Shark Stealth Euro-Pro canister vacuum cleaner

by Shana
(Los Angeles)

The Shark Stealth Euro-Pro canister vacuum cleans very well, But I rarely use it for 2 reasons.

1) It is extremely noisy - actually hurts my ears unless I wear ear plugs.

2) The HEPA filter is nearly impossible to clean! (Has 3 other easy to clean filters).

I have a one-bedroom apartment and this filter has to be cleaned after each time I vacuum the whole apartment. If not, the vacuum will automatically shut down until the HEPA filter is cleaned.

The instructions for cleaning say to just tap the filter on a waste basket. This is a ridiculous instruction!!!, since dust and hairs accumulate so much into the filter pleats that you have to pull the main debris out by hand. I have a small apartment so have to go downstairs to the garage to clean, or there will be dust all over the place from cleaning this HEPA filter.

There's no water hose down there so I have to bring a bucket of water, a spray bottle with more water, a dust mask, gloves and a toothbrush for endless scraping of the dirt stuck in the filter pleats. Then I have to rinse with water (and dry for a day or more). The whole process can take 2 hours and it's exhausting. It's much more difficult than the actual vacuuming.

This is a miserable process. I get so tired from the vacuuming that the thought of going through this even more exhausting cleaning process before I have to vacuum again causes me to not want to vacuum!

I would never purchase another vacuum with a HEPA filter unless it was self-cleaning, if there is such a thing.