To begin, I need to say that while a portion of you folks may believe I'm joking, I am most certainly not. This is as candid an evaluation as I could conceive, hand to Bible, girl scouts pledge.
Allow me to continue to start by declaring that if there were the ability to give 13 stars, I would choose it.
Setting, 2 years ago: somewhat recent graduate school graduates apartment, housing two hairy (in the right places) 26 year old young women and cats (we own our two precious babies). 2 bedroom/1 bath first floor, with an open layout and inadequate storage space but lots of charm because it is super old. Hardwood floors, one Ikea area rug that is well loved, bath mats (very cute with penguin designs, but maybe a little gross from age), door mat, cat mat, very old rug (think item given by grandmother), etc. etc. etc. To put this apartment into perspective, imagine a 1,000 sq. foot (who actually knows the square footage of the apartment they are renting?) beloved purse that you use every day plus take it to clubs on the weekend and have filled it with all your necessary items and your friend has vomited in it before and you have put it on the floor of some very questionable bathrooms and sometimes you put chewed gum in it and you think you properly wrapped the gum up but you were wrong and also you are old-fashioned and use a handkerchief so that snotty thing is floating around in there too and your 2 cats have pooped in it. That WAS our apartment. We felt only a mild amount of shame but mainly pride because we knew our apartment was the party place (still is).
Upon the commencement of living here, we had a well-loved vacuum that had been passed down by several siblings with not-quite so rockstar lifestyles but fairly close. We did not quickly realize that our precious hand-me-down was actually utilizing the cracks in our very old apartment’s original hardwood floors to hide our filth. We do not like to think about what this relic was showering all over our apartment (remember, this apartment is very old, a lot of people have lived here, and people have probably died here). Obviously, we were blinded by the charm of our rustic apartment and chose to remain blind to the filth; we are totally respectable professional women who are excellent at adulting and would never willfully ignore the somewhat unpleasant state of their environment in order to focus on binge-watching television, baking cookies, and buying cat toys the cats will not use because they are too busy playing with the hairballs that have formed in the corners of the apartment.
2 years later (present): We have perfected our adulting ways, which involves “cleaning” when important guests visit (parents, friends who have never seen us drunk) and utilizing space under our furniture to hide clumps of hair and dirt. The four of us (because the cats are ever present, they are not antisocial cats) are casually perusing etsy at 10pm on a Tuesday for totally necessary items that we most definitely have adequate space for when we notice black spots on a throw blanket frequently utilized as a throne for one of the cats. While we have become accustomed to grime, this particular blanket has only every been contaminated by the aggressive hair throughout the apartment. Upon closer inspection, one of the spots moves. THE SCREAMS, THE HORROR, THE PANIC. We don’t want to accept it, but then we see the cats itching, and we observe black spots in all the favorite cat lounging spots. We force ourselves to google “black spots on cats” even though we know the awful truth it will unveil. We can’t deny it any longer…our precious babies, at the mere ages of 5 and 2, had been contaminated. While they remain regal and majestic, they are no longer pure. They have FLEAS. How could this happen! They are indoor cats. They actually detest the outdoors due to a strong fear of grass. What could have happened? We immediately take action and think of all our various friends with animals we can blame for bringing the devil into our home. We come up with a lengthy list and throw lots of shade their way. Once these monsters have been adequately cursed, we begin the process of ridding our darlings of their plague. Medicine is procured and the cleaning process begins. Unfortunately due to a panicked trip to the grocery store at 11pm at night, the medicine is off-brand (and we later learned from amazon reviews has caused some serious damage to other feline-users. Thank god our prince and princess were spared but RIP Butters) and does not properly work. Further, we are ill-prepared for the cleaning process before us. As mentioned before, we live in a very old apartment and our vacuum acts as if it is even older. Despite throwing away many beloved cat toys/scratchers/collars/carriers, a huge trip to the laundromat, suffocating beloved childhood stuffed animals in Ziploc bags, and frequent vacuuming, our demons remain and our children continue to suffer. Fleagate is in full force. We can not allow it to continue and based on our research our greatest hope laid in an excellent vacuum.
We begin our research on the best quality vacuum that will not break the bank (we have a lot of cat accessories and toys to replace so finances are tight). We find this super looking example of mass manufacturing, the Shark Navigator Deluxe (NV42). We already have Amazon Prime because we have frequent shopping needs (plus Prime Video and Reading have some pretty great options) so we know this irresistible rogue will get in here in 2 days because at this point we are crying ourselves to sleep at night thinking of the suffering the cats are going through and worried we will have to throw away our beloved scarf collection due to flea infestation. Fast forward approximately 48 hours, our savior is delivered. One of us opens up the package (while the other works late, so adult, we know) in a careful way so as to preserve the box in case this thing turns out to be more Judas than Jesus.
We waited a significant amount of time before crafting this review to ensure this machine endured more than the initial de-fleaing marathon inside our apartment.
THIS THING IS A FANTASTIC BEAST (that we are thankful to have found). It has cleansed every surface, precious stuffed animal, throw blanket, cat-scratched piece of furniture, and useless knickknack that calls our apartment home…without interruption or any vocal judgment. It has collected almost every hair, cat or human, in each of the dark corners and tight spots throughout our humble abode (we say almost because all of us shed a lot and only god himself could possibly keep up with it). Every speck of flea dirt, flea egg, flea pupae, other dust particles and tracked in dirt from drunken nights that had made itself comfortable at our expense has disappeared into the bowels of this thing (and then into the trash bag we dumped it out into that then went into the dumpster out back that then went into the dump or to the nice homeless man who hangs out there). This building is old (have we mentioned that?) and sound travels, but we have no qualms about vacuuming at 11pm at night or 6am in the morning (we don’t do the latter because we don’t know what the world looks like at 6am despite being very professional, successful adults) because while it is a beast, the sounds it makes are far gentler. Now, we have a pretty aggressive workout routine (we are talking 30 seconds of bad form superman planking and at least 10 half-squats here) and consider ourselves strong, independent ladies, but even if we that weren’t the case, it would be no problem because this is a lightweight machine (much like our friend Caitlyn haha) and easy to handle. If we knew about cars (go honda civics!), we would name a very smooth handling car as a comparison. Assembly was much better than the time we spent 5 hours putting together the most uncomfortable Walmart futon ever (don’t worry, we left that futon in our previous rented home or else it would have been the first thing thrown out during fleagate). We don’t really pay attention to other peoples vacuums, but our place looks dang fine cause of this fabulous vacuum so who cares about anyone else? Our parents probably would have let us borrow their vacuums because we are both youngest children and they would do anything for their princesses, but being the super well-adjusted adults we are (plus not wanting to have to drive two hours for a vacuum), we did not ask. While our credit card bills were less than pretty that month, this vacuum was not the real troublemaker (that blame goes to Loft and Petco).
Thank god one of us goes to church on Sunday because god must have been listening and sent this thing to us.
Added tidbit: we only read one review for this vacuum before purchasing. It was thought-provoking and answered all of our important questions (mainly would we be able to assemble this thing without getting into an argument over who is misinterpreting the instructions and once it was assembled would it not immediately break upon sucking up one nest of hair). The review has proven very reliable and we are very appreciative of the kind soul(s) who took the time to write it. Even though they clearly don’t have our level of life experience and cats are better than dogs, we think that review encompasses all you need to know and told no lies. The review mentioned other people saying negative things about what we have come to consider our third child (little Sharky came into our lives at just 15 pounds and while his brother and sister don’t totally love him and tend to run scared when he tries to play with them, he is otherwise every mother’s dream). However, it appears those naysayers were inexperienced in the art of cleaning. We know that not everyone can be as skilled as us, but that is why youtube exists, people! You literally can watch a video on how to use a vacuum! And we recommend some mild planking every couple of months to build up your strength if you are having issues maintaining control of your vacuum (it really builds core strength). Sharky does not deserve a meager 1 stars ever, and we strongly encourage self-reflection to those who blame him for issues because operator error seems to be a rampant issue among men (in more ways than one, amirite ladies? wink wink, nudge nudge).
If your motto in life is “no, I don't want no scrub,” then have no fear because this vacuum has a strong game and there is nothing broke about its backside. We spend a lot of money on stuff we don’t need and tend to be too frugal about stuff we do need. This vacuum was very much so needed and didn’t make us cry ourselves to sleep at night thinking we will never be able to afford to own a home because we spent too much money trying to keep our rented apartment clean (we have student loans for that). Get this vacuum, you probably won’t regret it. And if you do, blame some dumb recent college grads from Boston who are probably so used to frat-house level grossness they would be impressed by the level of clean in a Waffle House bathroom at 2am.
We award this item 13 stars. This is the Aaron Rodgers, minus the broken shoulder, (B.A.E.) of vacuums (we won’t call it the Beyoncé of vacuums because too far, but like Toxic-era Britney would be an appropriate comparison).
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From the manufacturer
Powerful upright performance in a lightweight design
Surprisingly lightweight, this upright vacuum delivers the powerful suction you need to remove embedded dirt, dust, and hair from carpets.
Reviews with images
Great for pet hair and hard floors!
Firstly, I was going to wait a while to do a review because we all have that Christmas Morning moment when using a new product for the first time, excited when first unwrapping it, play with it for a few hours and over time realizing it is not exactly what you wanted.This is not the case with the Shark Navigator Deluxe NV42!!!GUYS! This vacuum is awesome!We purchased our first home 3 months ago, 2 adult humans (I have long hair) and a 50lb dog who sheds constantly! The dog hair is impossible to remove from the rugs and I really needed something with strong suction. The Shark Navigator is up to that task! The picture in this review is from a single pass over my kitchen rug in the background. Look at how much it lifted out!! My old vacuum always always struggled to keep up. Poor thing. Also, my long hair got caught in the brush roll and was a pain (and disgusting) to have to cut lose. In the areas like our bedroom where my fallen hair is more likely to be, I turn off the brush roll feature and the suction works great on the carpet even with out the brush roll on. The majority of our living area is flagstone flooring (Helloooo 70s!). They came original with the home and are in great shape but I HATE sweeping them, plus the dog hair just blends in. I can't see it, but I know it's there! The suction only feature is awesome for these types of surfaces and the vacuum moves very easily because it's so light and maneuverable. Took me no time to vacuum the area rugs and hard surfaces in the living areas.Super easy to assemble as well so you can get to playing with your new toy...I mean vacuum (#adulting)...in no time! All you need is a screw driver for one bolt to attach the handle. That's it! I also investigated the filters and love how everything is easy to remove for washing and reuse. Over time that feature is going to save us lots of money. The canister is easy to empty and pop back into place and does hold a lot.This vacuum WILL come with a special pet hair upholstery tool along with the standard dusting brush and crevice tool so don't bother buying the extra package of nozzles and hose tools. The upholstery tool I haven't used yet but I have great plans for it since the dog does get on the couch when we aren't looking. I'll update a comment on the upholstery tool when I do use it.The only con is the front end isn't super sleek for going under large pieces of furniture or the couch because of the main body of the vacuum, but to be honest it doesn't matter because the hose has a good reach and again AWESOME suction, so it was a breeze to get to those hard to reach places.In conclusion the main pro for the Shark Navigator is the PRICE! This isn't even one of Shark's most expensive models but it functions awesomely! Definitely makes keeping up with our new home easier and quicker so we can get back to enjoying life, because in reality life is too short to spend it all vacuuming and dusting!
