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: Works like a charm
Summary: 5 Stars
This steam vac had the best overall reviews I saw, with no discernable trends on the negative reviews. I had no problem putting it together, although you do need to look in the screw holes and pull up on the lower plastic part before you can put in the 2 long screws that hold it together. It initially appears to be of questionable build quality, but it has worked great. I have cleaned every carpet in my house once, and the stairs and landings twice. The result was as good as the professionals I had come out, and the cost of the machine was less than it would have cost to get the cleaners to come once! In other words, if you get one good cleaning out of this machine, you're already ahead money-wise. Fortunately, it seems like it will hold up for a while, but again, I'm money ahead after only one cleaning.
I did have an issue the second time I went to use it, in that when I set the cleaning solution/water tank into the machine, the water/solution mix started pouring out through the bottom. The fix was to plug the machine in and start it. The seals reseated themselves, and it didn't leak again. My advise would be to have it plugged in and on the surface you're going to clean before you set the tank into it, just in case you get a bad seal like I did that one time. If you do, just start it up and it will work fine again.
Also, if your'e working on stairs, the handheld scrubber works very well. However, if working on the landings, and you're having to manhandle the vac around, the dirty water tank is sitting on the front, and if you lift the vac too high to reset it on the little landing, the bottom part of it could drop vertically, causing a spillout of the dirty water. Not a problem, just something to be careful of.
The water that the machine sucked up was absolutely filthy, even on parts of the carpet that appeared reasonably clean, and that I had vacuumed dilligently before using the steam vac. This tells me the machine is getting out a lot of filth I'm not even aware of. With two dogs and a yard that had some bare spots when we moved in, the carpet had some muddy brown places where the dogs would settle down to lick off the dirt from their paws that I didn't see. The vacuum cleaned those places out completely without breaking a sweat.
Sorry for the ramble, but reader's digest version: Steam Vac costs less than one professional carpet cleaning, but holds up well for the long run, so if you're thinking about getting your carpets cleaned, why not just get this machine and do it yourself for less money? Then every time it cleans your carpets again you can split the cost down until you're paying less than $10 for a whole house cleaning!
Customer Review: Red Dirt of Kauai .. BE GONE!
Summary: 5 Stars
Why buy another carpet cleaner when the other one is not even one year old? Because of the RED dirt that the other unit couldn't take out!
This was a gamble in my part and on a limited income (with this economy) I was really afraid to spend more money on a carpet cleaner. I had a choice: Rent a carpet cleaner for about $[...] bucks for ONE TIME use or buy a heavier duty carpet cleaner.
Well with the RED dirt all over this island (which blows all over the place on windy days), it is just a matter of time when the carpets will need cleaning again. I figure these carpets have to be cleaned every three months and that's the justification for the purchase.
Fortunately (knock on wood), this worked like a charm. 95% of the red dirt is gone and the carpets looks almost new again. Note: If you know Red Dirt, you also know that it's almost impossible to get out of anything!
If I were to point out the best thing about this cleaner, it's the BRUSHES! It has five rotating brushes that actually SCRUBS the carpet. To me, having good brushes is the key to really cleaning the carpet! I particularly like these because 3 rotate clockwise, and the others counter clockwise. I don't particularly like the cylindrical type brushes because they seem to clog up with strings, lint and hair and they're almost useless when that happens! Not to mention having to clean them out constantly, and having to untangle stringy things wrapped around those brushes can be a real pain!
The second best thing I like is the ease of emptying and cleaning out the recovery tank!
One Minor annoyance is the nozzle (which is actually the suction unit located in front of the unit) sometimes clogs up with lint and other debris. This reduces the suction which is critical in removing as much water from the carpet as possible. The manual tells you not to attempt to remove this cover, but you can. It's held down with one screw at the top and two at the bottom. As long as you're careful not to disturb the rubber seals on the sides, you can remove this cover for cleaning and replace it. But do this ONLY if the suggestion of sucking up two cups of water on a non carpeted area (to force the debris out) doesn't work! Replacing it can be a little tricky but if you carefully note how it goes together, it shouldn't be a problem.
Addendum as of July 16, 2010: I found a very thin flexible plastic ruler at the local Wal-Mart store and it works great at pushing the debris that gets stuck in the front suction area of the cleaner, thereby eliminating the need to remove the plastic front (suction) cover.
Customer Review: Great cleaner
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this steamvac based on research on the internet and reading the reviews on Amazon. This was my first purchase of a carpet cleaner. Actually, I don't think any one from my family has ever purchased a carpet cleaner.
I've always rented carpet cleaners. Like most people I got tired of the costly rental. The return trip to the store after a hard day of work cleaning carpet is not fun either.
My folks hired professionals to clean their carpet last year. They charged $150 for about 800 square feet of cleaning. They didn't do a great job either. I figured this machine would pay for itself with one use.
I took the machine to my parents house and we took about 3.5 hours to clean the carpet and another hour to clean the floor tile. I was very careful to clean well since the carpet was so dirty. We pre-cleaned heavy traffic areas with Zep Heavy Traffic Carpet Cleaner (spot cleaner) using a hand brush. We also used the Zep Professional Carpet shampoo. Both can be purchased at Home Depot. The spot cleaner cost about $4 for a small can. The shampoo cost $13 for a large 128 oz bottle. You can easily clean a 3000 sq ft house with a single 128 oz shampoo.
The machine, spot cleaner, and HOT BOILING water did their job. The carpet was clean. The hallway between the bedrooms and both took the longest because of the heavy traffic. I used a lot of the spot cleaner and the result was excellent. There is no need to purchase more expensive chemicals.
We used Pinesoil to clean the tile. Use only half of the measuring cup that comes with the steamvac.
The plastic container that holds the cleaning solution and water contains a cap that doubles as a measuring cup for the shampoo. It contains two lines. I used the top (highest) line for carpet cleaning. I used the lower line for floor cleaning.
I also used the inluded attachment to clean my car's interior. It did a great job. It's a little messy but the results are good. I parked it in the hot sun to let it dry with the windows a third down.
Give yourself some time to familiarize the product. It's a breeze after that. Clean up is very easy. To clean the attachment hose I let it suck pot full of clean water. To clean the steamvac, I poured a gallon of clean tap water on the clean floor and let the steamvac suck it up. You can clean the house that injects the shampoo by filling the shampoo container with water and running the machine back and forth in a small, clean area.
In summary, this is a great product. It will pay for itself after two house cleanings.
Customer Review: Great product for the price!
Summary: 5 Stars
We decided on buying a carpet cleaner after we hired a carpet cleaning service and they didn't show. I researched several cleaners out there and tried some other ones that I knew some relatives had. This cleaner is hands down the best one I've seen. No other cleaner in the same price range cleans better. Actually, no other cleaner that's twice this price cleans better either.
My mother has a Bissell and it cleans fairly good, but the canister that holds the clean and dirty water is a all-in-one deal which is too small to be productive with. We have frieze (shag) carpet in our home and it seemed to use a lot of water on a small area.
Fast forward to the present. The Hoover took about 10 minutes to put together. It has two separate tanks for the clean water and dirty water. I believe the clean tanks holds nearly a gallon. I hear some people saying that the empty/fill cycle is getting off, but I find that if I fill the clean solution just below the fill mark solves that problem. It takes about two tanks per room which is great.
I haven't had the leaking problem that has plagued some of the other buyers of this product, but I think if you follow the directions that solves that problem. I haven't used the hand tools yet, but I plan to soon so I'll edit this post.
We originally wanted to clean the carpet due to pet stains so I purchased the Hoover pet solution, but it cleans about the same as the advanced cleaning sample Hoover supplies with the cleaner. I wanted to see how good the Hoover would clean the set in pet stains without the recommended pretreatment and it actually got out 90% of the spot. I feel that with pretreatment it would have totally came out, but I plan to just run over the same spot again later to finish it off(why get down and scrub if you don't have to?).
I am completely satisfied with this purchase. If you are wasting your money on professional services you could be saving so much with this cleaner and doing the job yourself. It's no more difficult than vacuuming and it does a fantastic job on pet stains and heavy traffic areas.
* Update - March 10, 2009 *
Some people were saying they had a tough time getting hair out of the scrubbing brushes. I tried using one of those pet brushed with the short metal teeth on the scrubbing brushes and it didn't take but a few minutes to get most of the hair out.
Other than keeping the brushes clean after each use this cleaner has been amazing. I've cleaned my whole home and I've let several people borrow it which all gave rave reviews.
Customer Review: I Was a Skeptic - Not Now!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have never written a review before, but could NOT stop myself this time. I have been a skeptic of home carpet cleaners for years, convinced in my own mind that they could never be as effective at cleaning and extracting as the truck mounted steam units we used to schedule to come clean carpets. Each trip was over $100 for just a couple of rooms, and with six - eight hours for drying, it was an ordeal. The last few times I had the company come, I found areas of saturation in some places, areas that were virtually dry in others when they were gone. It seemed they were in and out of my house in twenty minutes, just having basically "swiped" my carpets quickly and left. I began to wonder if I would ever enjoy clean carpets again.
Then I visited my brother at his out of town home, having planned the trip well in advance. He is a hoarder, basically, with kids and dogs to boot, so I was used to his carpets looking more like dirt than carpets. Imagine my surprise when I arrived and the house was cleaned up and his carpet looked fantastic! I asked him how he did it, and he pointed to his Hoover spin scrub carpet cleaner. I decided it was time to take the plunge. I researched over and over the available models and chose the F5914-900. I picked it up at Walmart and brought it home.
True to the word, in 15 minutes and with a screwdriver, I had it assembled. I cleaned my carpets according to the directions, and waited for the ultimate test. The ultimate test, in my mind, would be this: Once the carpets were dry, I would vacuum with my Kenmore Intelli-clean vacuum. This vacuum has sensors that cause lights to flash (red for really dirty, yellow when it gets better, etc.) when you are vacuuming and picking up dirt and debris. When all dirt and debris is gone, the lights go green and the motor slows, telling you to move on to another area to clean. I had vacuumed after Stanley Steemer many times and had never acheived the green lights. I waited only a couple of hours for the carpets to dry from the Hoover cleaning, then ran my Kenmore over the floors. To my utter astonishment, I got green lights immediately and for the entire time I vacuumed over the Hoover-cleaned area. I called my husband to come and witness, and even he was impressed.
I am sorry I waited so long and tolerated dirty carpets to my wit's end when I could have been cleaning them all along. I am no longer a skeptic, and thrilled that I can clean my carpets any time I want, and know that they are truly clean. Thanks for a great product, Hoover!