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Shark PowerDetect Nevertouch Pro Review

Today, our focus is on the Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro, which is Sharkโ€™s first robot vacuum with automatic mop washing and refilling. We bought one and tested it for several weeks and found that although itโ€™s packed with some innovative features (maybe one of Sharkโ€™s best yet), it does have some significant drawbacks. In this Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro review, weโ€™ll go over the features, pros, and cons to help you decide whether itโ€™s right for your situation.

We’ll also reveal whether it made the Vacuum Wars Top 20 Robot Vacuum list.

Watch this review on YouTube.





The Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro is Sharkโ€™s first robot vacuum with automatic mop washing, offering decent cleaning on both hard floors and carpets, slightly above-average airflow, and an edge-detect feature that helps funnel debris into its path. Its single mop pad moves back and forth for effective mopping and automatically lifts when it senses carpets, with the option to drop the pad before vacuuming rugs. The dock washes, dries, and refills the mop tank, while the bin is bagless and uses Sharkโ€™s odor-neutralizing cartridges. However, its battery life is lower than average, and slow navigation reduces overall efficiency. The station doesnโ€™t heat water or air and lacks a removable interior tray, while the app offers fewer features than competitors. See additional info

Price as of Amazon price as of February 17, 2025

Auto Empty Station: Self Empties Debris | Washes Mop Pad | Dries Mop Pad | Dirty Water Sensor | Bagless

Mopping: Lifts Mop Pads on Carpets | Extending Mop Pad for Hard to Reach Areas | Can Leave Mop Pad at Station

Hardware: 38mm Threshold Crossing | Removes Hair from Brush Roll

Performance: Dirt Detect

Mapping / Navigation: Virtual Barriers and No Go Zones

ScoresShark PowerDetect NeverTouch ProAverage Robot Vacuum Tested
Vacuum Wars Overall3.203.07
Features3.354.01
Mopping Performance2.514.01
Obstacle Avoidance2.983.30
Pet2.823.60
Navigation2.753.26
Battery1.672.70
Performance3.823.40

Official Battery Life: 120 MinutesNavigation Type: Spinning Lidar
Official Suction Power: UnknownDust Bin Size: 312ml
Obstacle Avoidance Type: 3D Sensor and 360 LiDARObjects Recognized: Unknown
Multi Level Maps: NoVirtual Barriers: Yes
Detergent Capacity: UnknownBagless: 3L

Variations

The Shark PowerDetect Nevertouch Pro comes in two different colors (white and black), 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.

You can get the most expensive version, the NeverTouch Pro, which 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 a version that just has an auto-empty bin with no mop functionality at all.

Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro options. ยฉVacuum Wars

Hardware

As far as hardware, the NeverTouch Pro uses a single main brush and a single side brush. It doesnโ€™t have an extendable side brush, but it does have EdgeDetect, a unique feature that blows air to the side when vacuuming edges to move debris into its path.

Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro’s hardware. ยฉVacuumWars
The unique EdgeDetect feature of the NeverTouch Pro. ยฉVacuumWars

Pros

Performance

Its general performance was good. For example, it had decent power numbers, like slightly above-average airflow on max power.

However, 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 even did well with our new flattened pet hair pickup test on carpets, where it picked up 86% of the hair, which is above average.

The Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro’s general performance was good. ยฉVacuum Wars

Mopping Performance

Another pro was that it had generally good mopping performance. The Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro uses a single mop pad, which moves back and forth as it mops for agitation.

The mop pad also automatically extends for better coverage and lifts up automatically in a unique way when it senses carpets. This gives it the ability to vacuum and mop houses with a mixture of hard floors and carpets in the same run.

In addition, the NeverTouch Pro has pad-drop functionality, where it leaves the pad at its base when vacuuming carpets and returns to pick up the pad when itโ€™s time to vacuum and mop hard floors.

The PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro has an extendable mop pad, lifts automatically when sensing carpets, and a pad-drop feature. ยฉVacuum Wars

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

The PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro performed well in our dried stain mop test. ยฉVacuum Wars

โญ Related: See how we test robot vacuum mops.

Auto-Empty Dock Features

The big story with the Shark NeverTouch Pro is that it has a dock that washes its mop padโ€”which, as noted earlier, 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’s also worth noting that the bin is bagless instead of bagged.

And like many of its competitors. It also uses Shark’s unique odor-neutralizing cartridges, but Iโ€™m not sure if itโ€™s a pro or not.

The NeverTouch Pro’s dock washes the mop pad, dries the mop, refills the mop tank, has a bagless bin, and uses Shark’s odor neutralizer cartridges. ยฉVacuum Wars

Obstacle Avoidance

All the Shark PowerDetects have front-mounted obstacle avoidance sensors, which is a huge pro.

They use 3D structured light and lasers to recognize and avoid obstacles, and the NeverTouch Pro did decently with this in our tests. It got 14 out of 22 possible points, which is right at the average numberโ€”so not great, but not terrible at avoiding objects.

The PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro’s obstacle avoidance has some other unique features, like NeverMiss Technology, which senses 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.

Shark PowerDetect’s obstacle avoidance performance and threshold crossing ability. ยฉVacuum Wars

โญ Related: See how we test robot vacuum obstacle avoidance.

Cons

Performance

As far as performance, its battery life was not great. Its official battery life is lower than average, and in our various battery tests, it had below-average efficiency in our square-foot-per-charge calculations. In fact, these were some of the worst battery scores weโ€™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 efficiencyโ€”including a slower-than-average vacuum and mop time.

The PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro’s navigation performance was below average. ยฉVacuum Wars

Bin Issues

The Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro’s bin was fine but missing a number of features that have begun to be taken for granted. 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.

The NeverTouch Pro's bin was missing features that have become standard for some auto-empty bins ยฉVacuum Wars
The NeverTouch Pro’s bin was missing features that have become standard for some auto-empty bins. ยฉVacuum Wars

Software

There has been a lot of discussion about how comparatively bad Shark apps are to the rest of the industry, and that didnโ€™t change much with the NeverTouch Pro. It still has much less than its competitors in terms of app features.

For example, it doesnโ€™t have multi-level maps, adjustable water levels, clean-along-floor direction, individual room settings, mop zones, or carpet boost features. Plus, you canโ€™t see the robot vacuumโ€™s progress live. Itโ€™s just an out-of-date app.

The Shark app is outdated compared to other cleaning apps. ยฉVacuum Wars

Shark PowerDetect Nevertouch Pro Review: Conclusion and Recommendation

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. It only just made the Vacuum Wars Top 20 Robot Vacuum list, coming in at number 20, which is a pretty low rank for a flagship robot vacuum. And we don’t expect it to hang around in that spot for long. Overall, the NeverTouch Pro is a good product worth consideration, especially if you don’t need any of the missing features.

$799.99 $999.99
 

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Christopher White

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Christopher White CEO
Christopher White is the CEO of Vacuum Wars, the premier YouTube channel dedicated to vacuum cleaner reviews. Over the past eight years, Vacuum Wars has become a trusted resource, meticulously reviewing hundreds of robot vacuums, cordless vacuums, carpet cleaners, and various floor care products. Known for their comprehensive in-house testing, Vacuum Wars has built one of the most extensive databases of vacuum cleaner metrics available. Under Christopherโ€™s leadership, the channel has maintained a strict no-sponsorship policy, ensuring that all reviews remain unbiased and trustworthy. This dedication to integrity has garnered a loyal following of over 300,000 subscribers who rely on their expert advice. Christopher is also a recognized authority on robot vacuums, boasting one of the largest private collections of these devices worldwide. Learn more.

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