Shark Sonic Duo
The claim: Shark Sonic Duo features first-of-its-kind technology to remove four times more stuck-on dirt in carpets than vacuuming alone and deep-clean hard floors better than any mop on the market. It uses 1,000 scrubs per minute to remove stuck-on dirt and grime, provides a deeper clean and leaves no sticky residue for a truly clean home. Features include 180-degree swivel steering and enhanced air-glide maneuverability with the touch of a finger. It is safe for all floor surfaces, including carpets, area rugs, hardwood, tile, marble, stone, laminate and linoleum.
Cost: $249
Where: Major discount stores such as Target, Kohl's and Walmart
I don't wear shoes in my house, so maybe my floors were a lot cleaner than I thought before I started using the Shark Sonic Duo.
Or, maybe this thing just doesn't work.
At least the Shark Sonic is easy to use. The assembly directions — how to attach the cleaning pads and load it with cleaning solution — were well-written. Assembly takes just a couple of minutes. Switching from cleaning tile to rugs is quick and easy, too.
It's pretty light and maneuverable, so that's in its favor. But when I got done cleaning my kitchen and bathroom floors, there was very little dirt on the pad.
I had one spot on my living-room carpet that I hoped the Shark would clean up. It's still there, despite a lot of scrubbing with the Shark. And the pad had no dirt on it.
So, cleaner floors to begin with, or the Shark didn't work? I'm going for the latter of the two.
I've seen the infomercial for the Shark Sonic Duo, where they run the unit across a patchwork of types of flooring with all sorts of nasty stuff on it, and everything comes off shiny and perfect. I didn't really expect that, and I didn't get it, either.
My place has a variety of floorings — carpet, tile, vinyl, linoleum and hardwood — but after reading the instructions (the part about using care if you don't know what the wood surfaces are finished with), I decided I would test the Sonic Duo on the carpet and linoleum.
The unit sprays cleaner from two nozzles on the front of the unit, then you follow with the vibrating cleaning pads. On carpet, this was a bit problematic, as it was hard to tell how much you were spraying. I think I oversprayed, because it took days for the area to dry enough to vacuum. Still, the pads picked up a little bit of grunge, based on hand-washing them to see what came out. Either that, or it was the residue of the cleaner.
On the linoleum, I had better luck. The unit was more maneuverable on a smoother floor, and, while it didn't clean up any stubborn stains, it did a creditable job of cleaning the textured surface. When I hand-washed the pads, the water was cloudier, and based on the bottle, I could tell I had used less cleaner, so I know that what was in there was gunk the mop had left behind.
Still, while I use a Shark vacuum, I don't think I'll be shelling out for the Sonic Duo. For the price versus my home's amount of floor space, it's not worth it for me.
Cleaning the kitchen floor? The carpets? Ain't nobody got time for that! So, when the Shark Sonic Duo comes along and claims to do the job in “half” the time, I'm curious.
First: The kitchen. My kitchen's ceramic-tile floor takes its fair share of abuse from two kids and a dog, whose favorite new hobby is digging up the backyard. Needless to say, the floor's color is tan and dried mud. Shark, have at it.
The unit looks like an extremely thin vacuum cleaner and doesn't weigh much at all. It feels comfortably nimble, with the swivel of a Dyson.
The prep: Attach a two-section scrubbing pad to the Velcro bottom, dilute the hard-floor cleaner with plenty of water into a plastic bottle and plug it in. The unit is ready to roll.
The Shark operates similar to a Swiffer, where a push of a button at the handle squirts out the cleaning solution in front of the unit. The underside agitates back and forth rather rapidly (there are two speed settings). Most of the mud came up quickly and without much effort. Some stubborn stains resisted at first, but with a few extra passes, the Shark was able to tackle the job.
Second: The rug. On carpets, the unit works similarly, using the carpet solution. Here, the Shark wasn't as effective for me. The Shark did its scrubbing thing all right, but I couldn't help but feel it was just pushing the dirt around. The carpet appeared to look a bit brighter, but that could have just been because it was wet from the solution. I didn't feel the rug was clean until I was able to vacuum later.
In all, the Shark certainly saves time in the kitchen, but not so much with carpets. I can't see myself dropping $250 to conserve a bit of time.
