🥇Shark Rotator Vs Navigator – Which One is better?

It’s a duel between two of Shark’s best-selling vacuums. We’ll compare the Shark Rotator vs Navigator to help you find the best choice for your home. There are multiple different types of Shark models in the market. But this comparison guide is all about helping you decide between the Shark Navigator and Shark Rotator models.

Every homeowner knows that Shark is one of the biggest vacuum brands in the US vacuum cleaner market. Shark is always busy improving their vacuums with the latest technology to keep up with increasing customer requirements. They invest in their brand and have some of the best-reviewed vacuums in the market as a result. This ensures you’ll get a quality vacuum for your money when you buy from Shark.

Today, I am going to dive deep into the differences between the Shark Rotator and Shark Navigator models. These are full-sized upright vacuums so they may not be suitable for a small apartment or dorm room. We’ll go over each vacuum cleaner’s features to help you decide which one should you buy? So let’s get started by first showcasing the exact models we’ll compare.

We will be discussing Shark Rotator Lift-Away Professional Upright Vacuum vs Shark Navigator Lift-Away Professional Upright vacuum. Both of these best-selling models are fantastic machines but they differ in a few key ways.

Similarities: Shark Rotator vs Navigator

A feature important for any upright vacuum cleaner is how loud is it. Some upright vacuums can be as loud as 70dB. The good news is both of Shark vacuums are quieter than similar vacuums from the competition like Dyson and Dirt Devil.

The second stand-out feature is the inclusion of a HEPA filter. The vacuums are designed with a sealed allergy system featuring a HEPA filter that keeps pet hairs, allergens, dirt, and debris trapped inside. The seal prevents those nasty particles from recirculating in your home making your home air easier to breathe. This makes the Shark Rotator and Navigator both great choices for a vacuum for pet owners. Even better, you can wash the filters which reduces the lifetime cost of owning the vacuum.

But trapping dirt inside is only useful if the vacuum actually works. Shark’s vacuums both do a superb job on hard floors and carpets and never lose suction when switching between the two surfaces. If you have bamboo, tile, or plush Berber carpet, these Shark vacuums will handle without any problem.

Finally, both come with an array of accessories such as pet tools, tool holders, a basic toolset, and a dusting brush. They are well-equipped for any vacuuming you need to do around your house.

Shark Rotator Lift-Away Professional Upright Vacuum NV501

Shark Rotator Lift-Away Pro is an upright vacuum cleaner as well as a portable vacuum cleaner. This Shark vacuum allows you to separate the Lift-Away pod making it possible to use it as a handheld vacuum to clean stairs, cars, and hard-to-reach places.

We love this vacuum as it has the ability to handle nearly any home cleaning task without the need for multiple vacuums. If you live in a small apartment or lack ample storage space, a vacuum that can do all the things is a must.

For hard-to-clean spaces under coffee tables and other furniture with low clearances like some beds, you’ll need to use the attachments and hand tools as the vacuum head cannot go in these areas. This is a problem with many upright vacuums but many of the newer robot vacuums can easily handle tight spaces.

The Shark Rotator comes with headlights which is super cool. It greatly helps with visibility in cleaning dim areas in the house and makes debris visible under furniture and other low-light vplaces.

Shark Rotator is excellent at cleaning deep carpets, even better than the Shark Navigator, once the brush roll is in place.

The Rotator is comparable to the Navigator as both are easy to push around to different areas of your home because they are developed with quality swivel steering. While cleaning along the walls, the edge cleaning capability allows you to get right up against the baseboards or cabinets instead of needing to use a hand vac or your finger to push dirt into the vacuums path.

Both units are around 16 lbs sot few consumers find moving this vacuum difficult. This is especially true of the Rotator which comes with a 30 feet long card allowing you to clean large rooms without looking to plug and unplug between the power sockets. The rolling caddy is a very helpful accessory for cleaning curtains and furniture while the unit rolls along with you together having the cleaning tools on board. And finally, it has an 11.5-inch wide cleaning path that makes vacuuming faster as it picks up a large amount of dust and dander in one session.

The Shark Rotator is a great vacuum and would be a welcomed addition to any home. But is it better than the Shark Navigator?

 

Shark Navigator Lift-Away Professional Upright

It’s rare that a vacuum’s top features end up being its attachments but for this comparison, that’s the fact. We’ve already covered the key characteristics of Shark vaccums which the Navigator and Rotator both possess. So to save you some time, we’ll jump into the attachments.

The Shark Navigator Upright Vacuum features a dust-away bare floor attachment that that proves to be a highly effective replacement to a Swifter on your wood surfaces and tile floors. It also has better tools for removing pet hairs and features a large capacity dirt canister. A larger capacity canister means you need to empty it less often keeping all the dirt and allergens out of your house.

The 9-inch cleaning path is slightly narrower than the Rotator which measures 11.5 inches which can be a plus or minus depending on your home. If you have lots of smaller areas or furniture like chairs with legs in the way, the smaller cleaning head is easier to maneuver. However, if you have larger open spaces, the wider head gets the job done quicker.

As the Shark Navigator is also an upright vacuum it can have some issues reaching under low clearance furniture. The removable canister helps to do localized cleaning like furniture and vacuuming stairs like the Shark Rotator.

One of the more common complaints due to all the various attachments is there are a number of clips needed to hold them. It can be very confusing where everything goes, even with some of the tools residing in the attachment bag. The attachment hose is small in size and many found it inconvenient while cleaning.

Despite some complaints on too many attachments, the Shark Navigator vacuum can get nearly any job in your house. The variety of attachments and the quality vacuum from Shark make it a solid choice.

Shark Navigator vs Rotator Decision: Who Wins?

In the debate between Shark Rotator Vs Navigator, we believe the Shark Rotator overall has superior features in comparison with Shark Navigator. However, the Rotator comes in at a higher price compared to the Navigator.

Due primarily to the price difference, we’d choose the Shark Navigator as the winner in this head-to-head comparison vs the Shark Rotator.  It wins on ease of use and cost. The 30-foot cord allows you to deal with an entire house without needing to unplug or re-plug it in and it weighs 14 pounds vs 16 pounds for the Shark Rotator. It lacks headlights like the Rotator but we don’t often vacuum in the dark anyway.

Some of you may still want to consider purchasing the Shark Rotator. It is the winner when it comes to superior cleaning either under the furniture, stairs, or high areas, and has the aforementioned headlights. Though the price is higher than Navigator, it’s not that much more expensive and the added performance can be justified.

Shark Rotator vs Navigator Comparison

Both of these powerful and popular and have similarities and differences. Let’s see them in a glance.