Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Cleans carpets nicely ! |
| Disadvantages: |
Brushes don't work as they should ! |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
Right, the first time I ever encountered one of these 3-in-1 steam cleaners, is when my mum moved into a two bedroom flat that would have very easily housed Jack in the Beanstalks GIANT! It was absolutely massive. The sad thing is, the landlord was a psychotic old fart. For some reason he reckoned that putting a cream coloured carpet throughout this flat would be a good idea. He even put it in the DINING ROOM! It was a lovely shade of milky cream, and as plush and soft as you could want. But it was CREAM! This was meant to be a residence not a bloody hospital, and therefore there was no WAY this carpet was going to remain its pristine cream – especially as my mum had several grand children by this point. You know, the two-year-old monster variety! Those lil creatures that are only called children lovingly by their parents and called lil demons in training by the rest of the world!
At any rate, my mum immediately checked into the idea of professional steam cleaning every 6 months, and found this extremely expensive. She also looked into those lil rent-a-cleaner jobs that you can often find in American shops…and possibly English, I don’t know. She found these not too terribly expensive, but a pain in the rumpus to get home etc. SO, she went to the store to look into buying a lovely DIY steamer. She bought this one.
Now, thought this story has been about my mum to this point, it should also be noted, that I use one of these identical machines at work – Lancing College – in the boys’ house. I will give the results of this product based on both uses, commercial AND private residential.
The Machine
Ok, we all know that I am not the high tech writer that many of my male counterparts on this site are. Therefore, I feel it is just as easy for the techno-lovers to look up all that specific stuff that seems so incredibly interesting to them. I find this sort of thing incredibly boring in a review, and so will not waste time on anything I feel is unimportant. If I don’t need the info to operate the machine and get decent results, then I figure most of the readers here won’t need it either! That being said, there are a FEW facts that do help a buyer determine what is best for them. Therefore, I will list them here.
This machine is described on any site I have found it, to be a 3-in-1 Wet/Dry Cleaner. It hoovers and it cleans not only carpets but also upholstery and vinyl tile floors. Though, as it IS a steam cleaner, I would not recommend using this on tiles that are laid out in squares, as it will steam the glue loose in a heartbeat! The machine has a 2.5 litre bin capacity and has 885 watts of power. Can you get a stronger one? Well, you should know that I saw a mention of something about a 1400w machine but as the site would not load I could not get details. I did try to find it on other sites, but never could. I would suggest asking if you would like a stronger one, when you go to buy it. This machine comes with the standard set of attachment tools that most vacuums come with, that being a hose adapter, for hoovering dry messes, the upholstery attachment and that long sleek looking bugger that is forever doing nothing but getting coins caught sideways in it. That lil dude doesn’t even seem to get down in tight corners properly (which is what it seems so obviously to be meant for). The final notable fact about this machine is that it comes with five rotating and ‘self-adjusting’ brushes. Ok I have issues with these brushes, and will therefore be getting to them in a minute.
That’s the machine details. What do you use this for?
Well this machine is used to steam clean carpets and solid vinyl flooring so that you will not have to spend excess money on the annual or biannual carpet cleaning man. You can scrub large areas fairly quickly and efficiently without having to come up with extra money every time your carpet gets dirty. It also serves as a
hoover. But, as this is a very heavy and bulky item, I certainly would never suggest you combine its use as such. Yeah, if you are cleaning your carpets and come across a bit you want hoovered up that you had missed ok. BUT, would you use this contraption in place of a standard vacuum? Well, maybe if you are trying to impress Arnold Schwarzenegger, ok. But really, you’d be mad otherwise. It’s far too big and bulky for that job.
How do you use it?
That bit is very straightforward! You simply fill a reservoir with hot (not boiling, it warns) water, with a tiny amount of low sudsing cleaning solution, ‘snap’ it into place above the collecting ‘bin’, plug the
appliance in, and push the ‘on’ button. You have a little trigger that is set into the handle. When pushing this trigger water will be released from the machine in the form of a spray whilst pushing the machine forward. When pulling the machine back, the water will stop flowing, and the suction will take its place to suck up any soil in your carpet. That is the general idea anyway. Also, while cleaning, the five scrubbing brushes should self-activate to give your carpet a beating, thus helping it to get that much cleaner.
When cleaning, each time you suck up water it is being collected in the ‘bin’. Once you have filled this bin, there is a red ‘pop-up’ plug that will activate the machine to stop sucking which in turn causes a high screech to sound. This is to notify you that the water level in the ‘bin’ has reached maximum capacity and needs emptying. I often find this to be the best time to also change the existing water in the reservoir containing the cleaning solution, as it will very soon empty as well (if it hasn’t already) and you will only be taking double the time to prepare the machine between ‘fillings’ otherwise. Once changing the solution and emptying the bin, you can resume the cleaning of your carpet.
How does it perform?
This is the interesting bit. Before I forget, I first want to say that the brushes on this baby are absolutely USELESS. No matter whether I use the machine at school in a heavily soiled and trodden area, or on my mum’s gently used carpet, these brushes just work randomly, and very very seldom at that! There seems to be no rhyme or reason to their functioning! I have tried adjusting the height, I have tried only using the cleaner on absolutely flat surfaces, and I have tried using it on wobbly surfaces (like carpet covered hard wood floors that may not be perfectly even). It never seems to matter. Just all of a sudden they click on and immediately they again click off! I personally think it is a machine malfunction, as I have used 2 different machines in very different situations, and always the results are the same.
Now that I have had that lil rant, lets move on to the cleaning
performance:
Residential
Well, it did do a fairly nice job on that insane cream carpet, in her mini giant flat. If you use very hot water and clean in small patches, going over them steadily it does do a fairly decent job. However, I think that it should be noted, that even though this machine seems to have an incredible amount of sucking power, which strongly contributes to its performance, you cannot expect to get truly amazing results until or unless you find a truly brilliant chemical substance that will work on your carpets for several different kinds of stains. Now, the creative (ok, lazy if you will, but creative sounds nicer) part of me that insists on making the carpet clean with as little effort as possible, is forever adding all sorts of chemicals to this baby. Is it safe for the machine? I don’t know, but it hasn’t seemed to hurt mum’s or the one at work yet.
I do find that this machine gives a residential carpet that deep clean it needs, but it is not fantastic on stains of and by itself. It certainly DOES need its cleaning products to be quite exceptional. The hot water and that high-powered motor DO make it clean better than backbreaking hands/knees scrubbing alone though. In fact, with the right chemicals, I would say you could keep a nice plush carpet looking very nice for quite some time. It does leave the plush looking healthy and happy! My mum’s carpet certainly kept its plushness for over 9 years in the end.
The problem you WILL have with cleaning your carpet is the stain protector. Every new carpet comes with a spot and stain guard already on it. The minute you add water to that carpet, you are killing this chemical. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that you use a new spot and stain guard on your carpet after EVERY cleaning! I am sure you can buy these in the store. Though, I don’t use them at school, and I have only ever had to purchase them in the States for my mum I of course do not know where to recommend you find these over here. I would suggest that wherever you purchase your cleaner, you get suggestions there. I would also imagine the product would come with ordering details for such items, though I can not guarantee this.
In the school I work at, the carpet is a cheap indoor/outdoor carpet that is not at all plush but is very heavily trodden upon. There is always dirt, mud, gravel, water, food, milk and other various forms of matter being added to this darling piece of wool! Therefore, it is very important that we have a decent cleaner. After all, we don’t want anyone thinking the school LIKES the jam from doughnuts and the minty aroma of ground in chewing gum to reside on its carpets, now do we? Therefore, every end of term it becomes paramount that we use this machine.
Is it any good in this highly trafficked forum? Well, in a word, ‘YES’. But, as I am far more loquacious than that, I have to add a few bits. First of all, yes it works quite well on most dirt in and on the floor. But again, it is imperative that you find a decent cleaner to start with. As the school provides a cleaner, which true to their form, is absolute shite, I am forever sneaking in a few of the various chemicals I can get my hands on to improve its performance. There is this lovely citrus-based graffiti remover they used to give us for chewing gum and graffiti. As we no longer get this from the school, I use my last drops very sparingly, but this cleaner is one of the places I add it. Upon doing this, this machine works a DREAM on all sorts of spots and stains. I would seriously recommend trying to find any kind of citrus-based product to enhance the performance of this machine. Citrus is an acid, and can be very useful in cleaners. If you can’t find anything else, you might try rubbing a bit of lemon juice and a tiny sprinkling of bicarbonate of soda into any bad spots. This can be quite effective on stains. Also, you can add a drop of citrus-based washing up liquid to that same mixture. My mum actually found this an effective stain remover. The only problem I found with it, is that it leaves the carpet a bit stiff when used. But if you scrub the spot, and then use the cleaner on it, you should be ‘stiff carpet’ free!
What
price can I expect to pay and where can I buy one?
Right, I have found many online sites that will sell and deliver this item to you. They are kelkoo, empiredirectonline and dealtime being the most popular sites. I am sure that you will also find these listed on ebay from time to time. The prices, after delivery tend to be fairly static at just on 175 to 190 pounds. I do find it strange however, that I could not find any sites from large appliance stores? But, I couldn’t. If anyone finds these sold in Curry’s or some such store, please let me know, and I will happily include it in this review. But, I myself could not find any such site.
Overall Rating
I quite like these machines. They give you peace of mind when you really want to give your house that thorough clean. They are certainly not miracle workers by any means, but they do work sufficiently and with the right chemicals can be downright impressive! But, the brushes are definitely a farce and a glitch on this machine, and should therefore be sorted! The brushes would be an absolute MUST HAVE feature if the darned things ever decided to work!
After all is said and done, I think I will give this item 4 stars. I find that all machines need proper chemicals to be efficient whether it be good petrol for the car or the right tablets for a dishwasher; therefore I see no need to remove a star for that. As far as the price, I find them to be incredibly well priced for what they are, but as they are big and bulky I certainly would not use it to replace my first love, my Dyson. So, no star loss for price. As far as those damned brushes go, well you probably guessed from the beginning, that is definitely a star loss! As the machine can perform well without them, I will not take off two stars, but oh was I ever tempted. I HATE when a product doesn’t do what its intended to do, and these brushes certainly have that problem! But, the machine is a good, solid, excellent performer, and so I do not have the heart to remove more than one star for this glitch. Overall an excellent product to have in a home with carpeting!
TA : - )
This product has not yet been reviewed. 
