it and provide you service.
- If you bought your product on Amazon or QVC or some other second or
third party seller. Make sure you register it
online at the Shark Website ASAP. DO NOT
buy any type of added insurance for it (which is
offered by some websites like Wal-mart). Shark
already has a decent warranty that they honor, based
on my experiences.
Happy Vacuuming!!!!!!
Yea....right.
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Update - Warranty Claim
September 29, 2020
The warranty that I have on this vacuum is
the 5 year elite. Which basically
means, if anything breaks from normal wear
and tear you can get a replacement part.
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While vacuuming
during mid-September 2020, I noticed
that the cord sheathing at the pod
end had cracked open and the white
threads underneath were now showing.
I was not immediately alarmed or
concerned about getting
electrocuted, however, this type of
thing only gets worse over time, not
better.
Yes, I could have just wrapped it
with electrical tape. If the
vacuum was over 5 years old, this is
exactly what I would have done.
But it is not, therefore no
tape.....I make a phone call instead
to SharkNinja.
On September 29, 2020
I called the warranty phone number listed on
SharkNinja website. |
Gray plastic cord sheathing cracked
open displaying white cord padding
underneath |
After they looked
up my product registration information, which
they found using my phone number, it was
confirmed that I did purchase the vacuum
through their website and was covered by the
5 year warranty.
They did ask me to take a photo of the cord
problem with my phone. After
explaining that I only use my cell phone for
phone calls and admitting that I have no
idea how to talk on the phone, take a
photograph and send it via a text, without
disconnecting the call I was currently on,
the representative gave me an e-mail address
to send a photo to. I had already
taken photographs of the cord prior
to calling SharkNinja.
Of note, the customer service representative
I talked to was polite and patient regarding
my lack of cell phone expertise.
Frankly, I never bothered to learn because I
have a laptop in front of me everyday.
Why do something on a teeny tiny phone, when
I have a laptop and an awesome digital
camera to take photos with.
I digress........After seeing the photo of
the cord, the decision was made to send me
me a new vacuum pod. I received the
pod on October 2, 2020 via FedEx. The
old pod was tossed after I saved the old
hepa and foam filter. These can be
cleaned and used again.
Whether this cord issue is a problem with
all of the vacuums or not, is unknown.
After a year of using this vacuum, I can
estimate that it was used approximately 400
times. It is used everyday to vacuum
the entire house and the other times for spot
vacuuming. It may have to do with the
rigidness of the cord which I mentioned
above. You have to keep un-twisting it
to get the kinks out.
Again, Shark backed-up their warranty with
excellent customer service and a quick part
replacement.
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To Be
Continued...... if I have anything else to
add, or if something breaks, etc...... |
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Page last updated Oct 7, 2020 |
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