Shark PowerDetect Nevertouch Pro Review

Welcome to Vacuum Wars and to our review of the Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro, Shark’s first robot vacuum with automatic mop washing and refilling. We bought one and tested it for several weeks, and though it’s packed with some innovative features—and it may be one of Shark’s best yet—it does have some significant drawbacks as well. In this article, we’ll go over the pros and cons, reveal if it’s right for your situation, and if it made the Vacuum Wars Top 20 Robot Vacuum list.

Variations

The Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro comes in two different colors, and there are some option choices in the PowerDetect lineup that you need to be aware of, mostly to do with the auto-empty bin options. For example, the most expensive version, the NeverTouch Pro, has an auto-empty bin that washes, dries, and refills the mop tank. Or you can get the NeverTouch non-Pro version, which has auto-empty and auto-refill but not the mop washing. They also have one that just has an auto-empty bin with no mop functionality at all.

Hardware

As far as hardware, the NeverTouch Pro uses a single main brush and a single side brush. It doesn’t have an extendable side brush, but it does have EdgeDetect, where it will blow air to the side when vacuuming edges to move debris into its path, which is pretty unique.

Pros

Performance

Starting off with the pros: its general performance was good. For example, it had decent power numbers, like slightly above-average airflow on max power. Its carpet deep-cleaning scores and crevice pickup scores were average. The NeverTouch Pro was also good at its main job of picking up debris on the surfaces of hard floors and carpets, where it picked up everything we threw at it with no issues. It also did well with our new flattened pet hair pickup test on carpet, where it picked up 86% of the hair, which is above average.

Mopping Performance

Another pro was that it had generally good mopping performance. It uses a single mop pad, which moves back and forth as it mops for agitation. The mop pad will also automatically extend for better coverage. The mop pad also lifts up automatically in a unique way when it senses carpets, giving it the ability to vacuum and mop houses with a mixture of hard floors and carpets in the same run. The Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro also has pad-drop functionality, where it will leave the pad at its base when vacuuming carpets and then go pick up the pad when it’s time to vacuum and mop hard floors.

As far as mopping ability, in our dried stain mop test it was better than average, getting a score of 116, where the average is currently about 101.

Auto-Empty Dock Features

The big story with the Shark NeverTouch Pro is that it has a dock that washes its mop pad—which, as we said, is a first for Shark. To do this, it uses a mechanism that moves back and forth to clean the mop pad, and then it dries the mop pad with a blower and refills its mop tank with just water or a water solution mix. All in all, the basic functionality of the bin and the mop washing station was good. It should also be noted that the bin is bagless instead of bagged, like many of its competitors. It also uses Shark’s unique odor-neutralizing cartridges, but I’m not sure if it’s a pro or not.

Obstacle Avoidance

All the Shark PowerDetects have front-mounted obstacle avoidance sensors, which is a pro. They use 3D structured light and lasers to recognize and avoid obstacles, and it did decently with this in our tests, getting a 14 out of a possible 22, which is right at the average amount—so not great but not terrible at avoiding objects. It has some other unique features, like NeverMiss Technology, where it can sense dirt and stains in order to give them more attention. It also has NeverStuck Technology, a pretty significant threshold-crossing ability. Shark claims it can cross thresholds up to 38 mm high, which is right in line with the new Roborock at 40 mm.

Cons

Performance

As far as performance, its battery life was not good at all. Its official battery life is lower than average, and in our various battery tests, it was below-average efficiency in our square-foot-per-charge calculations. In fact, these were some of the worst battery scores we’ve seen, especially in this price range. Some of that was due to its slow navigation, which, although it was decent at coverage, was below average with navigation efficiency, including a slower-than-average vacuum and mop time.

Bin Issues

As far as the bin, it was fine, but it was missing a number of features that have begun to be taken for granted with these bins. For example, the water was not heated when washing the mop pads. The air was also not heated for drying, the interior tray was not removable, and it was not self-cleaning.

Software

Finally, the software cons: there has been a lot of discussion about how comparatively bad Shark apps are to the rest of the field, and that didn’t change much with the NeverTouch Pro. It still has much less than its competitors in terms of app features. For example, it doesn’t have multi-level maps or adjustable water levels or clean-along-floor direction or individual room settings or mop zones or carpet boost, and you can’t see the robot vacuum’s progress live. It’s just an out-of-date app.

Conclusion

So, how did the Shark NeverTouch Pro do when all the scores and features were added up? Well, its final Vacuum Wars score was higher than average, but it only just made the Vacuum Wars Top 20 Robot Vacuum list at our website, coming in at number 20—which is a pretty low rank for a flagship robot vacuum, and it’s not expected to hang around in that spot for long.