tbrown's Full Review: Hoover Steam Vac Spot Convertible Vacuum
I bought the Hoover Steam Vac Spot Convertible Vacuum to clean the one room in our home that still has carpeting. We had been using the room as a den/office and storage room but decided to make it a spare bedroom. We hadn't really noticed that the carpet had some staining until we moved everything out. But, since we only have this one room to clean, we thought about renting a machine. But, we changed our minds when we realized that some of the stains in the carpet were from our cat--who, by the way, we THOUGHT was totally housebroken. Anyway, we decided to buy an inexpensive machine just in case the cat had more accidents.
I was thumbing through some mail order catalogs to see what was out there when I saw this product in one of the Brylane sales catalogs. Since I'd been receiving lots of invitations to open an account with this company, I decided to try them out and purchase this cleaner. The cleaner listed at $119.00 plus shipping and handling but we got a 35% off promotional code and free shipping with the order so the price was right.
The Hoover Steam Vac Spot Convertible Vacuum arrived a few days later. I remember wondering if it would take much assembly. Apparently I hadn't read the description of the product carefully because the catalog had said that it comes fully assembled. That was one big plus for the product! I soon found out that when they said fully assembled they meant it. All I had to do was fill the tank with cleaning solution and hot water to begin cleaning.
Other than the main unit, the box also contained one bottle of rug cleaning solution and one bottle of stain treatment for spots and pet stains. There was also a small detachable brush to be used in cleaning upholstery. I missed that little detail too! The easy-to-read instruction manual was printed in English and French. An order blank for ordering more cleaning solution was inside the manual.
This cleaner is lightweight and has a compact design. The body is gray with red see-through tanks. The unit has an adjustable telescoping handle under which there is a trigger to release the cleaning solution as you clean. The front of the unit has a built-in carrying handle and there are also built-in hooks for storing the cord when not in use.
The cleaning solution and water recovery tanks are see-through so that you can see when the tanks need to be refilled. There are three sets of rotating cleaning brushes under the cleaner.
Operating this product is very quick and easy but there are some minor things that could be improved. First, this is a very loud machine! The manual says the loud sound of the machine is an alert for when the water input tank is empty. I couldn't detect a change in the sound when the tank was empty but I didn't find this to be important since you can tell when the tank is empty by just looking.
Another thing that I would change is the length of the on-board upholstery cleaner hose. The hose is not long enough to move around a large piece of furniture without moving the whole cleaning unit several times. The last thing I would improve would be the capacity of the water tanks. The tanks empty very quickly because of the small capacity and this means frequent stops to refill while cleaning.
Even though there are some things I would improve about this product, I think it was a good value for the money I paid. The machine has excellent suction and removes most of the water from the carpet, which makes drying much faster. In other words, it gets the job done.
All in all, I would recommend this product for someone who wants an inexpensive product for occasional carpet cleaning.
The Hoover F5505 SteamVac Spot has more suction than any other Portable Carpet Cleaner based on end of hose air power. This portable upright carpet cl...More at eCOST.com
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