is a senior reviewer with over twenty years of experience. She covers smart home, IoT, and connected tech, and has written previously for Wirecutter, Wired, Dwell, BBC, and US News.
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The Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal is SharkNinja’s latest robot vacuum and mop. A flagship model with a multifunctional dock that empties the dustbin and refills and washes its mop, the Reveal’s signature feature is a UV light designed to “find” stains on your floors. It costs $1,299.99 and is available now.
Combined with an RGB camera to detect visible messes and obstacles, the UV light lets the vacuum spot stains that aren’t visible under normal lighting, such as pet urine. When it encounters dirt, visible or not, the robot uses onboard AI to identify and decide how to clean it.
Its cleaning tools include a vacuum with a single roller brush and a wide, flat mop pad that can vibrate to scrub floors. The robot can check that the mess has been removed before moving on or return after the main clean to tackle it again.
I’ve been testing the PowerDetect UV Reveal for a few days, and this feature has been impressive. When the robot gets to a mess — be it Cheerios, ketchup, strawberry jam, or invisible “pet urine” (I went with lemonade) — it stops, examines it, and then methodically cleans it. It’s been successful with everything I’ve thrown at it so far.
While the UV light puts on quite a show, you really only need it for invisible stains. As most of the grime on the floor is easy for the camera to spot, I can’t see the light being useful on a daily basis. But it’s what the robot does when it identifies a mess that impressed me.
Rather than just cleaning your floors as most robot vacs already do, the Reveal actively targets messes by adapting its route and methods to clean them. While many high-end robots can detect dirty areas and repeatedly clean them, the Reveal’s approach is more targeted.
This isn’t the first robot with AI-powered stain-spotting skills. Samsung’s Bespoke Jet Bot Combo uses AI to detect stains, and the Dreame X60 has a camera and a “proactive light” to see stains and adapt its cleaning.
However, the closest competition may be Dyson’s newest robot vacuum, the Spot+Scrub Ai. It uses a camera and a green laser to highlight dirt and can “identify, react, check, and clean,” according to Dyson. The Spot is not available in the US yet, so I’ve not tested it. I saw a demo last year.
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