Is the Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum worth it?

From robotic models to traditional uprights, Shark has made a name for itself with its powerful, feature-packed vacuums. And if you’re tired of pushing around a heavy upright vacuum just to have enough suction to clean up ground-in dirt, pet hair and other stubborn messes, the Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum is a lightweight corded stick vacuum that offers a deep clean of all surfaces.

Weighing under 10 pounds, the Rocket Pet Vacuum is easy to move around furniture and even carry up and down stairs. It also has a narrow head that fits well in tight spaces. Its two cleaning modes allow it to thoroughly clean hard surfaces and carpeting, easily pulling pet hair from even heavier carpets. It converts to a hand vac from floor to ceiling and has LED headlights to illuminate all visible dirt and debris.

The BestReviews Testing Lab put the Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum to work in a three-bedroom house to see how well it could handle hard surfaces like hardwood and carpeting. We tested its ability to pick up dirt, pet hair and larger debris to determine how effectively it dealt with different messes. We also considered how easy it was to maneuver, its noise level and how often we needed to change outlets due to its cord length.   

Why we like it

• Lightweight design: Despite being a powerful, corded model, the Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum weighs under 10 pounds. Its lightweight design made moving around our testing area easier, especially when compared to traditional upright vacuums.
• Powerful suction: The Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum offers two cleaning modes, but both provide excellent suction power on all flooring surfaces. During testing, we could use both settings on either hard floors or carpeting based solely on how deep a clean we wanted. 
• Narrow, swiveling head: With a compact, narrow vacuum head, the Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum can fit in tight spaces and beneath furniture. The head also swivels sharply to clean corners and around furniture. 
• Easy emptying: The Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum’s dustbin is easy to empty because it detaches completely from the vacuum, so we didn’t have to carry the entire thing to the trash can after cleaning. 

What we don’t like

• Cord limitations: While the Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum’s power cord is over 30 feet long, it still requires changing outlets when cleaning a larger area. We could navigate around furniture in large rooms, but overall, we had to move outlets four times during testing. 
• No HEPA filtration: The Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum has washable filters, but neither are high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters. Similar models from brands like Dyson have HEPA filters that trap up to 99.97% of dust, dirt and other airborne particles with a size of 0.3 microns or larger to keep the air around the vacuums cleaner.   

The 60-second scoop

This lightweight corded vacuum is powerful enough for cleaning up after pets but still compact enough for homes with limited storage space.

Product specifications
Dustbin Capacity: 0.9 gal | Dimensions: 13” L x 10.25” W x 47.5” H | Cord Length: 32’ | Cleaning Path Width: 10” | Weight: 8.6 lb

The Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum is a corded stick vacuum, so it delivers the power of a traditional upright vacuum with the lightweight design of a cordless model. With two cleaning modes, it offers enough suction to pick up dust, pet hair and other debris from both hardwood and carpeted surfaces. But we were really impressed with how light the vacuum was, making it easy to navigate around large furniture and carry between rooms. 

With a capacity of 0.9 gallons, the Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum’s dustbin can hold a good amount of dirt and hair, so it doesn’t need to be emptied too frequently. The system also features an LED headlight that illuminates the area directly in front of the vacuum to ensure you see all the debris that needs cleaning. It also helps that the vacuum head has a green light to indicate that the vacuum’s suction is working properly and a red light to alert you if there is a blockage affecting the suction. 

See how it compares to other products in its space — check out our reviews for the best Stick Vacuums.

Price and where to buy

The Shark HV322 Rocket Pet Vacuum typically retails for $199.99. You can find it at Amazon.

Setup

The Shark HV322 Rocket Pet Vacuum’s dust cup has a Max debris line, so keep on it during cleaning to avoid overfilling.

Setting up the Shark HV322 Rocket Pet Vacuum was extremely straightforward. It consists of just three components, so we only had to insert the end into the vacuum head until it clicked into place. Next, we attached the top of the wand to the bottom of the main vacuum body. Once those two steps were completed, we were ready to clean. 
 

Ultimately, the Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum’s assembly took less than two minutes. The steps were clearly laid out on the box, too, so we didn’t need to consult the owner’s manual. 

Design and brushrolls

Shark recommends cleaning the Rocket HV322’s pre-motor foam and felt filters monthly and the post-motor filter yearly.

Weighing under 10 pounds, the Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum has a slim, lightweight design that is easy to maneuver around furniture and other obstacles. We had no trouble moving it around large furniture or carrying it up and down stairs in our testing area. 

We were especially impressed by its narrow vacuum head and swivel steering, which allowed us to clean in tight spaces like under furniture and in corners. The vacuum head’s ability to swivel sharply also helped it wrap around corners and furniture for truly thorough cleaning. 

Unfortunately, the Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum’s brushroll isn’t self-cleaning, so hair can get tangled around it. While our testing area contained a dog, its short hair wasn’t a problem for the brushroll, and we never found hair wrapped around it. However, long hair could be an issue because the brush can’t automatically clear it from the roll like other stick vacuums can. 

Power and suction

The Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum did a stellar job picking up pet hair during our tests.

The Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum has a 32-foot cord. It is nonretractable, so we had to spend time wrapping it around the vacuum for storage. We found the cord to be long enough to navigate large rooms with large furniture, but we did occasionally have to switch outlets as we moved from room to room. In our three-bedroom testing area, we had to unplug the vacuum four times to clean the space fully, so it may be an issue in homes larger than 1,200 square feet. 

When it came to suction power, we were very impressed with the Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum’s performance on both hard floors and carpeting. It offers two cleaning modes: Mode 1 and Mode II. Mode I was slightly less powerful, so it worked well on hardwood and other hard surfaces in our testing area. On heavier carpeting, though, it occasionally required a second pass to remove dirt and debris fully. Mode II offered even more power, allowing us to pull debris from high-pile carpeting. Ultimately, we found both modes effective on all surfaces, though, so it came down to how deep a clean we needed on a particular surface. 

Pet hair performance

Our testing area contained a short-haired dog, so the Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum had plenty of pet hair to contend with. We found that it effectively removed the hair from both hard surfaces and carpeting, but we usually needed to use Mode II to pull the hair from medium- and high-pile carpeting. Mode I was effective on hardwood, other hard surfaces and even low-pile carpeting, though. 

The only issue we ran into with the Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum when cleaning pet hair was along the baseboards in corners. Its rounded head couldn’t always fit into those areas, so we had to sweep some hair that gathered along the baseboards away from the wall to pick it up with the vacuum.

Hand vacuum performance

The Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum converts to a hand vacuum in seconds, so we only had to remove the wand and floor nozzle to ready it for floor-to-ceiling cleaning. Just as when used in stick form, it had excellent suction as a hand vac. However, the dustbin’s placement at the back of the hand vac body made it somewhat bulky, so it didn’t fit as well into small spaces as other hand vacs we’ve used.  

We should note that the vacuum was supposed to come with attachments that can be used in hand-vac mode, but none were included in our box. 

Noise

The Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum was noticeably loud when we tested it.

The Shark HV322 Rocket Pet Vacuum reaches approximately 80 decibels when cleaning, which is about the noise level of city traffic (inside the car), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is on the higher end among vacuums, which typically range from 70 to 80 dB. We found it pretty loud during testing — we had a television on in the background as we cleaned, and it was inaudible while the vacuum was on. We also noticed that the HV322 was louder in Mode I than in Mode II. 

Other features and attachments

The testing team found the LED lights on both the floor nozzle and the handheld vacuum body useful so that no spots were missed.

From LED lights to light your floors to a dirt bin with a hands-free emptying design, the Shark HV322 Rocket Pet Vacuum offers several features that make cleaning a bit easier and more convenient.

LED lights

The Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum has LED lights on both the floor nozzle and the handheld vacuum body to illuminate the area you’re cleaning. It ensures you don’t miss any dirt, debris or hair on your floors, even under furniture. 

Quick-empty dustbin

The HV322’s dust cup also features a quick-emptying feature that allows you to empty it without getting your hands dirty. It took us a minute to figure out the dustbin’s release mechanism, but we could remove the container completely from the hand vac once we discounted the wand. Next, we only had to carry the dust cup to the trash can and press the empty button to release the debris inside. We were fans of its design because it made it much easier to empty the dustbin at the end of each cleaning session.

Accessories/attachments

The Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum comes with a pet multitool and pet crevice tool. However, our box didn’t include them, so we couldn’t test these attachments. 

How we tested the HV322

Because the Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum has a cord, you never have to worry about it running out of power in the middle of a job like you do with cordless models.

To determine how well the HV322 Rocket Pet Vacuum cleaned, we tested it in a three-bedroom home with hardwood floors, low-pile carpeting and high-pile carpeting. The testing area housed a short-haired dog, so the vacuum had plenty of pet hair to contend with in addition to the usual dust, dirt and debris. 

In addition to evaluating how well the vacuum removed debris on all flooring surfaces, we also noted how often we needed to unplug it and change outlets and how much noise it made during cleaning. Finally, we considered how easy the Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum was to operate and maneuver through our testing area. 

How does it compare to other vacuums we’ve tested

• Cord: Most vacuums we’ve tested recently are cordless models, such as the Dyson V15 Detect, Dyson Gen5detect Absolute and the Shark Cordless Detect Pro, while the Shark HV322 Rocket Pet Vacuum has a cord. The cordless models are obviously easy to use because you never have to worry about finding an outlet. However, the HV322 never runs out of power in the middle of cleaning like battery-operated cordless models can. 
• Weight and size: The Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum weighs 8.6 pounds, so it is the same weight as larger models we tested like the Dyson Gen5outsize Absolute. However, it is heavier than many cordless models we tested, including the Dyson V12 Slim Detect, which weighs just 5.22 pounds, and the Dyson V11 Extra, which weighs 6.53 pounds. 
• Power: The Shark Rocket HV322 picked up all types of debris on both hard surfaces and carpeting, offering excellent suction power. It is on par with the more powerful Dyson vacuums we tested, including the V15 Detect and Gen5outsize Absolute and the Shark Cordless Detect Pro. It was more powerful than entry-level models like the Dyson V11 Extra. 
• Noise level: Operating at 80 dB, the Shark Rocket Pet Vacuum was one of the louder vacuums we tested. Both the Dyson V11 Extra, topping out at 83.9 dB, and the Dyson V12 Extra, reaching 87.1 dB, were louder. However, the Shark Cordless Detect Pro was quieter at 78 decibels as was the Dyson Gen5detect Absolute at 79.4 dB.

The final verdict: Should you buy the Shark Rocket HV322?

The testing team found that the Shark HV322 offers plenty of power in a convenient, lightweight design.

As a corded vacuum, the Shark HV322 Rocket Pet Vacuum doesn’t provide the freedom of movement that cordless models do. However, it offers greater suction power than most cordless vacuums, so it’s similar to traditional upright models. But because it weighs under 10 pounds, it’s the perfect option for anyone who has trouble pushing around a heavy corded vacuum. It works just as well on carpeting as it does on hard surfaces and handles hair with ease, so we found it’s an excellent option for homes with multiple flooring types as well as those who have pets.