The Shark Sonic Duo is a pretty unique offering from Shark, and hopes to bridge the gap between products that just clean carpets and just clean hard surfaces. Can they pull off this balancing act with their dual-action device, or is this a flop?
Overview
Keeping your carpeting, tiled floors, and hardwood surfaces clean and looking like new can be pretty tough, especially when you have to use a different cleaning product for each one. But it’s essential to their upkeep and maintenance, as built up dirt, grime, and stains can really make your floors look old before their time. Regular cleanings, as well as spot-treating specific stains as they occur is important.
The Claim
The Shark Sonic Duo claims that it can work wonders on surfaces like carpets, area rugs, hard floors, and even wood, and that it comes with different pads for different surfaces, as well as different chemicals for each surface. They say that it works by using a dual scrubbing motion, with its scrubbing pads going in opposite directions at the same time. They say you’re getting 1000 scrubs per minute and that it’s using sonic technology to loosen dirt and stains.
They also say that you won’t have to struggle with this because it uses what they’ve dubbed “air glide” technology. This should allow you to easily maneuver it around your floors without tiring yourself out as much.
The Hype
The hype comes from Shark being one of the more recognizable brands in the vacuum cleaner and sweeper market due to its ubiquitous ads on TV and print. But also they are riding on the success of their vacuums and the positive things people have to say about them.
The Cost
The Shark Sonic Duo is $250 and gets you the base unit, 4 different types of pads with specific cleaning solutions for each, and includes delivery. The way they’re going about this is to give you a virtual plethora of upgrade options. You can add things like their Lift-Away vacuum for $120, or a large supply of all of their cleaning products and scrubbing pads for $100. You can also add an additional Sonic Duo for $180. They have lifetime warranty you can purchase for an extra $50. As you can see it’s quite easy to get your total price up pretty high if you take these upgrades, but as far as the basic unit for $259 delivered, it’s on par with other Shark products, comes in a bit higher than most sweepers for hard surfaces, and a little less than many vacuums.
The Commitment
The big selling feature for the Duo is that it can handle most any surface you throw its way. Of course you will still need to swap out the pads, which may take just as much time as switching between machines, but it would take up less space, and could potentially do a better job than what you’re currently using. Not having to get on your hands and knees to scrub your floors and carpeting is a big plus.
Evaluation
The Shark Sonic Duo relies on a dual scrubbing action to work. It’s a little odd when you first see it, but it quickly becomes apparent that this will decrease your cleaning time and do a more effective job because more is happening with less effort. You can tell that they’ve really engineered this well, knowing enough about cleaning to include a light so that you can see the progress being made, and also identify stains and dirt in dark or shadowy places.
Real world tests show that this is able to glide over floors, even carpeting, so it’s not as if you’re dragging it around or trying to force it over thicker surfaces. Even those that were skeptical about its ability were won over when they tried it out. The end result is that you get cleaner floors, without all of the expended energy.
Overall, users are saying that they got it right with this device, and that it really does work on carpets as well as hard surfaces. It’s always important to look at the body of work from a company and see if a certain product dovetails nicely with their overall business model. In this case, it’s obvious that Shark is staying focused on their core offerings, and that they are more than able to produce a product like this that solves a big problem for many households, and does it without charging an arm and a leg.
Final Shark Sonic Duo Review
We’re giving the Shark Sonic Duo our Thumbs Up rating, based on positive reviews from users as well as professional critics, the track record of success with Shark products in general, and the price point. What you end up getting is a product that flat out works the way it’s shown to work, and this is one of the few companies that produces As Seen on TV products that actually work. Yes, you’ll be paying much more than the typical $19.95 you usually see, but you’ll be happy with the results instead of disappointed.
Our Recommendation
If you currently don’t have a good solution for cleaning the different surfaces in your home, this could kill several birds with one stone. If you have a lot of nice carpeting, or beautiful flooring in your home, you’ll definitely want to keep it looking great, and by most accounts we’ve seen this is a product that can help greatly with the task.
I guess I expected something more that just a floor scrubber, maybe a steamer to work at the same time to loosen dirt. All this is is a really pricey floor scrubber & I expected more from the Shark brand name.