Shark Navigator Lift-Away Deluxe Upright Vacuum (NV360) Review

3 Months of Real Use in My Home

I bought the Shark Navigator Lift-Away Deluxe (model NV360) with my own money — an open-box unit, and everything came out of the bag in great shape — and ran it through three months of real life on carpet and hard floors. It earned the Just A Dad Approved sticker. This is one of the best-selling upright vacuums out there, and after living with it I understand why: it's simple, it's powerful, and it just works. It also has one honest weak spot I'll get to. Here's how it held up.

What's in the Box and First Setup

Fair warning — it looks like a lot of parts when you dump it out. It's not hard, it just takes a few minutes. You set the floor head in the lock position, drop the main body onto it until you hear it click (that's the electrical connection making), then slide the wand down into the handle until it clicks. There's a small clip that holds the hose to the handle, a cord holder that snaps on, and the flexible hose that rotates into place. Nearly every part attaches the same way: find the two little ears, line them up, and snap it in.

Two tools come in the box — a crevice tool and an upholstery brush — and the cord is 25 feet. Shark lists it at about 14 and a half pounds, and that matches how it feels: not super heavy, but there's a real motor in there.

Cleaning Performance: What It Actually Picks Up

Carpet Performance

Carpet is where the Navigator earns its keep. I hadn't run it very long at all before I stopped to look, and the cup was already full of dog hair and fine, sandy dirt I didn't know was in the carpet. It's picking up a lot of stuff. There are no height settings and no sensors — it's a strong motor and a standard brush roll — and on regular household carpet that's plenty.

Hard Floor Performance

For bare floors you flip the switch to the floor setting, which shuts the brush off so it isn't scattering debris. It does the job, but this is a carpet-first vacuum and it's not going to glide across hardwood the way a soft-roller machine does. I scored hard floors a 7. One thing to know: if you flip the switch to brush-on and nothing spins, the vacuum isn't broken — the brush won't run while the handle is locked in the upright position. Kick the release and tilt it back, and it starts.

Long Hair and Pet Hair

Here's the honest one. It picks up pet hair very well — the dog hair in the cup after a short run surprised me. But this is a standard brush roller with no comb and no anti-tangle design, and long hair wraps around it. That's why the Hair & Pet test is the one I marked a fail, and why Long Hair Vacuuming scored a 7. If you've got long hair in the house, plan on flipping it over now and then and cutting the hair off the roller. It's a five-minute job, but it's a job you'll be doing.

How It Feels to Use

This is the part I liked most. It's got a very good feel to it — you step on the release, tilt it back, and the swivel steering turns real easy around chair legs and corners. The handle is nice and long. When you want the hose, it pulls right off the top and you've got a long, flexible reach for furniture; pop the crevice tool on for the edges. If you want the wand to stay on the hose, release it down at the base and now you've got an extra-long reach. Everything goes back the same way it came off — line up the ears, click.

The Lift-Away

Press one button and the whole pod — motor and dust cup — lifts off the base. Now you're carrying a canister with the hose and wand, which is how you do stairs, furniture, and anything above the floor. When you're done, set it back on the base until it clicks. It's very, very simple, and it's the feature that makes this more than a basic upright.

Emptying and Maintenance Reality

There are two latches, one on each side of the dust cup. Undo them, grab the handle, and the cup comes right off. Over the trash can, hit the release and the bottom drops open. There's a second release on the top end of the cup — hair and bigger stuff can collect up there, so check it. Then snap it all closed and set it back on the two ears.

Up top there are two filters — a foam filter and a cloth felt filter that goes in first. Those rinse out. Around the back there's a latch that opens to a big HEPA filter that slides straight in and out. That's the whole maintenance list. Cord storage is two hooks; the top one rotates so you can drop the whole cord off at once instead of unwinding it. This design has been around for a long time and it's very reliable — that's why Filter System and Maintenance both scored well.

What I'd Change About the Shark NV360

• An anti-tangle brush roll, or at least a comb — long hair is the one thing it can't handle.
• A soft-roller option or floor detect for hard floors.
• A little more cord — 25 feet is fine for a room, tight for a floor.