This One Carpet Steamer Leaves Other Steam Cleaners In The Dust
Having worked in a commercial business for many years, I have tried almost every conceivable carpet steamer that exists. My experience with many brands has told me that no one brand stands out from the other, but there are certain machines that consistently outperform the rest. One particular machine has been a miracle worker for both home use and industrial type jobs.
The Hoover SteamVac with Clean Surge is pretty much the king of the hill as far as steam cleaners go, IMHO. Mind you, this is a home carpet steamer that could be (and has been) used in commercial operations because of it’s power and durability.
If you have looked into renting a steam cleaner from places like Rug Doctor you know that it usually costs around $60 for a one day machine rental including the cleansers you will need. Two rentals in one month equals (almost) the total cost of this SteamVac–yet this thing blows away those Rug Doctor professional cleaners.
I personally used the SteamVac to clean restaurant carpets that were very high traffic and highly soiled. I also still use it in my home (Wife, baby, 2 dogs). Not quite sure why the word ‘steam’ is even included in the name of this thing as it doesn’t really ‘steam’ up, but man does it work. Without turning this into a 500 page novel I’ll briefly touch on the most important aspects of this steamer.
Weight
It weighs about 20 lbs. For a home carpet steamer with this level of professional strength, 20 lbs. is amazing. Having industrial sized carpet steamers for years that performed much worse and were much heavier, this is a true blessing. If you don’t have much strength you will do a lot worse with most other models of comparable power since they are large, bulky and very heavy. You roll it on back wheels anyway.
Clean Surge
Even though the Clean Surge button is in an awkward spot on the carpet steamers handle (it is in the front opposite the spray trigger) when you use it it does wonders on the more soiled parts of your carpet. Be smart, though…do yourself a favor and lightly pretreat your carpet with some hot water and maybe a little spray cleaner before you make your first pass with this SteamVac. This will loosen the carpet (and the stains) ever so slightly and make the Clean Surge function all the more useful. It dispenses extra solution for the harder to clean spots and does an awesome job.
Dog & Cat Hair
I have two dogs. They are small dogs, but both shed like crazy. This carpet steamer must suck up pounds of their hair at a time. I would strongly suggest removing the brushes at the end of every cleaning and remove the hair from the brushes. It takes me maybe five extra minutes and every time I break the machine out it is like new again. My biggest concern with a newborn at the time was all of the hair in the house but this steam cleaner has really saved me from that worry. To test whether it picked up a good amount of hair or not I take a white towel (it’s black dog hair) and I pat random areas of the carpet with it. While it won’t suck up every single hair, it leaves almost no hair behind.
Urine, Vomit & Other Goodness
If I might make another suggestion…use colder water to start when cleaning up these messes. Then take your Hoover and pass over with hot water. If you do this like I do, you will find that none of the stains ‘set’. There are a few spots on our carpet that have become our dogs’ ‘favorites’, but now you can’t tell where they are.
Price
When I bought this carpet steamer it was just under $200. I think Amazon sells it for like $130 or $140 right now with free shipping. That deal can’t be beat for the work that it does.
One con for me is the size of both the solution tank and the recovery tank. They are very small. Both will fill up quick and you will have to remove them to empty them frequently. That is slightly annoying when you really get into the groove of cleaning.
This Hoover carpet steamer would also be a very wise purchase for someone who was starting a mom and pop carpet cleaning business. I am at the point where I can get an entire full size restaurant completed in 1.5 hours and the carpets look amazing. My carpets at home look even better.
If you buy it, make sure you get model F5914-900. That is the most recent model.
