The Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away is a good overall vacuum. It can be used as a handheld vacuum too, but it's not very portable as it's heavy to carry around. It's an excellent choice to clean large debris such as cereal on any surface and it's good with small debris, but it struggles with finer objects on high-pile carpet. Hair gets stuck on the brushroll when it's used on bare floors but the vacuum cleans all hair on both low-pile and high-pile carpet. The TruePet variant we tested comes with three tools but there are other variants with different tools. It's not hard to maintain but there are quite a few parts that you need to clean. Luckily, there are virtually no recurring costs.
While there are two differently-named variants of this vacuum, though they only really differ in color and included attachments. Further information is provided in the 'Differences Between Variants' section of the review.
The Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away is good to use on bare floors. It sucks up all small and large debris like rice and cereal but hair gets stuck on the brushroll on this surface. It has mediocre maneuverability because it's bulky and hard to fit underneath couches and tables. On the upside, it has a good dirt compartment.
The Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away is great for low-pile carpet. It easily cleans all hair and large debris like sand and still sucks up a very good amount of small debris like baking soda. It has a decent build quality and it's not hard to maintain but there are a lot of parts that you need to clean regularly. Luckily, there are virtually no recurring costs.
The Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away is good for high-pile carpet. The Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away cleans all hair and almost all large debris on high-pile carpet. Unfortunately, it struggles to suck up fine debris like baking soda. It has a good dirt compartment and a decent build quality. Sadly, it's not very maneuverable and it has a short hose range.
The Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away is decent for cleaning pet hair. When using the main brushroll on bare floors, it struggles cleaning hair because it's turned off in the 'Hard Floor' mode. However, it cleans all hair on carpet. Even though the brushroll isn't removable, you can still access it to clean any tangled hair. It also comes with a turbo brush to help clean hair on couches.
The Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away is good to use on stairs. It can be used as a handheld vacuum but it's fairly heavy to carry up and down the stairs. Also, the hose length is short. Still, it performs well on low-pile carpet and has decent performance on bare floors and high-pile carpet.
The Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away is good for cars. The Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away can be used as a handheld vacuum. Unfortunately, it's heavy to hold and the hose is short, which isn't convenient to vacuum your car with. However, it performs well on low-pile carpet and it comes with a crevice tool to help you vacuum those hard-to-reach areas.
We tested the NV752 variant of the Shark Powered Lift-Away. Other variants, which differ mainly in included attachments, are listed below.
Model Number | Body Color | Included Brushes and Tools |
NV650 | Silver | Soft bristle brush, upholstery tool, crevice tool, hard floor tool |
NV651 | Light purple | Dusting tool, power brush, soft bristle brush, upholstery tool, hard floor tool |
NV652 | Burgundy | Dusting tool, turbo brush, soft bristle brush, upholstery tool, hard floor tool |
NV751 | Light purple | Dusting tool, power brush, soft bristle brush, upholstery tool, hard floor tool |
NV752 | Bordeaux | Turbo brush, upholstery tool, crevice tool |
Note that you can purchase any extra tools on Shark's website. If someone comes across this vacuum that's different from ours, let us know in the discussions and we'll update our review.
The Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away is good overall and performs best on carpet. Even though there are better upright vacuums for use on bare floors, such as the Shark Navigator Lift-Away Speed, most people should be happy with its versatility. Also see our recommendations for the best vacuums, the best vacuums for carpet, and the best Shark vacuums.
The Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away is better than the Shark Navigator Lift-Away Deluxe. The Rotator is better-built, has a slightly longer power cord, and performs better on all surface types. Conversely, the Navigator weighs a little bit less.
The Shark Rotator Lift-Away ADV is more versatile than the Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away. The ADV has fewer maintenance requirements, a longer power cord, a lighter construction, better maneuverability, and superior performance on bare floors, especially in regards to pet hair. However, unlike the Rotator Powered, you can't turn off its brushroll. The Rotator Powered also outperforms the ADV on low-pile carpet and has a bigger dirt compartment.
The Shark Navigator Lift-Away Speed is better overall than the Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away. The Navigator has much better performance on bare floors, it's more maneuverable, and it's lighter to hold. That said, the Rotator has a somewhat better performance on low-pile carpet, it has a slightly bigger dirt compartment, and it has a longer range.
The Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away is better to use on carpets while the Hoover WindTunnel 2 Whole House Rewind is better for bare floors. The Shark cleans most hair and large debris on all surface types, it has better maneuverability, and it's not as heavy. The Hoover has a better range and it's easier to maintain.
The Shark APEX is better overall than the Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away vacuum. While the APEX performs similarly to the Rotator on carpet, it has a significantly better performance on bare floors. The APEX also has a bigger dirt compartment and a slightly longer hose length. On the other hand, the Rotator is easier to maintain.
The Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away is a more well-rounded vacuum than the BISSELL Pet Hair Eraser Turbo. The Shark is slightly easier to maintain with a lot fewer recurring costs, and its dirt compartment holds more too. It also has a better performance on all surface types too. However, the BISSELL can maneuver slightly better, and it has a removable brushroll.
The Dyson Ball Animal 2 is better overall than the Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away. It has outstanding performance on any surface, a longer range, and it's easier to maintain. You can use the Shark as a handheld vacuum, menaing it's a better choice to clean stairs and cars with.
The BISSELL Adapt Ion is a better vacuum for cleaning pet hair than the Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away. The BISSELL is easier to maintain, it's cordless so it has an unlimited range, and it's much more portable. If you have shedding pets, this vacuum can easily pick up pet hair, and it can be used as a small and lightweight vacuum too. It also has significantly better maneuverability. However, the Shark is a better choice if you need to clean small and large debris as it outperforms the BISSELL on all surface types in this regard. It also has a larger dirt compartment and you don't have to worry about recharging as it's a corded vacuum.
The NV752 has a decent build quality. The wand is made out of metal while the rest of the vacuum is made out of hard plastic. Overall, the vacuum feels like it could be more sturdy and the dirt compartment could break if dropped, but it's still better than the Shark Navigator Lift-Away Speed. Fortunately, each part has clips that make the vacuum easy to assemble and it's easy to attach/detach the parts when switching configurations. There's rubber on the handle to help with grip and the flat vacuum head makes it stand in an upright position.
This vacuum isn't very hard to maintain but there are quite a few parts that you need to clean and they aren't the easiest to access at times. Consider the Miele Dynamic U1 PowerLine if you're looking for an upright vacuum that's much easier to take care of, so long as you don't mind giving up a more portable handheld configuration.
You must air dry any part that's washed with water for at least 24 hours before using it again.
The vacuum is fairly easy to store. It takes up room and stands up on its own. There's space to put the crevice tool and upholstery tool directly on the vacuum, but you can't store the turbo brush on it.
Mediocre range. The cord length is long but the hose is fairly short, which isn't convenient when you need to vacuum a car.
Okay portability. The NV752 is heavy but luckily there's a carrying handle that makes it easier to bring to another floor.
The Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away TruePet doesn't have a battery.
Update 08/24/2020: We originally reported that this vacuum has a power adjustment feature. However, it has three surface level adjustment settings, which don't increase its power level. We have updated our results to reflect this change.
This vacuum has a few extra features to enhance the user experience. It has three surface level settings: Hard Floor, Low Pile Carpet, and High Pile Carpet. You can adjust the height of the main head if you're using it on carpet. You can also slightly adjust the suction on the turbo brush with a slider for when you need to clean delicate furniture with it.
The NV752 variant has three included tools and brushes. Other variants have different tools that come with it. Note that the turbo brush, called the TruePet Mini Motorized Brush, is meant to clean pet hair and not to groom your pet like the pet grooming tool on the Dyson Ball Animal 2.
Update 08/24/2020: We've retested the Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away's bare floor performance using the 'Hard Floor' setting, and raised its score.
Great performance on bare floors. It sucks up almost all small debris like rice and large debris like cereal, and its performance is consistent as the dirt compartment fills up. On the 'Hard Floor' setting, the brushroll is off, so most hair gets stuck on the brushroll and doesn't get sucked up. If you want a better vacuum for performance on bare floors, consider the Shark Navigator Lift-Away Speed.
Update 08/24/2020: We've retested this vacuum's low-pile carpet performance using the 'Carpet/Low-Pile' setting, and raised its score.
This vacuum is outstanding on low-pile carpet. It easily picks up large debris and it does a very good job with small debris too. With the brushroll on, it sucks up all hair. Once again, the vacuum is consistent as the dirt compartment fills.
Update 08/24/2020: We've retested this vacuum's high-pile carpet performance using the 'Thick Carpet/Area Rug' setting, and raised its score.
Great performance on high-pile carpet. Like on low-pile carpet and bare floors, it easily sucks up large debris. It also vacuums all hair but it struggles with small debris like baking soda on this surface. If you're looking for a similarly performing upright vacuum that can better handle small debris on high-pile carpet, see the BISSELL Pet Hair Eraser Turbo.
The NV752 has mediocre maneuverability. The rotating head helps you navigate around objects, but the vacuum is heavy and due to its bulky size, it's hard to clean underneath couches and tables. You can detach use the hose to clean furniture but since the hose is a bit short, you have to move or hold the body as you're vacuuming. It doesn't properly clean rugs on the 'Bare Floor' setting because the brushroll is off and when it's on the 'Low Pile Carpet' or 'High Pile Carpet' settings, the rug gets stuck.