Hoover SteamVac Carpet Cleaner with Clean Surge, F5914-900
by Hoover
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List Price: Our Price: $139.83 You Save: $40.16 (22%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Category: Home See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Hoover SteamVac Carpet Cleaner with Clean Surge, F5914-900
Customer Review: Excellent Cleaner - Beats Dirt Devil CE7900 Platinum Force
Summary: 5 Stars
I have used both the Dirt Devil CE7900 Platinum Force Dirt Devil CE7900 Platinum Force Carpet Extractor and this Hoover SteamVac CleanSurge F5914-900. The Hoover is by far the superior machine in terms of features, build quality, and cleaning performance. The difference is night and day, no comparison.
I've actually used two very similar Hoovers - this model, and the older SteamVac Ultra F5881-900. They haven't changed much, and for good reason. It's a great design that works amazingly well. This newer one adds the "heated cleaning" feature, which simply directs the electric motor's hot exhaust air down through a vent in the bottom of the unit. I find that it helps dry the carpet as you work. I find this design to be superior to the newer, flimsier Hoovers like the Agility and the V2. Those seem to be made much more cheaply.
The greatest strength of the F5914-900 is it's incredible suction power. It really pulls up the carpet fibers, making the carpet soft and plushy again. It extracts dirt like nobody's business and it seems to reclaim nearly all of the water it sprays onto the carpet. My carpet is dry in no time after using this machine. The unit is a bit heavy, but that's because there's a serious motor in there, positioned right in the center of the unit. This weight helps keep the unit pressed on the carpet for maximum suction...I never have to press down on it trying to get it to really create a good vacuum like I do with other models.
The SpinBrush system is superior to the beater bars used on competitors models. Instead of a horizontal bar using brushes that simply mat down the carpet fibers, the Hoover's brushes are vertically aligned and scrub into the carpet rather than over it. Pet hair does not get wrapped around the SpinBrush scrubbers they way it does on a beater bar. The scrubbers really work! If you let the machine sit in one spot and and then turn it off, you can lift the machine and see the sudsy, circular scrub marks set deep into the carpet. As the suction passes over the area scrubbed, it lifts out all of the detergent and dirt and pulls the carpet fibers straight up again. The end result is a carpet that looks new again. My bare feet leave perfect impressions in the plush carpet after it dries. Nice!
The Hot Water tank is easy to fill and the cap provides and easy way to measure the detergent. The Dirty Water tank is great, because it does not leak and is bucket-shaped with a large removable lid. It is very easy to empty. It doens't have crazy baffles or empty through a tiny hole like other models. Usually when I empty it I find it's picked up a good lump of pet fur...and it pours right out with the dirty water! The filter is large and easy to clean as opposed to the tiny one-inch-square filters used in other models that seem to limit suction power. Both tanks are translucent to let you see the water levels. I find I have to empty the dirty tank fairly often, but that is because this thing sucks up nearly all the water it puts down, along with the grime in the carpet. That's a very good thing.
The suction path can actually be dismantled to clean carpet fibers and pet hairs out without having to use some kind of silly skewer or tool or trying to shoot water through it hoping to get it clean. In fact the whole machine can really be gotten into and cleaned/maintained properly - unlike all the fused-together, throw-away, molded plastic junk parks in other models. The Hoover also does not use a belt, unlike the Dirt Devil, so there's no belt to break, buy, or replace (trying to place a belt back into a bunch of wheels in some crazy serpentine pattern is no fun).
The unit comes with both a hand tool with powered SpinScrub brushes, and one without. Both work very well. The powered tool actually does a good job of scrubbing on stairs and spots. The only complaint would be that the water sprayer on the hand tools does spray too far out to the sides and makes it a little hard to control where exactly you're spraying. Not usually a big deal, but it can make the job a little messier than it needs to be. The suction on the hand tools is also very strong. I've used the hand tools on my high-end, light-colored, microfiber upholstery and it brough it back to new condition (and made it all allergen free!). All the tools store nicely on the unit, including a bare floor attachment seperately available from Hoover. I've seen it, but I've never used it.
If you have pets, I highly recommend using Hoover's Premium Pet shampoo with this machine Hoover 40321130 Premium Pet Formula Carpet/Upholstery Detergent, 128-Ounce. It smells great, doesn't create too much foam in the machine, and contains enzymes to help eliminate and protect against pet odor. It also left no "crunchiness" or noticable residue on my carpets. There isn't any residual perfume smell - it just smells clean! The Deep Cleansing is also very good if you don't have pets and don't need to pay for the enzyme formula Hoover 40321128 Deep Cleansing Carpet/Upholstery Detergent, 128-Ounce.
Customer Review: Outstanding price:performance
Summary: 5 Stars
I've owned all kinds of carpet machines, from little hand-helds to a monster commercial RinseNVac (that cost a small fortune) and I have to say, this relatively inexpensive one handily outperforms them all. I wouldn't say that it's up to commercial use because *everything* that could be made of plastic *is* plastic, however with normal household use, I don't expect to have any problems with breakage. It's robust enough to stand up to normal handling.
There are a few things that are important to me in carpet cleaning: 1) Does it get the carpet clean? Yep. If you use hot water and the right amount of detergent, you'll do as well as any more exotic machine with this one. (While this has nothing to do with the choice of machine, I find that premixing some detergent with some Clorox-2 and applying to problem areas with a brush (don't soak it) will often get things out that the machine in normal use will not.) 2) Is it easy to fill and drain? Yep. Very easy if you just tilt back the handle against a wall or table while you're changing tanks. The top tank snaps in and out in a second. The bottom tank unlocks with two easy to use tabs. The two tanks stack securely for easy carrying. Even more importantly, IT DOESN'T DRIP EVERYWHERE!! This is the first carpet machine I've had that doesn't make a mess dripping everywhere during tank changes. The dirty water tank lid comes off for easy dumping. The detergent tank fills through a large hole. It couldn't be easier. 3) Does it have enough static vacuum to pull the water out of the carpeting? Yep. They don't specify the static water lift of the motor/fan, but it's strong enough to extract nearly all the water that goes in. If the atmospheric dew point is reasonably low (40s or less, let's say) and you use a fan to circulate air over the just cleaned area, you should expect to be able to use the area in a matter of two or three hours. That's just outstanding. 4) Even without the squeegee, it does a reasonable job on hard floors. I can't say that the rotating brushes are all that effective on carpeting (though they can't hurt), but they do work effectively on hard floors. From what I've observed, the water pickup might be slightly better with the squeegee, but it's usable as-is. 5) Cleanup is very simple. Aside from the tanks, you needn't fuss with anything else. Just set it on a towel to dry off the bottom. 6) It's surprisingly good at reaching edges. On the sides, you can clean within ~1/4" of the wall. Because the nozzle is in the front, it can't reach closer than about 1" in the front. 7) It's just heavy enough to push the nozzle against the carpeting tightly for good extraction without being too heavy to make moving it around a nuisance. Hoover hit this trade off just right.
There are a couple of minor complaints I have with it, none of which are deal-breakers: 1) it's LOUD. Wow. You should use ear plugs. 2) There are acres of plastic. Fortunately it's thick enough that nothing should be expected to break in normal handling. 3) I'd have liked a longer cord. 4) I'm not crazy about the foot-pedal on-off switch. I'd have liked it on the handle a lot more. I suppose this was a practical consideration having to do with running AC power wiring within the handle.
Other comments: Are you confused about the difference between this and its somewhat higher-priced twin (the 5912-900)? Did you visit Hoover's web site and come away even MORE confused? Me too. Turns out there are only two differences: The warranty for this is one year. The warranty for the 5912 is two years. The color. (I'm serious). This is "blue", the other one is "black". In reality, they're mostly gray plastic, so who could possibly care? The tool set is the same. You get a hand-held air-powered spin-brush tool, and a simple non-spin brush version of the same thing. I haven't used the spin-brush yet, but would be concerned about the loss of vacuum that the air motor causes resulting in poor extraction.
One other comment about these kinds of things generally -- I wish they'd stop using the term "steam"! Argh. At best, you might see some water vapor. Steam is invisible. And dangerous. The stuff that you see coming out of a teakettle is WATER VAPOR, not steam. If you can see it, it's NOT STEAM. If a carpet cleaner REALLY used steam, it would probably instantly destroy every carpet it touched.
In summary, I'm a happy camper. Even though I've had this a mere week, we've spent quite a few hours of quality time together cleaning all sorts of places. I can't wait to clean even more.
Customer Review: Glad to be a FORMER Bissell Proheat x2 carpet cleaner owner
Summary: 5 Stars
BELOW ARE PHOTO LINKS FOR PROOF OF CLEANING POWER! :) :)
My title says it all. I bought it a little over two years ago when it was the supposed "best of the best" according to a Best Buy associate. I am a former Bissell Proheat 2x owner and I disliked the machine because it was bulky, I found myself replacing side brushes within the first use, in which I had to pay about $25.00 US when I barely used it! The bag was difficult to clean, was heavy, hard to move around, held little detergent, had terrible suction power so the carpet would remain moist for at least 2 days, it was just an overall big headache. As if cleaning isn't a headache period!
DO YOUR RESEARCH/READ FEEDBACK!:
I did my mini research this time instead of listening to one good comment. I'd like to say it took me about an hour or so to decide I was going to get this Hoover steam vac to see what the 1,500+ Amazon and Best Buy 160+ review-fuss was about.
TIME OF ARRIVAL (delivery):
The Hoover steam vac arrived in its original manufacturer packaging. I quickly took it out and assembled it. It took me approximately 10 minutes or less to put it together. So not bad at all considering I have little patience for these things. It was so simple!
DOWN TO BUSINESS (cleaning!):
I obviously vacuumed before attempting to clean my off white colored carpeting. The target area was the living room because it contains the most traffic literally had BROWN dirt trails of people walking through. My old Bissell was able to remove some of the dirt, but you could see the trail. My mom would say "I think you just wet all the dirt and spread it all over evenly" (saying it didn't clean at all...lol).
After vacuuming the area to be steam cleaned I began cleaning the carpet with the Hoover Steam Vac with Clean Surge. Once finished I was extremely impressed. First off, its suction of the water is out of this world! You see all the dirt just getting picked up as it were a fresh spill. Yes my dirty collection tank was black, but it did not take me that many passes to get the dirt out! I forgot to mention I have two dogs. I recently got a puppy who likes to pee on my carpet. There were previous pee stains from my old dog that were visible even after I cleaned it with my old Bissell steam vac. Furthermore, with this new steam vac the old and new pee stains are gone. I can't begin to explain how good of a cleaner this is. I don't like writing long reviews, but all you guys were right. I am very glad I went on here (Amazon) and BestBuy.com to read over the reviews of the pros and cons.
I literally took pictures of the carpet before and after. This is just a piece of the living room:
BEFORE: [...].
AFTER: [...].
(copy paste the link to a new browser tab or open in new window)
Again my carpet was an off-white/beige color, that had black trail marks from heavy traffic, pee stains that were cleaned before, but still visible. Now my carpet almost looks new! Judge for yourself look at the photos!
My hat goes off to Hoover. This is the best steam vac I've ever owned. Very happy customer here sharing the results with everyone.
Enjoy!
PROS:
- not heavy
- good detergent and water collection tank size
** For those complaining about the collection tank or the detergent tank being too small. Think about it, if either tank were bigger the machine would be so much heavier. Then those same people would complain about weight. I feel the tank sizes are just fine!
- suction power is excellent! Within 2 hours! (windows open & doors open).
- the price tag. Half the cost of my old Bissell!
CONS:
- the detergent is a tad too price'y (at least to me it is) so I went ahead and used the Home Depot cleaner called ZAPP Professional for high traffic for $8.00. Worked like a charm. On the vacuum itself says to avoid using detergents other than the Hoover, because it may cause too much foaming. Well of course they would say that! They want you to buy theirs! Not to worry Zapp is great! I even added a little bleach and there was no foaming.
- The collection tank (of dirty water) sits directly above the motor and wiring. Never know *buzzZz* might get shocked? I'm just a paranoid person.
- no heating! Problem solved... I just fill the tank with hot water every time :)
Customer Review: A MUST if you have carpet
Summary: 5 Stars
Living in a one-bedroom apartment, I had real qualms about having purchased this. However, after several cleanings, I can say it's absolutely been worth it.
I have a short-haired cat who was home one time during a professional cleaning. The cleaner had let himself in when I wasn't home. I came home later to beautiful carpet, but I couldn't find the cat. No, he hadn't been sucked up by the steamer, but he was a terrified lump under the covers of the bed. He stayed there for a long time, huddled and shivering as I petted him through the covers.
With time, my carpets started getting grungy again. Like most felines, mine goes through his shed-and-barf episodes a few times a year. I used to spot clean, but it always grossed me out, and I was never convinced I was getting deep enough. Considering I now had several spots and didn't want to put the beast through another traumatic professional cleaning, I sprung for the Hoover SteamVac.
It's a hefty, heavy thing with minimal prep required to set it up for the first time. After shutting the cat in the bedroom, I was ready to go. I steamed the living room using the recommended amount of Hoover cleaner, adding my own boiling water from an electric kettle (the directions just say hot, but I had read other reviews here!). The stuff that came out of the carpet was amazing and disgusting. I had swept already, and still the water turned a filthy brown. It lifted the spots from the carpet like a pro. The Clean Surge feature is great for particularly difficult, set-in stains. One stain that had been there for a long time lightened, but could not be completely removed. Still, I was satisfied. The vacuum of the water worked great and left the carpet just slightly damp. It dried quite fast.
After this, I was bitten by the cleaning bug and wanted to steam EVERYTHING. My car was several years old, having been purchased as a used vehicle. The seats had always bothered me because the driver's looked dingy and darker than the passenger side, and the passenger side was darker than the back seats. Even though the Hoover cord is quite long, I attached a couple extension cords together in order to reach from my apartment to the car outside.
Setting the steamer up for cleaning upholstery is a more complicated process than steaming your carpets. I read the directions and remembered thinking I'd better not lose them because there's no way I'd remember what went where later. I went to work and steamed those seats. The results were nothing short of amazing. I could see muddy-colored water being sucked back into the Hoover. The cleaning using the upholstery attachments, including rotating, scrubbing brushes, worked wonders in cleaning out years of dirt and turning the seats much lighter.
Months later, I've cleaned my carpets repeatedly. Each time I'm thrilled with the results. I don't always use as much cleaner as Hoover recommends because I've read the other reviews about cleaner possibly attracting dirt. I haven't noticed any difference in using half the amount of cleaner after the initial cleaning with full strength.
After a cleaning, the cat barf spots are gone. Despite having vacuumed before cleaning, the cleaner still picks up cat hair and spits it out as wet little clumps that need to be picked up later when the floor has dried. It's just confirmation to me that the steamer is really getting in deep and pulling up ground-in dirt and hair.
And you know what? This even works on linoleum! Granted, you may not want to pull it out as your primary method for washing floors, but it's great for a periodic steam cleaning. You have the option to turn the rotation of the brushes off if you're concerned about them on your floors. The cleaning solution also does a fantastic job and leaves the linoleum gleaming and shiny.
My carpets always look great. They always have that "just cleaned" look about them. I've had people comment on them as they enter my home and insist on removing their shoes. I'm very satisfied with the performance of the Hoover. If you have carpet, and especially if you have an indoor pet, you'll get lots of use out of the SteamVac.
Customer Review: Say goodbye to your mop!
Summary: 5 Stars
Now I'm not the type of person to typically write a review of any product. But this time, I just felt the need. So, I bought this back in November and finally opened the box yesterday. I was able to put it together in a matter of minutes - although I would suggest that you actually refer to the written pages when it comes to connecting the hose because the pictures didn't explain it well enough.
Also - while I searched and searched the box for the bare floor tool, there was none. My issue - I didn't read well and thought there was one in there. No biggie - you won't really need it.
So, I immediately got the hot water flowing from the sink (and I have REALLY hot water because it heats the house in the winter). It's about 200 degrees - well above the typical setting on a thermostat. Not even controllable since the knob is inside the hot water heater, but I've digressed. OK - so I don't typically clean with cleaning solutions and maybe if I did - I'd get different results but the result I got was just amazing even without chemicals. I used plain old vinegar and a touch of shampoo for the smell and hot water - and I would never have imagined the carpet was as dirty as the water clearly was when I was done.
So I finished my daughter's room and moved on her bathroom. She has a large bathroom and one of those bathroom rugs you get from JC Penney. Oh my. The water was darker than her bedroom was! GROSS. Went back to check her bedroom and the carpet was feeling shockingly dry already. Yet again, was CLEARLY impressed.
So I went to bed thinking wow, I should have done this sooner! Well, this morning I got up and thought - it's got more scrubbing power than me so why not use it on the foyer hall (which is tile). It's an 8x20 area and used to take a while to mop. We have 3 dogs and a cat, so it's an area that needs cleaned often. I mixed up my mixture again, this time leaving out the shampoo, and off I went. Within about 20 minutes I was done... never knowing the tile was actually as light as it was and without any effort compared to mopping. At this point, the Swiffer Wet commercial with the mop begging to come back comes to my mind and I laughed.
On I went to the kitchen which is about 800 sq. feet. Did my vacuuming to get up all the loose stuff and again mixed the vinegar in with my hot tap water.... and I was amazed that my kitchen floor was as dirty as it was. Not nearly as dirty as the other rooms - but it did a great job on cleaning not only the tile, but the grout.
Now, all in all this is a GREAT product. It will clean any floor I have in my house, from carpet, to tile, to laminate and do it better than I can with a mop.
Some things to remember are....
Make sure you vacuum first - I fortunately also have a Hoover vacuum and it has a hard floor setting so it's an easy task as well.
The hand tool connection is quite awkward - so I wouldn't recommend switching back in forth. You have to take the tank apart to put the hand tool suction thing - and you have to plug another piece in to a socket on the top. It was quite a task trying to do that in my daughter's room and I quickly said this is cumbersome and time consuming, so I decided I'll do the edges another time.
Remember to drain it - I noticed there was some water on the floor this morning where it was setting overnight because I didn't drain the water in the clean tank.
While I did use it on my laminate, I was very caution with the amount of water I used -- and used it more for the scrubbing power than anything else. I took my microfiber mop and went over it when I was done to make sure I didn't get any streaks. (And I didn't.)
That's really it. I know this is a long review - but again, just thought I'd share with you that for $150 -- this is an all around cleaner that isn't just for carpets. I haven't done the linoleum (sp?) in the basement yet - but that's about 1500 sq. feet -- so it will take some time. I can't imagine it would be anything less than stellar.
Hope this has helped! Now go get cleaning.