Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Leaves floors spotlessly clean and dry |
| Disadvantages: |
Noisy |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
I've had this machine for nearly a year and am extremely pleased with it's performance and ease of use.
If you think about it, using a bucket and mop is a very old fashioned way of cleaning floors because after the first few mops, you are putting dirty water back on the floor. The Hoover Floormate ensures you are only ever cleaning with fresh solution and the floor is left dry enough to walk on.
It has two water tanks. The upper tank is filled with hot water and floor cleaner, I find the recommended Detox direct floor cleaner works best, but dilute it using the built in measuring cap. The lower tank is where the dirty
solution is collected.
You can use the Floormate as a dry pick up vacuum cleaner to prepare your floor for washing, but I like to use a seperate suction cleaner for this purpose. The cleaner is simple to use. Just lower the handle to the operating position, switch on, select wet scrub using the switch at the top of the handle and the six rotating brushes work the cleaning solution onto the floor. The solution is released via a trigger on the handle.
I find the best technique is to push the cleaner forward while releasing the cleaning solution and then pull the cleaner back slowly with your finger off the solution trigger. All the dirty water is removed by the powerful suction into the lower water tank. A float valve shuts off the suction when the tank is full. Even if your floor looks clean, you will be amazed by the colour of the water. The best part is, you don't have to wait ages for your floor to dry.
Cleaning the machine is simple. The lower waste tank is easy to remove for emptying and the front nozzle, squeegy and brushes pop out at the press of a couple of buttons. Just rinse them under the tap and the job's done. It's best to do this after each use, but it won't do any harm to leave it and the parts can be soaked in hot soapy water if they're really dirty but don't put them in a dishwasher.
Hoover don't recommend the Floormate for unsealed wooden floors, but it's great on tiles, lino and sealed wood floors. I use it on laminate suitable for bathrooms, parquet wooden floors and lino.
I paid around £100 for my Floormate but I have seen it for much more. I think it's worth what I paid and if you can get it for £100 or less, then it's worth the money.
The cleaner is noisy and the solution tank is a bit small, but apart from that, I can't fault this machine. You will not want to use a bucket and mop again after seing the Floormate in action.
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