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The future has arrived. You are shopping for an actual robot to do your vacuuming for you. And you don’t have to worry about these robots taking over the world either (yet), as they still struggle with the concept of stairs.
These robots are the friendly type. They are ready to clean your floor and don’t want anything else. Perfect. When it comes to vacuums, the world has moved on in leaps and bounds. Sure, a lot of people might still refer to hoovering, but very few people still trail a vacuum behind them as they go.
It’s not even that common any more for people to have a vacuum that plugs into the wall. Looking for a plug socket that can help you reach all four corners of the room is now a thing of the past.
And with these vacuums, you don’t even need to get up off the couch. But as we go hurtling into an electronic-centric future, it can be hard to keep up with what would work best for you.
Shark vacuums are part of the Shark Ninja brand, and they have quickly become a staple name in the market of high-tech household appliances. In some ways, the robot vacuums that they have on offer can feel almost like a video game, especially the ones with a remote control.
But what do you need to look out for when you’re getting a new one? And how do you know which one is right for you?
In this article, we are going to compare the RV720 and the RV750. These two are pretty similar, so we’ll go through some of their main features, like their designs, battery life, cleaning schedules and dustbins.
But then we’ll also make sure we highlight the key differences, like how they are controlled. By the end of this article, you should feel very comfortable about which is the better choice for you.
We’re going to take you through all of the main features of these vacuums, and we’d recommend you read the whole article so you can be sure of which one is best for you, but if you don’t have time, take a look at our quick list of difference here:
Shark Ion 720 Advantages:
Shark Ion 720 Disadvantages:
Shark Ion 750 Advantages:
Shark Ion 750 Disadvantages:
Winner: Don’t want to read the full article? The editor’s choice is Shark Ion 750.
Before anything else, let’s take a look at the design of these robot vacuums. Both are entirely circular. This means that they can go in any direction and won’t get stuck in a corner.
The Shark Ion 720 is predominantly black, but has silver detail going around the top of the vacuum that looks very sleek. It is a simple design on the top with just three buttons. The clean button sits at the top in the centre, then there is a button to “dock” on the left, and “spot” on the right.
This should keep it nice and easy for you to decide what the vacuum needs to do. The Shark Ion 750 is perhaps even more minimalist in all-black. Again it has three buttons, but instead of the “spot” button, on the right hand side is the “max” button.
Apart from the color and the different buttons, the two vacuums have very similar designs. They both use a triple brush system. This involves a helix brush system, whereby they cross over and rotate in opposite directions, to help prevent clogging.
There are also side brushes which help to pull dirt from the edges and channel it into the cleaning path. They also work effectively at self-cleaning, so you shouldn’t have such a problem of long hairs getting wrapped around the brush and preventing it from gathering dirt.
In this way, the two vacuums are very effective at cleaning surfaces- ideal for a vacuum. In terms of size, both the Shark Ion 720 and the 750 measure 12.6 inches across, from which they are able to clean a radius of around 13 inches, thanks to the side brush.
And they are both 2.6 inches high. This means that they should be low enough to get under any low-hanging furniture to clean up the dust in those hard-to-reach spots. They also both weigh 5.51 lbs, so they’re pretty easy to move around.
Verdict:
The two vacuums are almost identical when it comes to design, so we will have to call this round a draw.
One of the main concerns for anyone moving to a cordless vacuum is the battery life of this new style of vacuum. Depending on home-size, dirt levels, and frequency of vacuuming, it can take quite a while to vacuum everywhere, so a lot of people feel a bit unsure about whether these new vacuums can get it all done on one charge.
The answer of course depends on the aforementioned aspects. If you have a very large house with multiple rooms, or if you have a young child that drops a lot of food and trails a lot of mud, or if you just tend to leave the vacuuming for a while before getting around to it, it will take the vacuum longer to get done than if you have a small flat with little mess and keep up to it regularly.
These two Shark Ion vacuums both have a battery run time of 70 minutes. It is worth pointing out that having to deal with more dirt, thicker carpets or having a fuller dustbin can all affect the vacuum’s battery, so it is more likely to last for around 45 minutes.
The great thing about these vacuums is that they are able to send themselves back to automatically recharge. So you’ll never need to send it out to clean a mess and find that it has run out of charge.
The bad side of these vacuums is that they don’t have intelligent mapping. This means that they can’t send themselves back out again to where they were cleaning before they charged. You will have to send them out again. However, for most homes, 45 minutes ought to be plenty, especially as they can’t navigate stairs by themselves anyway.
When the vacuums are charging, they will automatically recharge in their docking station. To reach full charge takes around three hours, so there shouldn’t be many occasions when it is out of battery.
Verdict:
The two vacuums are the same when it comes to charging and battery life, so this round is a tie.
When it comes to robots, we all want to know how we can control them. There’s no point having a robot vacuum that you then have to watch over every step of the way. Both of these vacuums have smart sensor navigation.
This means that they can head out and clean without you directing them. Their sensors assess and adapt to different floors and obstacles, so they can move around without banging into chairs or table legs. The actual route that they take is based on a random path.
It is effective at covering the whole space, but isn’t the most efficient cleaning. These days there are some robot vacuums that have intelligent mapping so they can clean even more efficiently, but they come in a higher price bracket.
They also both come with boundary strips. This means that you can block off certain areas to prevent the vacuum from doing those bits. It is a particularly practical feature for anyone with a dog basket in the corner, or a toy box that tends to be overflowing.
Although these vacuums might seem fairly similar so far, there is one key difference, and that is the remote control. On the Shark Ion 720, the remote control is a hand-held device which allows you to tell the vacuum to clean while you are sitting on the couch.
You can use it to tell the vacuum to start cleaning or you can direct it to a particular spot. The remote control can even be used to schedule cleaning for different days of the week or to set a recurring schedule. It can’t get much easier than that, you might think. But that’s where you’re wrong. Enter the Shark Ion 750.
The feature that really sets the Shark Ion 750 apart from its predecessor is that it is Wi-Fi enabled. This is a real game-changer when it comes to household chores. With the Wi-Fi capabilities, you are able to connect the robot vacuum to an app on your phone.
This means that you can set cleaning and schedules from your phone, even when you’re not in the house. So if you suddenly have guests coming over to the house after dinner or work, you can set the 750 to do a quick clean up before you get back.
Being Wi-Fi enabled also means that you can control the vacuum with Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant. So if some cereal is spilled at breakfast, you can just call out for the vacuum to come and clean it up, while you deal with the rest of the morning chaos.
Verdict:
This Shark Ion 750 is the stand-out winner of this round. Sure, a remote control is cool, but being able to control it all from your phone, or even just by calling out, takes vacuuming to a whole new level.
One of the main aspects to check when buying a new vacuum is without doubt the performance. That is something that is pretty much identical between these two vacuums. Firstly, they both use HEPA filters, which should guard the dirt and dust in the dustbin, to prevent it from escaping and flaring up allergies.
In fact, HEPA filters are around 99.97% effective, so they are effective even for people with asthma. It should be mentioned that robot vacuums don’t tend to be as powerful as the up-right vacuums, as they are much smaller, however they are still pretty effective at cleaning.
For these two vacuums, they are great at hard floors and low pile carpets, but they do tend to struggle a bit with high-pile carpets. In terms of their dustbins, a bit of a design flaw that they share is that there is no indicator for when it is full.
This means that you do have to check it periodically. As it is quite a small vacuum, it is recommended that you empty the bin after every use. Although you might not need to do it that frequently, particularly if you are controlling it remotely and aren’t around at the time, it is worth getting into the habit, as it becomes less effective once the dustbin is full.
Verdict:
The two robot vacuums are identical in terms of performance. The only thing that makes the 750 stand out would be that you can set it while you are not there, which makes it a more useful performance.
It’s all very well going through all of the features, but for a lot of people, the part that really matters is the price difference. Needless to say, the 720 is a cheaper model. Although prices do vary, it tends to always be at least $40 cheaper.
Given that the two vacuums are so similar, that might feel like quite a big price difference for the same cleaning result. The question really comes down to whether or not you want it to be Wi-Fi enabled.
If you don’t think that you’ll use the app, or don’t have Alexa or Google Assistant, the remote control might be easier for you. But if you do think you’d like to be able to set it while you are at work or from voice-control, $40 is probably a reasonable amount to pay for the comfort.
Verdict:
The Shark Ion 720 is our choice as it is a cheaper price.
So now we’ve been through the two Shark vacuums. We’ve seen that they are both round with a cleaning surface of 13 inches, standing at 2.6 inches high. They can both last for 45-70 minutes, depending on floor type, and can both automatically recharge.
The main difference is that the 750 is Wi-Fi enabled, and as such, it is easier to use and control. But whether or not that is a feature you will use is up to you. Which one do you think you’ll go for?
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