Shark Lift-Away Pro Review

The Shark Lift-Away Pro has a 500ml capacity water tank with a 1-inch opening and a 22-foot long cord. It comes with two different-shaped mop heads that feature hands-free pad replacement, as well as a scrubbing brush. It has a removable tank with a hose and several other attachments for cleaning more than just your floors.

Performance Comparison

Cleaning Performance

For your standard, everyday cleaning of tile and stone floors, the Lift-Away Pro does an okay job. It provides powerful, even steam and a large mop pad that easily handles larger surface areas. It does catch a bit on textured flooring and deeply grouted tiles, but it's easy to turn the mop head sideways to reach around objects in your home. The freely pivoting head sometimes works against this unit, though, allowing it to get sidetracked rather than run in straight lines.

When it comes to stubborn stains, the Lift-Away Pro falls short. It's not the worst we tested, but its pad is quite soft and unable to deliver the abrasion needed to really scrub. You can swap to a triangle pad, which is slightly abrasive and has a scrubbing section you can press down with your foot, but it's not particularly convenient to use for more than a quick spot here and there. The Lift-Away does offer an extra blast of steam to help loosen tough messes, though it's difficult to aim.

Ease of Use

The Lift-Away Pro has all of the hallmarks of an easy-to-use steam mop: it has simple buttons for adjusting the steam level, it heats up in less than a minute, and it feels sturdy and well-built. The opening for filling the water tank is just an inch across, but the steaming unit detaches from the mop, so you can rest it on the counter while you fill it. Its capacity is 500ml, which is standard for most home steam mops, though its semi-opaque sides are difficult to see the water level through.

Where the Lift-Away Pro separates itself from the field is its hands-free pad changing. This lets you change pads on the fly without having to bend over, wait for the mop to cool down, or get your hands dirty. The pad is also double-sided, giving you twice the cleaning surface before needing a wash. However, the pivoting neck on the Lift-Away Pro can be rather squirrely during handling and doesn't allow the mop to stand up on its own. It's also challenging to prop up against the wall or counter due to this easily mobile head and rounded handle, and ours frequently clattered to the floor when we left it unattended.

Maneuverability

The Lift-Away Pro glides relatively easily over minimally textured floors, like high gloss tile, but catches a bit on ceramic or stone. Both heads of this mop are quite large, helping to cover more floor in less time. The large rectangular pad easily pivots sideways to fit into narrower spaces — though its overall larger size doesn't fit into quite as small of spots as some others we tested. The triangular head gets into narrower corners, and both do a fantastic job cleaning right up to the edge of baseboards. It also has a reasonably long, 22-foot power cord, which is plenty for cleaning averaged-sized homes.

Features

Apart from having both a rectangular and triangular cleaning head (only the rectangular can do hands-free pad changing), the water tank can be removed from the mop to be used in a multitude of different ways. It has an included hose that can be hooked up to multiple hand-held cleaning brushes, allowing you to steam clean things like countertops, refrigerators, and showers. There is also a nozzle attachment that lets you steam garments, curtains, and other fabrics. This lineup of diverse attachments makes it an exceptionally versatile mop, good for more than just your floors.

Value

The Shark Lift-Away Pro isn't cheap, but also isn't the most expensive model we tested. It's not the most amazing cleaner for just floors but has a slew of attachments that help it to be useful in just about every room of your house. Other units with this variety of attachments cost far more than the Lift-Away Pro, making it a solid value purchase for a full home cleaning experience.

Conclusion

If you have large areas to clean and want the ability to use your steam mop on more than just the floor, the Lift-Away Pro is an excellent choice. It's a complete cleaning package that's well worth the price tag. On the other hand, if your focus is just flooring or you're hoping to do some deep cleaning, there are other models we like more.