Shark AV2501S AI Ultra Robot Vacuum – Smart Mapping, Self-Emptying, Pet Hair Ready
- 💨 Incredible Suction Power: Deep cleans carpets, tiles, and hardwood floors with powerful Shark suction that handles dirt, debris, and stubborn pet hair effortlessly.
- 🧭 Matrix Clean Navigation: Uses precision grid cleaning with multiple passes for complete floor coverage—no spots missed, even around furniture.
- 🗑️ 30-Day HEPA Self-Emptying Base: Bagless dustbin with HEPA filtration captures 99.97% of allergens (down to 0.3 microns) and holds up to a month of debris without manual emptying.
- 📍 Precision Home Mapping: Advanced 360° LiDAR technology creates a detailed map of your home, detects and avoids obstacles—even in the dark or low light conditions.
- 🐾 Ideal for Pet Owners: The self-cleaning brushroll and HEPA filtration system trap hair, dander, and allergens—designed for households with shedding pets.
- 🗣️ Hands-Free Smart Control: Works with Alexa and Google Assistant, or control via the mobile app to schedule, target rooms, and initiate cleaning on demand.
- 🔋 Long Runtime with Recharge & Resume: Enjoy up to 120 minutes of uninterrupted cleaning. If the battery runs low, it automatically docks, recharges, and continues where it left off.
- 🔧 Durable and Quality-Tested: Every Shark robot vacuum undergoes rigorous quality testing to ensure reliability and performance in real homes.
- 📦 What’s in the Box: Shark AI Ultra Robot Vacuum, HEPA Self-Empty Base, 2 Side Brushes.
Brand: Shark
Model: AI Ultra (AV2501S)
Color: Dark Grey / Silver
Special Features: Matrix Navigation, HEPA Filter, Bagless, Self-Emptying, Pet Hair Pickup
Dimensions: 13.7″L x 13.7″W x 4.1″H
On the positive side, the was easy to call (no vioce mail prisons) and the the person who anwered it was very helpful. The product works well.
Soooo glad I gave this a try! IT IS TOTALLY WORTH THE MONEY!
EASY to set up, EASY to map your house, EASY to edit the map, EASY to schedule, EASY to send it to particular locations. EASY to clean.
Whereas the R***ba was so loud I'd hardly ever run it unless I was out of the house, this Shark is REALLY quiet. Quiet enough that you can watch TV. The only time it is louder is for 10 seconds when it self-empties.
I have a challenging environment to clean: I have 2 dogs that shed...A LOT, and AZ's wonderfully never-ending, fine dust. The R***ba would fill up with hair after 5 min, go back to its base (IF it could find it) and pester me to empty it...and then usually refuse to complete the job. The Shark knows when to empty, quickly returns to the base station, then goes back to where it left off.
I have a 1500sf home and, once the initial clean was done, scheduled cleaning every other day takes it about 70 minutes and leaves it with ~30% battery.
The mopping function works well, and it does that at the same time as vacuum.
As an EE Design Engineer I am pretty critical of others' designs, and at this point there are only two things that think could use improvement:
1) Faster charging, 6-8 hours to charge completely.
2) Coverage pattern when mopping can cause clogs. It overlaps 50%, so when it starts a new "line", half the Shark is over dirty floor and the other half is over wet floor. This sometimes leads to large clumps of wet hair getting stuck inside between the rollers and dirt bin. I think there are a few things that Shark could do to improve this, needing only a software tweak: a) don't overlap lines by more than 10%, minimizing the amount of moisture sucked up, and b) have the Shark go back and empty more often to make sure it isn't getting clogged up.
Do these make me unhappy I bought it? HECK NO. I'd buy it again, and I recommend it for you, too. Really good for the price point.
Well ... yes and no.
I have a 2,500 sq ft 4 bdrm ranch style home with tile/hardwood floors. It's just me, two dogs, and a cat. So, you wouldn't think things would get that dirty. But, the old Shark would fire up 3 days a week and spend 90 minutes randomly bouncing around the house sucking up dirt and pet hair. I'd have to empty it after every run and the bin would be full. But, my friends occasionally mentioned that my house always looked clean and vacuumed, so it was doing the job.
Now for the new Shark AI Ultra. I put the "base" roughly in the center of the house, read the instructions and turned it loose for the "mapping run". Looked to me like it was pretty much a random exploration of the house but that's basically what I expected. It did seem to find its way in and out of the bathrooms and bedrooms without too much difficulty. When it was done, I looked at the map and, while it was recognizable, it resembled something my grand kids might have drawn if I'd asked them to draw a floor plan of the house.
First, I made the mistake of actually trying to outline and identify the individual rooms. HINT - don't waste your time. First, the graphics tool isn't that great and you just can't be accurate in outlining the individual rooms. Second, and MOST IMPORTANT, if you define individual rooms this little genius will try to do each room separately even though the dining room and living room are really one large "L" shaped area. After two runs with that map, I erased that version and told it to re-map the house.
Now I just let it go where ever it decides to go but it doesn't seem to be any smarter when it comes to being logical with it's patterns. I still see it stopping a foot or two short of the wall and cutting rooms in half where it will do one half during one cycle, then move to another room before coming back to do the other half of the original room. Doesn't seem to bright to me when it comes to planning its work.
Now here's the downside, it takes about 4 HOURS to do the whole house. So, twice a week, we get to spend a good chunk of our day listening to the vacuum roam around the house. The dogs aren't any more impressed with that experience than I am. The cat couldn't care less.
The problem is, it has a fairly small dust bin, so it returns to the base about every 30 minutes to empty the bin into the larger bin on the base. After about 3 trips, it hangs out on the base for an hour or so while it recharges. Then it takes off again to spend another hour or so finishing the house.
The advertising says the base will hold a month's worth of dirt and "stuff". If you live alone in an 800 sq ft apartment that might be true. For a normal house with a family, I'd be stunned if you manage to make it a week before you have to empty the base and clean the three filters in the mobile and base units. With 2,500 sq ft, I have to empty the base unit and clean all the filters after every run. And it takes twice as long to clean all the filters in the "smart" vacuum than it did in the old "dumb" vacuum.
So, the good news is that it does eventually cover your entire floor plan. The bad news is, it covers your entire floor plan. While I am impressed by the amount of dirt and animal hair it collects, I'm really not sure that the house is noticeably cleaner. The new vacuum runs twice a week while the old random model ran 3 times a week, but the results seem to be very close.
In conclusion, the most aggravating part of all this technology is that both the "dumb" Shark vacuum and the "smart" Shark vacuum have an uncanny habit of deciding to clean the office just when I'm starting a long Zoom call. Never fails.