Shark Stratos Anti Hair Wrap Plus Cordless Vacuum IZ400UK review

Here we take a closer look at the Shark Stratos Anti Hair Wrap Plus Cordless Vacuum IZ400UK, which is suited to all floor types and comes with anti-hair wrap and anti-odour technology, making it a particularly good choice for pet owners and anyone who just wants to ensure a deep clean and be left with a fresh-smelling home. 

We’ve compared a wide range of vacuum cleaners in the Saga Exceptional reviews lab to feed back results into our reviews.

To find out how effective the Shark Stratos Anti Hair Wrap Plus Cordless Vacuum IZ400UK is, we used it to pick up a range of common household debris, including wool, hair, cereal and ground coffee.  

To test its comfort, performance and design, we used it daily over the course of two weeks in a four-bedroom house that includes wooden floors, carpet, Persian carpet and tiles. 

At 3.92kg, the Shark Stratos Anti Hair Wrap Plus cordless vacuum is average in weight. We found its design to be well balanced and not too top heavy, like some cordless stick vacuum designs we’ve tried previously.

It’s definitely lighter in the hand than the Dyson Gen5detect despite being quite a bit heavier overall –  this is  mostly down to the head design which has the twin rollers.

In the box you’ll find the main body of the vacuum and one cleaner head that features two brush rolls that makes it easy to glide from carpets to hard floors.

The brush bar features anti-wrap technology that is designed to remove tangled hair and fur from the brush roll so you don’t have to. We were impressed at how little dirt and debris got trapped on the brush rolls, making it easy to keep cleaning. 

There’s an “odour puck” included in the box that is designed to get rid of “dust cup odours commonly caused by hair, dust and dander”, which is that musty smell you sometimes get when you’ve been using your vacuum for too long. It’s easy to insert the odour puck into the floorhead and rotate the dial to select how intense you want the fragrance.

This is an extra we really appreciated, as it left rooms feeling noticeably fresher than when we had entered them. It’s also reassuring to know that the vacuum has Anti-Allergen Complete Seal that captures and traps 99.9% of dust and allergens inside the vacuum, so it doesn’t release them back into the air. 

There’s also a 20cm (8in) crevice tool and a multi-surface tool, which were both easy to attach to the vacuum and worked well on curtain tops, clearing cobwebs away from ceiling corners, refreshing mattresses, under sofa cushions, on the stairs and we could get right up to corners and in the car.     

You’ll find one battery pack in the box that provides up to 60 minutes of run time depending on which setting you choose. The battery status and suction levels are clearly shown on the vacuum’s LED smart display on the handle.

The design is also very easy to store, as it can be folded by pinching the middle of the stick and folding downwards. A basic tote bag included in the set makes it easy to hang up the extra tools and charger lead. 

Overall, the vacuum feels premium in its finish, with tools and parts clicking satisfyingly into place. Emptying the bin is easy too, as there’s a slider button that flicks open its door so you can shake the contents directly into the rubbish. 

We found the setup of the Shark Stratos Anti Hair Wrap Plus Cordless Vacuum IZ400UK straightforward. It comes with a single battery in the kit, which will need to be charged fully before use. 

The cleaner head clicks into the main body simply, so set up was effortless. The tools slot easily onto the main handle of the vacuum too, which meant we could get vacuuming straight away. 

All in all, we were pleased with how this vacuum performed, but if we were going to point out any cons we would say that after extended use the body of the vacuum does start to feel a little heavy.

While this didn’t pose us much of a problem, we would say that if you’re planning to do any vacuuming you may want to save up a little elbow grease if you have a lot of rooms to cover. 

We really enjoyed using this vacuum cleaner, as its features are so simple to use. There are a set of instructions in the manual but we didn’t need to refer to them, as, after fiddling around with the cleaner for a while, we found it easy to get to know how the parts worked and fitted together. 

There are three modes on the Shark Stratos, including an eco mode for gentler vacuuming suction power and a boost mode that packs a noticeable punch when you’re trying to get hold of larger debris.

There’s also a Clean Sense IQ mode, which is designed to automatically sense the dirt and adjust the cleaning suction performance to suit the task in hand. 

We used this across the hard floor and then onto the Persian carpet and were impressed at how well it adjusted to suit the floor type. There are also LED headlights in the floorhead that help to illuminate hidden dust, which we could mainly see when using the vacuum on hard flooring. 

In our tests we found that the comb-bar located just behind the front roller worked very well to prevent any wool from wrapping around the roller. And when we tried vacuuming up synthetic hair, only a few strands were left on the roller.

When using the vacuum to pick up larger pieces of debris such as Cheerios and rice on vinyl flooring, we found that the vacuum needed to be moved back and forwards a few times to ensure everything was picked up. Overall, we were very impressed with suction power, however, and found that the vacuum was most effective at removing fine dust, coffee and sand over all floor types. 

The cleaner head glides very easily under furniture too and pivots smoothly 35 degrees left and right. The cleaner wand also bends with a click of the button midway down it, which makes it very flexible when cleaning around awkward furniture, making it one of the best cordless vacuums for those hard-to-reach spaces.

Changing the cleaner head to turn the vacuum into a handheld was simple too. When we were using it on carpet to vacuum each stair tread we found that the multi-surface brush tool got right up the corners and picked up debris effectively. The device also has an on/off button so you don’t have to suffer any hand ache trying to continuously hold down a trigger button.

While we think the overall performance of this vacuum is excellent, the battery life isn’t as impressive as we thought. Shark suggests that you can get 60 minutes when used in the eco power mode with the non-motorised tool. 

But realistically, we think you’re going to want to use the Clean Sense IQ mode, which we found gave us up to 38 minutes on a full charge. This is, however, still a reasonable result for such a powerful cordless vacuum. 

You can buy additional batteries for £79.99 so that you can have one charging while you’re using the other. This would mean that you don’t run the risk of running out of power mid-clean, which can be very frustrating and time-consuming. We have found though that they are in demand and frequently out of stock on the official Shark website.

At £449.99, the Shark Stratos Anti Hair Wrap Plus Cordless Vacuum IZ400UK is one of the more expensive stick cleaners you’ll find online. 

It does, however, come with lots of premium features that make it stand out from the crowd, such as anti-hair wrap technology, a flexible wand and a double-brush floor head that glides across carpet and hard flooring. 

It also comes with a five-year guarantee for the cleaner and a two-year guarantee for the battery when bought direct from the Shark website.

The LED headlights in the floorhead of the Shark Stratos IZ400UK are effective, but for even more impressive visibility try the Dyson V15 Detect Absolute +, which we have reviewed here. This comes with an illuminated head that makes it easy to see “invisible” dust that is hard to spot with the naked eye.

This premium vacuum cleaner not only has two multi-purpose cleaning heads but has an extra seven attachments to specifically tackle a wide range of household tasks.

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For a cheaper Shark vacuum model that also offers anti-hair wrap technology, you may like to try the Shark Anti Hair Wrap Cordless Upright Vacuum ICZ300UK, which we have reviewed here. It gives you the convenience of a handheld with the advantages of an upright vacuum.

We really enjoyed using the Shark Stratos Anti Hair Wrap Plus Cordless Vacuum IZ400UK and think that it’s a very reliable vacuum, with excellent power suction for use across all floor types. While it’s average in weight, it’s surprisingly manoeuvrable and offers a good set of suction controls. 

We particularly like the way the wand can bend to easily glide under furniture, while its cleaner head with anti-hair wrap technology ensures that dirt, hair and debris effectively makes their way to the 0.7l (one-and-a-quarter-pint) capacity bin.

This means you’re less likely to have to start and stop vacuuming to clean the airways, which is always a blessing when you’re in a rush to get your home looking fresh and tidy.