I tried the new Shark UV robot vacuum in my home and it even reveals my dog's drool

I'll be the first to admit, my house doesn't get vacuumed nearly enough. As a family of five, with three very active teenagers and two dogs, the combination leads to plenty of dirt and dog hair being tracked all over our house.

I've owned several robot vacuums over the years, and even dabbled with a 2-in-1 robot that could vacuum and mop. Ultimately, I'd give up on them for various reasons. For instance, one model that continuously kept forgetting the map of our house, or another that made a huge mess with its mop pad every time it ran.

However, I’ve never used a premium-priced, 2-in-1 robot vacuum until now. Shark's new PowerDetect UV Reveal robot vacuum is equipped with plenty of interesting features, including a UV light that highlights stains and spills. I put the UV Reveal to the test for two weeks to see if its steep price tag is justified by its fancy list of features, and how it stacked up against the best robot vacuums on the market.

Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal Robot Vacuum: Price & availability

The Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal Robot Vacuum costs $1,299 on SharkNinja. This is also available on Amazon, Best Buy, and Costco for the same price.

Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal Robot Vacuum: Design

In addition to the vacuum itself, the Reveal's box includes its dock, an air freshener to cover up any nasty odors of the bagless dustbin, a 12-ounce bottle of Shark VacMop multi surface cleaning solution, and two side brushes.

You'll need a dedicated space with plenty of room for the dock. It measures 17 x 18 x 14 inches, and needs at least one foot of room on either side, and two feet of room in front of it. When looking at the dock, the dustbin is located in the back-right corner and is easily removed by pressing a button located inside the handle on the right side of the housing.

The clean and dirty water tanks take up the entire width, running along the front of the dock. Both tanks have a top handle and are easy to take in and out of the dock. On the back-left side of the dock are two filters. One is a foam pre-motor filter that you'll need to clean every couple of months, along the post-motor filter on the left side of the dock behind a door that has the same cleaning cadence.

As for the Reveal itself, it looks like a standard 2-in-1 robot vacuum. On the front, it has an array of lights and sensors, including an RGB camera and a UV light that help with the Reveal detect edges, floor types, objects, and live environmental changes.

On top of the Reveal are four touch-sensitive buttons that are used to activate vacuum and mop modes (if you don't want to use the app), send the robot back to its dock, and set up Wi-Fi. Plus, the Reveal's internal dustbin is removable from the back, as is the mop pad plate.

In short, the Reveal looks like a typical 2-in-1 robot vacuum that could pull double duty with its mopping features. On the outside, at least, there's nothing in particular that stands out about the Reveal.

Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal Robot Vacuum review: Performance and Test Results

After finding a spacious spot for the dock and fully setting up the Reveal, which consists of signing into the SharkClean app and connecting the vacuum to Wi-Fi, and giving your vacuum a name. There are a handful of names you can select in the app — we went with Clean Elizabeth. Once that's done, the app will prompt you to let the vacuum map your home. It was fun to watch it roam around the house, randomly spinning in circles as it scans the room and adds to its map.

With the map created, you're then prompted to let the vacuum go around your house and identify carpet and hard floors so it knows where to vacuum and where to mop. The entire setup and mapping process took about an hour. Once it was done, I set Clean Elizabeth loose on its first vacuuming run, which took just over two hours to complete.

This was the first robot vacuum to run in our house in at least a few years. We'd previously given up on them because of how inconsistent and frustrating they can be. But I'm here to tell you, reader, that the Reveal not only met expectations but exceeded them.

Our linoleum, even without mopping, along with carpet throughout the house, looked clean and refreshed. Instead of a random pattern on the carpet, as we've experienced with Ecovacs, the Reveal takes a zig zag route, much like I'd do when vacuuming a room.

Pretty lines on my carpet aside, the Reveal performed well in our lab tests which consist of testing how well it picks up 10 grams of Cheerios, 20 grams of kitty litter, and 2 grams of pet hair in a 5 x 5-foot carpeted and linoleum area. We originally ran the Cheerios test with 20 grams, but the dustbin inside the vacuum wasn't big enough to hold it all, making a mess in the process.

As you can see, the Reveal cleaned up nearly everything it encountered on the linoleum. It cleaned up 99% of the Cheerios, 98% of the kitty litter, and 93% of the pet hair I tested with. Other than the Cheerios, where there were 1.5 rings left, there were zero granules of litter and no visible pet hair on the floor. I can only assume whatever didn't make it into the dustbin is trapped in its internal filter or brushes.

When it comes to performance on carpet, it excelled in two of the three tests, picking up 95% and 100% of the Cheerios and pet hair, respectively.

The kitty litter test is where it struggled, picking up just 55% of the starting amount. However, I can't fault the Reveal. Instead, I blame the small kitty litter granules and the longer carpet threads. When pouring the litter over my carpet, almost all of it immediately disappeared or got caught in the carpet fibers.

The fact that the Reveal collected half of it was a surprise to me, and for that, I commend it. It took a few more passes with a regular vacuum before I got most of the litter out.

The Reveal is equipped with a UV light that helps it find hard-to-see stains on hard surfaces or carpet. The light isn't constantly on, but instead the vacuum randomly flashes it as it works through its route.

A robot vacuum with a UV light has the potential to be something nightmares are made of simply for the fact that it quickly reveals spots and stains you otherwise couldn't normally see. Watching the vacuum get to work in the kitchen, for example, would randomly reveal spots on our linoleum floor where a dog had drooled while waiting to be fed, or where we'd spilled something and never cleaned up. I didn't have the willpower to watch the UV feature at work in the bathroom.

The Reveal will spend extra time on an area where it detects extra dirt or a stain, slowing down and changing the color of its LEDs on either side as an indicator. If the lights are purple, it detects extra dirt/debris and has increased power to clean up that spot. If the lights are blue, it has detected a stain and is spending extra time on that spot.

About halfway into a two-hour session of vacuuming the roughly 1,300 square foot top level of my home, the Reveal returns to its dock to empty its dustbin into the bagless dustbin in the dock. The process, as expected, is loud (similar to a normal vacuum) and lasts just a few seconds.

When it comes to mopping, I was equally impressed with the Reveal's performance. My kitchen and dining room floors looked as clean as they do when hand-mopped. The Reveal uses the same zigzag pattern it does when vacuuming, taking its time to ensure the edges along the walls and under cabinets get as much attention as the rest of the floor.

When strictly in vacuuming mode, the Reveal will leave the mop pad plate behind in the dock. And when it's time to mop, it'll pick it back up and get to work. Previous 2-in-1's I've used have had the pad permanently attached, and even though they claimed to lift the pad off the carpet, the end result was the robot dragging the pad everywhere, resulting in wet carpet and a filthy pad.

With the Reveal, it can traverse across carpet to other rooms, such as a bathroom, without dragging its mop pad across the carpet by lifting up the pad several inches. And then once it's on a hard surface, the pad is lowered. During a mopping session, if the pad gets overly dirty, the Reveal will return to the dock and briefly clean the pad, then return to work.

Once it's completely done, it docks, cleans the pad, and then dries it. The dryer isn't as loud as I expected. It's a constant, low-volume hum similar to what a refrigerator sounds like.

After the end of a full cleaning session, taking roughly two hours, the Reveal's battery would be between 35%-40% remaining charge, which is right on the 3-hour estimated battery life.

Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal Robot Vacuum review: App and Smart Home Compatibility

To get the most out of the Reveal, you'll want to use the SharkClean app. The app gives you total control over the robot. After the initial setup, you'll want to spend some time labeling your rooms and editing the map to ensure it reflects your home's layout.

Editing the map was and still is one of my main frustration points with the app overall. When the Reveal mapped my master bedroom, it included the master bathroom and made it just one big room.

I wanted to separate the two (helpful because the bathroom is hard flooring), but when trying to draw a line across the map to separate the two rooms, it took multiple attempts to get the app to accept the change. The most common complaint the app made was that the room I was trying to create was too small.

Admittedly, my master bathroom is small, but that shouldn't stop me from designating it as a standalone room, especially when you consider the fact that it needs to be mopped. After several tries, I ultimately got the app to accept the change by making the bathroom bigger than it actually is.

Otherwise, the app is easy to use and helpful in the overall experience. I can tell it to spot clean a roughly 5x5 area in a room, adjust how aggressively it mops or vacuums, and view stats after every cleaning session. Also available in the app is the ability to connect your vacuum to either Amazon Alexa or Google Home, allowing you to use either digital assistant to start a cleaning session, down to a specific room.

Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal Robot Vacuum: Verdict

Even with its $1,299 price tag, I've come away impressed with the Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal's overall capabilities and performance. The floors of my house look as if I'm paying a cleaning service to come mop and vacuum a few times a week. Even my wife, who is a harsh critic of robot vacuums, has had nothing but positive things to say about its performance.