Hoover SteamVac Carpet Cleaner with Clean Surge, F5914-900
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Hoover SteamVac Carpet Cleaner with Clean Surge, F5914-900
Customer Review: Lightweight...
Summary: 4 Stars
Our carpet had been neglected for a while. We always rented a Rug Doctor and it was becoming quite a hassle to pick it up and return it. Lifting it in and out of our car's trunk was another hassle we wanted to do away with. I purchased the Hoover F5914-900 after reading the reviews. It was easy to assemble.
This steam cleaner is much smaller & lighter than the Rug Doctor we are used to using, making it easier to push & maneuver around. However, because of the smaller size, we emptied and filled the upper and lower tanks, eight times while cleaning our 12'x 26' carpet. The clean solution tank holds one gallon of water (one reason for the light weight). The instructions say to fill it with hot tap water and the detergent which is easily measured using the tank's cap as a measuring cup. The unit itself cleans about a 11-11.5" wide area and doesn't clean close enough to the woodwork to suit me. So, I used the stair/upholstery nozzle to clean next to the woodwork and other tight areas. That tool did a good job for us. Hooking it up was a bit confusing and my hubby was worried that he was going to break the clear, recovery tank front panel. It pulls down a little hard, just don't force it. There is also a powered hand tool that has rotating brushes included with this steam vac. I didn't feel the need to try out this unit's Clean Surge feature because I had already pre-treated the bad areas.
Vacuum your carpeting before steam cleaning otherwise you'll end up clogging the steam cleaner. I pretreated the heavy traffic areas with my Bissell 0801 Oxy GEN2 Multi Purpose Oxygen Boost -32oz which I applied liberally to the carpet and waited 10 minutes before steam cleaning. For stubborn areas, I pre-treat, steam clean, let dry, pre-treat again, steam clean, let dry, then rinse. For normal cleaning, I pre-treat, steam clean, let dry, then rinse. I'm happy with the results. The heavy traffic areas are now the same color as the rest of my carpet. This time I around I used Hoover 40321128 Deep Cleansing Carpet/Upholstery Detergent, 128-Ounce I might try another brand of steam cleaning detergent next time.
Take good care of your steam cleaner. Be sure to read the instruction booklet & be sure to follow the storage instructions when you put it away after cleaning your carpet.
So far so good; we are both pleased with our Hoover SteamVac. Because of the steam vac's light weight, we are not exhausted after cleaning our carpets. The Hoover did a good job of picking up the water, but it took our carpet more than 2 hours to dry.
Customer Review: Lightweight.....
Summary: 4 Stars
Our carpet had been neglected for a while. We always rented a Rug Doctor and it was becoming quite a hassle to pick it up and return it. Lifting it in and out of our car's trunk was another hassle we wanted to do away with. I purchased the Hoover F5914-900 after reading the reviews. It was easy to assemble.
This steam cleaner is much smaller & lighter than the Rug Doctor we are used to using, making it easier to push & maneuver around. However, because of the smaller size, we emptied and filled the upper and lower tanks, eight times while cleaning our 12'x 26' carpet. The clean solution tank holds one gallon of water (one reason for the light weight). The instructions say to fill it with hot tap water and the detergent which is easily measured using the tank's cap as a measuring cup. The unit itself cleans about a 11-11.5" wide area and doesn't clean close enough to the woodwork to suit me. So, I used the stair/upholstery nozzle to clean next to the woodwork and other tight areas. That tool did a good job for us. Hooking it up was a bit confusing and my hubby was worried that he was going to break the clear, recovery tank front panel. It pulls down a little hard, just don't force it. There is also a powered hand tool that has rotating brushes included with this steam vac. I didn't feel the need to try out this unit's Clean Surge feature because I had already pre-treated the bad areas.
Vacuum your carpeting before steam cleaning otherwise you'll end up clogging the steam cleaner. I pretreated the heavy traffic areas with my Bissell 0801 Oxy Gen2 Booster which I applied liberally to the carpet and waited 10 minutes before steam cleaning. For stubborn areas, I pre-treat, steam clean, let dry, pre-treat again, steam clean, let dry, then rinse. For normal cleaning, I pre-treat, steam clean, let dry, then rinse. I'm happy with the results. The heavy traffic areas are now the same color as the rest of my carpet. This time I around I used Hoover 40321128 Deep Cleansing Carpet/Upholstery Detergent, 128-Ounce. I might try another brand of steam cleaning detergent next time.
Take good care of your steam cleaner. Be sure to read the instruction booklet & be sure to follow the storage instructions when you put it away after cleaning your carpet.
So far so good; we are both pleased with our Hoover SteamVac. Because of the steam vac's light weight, we are not exhausted after cleaning our carpets. The Hoover did a good job of picking up the water, but it took our carpet more than 2 hours to dry.
Customer Review: Easy to use and good results
Summary: 5 Stars
We decided to buy a carpet cleaneer as an less expensive alternative to frequent "professional" cleanings as we have two dogs and frequent grand children.
After lots of research we decided upon Hoover's upper-middle range cleaners. The many reviews were helpful in things to be aware of when using the machines. The only problem was comparing models and prices was every store seemed to have a similar but slightly different "exclusive" model. We settled on this model and purchsed it from Amazon as it had no shipping or taxes. Shipping was extremely prompt.
By the way, there is no steam. Hot water is only as hot as you can get from the tap. I suggest making it as hot as possible as it will quickly cool. There is some heat drying effect from the heat of the moter, but the drying factor is removing as much of the water as possible by passing over several times to extract the residue.
The set up was easy as some improvements have been made to prevent leakage. My suggestion is to read the instructions. The simplistic instructions seem to assume one knows more than one does.
It seems that you should use the full amount of detergent as well as pre spotting more severe spots. A small bedroom or hallway takes about one gallon of water and 5 ounces of cleaner. A larger room will take more. I forgot about the surge button the first time but it only helps a bit. This is not a miracle worker.
I found that two passes up and back in cleaning cycles followed by at least three up and back drying cycles was minimum. I usually passed at least five drying cycles which meant that the carpet was dry in just a few hours.
For some carpets, the best results may be when you pass a rinse cycle which left my carpet softer. Make sure you follow with the required drying cycles.
We suffered no leakage, spillage, nor splashing. We did not use the hand wand so I can't speak to that.
For a long life of the machine, cleaning up is extremely important as there is lots of residue left in the cleaner from the brushes to the waste tank. The last screws to undo the suction area cover are hidden underneath the machine so it must be turned over to find the two lower screws. The brushes remove and replace easily but take a few minutes to extract all the dirty fibers.
Overall we were very satisfied with the ease of use and the results. We plan to clean the carpets every 90 days. The amount of extracted silt was impressive. We are letting our daughter use it while we babysit as it is so easy and with enought drying cycles, the carpet is soon dry.
You will fully recover your expenses after the second use. We fully recommend it.
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.