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Dyson vs. Shark: Which Stick Vacuum Is The Best?
Dyson vs. Shark: Which Stick Vacuum Is The Best?
Writtten and Edited by: Benjamin White
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If you have pets or kids, your house can go from clean to chaos in minutes. A few crackers on the kitchen floor, pet hair on the carpet, sand tracked in from outside — and suddenly your stick vacuum is the most important appliance in the room.
Right now two vacuums keep coming up when people search for a cordless solution: the Dyson V8 at around $390 and the Shark IZ340H Pet Pro at around $124. That’s a $266 gap. The question is whether the Dyson actually cleans better — or whether you’re paying for the name.
We bought both, ran eight real-world tests on carpet and hardwood, and measured everything with professional equipment. Here’s exactly what happened.
If you’d like to watch the video of me testing these vacuums, watch this video:
The Dyson V8 is powered by a digital V8 motor that spins at up to 110,000 RPM and delivers 115 AW of suction. It comes with Dyson’s Motorbar cleaner head, which uses polycarbonate vanes to automatically clear hair from the brush bar as you vacuum. At 5.58 lbs it’s the lighter of the two, and it converts to a handheld for above-floor cleaning. A fully sealed 5-stage filtration system captures 99.99% of particles as small as 0.3 microns.
| Price (Amazon) | ~$390 |
| Weight | 5.58 lbs |
| Suction Power | 115 AW |
| Motor Speed | Up to 110,000 RPM |
| Runtime | Up to 40 min (2 power modes) |
| Bin Capacity | 0.52 liters |
| Filtration | 5-stage sealed — 99.99% @ 0.3 microns |
| Brushroll | Motorbar (auto-detangling) |
| Converts to Handheld | Yes |
| Warranty | 2 Years |
The Shark IZ340H is positioned as a budget-friendly alternative with strong pet-focused features. It’s heavier than the Dyson at 7.6 lbs, but compensates with a much larger 0.83-gallon dust cup and a self-cleaning PowerFins brushroll that resists hair wrap without any manual maintenance. Its standout feature is MultiFLEX technology — the wand bends near the floor to reach under furniture, and the vacuum stands on its own without a dock. HEPA filtration with Anti-Allergen Complete Seal rounds out the package.
| Price (Amazon) | ~$124 |
| Weight | 7.6 lbs |
| Suction | Hypervelocity Accelerated Suction |
| Runtime | Up to 40 min (standard mode) |
| Bin Capacity | 0.83 gallons (XL) |
| Filtration | HEPA + Anti-Allergen Complete Seal |
| Brushroll | PowerFins (self-cleaning, no hair wrap) |
| MultiFLEX Wand | Yes — bends under furniture, freestanding |
| Converts to Handheld | Yes |
| Warranty | 5 Years |
If you’re running a vacuum while the baby’s napping or the TV’s on, how loud it is matters. We used a sound level meter two feet away with both vacuums at max power.
| Measurement | Dyson V8 | Shark IZ340H |
|---|---|---|
| Sound Level | 76 dB | 76 dB |
Winner: TIE — 76 dB each
We used a professional airflow meter to measure suction at the hose in two conditions: unsealed (raw pulling power) and sealed (suction under resistance, similar to what happens against carpet).
| Measurement | Dyson V8 | Shark IZ340H |
|---|---|---|
| Unsealed — ft/min | ✔ 442 ft/min | 288 ft/min |
| Unsealed — CFM | ✔ 31.03 CFM | 20.23 CFM |
| Sealed — ft/min | ✔ 595 ft/min | 451 ft/min |
| Sealed — CFM | ✔ 41.75 CFM | 31.65 CFM¸. x |
Dyson wins by a wide margin in every measurement. On paper, this is where the $266 price gap looks justified. But the cleaning tests told a different story.
Winner: DYSON — all four measurements
We weighed out 100 grams of sand, spread it evenly across the carpet, ran one straight pass, and weighed the dustbin to calculate exact pickup.
| Carpet — Sand | Dyson V8 | Shark IZ340H |
|---|---|---|
| Sand picked up | ✔ 94g | 86g |
The Dyson edges out the Shark on carpet — more suction, more pickup. That tracks with the airflow numbers.
Winner: DYSON — carpet sand
Same test repeated on hardwood. Both vacuums picked up the sand in a single pass this time.
| Hardwood — Sand | Dyson V8 | Shark IZ340H |
|---|---|---|
| Sand picked up | ✔ 98g | ✔ 100g (perfect) |
The Shark hits a perfect 100 grams on hardwood while the Dyson falls 2 grams short. A small margin, but the Shark takes the win on hard floors.
Winner: SHARK — hardwood sand
With the sand test done, we moved on to the messier real-world debris — the stuff that actually ends up on your floor when you have kids or pets. Scores are out of 5.
| Test | Dyson V8 | Shark IZ340H |
|---|---|---|
| Rice | 2/5 ★★☆☆☆ | 5/5 ★★★★★ |
| Cereal | 1/5 ★☆☆☆☆ | 5/5 ★★★★★ |
| Pet Hair | 5/5 ★★★★★ | 5/5 ★★★★★ |
On carpet, the Shark handled everything cleanly. The Dyson struggled with rice — pushing grains around and spitting some back out — and had its worst moment with cereal. The cereal jammed the roller completely. We had to flip it over and manually clear the blockage before it could finish. A $390 vacuum, stopped by a piece of cereal. Both vacuums picked up pet hair in one pass with no tangling.
Too much suction causes problems. The Dyson crushes light debris, overloads the roller, and shoots material back out instead of picking it up.
Winner: SHARK — rice and cereal | TIE — pet hair
Same tests, now on hard floors. Scores are out of 5.
| Test | Dyson V8 | Shark IZ340H |
|---|---|---|
| Rice | 2/5 ★★☆☆☆ | 5/5 ★★★★★ |
| Cereal | 3/5 ★★★☆☆ | 5/5 ★★★★★ |
| Pet Hair | 5/5 ★★★★★ | 5/5 ★★★★★ |
The Dyson’s hard floor performance mirrored carpet — same problems, different surface. On rice, the Dyson appeared to do better at first, but we noticed grains left behind, and when we lifted the vacuum it spat the rice back out. On cereal, it left crumbs and shot pieces outward rather than collecting them. The Shark handled both cleanly. Pet hair was again a tie — both picked it up in one pass with no tangles.
Winner: SHARK — rice and cereal | TIE — pet hair
Test 7 — Battery Runtime
Both vacuums started fully charged and ran on max power on carpet until the battery died.
| Measurement | Dyson V8 | Shark IZ340H |
|---|---|---|
| Runtime (max power, carpet) | 6 min 7 sec | ✔ 11 min 45 sec |
| Difference | — | ✔ +5 min 38 sec longer |
The Dyson died at 6 minutes and 7 seconds. The Shark ran for 11 minutes and 45 seconds — nearly twice as long. Both vacuums advertise up to 40 minutes of runtime, but that figure applies to the lowest power setting with non-motorized attachments. On max power with the motorized head — which is how most people actually vacuum — 6 minutes is what the Dyson delivers.
Winner: SHARK — by over 5 minutes
Full Scorecard
| Test | Dyson V8 | Shark IZ340H |
|---|---|---|
| Noise | 76 dB | 76 dB |
| Suction (unsealed) | ✔ 442 ft/min — 31 CFM | 288 ft/min — 20 CFM |
| Suction (sealed) | ✔ 595 ft/min — 41.75 CFM | 451 ft/min — 31.65 CFM |
| Sand — carpet | ✔ 94g | 86g |
| Sand — hardwood | ✔ 98g | ✔ 100g (perfect) |
| Rice — carpet | 2/5 | ✔ 5/5 |
| Rice — hardwood | 2/5 | ✔ 5/5 |
| Cereal — carpet | 1/5 | ✔ 5/5 |
| Cereal — hardwood | 3/5 | ✔ 5/5 |
| Pet hair — carpet | 5/5 | ✔ 5/5 |
| Pet hair — hardwood | 5/5 | ✔ 5/5 |
| Runtime (max power) | 6 min 7 sec | ✔ 11 min 45 sec |
| FINAL SCORE | Wins: 3 | ✔ Wins: 6 |
Verdict: The Cheaper Vacuum Wins
Here’s what we didn’t expect going into this: the Dyson has more suction in every measurement — and it loses almost every cleaning test.
That’s the real story. Too much suction causes problems. The Dyson crushes light debris like rice and cereal instead of picking it up cleanly. It overloads the roller, shoots material back out, and on max power the battery lasts just over 6 minutes — nowhere near enough to clean a whole floor.
The Shark doesn’t have the same raw power. But it’s dialed in to actually clean. It handled rice, cereal, and pet hair better on both surfaces, ran nearly twice as long on a single charge, and costs $124 versus $390.
FAQ’s about Cordless Vacuums:
How long should a cordless vacuum battery last?
Most cordless vacuums advertise 40–60 minutes of runtime, but that number is typically measured on the lowest power setting with a non-motorized attachment. In real use — max power, motorized cleaner head on carpet — expect significantly less. In our testing, the Dyson V8 lasted just over 6 minutes and the Shark IZ340H lasted nearly 12 minutes on max power. For most homes, 10–20 minutes of real-world runtime is enough for a full clean.
Are cordless vacuums good for pet hair?
Yes — most modern cordless vacuums handle pet hair well, especially models with self-cleaning brushrolls that prevent hair from tangling around the roller. The key features to look for are a motorized cleaner head, a self-cleaning or anti-tangle brushroll, and a sealed filtration system to trap allergens. Both the Dyson V8 and Shark IZ340H picked up pet hair completely in our tests with zero tangling.
Is more suction always better in a cordless vacuum?
Not necessarily. Higher suction can actually cause problems with lighter debris like rice and cereal — crushing it into smaller pieces, jamming the brushroll, or shooting material back out instead of picking it up. The best cordless vacuums balance suction power with the right brushroll design for real-world cleaning. In our head-to-head test, the vacuum with lower suction numbers outperformed the more powerful one in nearly every cleaning category.
