"First, know that I've vacuumed twice a week with a Dyson Animal since we got it in 2003! The habit started when we had a dog, and the kids didn't have kids (aka our grandkids). So other than some really tough spots that would pop up periodically, we thought that the carpets were clean. For the past 10 years, we've taken our shoes off before coming into the house or living room. Eight years ago, we had a national firm shampoo the carpets at a cost of $290 (quite a bit higher than the estimate). Figure 1500 square feet of lived-in space. It was time. I studied ALL the shampooers, and chose the one that met our needs and which did not include anything we didn't need (tile, etc). After ordering, I thought - really - it was the one time when I would have been perfectly happy if Prime didn't deliver in two days. I don't mind vacuuming, but shampooing I remembered as a nightmare from when I rented one 20 years ago. Anyway, it came. I assembled it - piece of cake! I read the instructions - not terrific, but good enough to get me going. I vacuumed. And then, I took out the bottle of solution, filled the reservoir with a gallon of hot water and 3 ounces of solution, and began. I was finished in 3 hours, and even the toughest spots (and half a dog) came up thanks to the rotating brushes. I unloaded 4 absolutely filthy tanks of water, plus 2 just disgusting ones from rinsing. Nit picking: * One gallon of water weighs 8 pounds; add to a 19 pound shampooer, and you're lugging a 27 pound shampooer up 19 stairs! This is NOT a light-weight! * This is not small, and it is a bit cumbersome. * The power cord is about 17 feet. Our hallway is 39 feet. Could have used another 10 feet of cord. I do have a grounded extension, but it bothered me that it would be dragging through damp if not wet carpet. * The bag for the tools and hose is too small and tight at the top. Switched to a heavy-duty plastic garbage bag after the machine dried. At the same time, it was nice that Hoover actually included a mesh bag. Real picking * The hand held stair tool doesn't rotate, so it took a lot of elbow grease. Hoover (which gets 5 stars for customer service) is sending a new one. * The stairs are difficult, but the riser (the back of the stair) on each stair is an absolute bear. * The connections were not at all easy to hook up. They forgot to tell us that there's a black sheath over the shampoo dispenser tube that had to be pulled up before the tube can be pressed down on the dispenser. * The hand held hose is stiff and tends to kink. It's not bad on upholstery, but I think its best for spot cleaning. * When finished, esp. if you do stairs last, there can be a LOT of water and debris from the stairs left in the hose. Detach and empty outdoors or over a sink. It's a real surprise when all kinds of dirty water and "stuff" comes out on - luckily - out tiled entry. Hints: REALLY shampoo only the heavily trafficked areas. Go over deep spots with soap and the rotating bristles three, even four times, and from different directions. By the time you rinse, those spots should disappear (unless they're oil or grease). When rinsing the stairs, forget the bristle brush and go for the flat tool which has much better suction. TEST any upholstery. ONE of our chair's covers almost disintegrated. Don't buy an extra gallon of solution like I did. The 16 ounces that comes with the shampooer is good for probably 2200 square feet. I now have a gallon which should last me the rest of my life. If necessary, if you run out, go over to Ace or wherever and save at least $15. Summary: I did a dining room, living room, 19 stairs (sort of), 39 feet of hallway, and three bedrooms for under $200. It's called "sweat equity." On the positive side, I lost 8 pounds and don't have to exercise today. Oh, the other positive side, THE CARPETS ARE SPOTLESS and look professionally done. Definitely worth it, but it still has to lose a star for a non-rotating stair brush and the awkward way the stairs have to be done."
Hoover Power Scrub Deluxe Carpet Washer, FH50150 (Compare Deals from $127)
"I bought this because I was tired of paying carpet cleaners almost the price of this unit for one single visit. We have dogs, and being able to spot clean is important. I thought this would be a useful unit to have. With that said, I didn't want to pay a lot of money for a carpet cleaning unit because I wasn't sure I would use it - and keep on using it. Now I'm sure. I've found that it's very useful and I probably have pulled it out ever 3 weeks or so for something. There is something really satisfying about dumping the dirty discharge water down the drain. You really feel like you are making progress on the carpet. However, that can also be a bane because I've gone over areas of carpet several times and continue to get dirt out of them. Makes me want to just keep on going and going which really isn't practical. You have to decide what "clean enough" looks like for you and stop at that point. WHERE IT EXCELS: * I think I get my carpet as clean or better than the professionals. Not because it has as much power, but because I use it more thoroughly than a professional might use their equipment. For example, we've had an area of highly tracked carpet that has looked bad for years, even after professional cleaning. I have gone over it 6 times with this unit and it looks far better than it has in years - even after the professional cleanings. I can simply take the time whereas a professional has to move on to another job at some point to make money. If you have time and willingness, I've found it to be very effective. * It is great for the occasional spill. Seems to clean them up very well. I've used it on cut berber carpet as well as tightly stitched carpet. Pet stains, wine, and cranberry juice all came out completely. * It is good for over cleaning the highly tracked areas of your carpet. Rather than call in a professional carpet cleaner to do a lot of your house which may not actually need it just so you can get cleaned a highly tracked area, you can focus on just the highly tracked area. AREAS IN WHICH THIS UNIT IS OK: * It's a lot of work to clean your own carpet. The amount of work is proportional to the capacity of the water, solution, and discharge reservoirs. This unit has struck a pretty good balance between those capacities and weight of the unit when full of water. But it's still a lot of work. * It takes a long time to do it right. You have to go over every area of carpet minimally at least 8 times. Why? 1) A stroke out and back to lay down the cleaning solution. 2) A stroke out and back to suck up the cleaning solution. 3) A stroke out and back to lay down water only for a rinse. 4) A stroke out and back to suck up the rinse water. 8 times, minimally. Based on my experience though, to really do it right, you will want to rinse at least twice and on the final sucking up of the rinse water, go back and forth a few times, not just once, so the carpet dries more quickly. So to do it "right" as I see it, you are really covering every square inch of carpet ~14 times. (You have rinse really well or else dirt is attracted to the soap in the cleaner and you quickly end up with dirty carpet again.) And while doing this, you have to keep dumping the dirty water and refilling the reservoir with clean, hot water. It just takes a very long time. CONS: * Mine broke after 4 months. The turbine which spins the brushes quit working. Fortunately, there is a two year warranty and Hoover said it would be covered (in repair as I type this). I talked to the repair shop and they told me to expect to see them regularly because these are built cheaply and the turbines break over and over. IN SUMMARY: If you want a cheap, light carpet cleaner that if you are willing to put in the effort, will clean your carpet well, this seems like a good choice. If you are looking for it to replace professional carpet cleaning, then it will almost certainly pay for itself if you are willing to put in the time and effort. Works well on stains. Strikes a good balance between weight and reservoir capacity. Build quality is suspect, but the warranty is sufficiently long that most people should be able to make it pay for itself many times over vs. paying a professional - as long as you don't mind hauling it to the nearest repair shop every so often. You might do well to go to Hoover's web site and look up the nearest repair shop before you buy this."
"Review 1: Caveat: I have not used this machine yet. It was delivered earlier today and I plan to use it when I get home. So these 5 stars are for ontime delivery, but I plan to write a follow-up once I have more information and experience. A lot of research went into this purchase. We have never owned a full sized carpet washer before, always using rentals. But I found we were not really renting as often as the carpet needed cleaning, so having one always handy made sense. For some reason I'd always thought 'Hoover for vacuum cleaners' and 'Bissel for carpet washers'. So I was strongly leaning toward a Bissel when I started my research. The posted reviews for this model convinced me otherwise. My visiting daughter's dog gave us a fresh stain just last night (fireworks), so I am anxious to try this unit out. Stay tuned. Review 2 - Follow-up: When I got home, I found the box had a huge gash in one corner. Loss of points for FedEx, but bonus points for Hoover's packing - the cleaner was undamaged. Assembly was simple (2 screws) and intuitive. Other parts snapped on to the machine with large solid clamps. There's nothing fragile or flimsy about this machine. The print material does have some flaws: The quick start guide describes cleaning, explaining a first and 2nd spray pass, but goes no further. The full manual clarifies that this should be followed by at least 4 suction-only passes, to remove the water. Also, in the full manual, cleaning of the brushes is said to be explained in detail on p.16, but actually occurs on p.15. Two complaints I'd read about in other reviews don't bear up: 1. 'The power cord attaches at the bottom forcing you to hold the cord up out of your work area.' While this is true, there is a place on the upper handle where you can attach the power cord to keep it up off the carpet. That said though, the nature of this type of movement necessitates you holding the cord anyway. So this is not a design flaw, just the nature of the action. 2. 'Slight jarring of the unit causes it to disengage suction.' I never encountered this. In fact, the only time I can see this even being possible is when your dirty water tank is almost full anyway. Essentially, there is a float ball in that tank. When the ball rises on top of the dirty water in the tank, eventually it gets high enough to block an opening, preventing you from overfilling the tank with dirty water. Pretty slick! If the tank gets close to full, and you jar it, I can see how the ball might prematurely splash up and block that opening. This seems pretty minor, and to me would just indicate you might want to empty that tank now rather than wait a minute or two, until it is completely full. Clean-up was impressive. Every place on the unit where crud (hair, other bits, etc.) could collect, was designed to be removed from the machine, easily opened, and simply but thoroughly cleaned. Water and solution go in 2 separate locations and are mixed only when used. The plus to this is that when you're done, you can throw out the remaining clean water and none of the solution. A small spot washer we had previously required tossing out the solution/water mix or starting out the next time with a cold mix. The end result: The carpet looks good, though some bad spots remain. Pretreating will, not surprisingly, be needed. The ammonia smell from a urine spot is now all gone. The dirty water, as seen with commercial washers, came out looking more like chocolate milk. The dirty water tank was cleaned after this and even when the carpet was totally redone with just hot rinse water, the suctioned dirty water was almost as dark. After a total washing and a total rinsing, the carpet dried in a fraction of the time that I'd come to expect with commercial units. Doors and windows were open, to be sure, but cleaning was started after dinner and the furniture could be put back before packing it in for the night, and this is the Seattle area, not desert weather. After one thorough use, this carpet washer gets a very well deserved 5 full stars. Zero regrets on this purchase. I highly recommend it."
"I have to admit I'm not too impressed with this cleaner. All together it does an OK job and probably as good as any other non-commercial cleaner out there (I haven't used another) but here are some of the problems I see: 1) I really like that the cleaning solution is in a separate tank than the water, but it would help a lot if the caps were different colors. It sounds petty, but since they are both clear plastic sooner or later you'll wind up putting water in the cleaner tank by mistake and diluting your cleaning solution. It's not a huge deal, but slightly annoying. 2) It goes through a lot of water. This is pretty annoying since the tank isn't that big. It's doubly annoying since it sprays a lot of cleaner and you really need to run over the cleaned area a second time to get some of the soap out of the carpet. I really got tired of running back and forth to the sink to refill this thing. 3) The scrubbing pads don't scrub very much. They actually slide up and down on a rod which drives the brushes, which is a pretty slick design because it means it can brush any surface without having to manually set the height. The problem is that the brushes are very light and they just ride across the carpet. They clean it some, but it's just a light brushing and certainly not a "power scrubbing". I suspect they do this so it won't scratch hardwood floors, but it seriously degrades cleaning ability on carpets. 4) By FAR the most annoying feature, and the main reason I knocked two stars off (I'm thinking of making it three) is the stupid switch in the waste tank that shuts the vacuum whenever it's close to full, half close to full, the water sloshes around or just any other ole reason it can think of. This caused me to have to dump the waste tank nearly two times for every time I refilled the water tank. There is just no excuse for this at all. All you have to do is make the waste tank slightly larger than the water tank and it will never overflow. And if someone can't get it through their head that they need to dump the waste tank when they fill the water tank - well you can't fix stupid. This one "feature" makes cleaning large areas with this machine a royal pain in the butt. First chance I get I will be disabling that useless device. I cleaned an old carpet with this (7 years old) and it did better than I feared it would but not as well as I'd hoped. I honestly don't see how anyone can say this made their old carpet look new. Maybe they had a better carpet than I did. I do think that it will keep a new carpet looking new when used regularly and that's what I bought it for (new house). Using it on the old house was just a test really, I wanted to see what it could do, and hoped it would make the carpet look good enough that I didn't need to rent a commercial machines. I think it did do that, barely, so it saved me 50 bucks. But as I said, I think it will be just fine for maintaining a new carpet. It also does good spot cleaning. The cat "broke in" the new carpet almost immediately and the powered attachment works really well. As did the attachment I used to clean a couple of mattresses - I forget which attachment I used for that. I do not regret buying it and doubt I'd find a better non-commercial cleaner. Just the use I've gotten out of it already almost makes it worth the purchase. I'm sure it will do everything I need it to as soon as I disable that stupid waste tank switch."
"This machine is everything you'd want in a home carpet cleaning washer. Can't beat the price. I fully expected to get something this good I'd have to spend hundreds, which is why this is my first home carpet cleaning washer. This would make a great (but sorry, boringly practical and hardly fun) gift for a shower or wedding, who doesn't have carpeting or rugs? We have two dogs, so, well, you know what that could mean. Besides the occasional OOPS! from the practically perfect pups, they track stuff in on their paws going in and out of the yard several times a day. We have a wood-burning fireplace and the burnt wood dust and air settles on the rug. We are not a "take your shoes off" family, unless it's crummy outside. So our carpets/rugs were ready for a good cleaning. We've had them professionally cleaned before, but that can be pricey and for the cost of less than one pro visit, you can purchase your own decent machine. I read several reviews here at amazon and on other sites before hitting "place order" and this Hoover Power Scrub Deluxe Carpet Washer got the best ratings, especially from fellow pet owners. It did a wonderful job on both rugs and carpeting. Be prepared to essentially make a day of it, or at least several hours, as you prep by vacuuming areas to be cleaned first. On the hardwood floor rug, I placed a tarp under as a barrier so the wood floor wouldn't get too wet. Another reviewer had an excellent idea to run the rinse only first, then do the wash, then rinse. They were correct, just water first DID indeed pick up lots of dirt even before the soap application. Great tip! The pros: Lightweight, relatively, not too hard to move around Easy to use Lots of well-marked handles and ways to carry from room to room Not too heavy to carry upstairs with the use of well-placed handles Efficient! If I said it sucks, you'd think I meant something bad, but I don't! It sucks up all the water and you can't believe how FAST the carpets/rugs dried! The solution is biodegradable and smells very good, not too strong and it doesn't linger...house smells fresh Rugs look NEW! Handy bag with hanging hook holds (that's some alliteration) tools for doing upholstery, very nice Nice spout to empty the container OR you can take the lid off and dump it out that way Easy to clean after you're done Hoover suggestion: perhaps include a drying mat to place UNDER the machine post use? That would be awesome! The cons: Short cord (might be an issue for some; I didn't mind, we have lots of outlets) Low handle -- not a problem for petite me, but you HeMen and Tall Girls may not like the short handle It runs out of water and doesn't really tell you, you have to keep an eye on it, not a deal breaker There is a filter that is on the intake and sometimes it causes the seal to stop the action, so you have to turn the machine on and off for the suction to allow everything to go into place and resume cleaning, mildly annoying, happened a few times after cleaning for a while"
"I did a lot of research before finally deciding to purchase this carpet washer and I was not disappointed! We have several cats and live in an apartment so we wanted a washer that was compact, easy to use, and good at cleaning up pet messes. This washer delivers and every aspect. It's light-weight, simple to steer, and has multiple attachments to meet your every cleaning need. I really like the separate water tanks and that the clean water tank has a separate reservoir for your cleaning solution. This eliminates the struggle of mixing it yourself. It also has a Rinse and Wash selector that allows you to rinse your carpets with just water then turn the knob to allow it to automatically mix the cleaning solution into the water to wash the carpets. This is a great feature in my personal opinion. I took the advice of a previous reviewer and rinsed my carpets with just water before washing them and I was shocked at just how much dirt came up! Rinsing your carpets with plain water first gets the fibers wet and "thirsty" so they really soak up the cleaner when you wash them which leaves your carpets even cleaner. This little feature also allows you to rinse your carpets after you wash them, removing all that extra residue, leaving your carpets soft and not crunchy from the cleaner. This is especially helpful to me since I have pets and don't want them walking and laying around on a bunch of chemicals. The separate water tanks are amazingly simple to fill and empty. There is an easy-pour spout on the dirty water tank that eliminates splashing when emptying. It is by-far the best dirty water tank I have ever emptied! The water tanks are smaller, since it is a compact cleaner, so you do have to refill more often than you would with larger machines, but it is totally worth it to me to do this and have a smaller machine I can handle with ease. I LOVE that everything on this machine is removable so you can clean it! The tanks come off, the dirty water tank comes apart so you can clean inside, you can remove the brushes to rinse them, and the plastic guard on the front that keeps the water from spraying up comes off so you can rinse out any dirt or hair. All of the attachments are easily cleaned as well. This is a big plus for me and I'm sure many other people since nobody like the nasty smell that comes out of a dirty water tank that was never rinsed. I have used this machine to shampoo almost every carpet in my apartment and could not have asked for a better carpet washer! It sucks up the same amount of water it puts down, so my carpets aren't sopping wet and dry in a reasonable amount of time. It works great on high traffic areas and had all of the fibers fluffed back up to where it looked just as good as when we moved in. I've never owned a Hoover anything before, but I am definitely a dedicated customer now! This machine blew me away at it's amazing performance, ease of use, and compact user-friendly design."
"I'll never be mistaken for Susie Homemaker and I'm not one to write reviews, but this product has definitely earned my respect. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'm about a 7.5 housekeeping person. (Unless I'm suffering from a Fit of the Tidies, during which time I become obsessive. Doesn't happen often, must be hormonal.) My home has three adults and 2 cats. We take our shoes off at the door (more for comfort than cleanliness, but that's ok). I use a Dyson vacuum and once a month a very nice cleaning person comes in. So, my house is decent. About twice a year, give or take, we pull out our old rug cleaner. Good enough. So last week I decided it might be time to get a rug cleaning service in to make things nice for the impending long Chicago winter. But, since I tend to be cheap, I checked on prices and reviews of DIY carpet cleaners first. The Hoover Power Scrub Deluxe Carpet Washer was reasonably priced and had some really good reviews. Figured it was simpler to order it and do the rugs myself when it was convenient for me, not by appointment with a service. When it arrived, there was the usual 'product evaluation' by the two men in my household - how well it was made, accessories, you know how that goes. The cats commandeered the box. I noticed the Hoover machine had the same high strength chassis and parts I've come to appreciate in my Dyson vac. Eventually, I let my adult son win the right to operate the Hoover cleaner first (I'm not dumb. I read 'Tom Sawyer'.) and he happily set to work. The set up was easy and the Hoover's operation is intuitive. I assigned him which rugs to do and went to the mall. While shopping I got a text from my son with a picture of the dirty water in the Hoover recovery tank. He was thrilled! When I got home, he'd done the rooms I had asked and the results were amazing. I've got light beige carpet that is 14 years old. IT LOOKS NEW. I'm not kidding. Flippin' terrific. He said it was real easy to use, liked the rinse feature, thought the suction was good, and the scrubbing brushes really got down into the carpet pile and pulled out cat hair. He also said cleaning the tank and parts for storage was much simpler than our previous cleaners. We did observe, however, that the upholstery rotating brush attachment has bristles that are a little too abrasive and seemed to pull out threads. The other attachments are adequate but don't have the high suction the main machine does, but they do a decent job. I'm sold on this cleaner. Absolutely. If you have furry pets (my cats are Maine Coons and drip fur all over the house) or you have a house full of average kids and adults, you will be very very pleased with the Hoover FH50150. For the cost of one carpet cleaning service job you can have a really good machine of your own. It uses HOT water and I put a bit of vinegar in the rinse water to deodorize and cut soap residue. The next project is letting the guys win the job of washing the carpeting in the cars. Buy the Hoover. A very good product."
Hoover Power Scrub Deluxe Carpet Washer, FH50150 (Compare Deals from $127)
