Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have gone through MANY floor cleaners in the past five years. If I recall correctly, I've had seven different vacuums, three carpet cleaners, a steam mop, a regular Swiffer, an extra-large Swiffer, a regular mop, and a "spray and go" mop. I have a bit of a neuroses about the floors being clean! Having broken my most-recent upright carpet cleaner (overuse?), but not wanting to invest a lot of money in buying a new carpet cleaner due to upcoming plans to remove part of the house's carpet, I sought out a product that would clean carpets, would clean hard floors, and wouldn't break the bank. I was ecstatic when I found the Sonic Duo; it appeared to be the perfect solution! __PARTS__ Shark color-codes the attachments on this floor cleaner so it is easy to know what part is which. Purple = Carpet; Green = Hard-Floor Cleaning; Orange = Hard-Floor Polishing. That's a good thing because this floor cleaner comes with A LOT of parts-- two different solution bottles to attach to the machine (one has a green cap, the other a purple cap), four big pads (each edged in the color to which they apply-- two purples for carpet, one green for hard floor cleaning, and one orange for hard floor polishing.), four bottles of different solutions, a storage tray, a scrub stick, and two pads for the scrub stick. __CLEANING CARPETS__ To clean carpets, you select the pad you want (one for general cleaning, the other for scrubbing spots/stains), fill the purple-capped bottle with cold water and a few ounces of solution, and insert the bottle into the machine. You then turn the machine on to the "high" setting, spray the carpets with solution, and run the machine over the carpets. The machine vibrates 1000x/minute, breaking up dirt and stains. Then, when the carpet dries, you vacuum up the dirt. The Sonic Duo seemed to work fairly well for cleaning carpets. My carpets don't look new, but they are far from new, so I wouldn't expect perfection. They do look cleaner, though. __CLEANING HARD FLOORS__ This is where the Sonic Duo shines! Almost literally! To clean hard floors (wood, tile, linoleum, vinyl), you attach the green-rimmed pad, fill the green-capped bottle with cold water and a few ounces of solution, and insert the bottle into the machine. You then turn the machine on to the "low" setting, spray the floors with solution, and run the machine over the floor. The machine vibrates 1000x/minute, breaking up dirt and stains. The Sonic Duo worked fabulously cleaning hard floors. My floors look SO much better than they did with vacuuming alone, vacuuming + Swiffering, vacuuming + steam mopping, or vacuuming + traditional mopping. __POLISHING HARD FLOORS__ The Sonic Duo does a decent job polishing hard floors, but it isn't much more effective than any other method of polishing. To polish hard floors, you attach the orange-rimmed pad, squirt the solution on clean floors, and then turn the machine on to the "low" setting, and run the machine over the floor. The machine vibrates 1000x/minute, spreading the polish across the floor. The Sonic Duo worked well polishing hard floors, but I don't think it did any better than any of my other mops (with microfiber pad). __OVERALL IMPRESSIONS__ The Sonic Duo is small (9" across), and manuevers well, which means it goes anywhere (all the way to the toe kick in the kitchen, under the edge of the fridge, under the edge of the couch, etc.). It is a jack-of-all-trades, but is truly only a master of one (cleaning hard floors). It is mediocre-to-good at its other tasks (carpet cleaning, and hard floor polishing). The Sonic Duo comes with a "scrub stick," which is really not part of the machine at all; it is just a piece of plastic to which you can attach a dusting pad or a srubbing pad, and can then use by hand. I didn't really understand what to do with this piece until I went online and searched, because the manual doesn't mention it at all. Speaking of the manual, this is the biggest area of "needs improvement" with this product. The manual leaves much to be desired. It outlines the basics of the machine, but doesn't answer many, many questions consumers might have.