In our testing lab, and indeed in our own homes, there’s a recurring, frustrating battle: the constant accumulation of hair. It doesn’t matter if it’s long human hair, fine pet fur from a beloved golden retriever, or the seemingly endless shedding from a long-haired cat. It weaves itself into carpet fibres, creates tumbleweeds on hardwood floors, and, most infuriatingly, wraps itself around a vacuum’s brush-roll until it resembles a furry python, slowly strangling the machine’s performance. For years, the ritual has been the same: vacuum, then flip the machine over, grab the scissors, and spend ten minutes tediously cutting away the tangled mess. It’s a chore that makes cleaning feel incomplete. This is the problem that the Shark NZ801UK Corded Upright Vacuum Anti Hair Wrap DuoClean promises to solve once and for all, and we were determined to see if it lived up to that bold claim.
- ANTI HAIR WRAP TECHNOLOGY: Removes hair from the brush-roll as you clean. Perfect for long, short & pet hair.
- FOR ALL FLOORS: DuoClean floorhead glides from carpets to hard floors, with 2 motorised brush-rolls in 1 floorhead. LED headlights illuminate hidden dust & hair.
What to Consider Before Buying an Upright Vacuum
An Upright Vacuum is more than just an item; it’s a key solution for maintaining a clean, healthy, and comfortable home environment. Its primary benefit lies in its powerful, deep-cleaning capability, especially on carpets. The combination of strong suction and an aggressive, motorized brush-roll allows it to agitate and lift dirt, dust, and allergens from deep within the pile in a way that many other vacuum types struggle to match. For households with pets, children, or allergy sufferers, a high-quality upright isn’t a luxury—it’s an essential tool for managing dander, dust mites, and tracked-in grime, contributing directly to better indoor air quality.
The ideal customer for this type of product is someone facing significant cleaning challenges. This includes homeowners with large carpeted areas, multi-pet households dealing with constant shedding, and families who need a robust, no-compromise machine for weekly deep cleans. If you’ve been disappointed by the fading battery life of cordless models or feel your current vacuum just isn’t lifting the pile, an upright is your next logical step. However, it might not be suitable for those with limited storage space, individuals who find heavier appliances difficult to manage, or people living in small apartments with predominantly hard floors, where a lighter stick or canister vacuum might be more convenient.
Before investing, consider these crucial points in detail:
- Dimensions & Space: Upright vacuums are larger than their stick counterparts. Consider where you will store it. The Shark NZ801UK Corded Upright Vacuum Anti Hair Wrap DuoClean has dimensions of 11.8L x 10.2W x 46.1H centimetres, making it relatively compact for its class, but you’ll still need a dedicated spot in a utility cupboard. Also, consider its weight (6.5 kg) in relation to your ability to carry it up and down stairs.
- Capacity/Performance: This model features a 750W motor, which provides immense, consistent suction that doesn’t fade like a battery-powered unit. Its dust cup capacity is 0.83 litres. While powerful, this capacity is on the smaller side, meaning for larger homes or those with heavy shedding pets, you should anticipate emptying the bin more frequently during a cleaning session.
- Materials & Durability: The vacuum is constructed primarily from durable plastic. While this keeps the weight manageable, some user experiences point to potential weak spots, specifically plastic lugs in the head unit that can fail over time with repeated use. However, the overall build feels solid, and it comes with a reassuring 5-year manufacturer guarantee upon registration, which speaks to the brand’s confidence in its longevity.
- Ease of Use & Maintenance: Key features like Anti Hair Wrap and washable filters are designed to minimize maintenance. The Powered Lift-Away feature is a huge boon for usability, making stair and upholstery cleaning much simpler. However, be aware of minor recurring tasks like rinsing the filters and wiping down the dust cup to maintain optimal performance and hygiene.
While the Shark NZ801UK Corded Upright Vacuum Anti Hair Wrap DuoClean is an excellent choice, it’s always wise to see how it stacks up against the competition. For a broader look at all the top models, we highly recommend checking out our complete, in-depth guide:
- HIGH PERFORMANCE, PORTABLE CORDED UPRIGHT VACUUM CLEANER - Multi-cyclonic performance with lightweight design to easily clean around the home
- 【600W/60Kpa Powerful Suction】This corded vacuum cleaner features a 600W motor, delivering strong suction power up to 60Kpa. It effectively removes dust, dirt, and debris from various surfaces,...
- Lightweight & Compact Design: Designed for effortless maneuverability, this upright vacuum cleaner makes cleaning stairs and navigating tight or large spaces a breeze. Its compact, upright build...
First Impressions: Unboxing and Assembling the Shark NZ801UK
The Shark NZ801UK Corded Upright Vacuum Anti Hair Wrap DuoClean arrived in a well-organized box, with each component securely packed. Assembly was refreshingly intuitive and tool-free; the main components click together with a satisfying, solid feel. Within five minutes, we went from boxed parts to a fully assembled machine, ready for action. The white and orange colour scheme is classic Shark—bold and functional. In hand, the 6.5 kg weight is immediately noticeable. It feels substantial and well-built, a far cry from the flimsy feel of some budget vacuums. The plastics are thick, and the main touchpoints on the handle are ergonomically designed. The power cord is a generous 8 metres, providing ample reach for most medium-to-large rooms without needing to constantly switch sockets. It was clear from the outset that this machine was designed for serious, powerful cleaning, and you can see its full feature set and user reviews online to get a sense of its robust design.
Advantages
- Incredibly powerful suction that revitalises carpet pile
- Anti Hair Wrap technology genuinely prevents tangles on the brush-roll
- Powered Lift-Away mode offers outstanding versatility for stairs and high places
- DuoClean head seamlessly transitions between carpets and hard floors
Drawbacks
- Quite heavy at 6.5kg, which can be challenging for some users
- The 0.83L dust cup is small and requires frequent emptying in busy homes
A Deep Dive into the Shark NZ801UK’s Cleaning Performance
A vacuum’s worth is proven not on a spec sheet, but on the floors of a real, lived-in home. We put the Shark NZ801UK Corded Upright Vacuum Anti Hair Wrap DuoClean through a series of demanding tests across different floor types, focusing on its core technologies to see if they deliver on their promises. From deep-pile carpets laden with pet fur to hard floors hiding fine dust, here’s our detailed breakdown of its performance.
The DuoClean and Anti Hair Wrap Game-Changer
This is, without a doubt, the star of the show. The DuoClean floorhead is an engineering marvel. It features two distinct brush-rolls that work in concert. At the front, a soft, velvet-like roller makes continuous contact with hard floors, pulling in small and large debris and buffing away fine, stuck-on dust. Behind it, a traditional bristle brush-roll works to agitate and deep-clean carpet fibres. The transition is seamless; a simple switch on the handle adjusts the brush-roll speed for carpets or hard floors, allowing you to glide from the living room rug to the kitchen laminate without missing a beat. The results on hard floors were immediately visible—no more “snowploughing” of larger debris like cereal, and a polished look that a single brush-roll often fails to achieve.
But the true hero is the Anti Hair Wrap technology. To test this, we scattered a generous amount of collected long human hair and pet fur onto a deep-pile rug. With past vacuums, this would have guaranteed a ten-minute de-tangling session. We watched the brush-roll through the transparent housing as we vacuumed, and the technology was fascinating to see in action. A built-in comb actively strips the hair from the bristles and sends it directly into the dust cup before it has a chance to wrap. After cleaning the entire area, we flipped the head over for inspection. The result? A virtually spotless brush-roll. This isn’t a gimmick; it is a genuine solution to one of the most persistent vacuuming annoyances. One user, who was previously spending hours de-hairing her carpets, confirmed our findings, stating, “Cleaning the carpet takes max 20 min and no dogs or mine hair is rolled on the hover or left on the carpet.” For homes with long-haired residents or shedding pets, this feature alone makes it a worthy investment.
Unleashing the Power of Powered Lift-Away
The term “Lift-Away” might suggest a simple pop-out canister, but the “Powered” prefix is what makes this feature so transformative. With the press of a button, the main motor and dust cup assembly lifts away from the floorhead and wand. Crucially, unlike many competitors, this still delivers power to the main motorized DuoClean head. This means you can continue to get the same deep-cleaning brush-roll action in places a traditional upright could never reach. We slid the powered head completely under our low-profile sofa, bed frames, and coffee tables, areas that usually only see a low-suction crevice tool. The bright LED headlights illuminated dust bunnies we didn’t even know existed, and the machine pulled them out with ease.
Where this mode truly excelled was on the stairs. Carrying a 6.5kg upright up and down a staircase is awkward and unsafe. In Lift-Away mode, you carry the lightweight 1.6kg pod in one hand and operate the wand and head with the other. The balance is excellent, and it turns one of the most dreaded cleaning tasks into a quick, simple process. As one user noted, “the staircase was a total breeze compared to my old Dyson thanks to the lift away unit.” This versatility extends to cleaning above the floor, too. Attaching the crevice or upholstery tool to the handle allows you to effortlessly reach ceilings for cobwebs, clean curtains, or vacuum car interiors. This transforms the Shark NZ801UK Corded Upright Vacuum Anti Hair Wrap DuoClean from a mere floor cleaner into a comprehensive, whole-home cleaning system.
Raw Suction Power and Anti-Allergen Seal
Beneath the clever features lies a raw, powerful heart. The 750-watt corded motor generates phenomenal, unrelenting suction. We tested this on a high-traffic rug that had been vacuumed just the day before with a popular cordless stick vacuum. The results were genuinely shocking. The dust cup of the Shark filled with an alarming amount of fine dust, pet dander, and embedded dirt that the other machine had left behind. You can feel the vacuum gripping the carpet, and as you pull it back, you can visibly see the pile being lifted and revitalized. Multiple users echoed this “shock factor,” with one remarking, “I was horrified by how much it picked up when I had only done it 6 hours before!” Another said her carpets, which she thought needed replacing, now “look like new.”
This powerful suction is complemented by Shark’s Anti-Allergen Complete Seal. This isn’t just about having a HEPA filter; it’s about ensuring the entire system is sealed. This technology captures and traps 99.9% of dust and allergens inside the vacuum, preventing them from being expelled back into the air you breathe. For allergy sufferers or anyone sensitive to dust, this is a significant health benefit. We noticed the air in the room felt cleaner after use, an observation shared by a customer who said, “we have noticed a better air quality in our house since using it.” This combination of raw power and advanced filtration is a testament to the machine’s deep-cleaning credentials, and you can check the latest price and availability here.
Ergonomics and Daily Usability: The Trade-Offs
No product is perfect, and living with the Shark NZ801UK Corded Upright Vacuum Anti Hair Wrap DuoClean reveals a few practical trade-offs for its immense power. The most significant is its weight. At 6.5kg, it is undeniably a heavy machine. While it glides smoothly on floors, maneuvering it in tight corners or lifting it requires a bit of muscle. Several users rightly pointed this out, with one commenting, “it’s quite heavy, so if you’re elderly or have weak arms/shoulders I wouldn’t recommend.” This is a critical consideration; if you prioritize lightweight convenience above all else, this may not be the machine for you.
The second trade-off is the dust cup capacity. At 0.83 litres, it fills up remarkably quickly, precisely because the vacuum is so effective at its job. In our tests in a two-husky household, we had to empty the bin after cleaning each large room. As one user noted, “only niggle the collection bin rather small have to empty after every room.” While emptying is a straightforward process, it’s an extra step that interrupts the cleaning flow. We also found some of the onboard tool storage clips, particularly for the hose, to be a bit flimsy, a minor annoyance echoed by another reviewer. These are not deal-breakers, but they are the practical compromises made to accommodate the powerful motor and versatile Lift-Away design.
What Other Users Are Saying
Scouring through dozens of real-world user experiences, a clear picture emerges that strongly aligns with our own findings. The overwhelming sentiment is one of astonishment at the vacuum’s cleaning power. Phrases like “best hoover I have ever had,” “unbelievable power and suction,” and “my carpets look like new” appear consistently. Many users report being shocked and slightly horrified at the amount of dirt the Shark picked up from carpets they thought were already clean, cementing its reputation as a true deep-cleaner. The Anti Hair Wrap feature is frequently singled out for praise, with pet owners and those with long hair calling it a “game-changer” and a “godsend.”
However, the feedback isn’t without its critiques, which provides a balanced view. The most common complaint is the weight, with many advising that it’s not suitable for elderly users or those with strength limitations. The small dust cup is another frequent mention. More critically, a handful of users reported a specific durability issue after about a year of use, where the plastic housing at the back of the head unit breaks, preventing the vacuum from standing upright. One user described it as a “design fault” with “plastic lugs…too thin to take the repeated back and forth movement.” While covered by the warranty, this is an important potential long-term issue to be aware of.
How Does the Shark NZ801UK Compare to the Alternatives?
The Shark NZ801UK Corded Upright Vacuum Anti Hair Wrap DuoClean is a formidable machine, but the market is competitive. Here’s how it stacks up against three key rivals.
1. Shark AZ3900UKTBK PowerDetect DuoClean Upright Vacuum
- THE BEST OVERALL CLEANING OF ANY CORDED UPRIGHT VACUUM (*Based on average performance, across IEC 62885-2, Clauses 5.1, 5.2, 5.4, and 5.3, 5.5 in forward and backward starting directions. Comparison...
- DUOCLEAN DETECT: two brush-rolls and multiple sensors that react and adapt for optimal performance.
This model can be seen as the tech-savvy bigger brother to the NZ801UK. It features the same core technologies like DuoClean and Anti Hair Wrap (Plus version), but adds PowerDetect, which automatically senses the floor type and adjusts suction power accordingly. It also boasts a significantly larger 1.3L dustbin, addressing one of our main criticisms of the NZ801UK. If your budget can stretch a bit further and you want the latest automated features and the convenience of a larger capacity bin, the AZ3900UKTBK is a compelling upgrade.
2. Shark NZ801UKT Corded Upright Vacuum Anti Hair Wrap DuoClean Powered Lift-Away
- ANTI HAIR WRAP TECHNOLOGY: Removes hair from the brush-roll as you clean. Perfect for long, short & pet hair.
- FOR ALL FLOORS: DuoClean floorhead glides from carpets to hard floors, with 2 motorised brush-rolls in 1 floorhead. LED headlights illuminate hidden dust & pet hair.
This is the “Pet Model” of the very vacuum we are reviewing. Functionally, the core machine is identical—same power, same features, same weight, and same 0.83L bin. The key difference is the included attachments. The NZ801UKT comes with an additional dedicated Pet Multi-Tool, specifically designed for removing embedded pet hair from upholstery, stairs, and car seats. If you have multiple pets and find yourself constantly battling fur on your sofa and soft furnishings, opting for the NZ801UKT is a smart move for a slightly higher initial cost.
3. Dyson Ball Animal UP32 Vacuum Cleaner
- Engineered for homes with pets
- Powerful suction
The Dyson Ball Animal represents the classic alternative from Shark’s main rival. Its primary selling point is the Ball technology, which provides a unique, pivot-based steering system for high maneuverability around furniture. While its suction is powerful, it lacks the specialized DuoClean head for optimized hard floor cleaning and, crucially, does not have an equivalent to Shark’s Anti Hair Wrap technology, meaning you’ll likely be back to cutting hair off the brush-roll. The choice here comes down to priorities: Dyson’s unique maneuverability versus the superior hair-handling and multi-floor versatility of the Shark NZ801UK.
Our Final Verdict on the Shark NZ801UK Corded Upright Vacuum Anti Hair Wrap DuoClean
After extensive testing and analysis, our conclusion is clear: the Shark NZ801UK Corded Upright Vacuum Anti Hair Wrap DuoClean is a cleaning powerhouse that delivers exceptional performance, particularly for households struggling with pet and human hair. Its suction is immense, capable of revitalizing tired carpets and pulling out dirt you didn’t know was there. The combination of Anti Hair Wrap and DuoClean isn’t just marketing—it’s a genuinely effective system that solves real-world frustrations, while the Powered Lift-Away mode provides a level of versatility that is hard to beat.
It is not, however, without its compromises. Its 6.5kg weight makes it unsuitable for those who need a lightweight machine, and its small 0.83L dust cup requires frequent emptying. But if your top priority is uncompromising, deep-cleaning power that can tackle the toughest hair and dirt challenges across your entire home, these are trade-offs well worth making. For anyone tired of clogged brush-rolls and carpets that never feel truly clean, this vacuum is an outstanding choice that will fundamentally change your cleaning routine for the better. If you’re ready to experience a new level of clean, we wholeheartedly recommend you find the best price for the Shark NZ801UK today.
Last update on 2025-11-09 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API