Kenmore Featherlite Lift Up Compared With The Top Shark Upright

Kenmore Featherlite Lift Up compared with the classic all-time-being Shark Navigation NV352.

New Pick for Best BUDGET Upright Vacuum

Welcome guys to our review of the Kenmore Featherlite Lift Up upright corded vacuum. 

In fact, I'm positive that Kenmore Featherlite would win the best budget vacuum category. 

Starting off with the pros

• lightweight
• Lift Up canister
• testing
• seal on hard floors
• power tests
• HEPA filtration
• LED lights
• attachment set
• price

Lightweight vacuum

Let's begin with the feature where it gets its Featherlite name which is it's very lightweight.

It weighs right at 12 pounds which is extremely light for a vacuum of this type the Shark Navigator which I also consider to be extremely light was almost two pounds heavier than the Kenmore. 

The average weight of the ones, I've tested is about 15 and a half pounds. When you take into account its weight distribution light handle and responsive swivel I think it may be the most ergonomic or easy-to-use vacuum I've ever tested and that includes many cordless stick vacuums. 

Lift Up canister

It also has what they call Lift Up technology. Where you can remove the canister from the floor head for above-floor cleaning tasks. As well as a very easy-to-remove and replace wand for pickup of larger debris or as an extension. 

But where I was really blown away was by its pickup ability on hard floors and carpets. 

It has rather large openings or gates on the bottom of the floor head which makes it good for picking up a wide range of sizes of debris. 

In fact, with our new scoring system where I judge how well vacuums pick up different sizes of debris on carpets and hard floors, it scored the highest of any vacuum in its price range and it wasn't close. 

The Kenmore was much better than the Shark Navigator for example here which tends to snowplow larger debris, especially on hard floors.

The Kenmore has a suction adjustment switch for high pile carpets or thick rugs and a brush roll on-off switch with the idea being that you turn it on for carpets and off for hard floors. 

Seal on hard floors 

But unlike the Shark Navigator which has a similar brush roll switch, the Kenmore doesn't need that switch as much as the Shark does since the Kenmore has a large fabric squeegee on the bottom of the forehead four for a better seal on hard floors. 

So that you can keep the brush rolling on hard floors without scattering debris. And I find that leaving the brush roll on for hard floors is much better for picking up pet hair and human hair than with the Shark. 

Power tests and HEPA filtration

The Kenmore Featherlite had good power too in our sealed suction tests. It was above average. I also scored above average with a perfect 100 on our carpet deep clean test where we embed sand into a medium pile carpet. 

And weighing the bins before and after is one feature that's a must for me which is very rare to see with vacuums in this price range. Is a completely sealed HEPA filtration system that traps the dust in the vacuum instead of leaking it back into your house. 

LED lights

It's got LED lights on the forehead which I think is a very useful feature and it's another thing that the Shark Navigator does not have.

Attachment set

Its attachment set is decent as it includes a:

• large upholstery tool
• three-in-one combination tool (which is a crevice tool dusting brush and upholstery tool in one.)

Price

The final pro I'll mention is this price. 

It's firmly in the budget category and as you can probably tell I think that there is a lot of value there.

Minor things we noticed

Before I move on to the cons there are a few things that were just kind of neutral like the cord length at 25 feet which is the same as the Shark.

Its airflow was also right at the average amount overall though I would submit that it was probably above average for its price range. 

Although I could not find the official dust bin capacity online. In my not-so-scientific test, I think it was similar to the Shark though probably a bit less capacity. But it was easier to remove and empty and it has the same open design that makes it easy to keep free from clogs.

Moving on to the negative stuff

• hair
• unsealed suction
• noise

Hair

It easily got tangled with human hair which is kind of nitpicky since every vacuum I've tested in this price range does about the same. 

Unsealed suction

Kenmore scored slightly below average with the crevice pickup test and the unsealed suction test which was directly related to its larger front gates.

The crevice test and the unsealed suction test are always a trade-off with their larger debris pickup. That is if you have more space between the vacuum and the floor to allow for larger debris it won't have as good of a seal. 

So it's a balancing act that all manufacturers wrestle with but I think that the Kenmore Featherlite has really found the sweet spot of gate size and floor seal.

Noise

It was also a little louder than average at 84 dB versus about 81 dB nothing major. But worth nothing as you can probably tell. 

Conclusion

I'm very happy with the Kenmore Featherlite Lift Up. 

Really my only concern is that it's relatively new and although it seems exceptionally well-made. And the reviews so far are very positive there's always the potential that there's some long-term issue that I could be missing but barring anything like that. 

I think I found my new favorite budget upright vacuum. 

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• comparison
• upright vacuum
• kenmore elite