Review: Hoover SteamVac Carpet Cleaner with Clean Surge

Hoover SteamVac Carpet Cleaner with Clean Surge F5914-900The Hoover SteamVac with Clean Surge (model# F5914-900) is a top rated carpet cleaner for home use. It has over 1,000 five star reviews on Amazon.com for a reason – it has a lot of satisfied owners.

This home carpet steam cleaner uses a powerful 12 amp motor to brush and suck all kinds of dirt and grimy stuff out of your carpets. The motor powers 5 spinning brushes, and hot tap water with a cleaning solution can be released onto the carpet with the simple pull of a trigger. Once the water and cleaning solution are on the carpet, the Hoover SteamVac does a great job of sucking all the moisture (along with dirt and other junk) out of your carpet, leaving it clean and as dry as possible.

There are two separate water tanks that keep the clean water separate from the used, dirty water. The holding tank for the clean, hot tap water is 1 gallon in capacity. And there is also a separate compartment for cleaning solution. The SteamVac mixed the solution with the water for you, so you don’t need to pre-mix. The dirty water tank can be removed and dumped easily.

What about attachments? The SteamVac deep cleaner comes with an 8 foot hose that has a stairs/upholstery nozzle, making it a snap to clean surfaces other than the floor when needed.

A brush indicator shows you which way the brushes are spinning. There is also a foot switch to turn this on and off, much like you would see on a vacuum cleaner. And there is also a separate handle release pedal that allows you to use your foot to release the handle from it’s vertical position. This carpet cleaner also has a 27 inch power cable that can be wrapped and stored on-board.

Do you like manufacturer coverage? The SteamVac has a 1 year warranty from Hoover.

Hoover SteamVac Carpet Cleaner Features and Specs

  • 12 amp motor
  • 5 spinning brushes to clean carpet, rugs and bare floors
  • Clean Surge feature that sprays extra cleaning solution when needed
  • Separate water tanks for clean and dirty water
  • An 8 foot hose with stairs/upholstery attachments
  • 1 year warranty

The Reviews

There are a lot of reviews out there from buyers that are both happy and unhappy with this machine.

Let us start out by saying that overall, people are very happy with this carpet steam cleaning machine. But we’ll also take a look at some of the negative reviews and the reasons for the negativity as well.

Reading the Instructions

Read the instructions. This is very important during assembly and initial use. Many people that have purchased this SteamVac stressed the importance of reading the instructions to ensure that initial assembly was correct. Failure to assemble this machine accurately could result in leaking or no suction during operation. Usually, if somebody experiences either of these issues, it’s more than likely an assembly issue than a product defect or lemon issue.

Suction Issues or Not?

Some users experience suction issues, where it doesn’t seem like the SteamVac is sucking anything at all. This, as mentioned, is usually due to not seating everything correctly during assembly or setup before use. Double checking and triple checking all the seals and connections if you have suction issues can often help fix this problem, so if you happen to run into this issue, don’t immediately call the machine a lemon! It’s more than likely a simple fix.

Once reviewer even specifically mentioned that they find that most times suction issues are the result of not closing the dirty water lid properly. Simply ensuring that this lid is sealed and closed properly seems to be important in avoiding this problem.

Awesome Clean Surge Comments

The Clean Surge feature is another thing that many people rave about. It makes it easy to spray some extra cleaning solution on the floor to tackle stains or tough spots when you are in the middle of the action.

One thing to keep in mind, as one reviewer notes, is that during initial setup and use, it is necessary to really pay close attention to the Clean Surge button setup. There is a specific procedure that needs to be performed where you press the trigger and the Clean Surge button to lock some parts into place. Some people who experience leaking problems more than likely didn’t do this part of the setup correctly. You need to push the button very firmly during this procedure, and sometimes will even hear a snap.

Best Practices

Many reviewers also mention that it is best practice to vacuum your carpets first with a regular vacuum, and then deep clean with the SteamVac afterwards. This is actually fairly common practice with steam cleaners and will help you get the best results, so it’s a valid point. Steam carpet cleaners work best when they don’t need to do the dirty work of a vacuum too.

Pets?

Do you have cats or dogs? People with pets love how well the SteamVac can clean animal stains. In fact, after reading all the reactions by pet owners, I don’t know how a pet owner could keep a clean home without a steam carpet cleaner. There are numerous accounts of how great this carpet cleaner is for cleaning up after pet messes.

Some people comment that if there is a lot of fur in the carpet that this cleaner tends to leave a few small balls of fur laying in it’s wake. But it’s not that big of a problem, they can be picked up easily, and this is common with nearly any home carpet cleaner that has to tackle fur.

The Water Tanks…

How about the water tanks? There is a clean water and a dirty water tank, basically. And a separate cleaning solution tank. The clean water tank is about 1 gallon. This is fairly decent, but for longer cleaning jobs many reviewers say that they need to empty and refill water more often than they sometimes hoped. This is a more common comment with the dirty water tank. One reviewer mentioned that they think the dirty water tank might be slightly smaller than the clean water tank, and it seems like it needs to be emptied more often than it should. However, once again this is not a huge gripe among owners, but should be noted.

Using Hot Water…

One common tip from owners of this machine is to use very hot water, which will clean better for obvious reasons. However, the reason that this is suggested is because this carpet cleaner does not have a heater, so you need to take that into account during operation. If you want really hot water for your carpet cleaner usage, you need to put really hot water in it. Be careful with hot water of course, as it can be dangerous if not handled properly.

Some other reviewers comment that they prep areas of their carpet with hot water and cleaning solution before they start the SteamVac, this gives the SteamVac more of a mop-up role on the tougher spots, and allows it to really shine.

Read more reviews and opinions here

Overall Opinion

Overall, people are very happy with the SteamVac, it has over a thousand reviews for a reason: It’s a popular favorite, highly recommended as a steam carpet cleaner under $200 for use in the home.

Check pricing or buy the SteamVac

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2 Responses to Review: Hoover SteamVac Carpet Cleaner with Clean Surge

  1. Mom82 January 12, 2011 at 11:14 am #

    I didn’t really want to spend a lot of money on something to get my carpets wet for cleaning, so I ended up getting one of these after reading the reviews – it is pretty good, it works really good for me – I have an aparetment with a couple cats and they tend to create stuff for me to clean up.

    I say that this is worth the money if you don’t have a lot to spend on a cleaner like this one – not too bad at all

  2. telly April 18, 2012 at 2:53 am #

    yeap, pretty good cleaner, tried and true

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