Shark AV2501AE AI Ultra Robot Vacuum – Powerful HEPA Cleaning with Smart Mapping & 60-Day Bagless Base
- 💨 Incredible Suction: Shark’s signature high-performance suction tackles dirt, dust, and stubborn debris on both carpets and hard floors.
- 🧠 Matrix Clean Navigation: Uses precision grid pattern cleaning, making multiple passes to ensure a complete whole-home clean with no spots missed.
- 🗑️ HEPA Self-Empty Base: Holds up to 60 days of dirt and debris with a HEPA filtration system that captures 99.97% of dust and allergens (down to 0.3 microns).
- 📍 Smart Precision Mapping: Equipped with 360° LiDAR navigation to map your home in real-time and navigate efficiently while avoiding obstacles—even in low light.
- 🐾 Pet-Friendly Design: Combines ultra-powerful suction, a self-cleaning brushroll, and HEPA filtration to capture pet hair, dander, and allergens effortlessly.
- 🗣️ Hands-Free Control: Compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, allowing voice-activated or app-based cleaning control on demand.
- 🔋 Extended Runtime + Recharge & Resume: Runs up to 120 minutes and automatically returns to recharge, then resumes cleaning where it left off.
- 🔧 Built for Quality: Engineered and tested to ensure long-lasting, dependable robotic performance.
- 📦 What’s Included: Shark AV2501AE Robot Vacuum, XL HEPA Self-Empty Base, and 2 Side Brushes.
Brand: Shark
Model: AV2501AE
Color: Black / Bronze
Special Features: Smart Mapping, LiDAR Navigation, Bagless, HEPA Filtration, Pet Hair Removal
Dimensions: 13.08″L x 8.43″W x 13.9″H
One thing I've struggled with, so far, is setting boundaries and getting them to work. It seems like even when I set boundaries the robot still goes to those places if I don't block them off. This could be user error, as I'm still learning the app.
The suction doesn't seem as good as my iHome, either, but it still does a good job. We have lots of older kids and toddlers and it does good cleaning up after their crumbs and things at the end of the day. It has had quite a few times where something doesn't get through the door when it's emptying so we have to remove that before it will do anything again, and we make sure to pick up anything big on the floor so it can't get stuff stuck, so these are not usually items that should cause this issue. I don't feel like it gets close enough to the edges of cabinets and walls, either.
A positive is that my iHome robot had a bag that had to be replaced when it was full, so I like the fact that this Shark robot doesn't need a bag. You just empty it into the garbage can. I'm still learning aspects of it and how to use the app, but, so far, so good. I do like the spot clean aspect, too, that comes in very handy with small messes throughout the day.
Overall, very functional and easy to use once you get the hang of it. It's nice to use the app to send it on it's missions instead of getting up to turn it on. I think the app also has scheduling function, but I haven't tried that, yet, because it just doesn't work well for my house.
Pros:
Not too loud.
House mapping and targeting single rooms is great.
“Matrix Clean” mode does a great job cleaning.
Cons:
We have cats and dogs so there’s a lot of fur which can ball up and wrap around the brush roll and get stuck. Thankfully they make it easy to pop out the brush roll and unclog it because I have to do it after every few cycles. It will get clogged/stuck over things my regular vacuum won’t.
I wish there was more customization for scheduling cleans. Like different rooms at different times and with “Matrix mode” would be nice.
We determined that from a feature/price standpoint, the Shark AV2501AE AI Robot Vacuum would fit our needs...
1. Good suction
2. Programmable defined areas to clean
3. Self cleaning dirt bin.
4. Wifi connected
Upon receipt, the first order of business is to turn the Shark loose and map out your entire floor area. It will determine the perimeter and transfer the result to the app. Depending on the size of your living area, it may take an hour or two.
Once the floor plan is completed, you can then specify rooms. This is a great feature. Instead of sending the vac out to clean the entire space, you can limit it to any of the one or more rooms you have specified.
Then comes the test run. We instructed Rosie to go forth and clean the most heavily trafficked area and specified Max Suction and Matrix cleaning mode. It took about an hour and half. During that time, she will periodically return to the base to empty the dust-bin, then go back to where she left off and resume her duties.
Upon completion we checked the recovery bin and were amazed at the volume of dust and dirt that this little worker vacuumed up! She's hired!
We're so satisfied with the cleaning result of this Shark AV2501AE AI Robot Vacuum we decided to buy another unit for the upstairs main living area.
Any deficiencies we've observed are with the app. For instance: you can set a schedule for cleaning, but you specify individual rooms. It will only schedule the entire mapped area. Rosie would have to run 6 or more hours and most of the time, we don't want her running that long.
It would be great to be able to set a schedule so that on Monday, clean the main living area. On Tuesday, clean the main bedroom. Wednesday, clean the office and 2nd bedroom.
Why Shark has not included this feature in it's software is a real regret with the software side of this unit. As a consequence, we send Rosie out manually to do a specific room or area. It's not a deal breaker by any means, but it's the only reason I knocked off one star.
We bought this on sale, and it made for a very affordable and attractively priced robot vac. In fact, we bought a second one to take care of the upstairs main living floor. Rosie is responsible for the lower level, which comprises 1,500 square feet. Cleaning the Family Room takes a good 1-1/2 to 2 hours.
"Carson" takes care of the upstairs. That is 2,500 sq. ft. and, as you can imagine, cleaning the entire floor space would take up most of the day. Hence: manually specifying specific rooms on alternating days.
When all is said and done, the Shark AV2501AE AI Robot Vacuum deserves a solid 5 stars, but gets a demerit for the limited software. Here are the basic reasons that make this vac a satisfying purchase...
1. Does an excellent deep-cleaning of your floors and carpets.
2. Operates in a matrix grid pattern for precise coverage.
3. Self cleaning bin is great. You just have to remember to empty the main collection bin regularly. (It's easy to forget to do this.)
4. You can tell it what room to clean and when, all from the comfort of your recliner.
We are very happy with the Shark AV2501AE AI Robot Vacuum, and think you will be, too!
Another thing to note is if you have pets that shed a lot, you will have to empty and maintain the base and shark itself more than usual. I have all hardwood but have a couple entry carpets. When the shark runs over a carpet, it leaves behind a huge clump of hair that its picked up. Not terrible, but things to keep in mind. All in all even with its short comings I think this was a great addition to my household and do not have regrets in purchasing.
I have a 2000 sq ft home and it mapped it great! I would give one advice for this! The battery life’s does not last long and it is programmed to vacuum your whole house when you start it. Therefore, it will do one 1/2 of my home, self empty and then have to charge, then do the rest of it. My lesson learned, my experience the second time running it is that I started the vacuum around 6pm, it stopped after vacuuming the first part of the house and then it had to charge and it takes sometime to charge (I have no timing yet) and then it finishes the programming and vacuums the rest of the house. Well, it scared me and woke me up as it started at 11:30pm! I just put it back on the charger and it didn’t come off.
Therefore if you want something that does not stop in between to vacuum and you have a bigger home this is my experience of what it does. Now I have not looked into it to see if I can re-program it, but even if I can, it would not change the battery life of it. It would still run out after running for about an hour! Unless I have a defective battery! I do not like returning electronics if I do not have to! I am just happy with the self emptying part of it and it not continuously getting stuck on the smallest things on the floor! It is a great vacuum and I still love it.. it’s not back breaking which means when you run it you consistently have to empty it out or take it off things it vacuumed up or was stuck on!
Setting up the device was a breeze. The instructions were clear, and within no time, I had it charged and ready to map my home. Compared to older models, this one really impressed me with its near-perfect mapping accuracy. It was able to learn the layout of my house with minimal issues, and the smart navigation system has made a noticeable difference in its cleaning efficiency. It reaches all the nooks and crannies without getting stuck, and the mapping precision is definitely a major upgrade from older versions I’ve used.
When it comes to performance, I couldn’t be happier. The vacuum does a fantastic job cleaning my floors, and I especially love how it leaves those perfect vacuum lines in the carpet. There’s something so satisfying about coming home to freshly cleaned floors with neat, even strips. It does a thorough job of picking up dirt, dust, and pet hair, leaving my home looking spotless without any extra effort on my part.
The noise level is pretty reasonable as well. While it’s not whisper-quiet, it’s not overly disruptive either. That being said, I rarely run it while I’m home—I usually schedule it to clean while I’m at work. That way, I can come back to a clean house without having to hear it in action. The suction power is impressive, especially for a robot vacuum, and it handles both carpet and hard floors with ease.
Another small but enjoyable detail is how sleek and modern it looks when it’s docked. It blends into the room nicely and doesn’t look out of place sitting on its charging station. It’s a great addition to the home, both in terms of function and design.
Overall, I’m extremely happy with this purchase, and I would definitely recommend this model to anyone considering a robot vacuum. Despite being used, the condition was excellent, and the performance has far exceeded my expectations. If you’re on the fence about buying a used one, don’t hesitate—this product proves that you can get great value without sacrificing quality.
It has great suction but it’s pretty quiet. It does a thorough cleaning job and gets the corners decently. The battery life is decent. On the normal mode, it’ll do my 1000 sq ft condo in one charge. There are also MAX (stronger) and ECO (lighter) suction modes, but I haven’t tried those. The vacuum doesn’t “clean by braille” like older robot vacuums used to do, bumping into everything to determine where walls and obstacles were. This guy seems to be able to “see” his surroundings.
The app works great and I love that I can see the battery life and tell my Alexa to send my robot to clean a specific room. The vacuum starts by making a map of your home and then you label each room so it knows where to go. There is one drawback: it has to sense the whole house in one trip. This means you can’t map multi-story homes (not a problem for me, but it is for friends who have 2-story homes). When it made the map of my house, I had a room closed off for storage that I didn’t need it to clean, but I’ve now made the room into an office. Instead of adding the room to my map, I have to erase the old map and send the robot around to map the whole house again, and then reassign the room boundaries.
Another drawback is that the Alexa integration is a little clunky, in that it always asks for the robot name even though I only have one vacuum.
“Alexa, ask Shark to start cleaning the living room.”
“Which robot?”
“Bruce.”
“Okay, your robot is now cleaning.”
Alexa doesn’t recognize the request if you ask using just the robot name (“ask Bruce to clean the living room”). I wish they would eliminate the extra question when you only have one robot. Not a big deal but it is annoying.
Overall I’m very happy with my vacuum and it’s saved me a lot of time and effort that I used to spend keeping dog hair under control.
Pros:
First off, the cleaning is quite decent. It might not be very good at deep cleaning, but - pardon the pun - it doesn't suck! More than cat hair, I am very bothered by kitty litter spread around by our felines. This cleaner does a pretty good job of cleanup there.
It is also fairly good at obstacle avoidance, although it does try and climb two X-shaped keyboard stands that I have in our bedroom. But it hasn't ever been stuck anywhere. In addition, the 2nd floor also has a staircase. The first time I used it on that floor, I was expecting it to go crashing down the stairs. But this little thing has excellent sensing and braking skills and stops in time quite well.
Unlike the experience of others who have provided feedback here, I had no problem with connecting it to the WiFi. I have not had the good fortune/misfortune of connecting with customer support. Hopefully, I never have to, given what some other reviewers have said.
It is quite good at getting back to home base, emptying itself, and recharging. Barring one or two occasions when it did not restart the cleaning, it has worked quite well at completing the cleaning.
Cons:
This thing is very noisy, no question about it. But I don't use it at night when I'm trying to sleep. I think the noise does not really matter much for me. Also, if it is doing a good job cleaning, I expect it to be revving up to suck up more junk from the carpet or bare floor.
As mentioned earlier, we have two floors. Which leads me to the mapping issues. This thing simply refuses to map and retain the layout for two floors. The app is functional and fairly good at telling me what the mapped layout is. But I have to ask it to remap each time we move it from floor to floor. This is definitely a pain in the you-know-what. Also, we usually "prepare" each floor before starting the cleanup. This means moving stuff out the way, closing doors to bathrooms and closets so it does not map those out. However, I have noticed that the mapping seems to be just a guide of sorts. On the few occasions that we accidentally left a door or two open, the device merrily traipsed through those doors and started cleaning up there as well! Fortunately, there were no mishaps, because those rooms had not been "prepared" for the cleaning.
This problem of not being able to retain the layout of more than one floor at a time is the biggest flaw. Perhaps I missing something in the way the app works. If so, the app is rather non-intuitive and not simple enough to use.
I have also not used its integration with Alexa. In fact, were it not for the specific rating request at the top of this review, I would not have even know it had the integration.
Overall, while there is scope for improvement, I am reasonably happy with the product. I just wish they could fix the multi-floor mapping issues. Ideal would be if this thing could climb up and down the stairs and make it one big layout! But then, I might be asking for a bit too much.