Shark Classic Handheld Pet Vacuum review: perfect for pet hair and kitchen crumbs

Price on writing: £60 | Buy now from Shark

Our verdict

If you're tired of lugging out your best vacuum cleaner for smaller jobs or stretching its cord to hoover raisins out of your car seats, a lightweight but powerful handheld vacuum cleaner like this one from Shark is a real godsend.

Our tester Tamsin was surprised at just how light the Handheld Pet Vacuum is, compared to her Shark IZ202UKT Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner. She loved the straightforward controls that make cleaning up small messes, giving the sofa a once-over and hoovering the car a complete doddle.

While the hoover's 10-minute runtime and small bin mean it's not much use for a full house clean, Tamsin's glad to have it for keeping on top of kitchen crumbs and dog hair between blitzes.

Read next: The best budget vacuum cleaners under £200

How we tested

Our tester Tamsin tested the Shark Classic Handheld Pet Vacuum in her two bedroom home in Surrey over the space of a month. She and her husband use the handheld vacuum cleaner for everyday household cleaning; testing out all the vacuum's features and taking detailed notes on the ease of use, user-friendliness and quality of the vacuum cleaner.

What's the Shark Classic Handheld Pet Vacuum like to set up and start using?

The vacuum cleaner couldn't be easier to set up. All it needs is to be charged up, then you select the head that best fits the job at hand - Tamsin mostly opted for the motorised pet tool head, and the crevice tool for cleaning between sofa cushions and car seats.

One drawback Tamsin noticed when comparing this vacuum to her Shark cordless vacuum cleaner, was the lack of battery indicator lights to show you how much charge is left before the hoover needs to be plugged in again. However, as she only uses the handheld vacuum for quick jobs and plugs it in to charge after each one, she never found battery life to be a problem.

Related: The best robot vacuum cleaners for hands free hoovering

What's the Shark Classic Handheld Pet Vacuum like to use day-to-day?

The vacuum cleaner is really small, so it's easy to store between uses, as well as keep handy and accessible for impromptu clean-ups throughout the day. Tamsin keeps hers in her kitchen, and loves it for cleaning up crumbs.

This hoover is adept at sucking up rogue pet hairs, so it's great to have up your sleeve for last-minute touch-ups or a heavily-shedding pet who needs clearing up after at certain points in the year.

Tamsin found herself using the Shark Classic Handheld Pet Vacuum more regularly than her larger vacuum cleaner, as it's smaller and more lightweight, while bringing out the more powerful stick vacuum cleaner when she wanted to clean her whole house.

The vacuum cleaner's dust bin can be emptied conveniently - the dust compartment comes off the main vacuum head with the touch of a button, so you can open it straight into your kitchen bin. The different heads are simple to click on and off so it's easy to switch to the tool that best suits the job you're tackling.

Read next: The best robot mops for spotless floors

Does the Shark Classic Handheld Pet Vacuum offer good value for money?

At the time of writing, the Shark Classic Handheld Pet Vacuum is £60, down from an RRP of £80. Tamsin says this is, "Great value for money as it's still the Shark quality I'm used to, but at a much lower price point."

For context, Tamsin's Shark cordless stick vacuum cleaner set her back over £200, and you could spend that much on a top-of-the-range Dyson DC34 Handheld.

Shark has many fans in the Mumsnet forums and beyond, thanks to its high quality products that can stand up against more expensive competitors but don't cost the earth. For impressive suction and convenience that won't let you down, this is a brilliant handheld vacuum cleaner to have around the house, at a very reasonable price.

About the author

Poppy O'Neill is a Content Editor at Mumsnet and a mother of two. She's been researching and reviewing home and parenting products for 2 years, with a particular focus on laundry and cooling. From washing machines to baby monitors and dehumidifiers to cooling pillows, she loves to deep-dive into research and find the best products out there.

Poppy is also an award-winning, best-selling children's and parenting author of books such as Don't Worry, Be Happy, The Extraordinary Book That Makes You Feel Happy and Mother Power. She specialises in children's mental health and her books are used by therapists, teachers and SENCOs across the UK. She won a The Week Junior Book Award in 2023, her books have been translated into several languages and she's been featured in The Guardian, The Sunday Times and The Sun.

After earning a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Leeds and a PGCert in Fashion and Lifestyle Journalism from University of the Arts London, she worked in fashion for most of her 20s. When her children were young, she undertook an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Chichester and re-trained as an author and freelance writer.

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