The Shark PowerDetect Speed Clean and Empty Pet Pro is a cordless vacuum cleaner designed to remove the usual hassles of vacuuming, thanks to a self-emptying, self-charging base station. The Guardian's reviewer found it excelled on hard floors and at picking up pet hair, but was let down by a battery life that proved shorter than expected, limiting its usefulness in larger homes.

The top-end model tested, the IA3241UKT, costs £499.99 and includes the emptying station plus a motorised hand tool for stairs and upholstery; a cheaper version without these, the IA1241UKT, is priced at £429.99. The base station can reportedly hold up to 45 days' worth of dirt, transferring debris from the vacuum's 0.47-litre bin into a 2-litre chamber and recharging the device after each use. Testing involved standard checks of battery runtime, suction power and cleaning performance against measured amounts of pet hair, cat litter and flour on carpet and hard floors.