Unlike its predecessor, the Shark WandVac 2.0 has two power settings. The standard setting is engaged by switching it on with the thumb-operated power button, and there’s a second button below that for boosting the power. Shark states that the WV361UK has a 16-minute run-time, although this is without the motorised floor brush. Attach a motorised tool and battery life is closer to 12 minutes. On Boost mode, you’ll get less than 10 minutes.

I found this vacuum cleaner quite noisy, peaking at 81.9dB on ION mode and 82.3dB on Boost mode. That’s a bit louder than most regular cordless cleaners, although the high-pitched motor here isn’t particularly annoying. ConclusionWhile 650g sounds quite heavy for a small handheld vacuum, the WandVac has a nice balance to it. The heaviest individual component is the 260g battery, and because that sits in the handle, it isn’t too tiring to wield. The vacuum engine sits in the centre of the WandVac’s cylindrical body, leaving the end relatively light and easy to keep under control. Our flour test followed a similar pattern, although more flour was drawn into the collection bin before the vacuum clogged up. Again, this wouldn’t be my vacuum of choice for such a dramatic spill but it performed better here than with Cheerios. Emptying the bin is simple – you just push down a lever with one hand and the dust cup cap opens at an angle to let the contents fall into your bin. It took us a few attempts to make sure the opening of the dust cup was right over our bin, but because the action is quite fast the dust cloud is minimal. We tested the Shark WandVac thoroughly to see how it performed across a variety of tasks, including cleaning up food debris and also finer dirt and dust. We put the battery to the test to see if it lived up to the promised run time.

With the WandVac’s turbo mode engaged, I measured the suction on the Shark WandVac 2.0 at 16kPa, which is good for such a small device. It isn’t quite as powerful as the Hoover H-Handy 700 Express but it comes a very close second, and has more power behind it than most handheld vacuums we’ve tested.

Need a powerful handheld vacuum? The Shark WandVac could be ideal

Once the collection bin and the suction tubes were rammed full, there was no chance of it collecting any more, hence the poor showing on our cleaning chart. The WandVac 2.0 performs well but it’s best used on smaller spillages.