Hoover FloorMate SpinScrub Wet/Dry Vacuum Cleaner, H3044
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List Price: Our Price: $165.87 You Save: $34.12 (17%) Availability: Usually ships in 3-4 business days Buy Used: from $95.00 (click here) Category: Kitchen See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Hoover FloorMate SpinScrub Wet/Dry Vacuum Cleaner, H3044
Customer Review: I can't believe I lived without this machine
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this machine this morning and just finished using it. How did I live without it? I can't believe how good my floors look! Full disclosure - I bought it at Costco, but I frequently read Amazon reviews when purchasing items and almost always find the reviews helpful and accurate.
I found the reviews to be pretty accurate, even the criticisms. However, this machine is still worth the money. I could never make my floors look as good as they do right now using a mop and bucket, on my hands an knees, whatever. Never. I went over my kitchen floor twice. The first time the recapture tank water was black. Pretty grossed out, I went over the floor again. Second time the extracted water way the color of coffee and cream. I went onto the dining room and did the floor twice. I used the multi floor cleaner in the kitchen (Pergo) and the wood floor oil cleaner for the dining room (sealed wood). My floors look great and I didn't break my back. I will definitely do my floors with more frequency than I have.
I also used the vacuum and it was ok, but I have a Dyson which does a better job of picking up the dog hair. The dry feature didn't seem to do any better than the wet feature. You push forward for scrubbing and putting solution down, pull back towards you to pull water up in the wet feature. To me, not a big deal. I would have paid $140 just for the floor cleaning capacity. Yes, it's noisy. Not a big deal. It's a bit heavy, but not too bad. The reviewers who criticzed the weight should just consider this machine an (apparently much needed) workout. It's not that bad. The tank holds a quart of water. I didn't think this was going to be big enough, but it's enough to do a room twice. I have not done the bathroom yet so I can't comment on grout cleaning capacity. It is so nice to know I'm not just sloshing dirty water around anymore. I can't say enough about this machine.
I gave it a 5-star rating despite some of the weaknesses because I'm just blown away by how good my floors look.
Just do it. You really won't regret it.
Customer Review: Hoover H3044 is a poor performer and cheaply made.
Summary: 1 Stars
Purchased this to replace my previous Hoover H3045, a similar model with red accents instead of blue.
I gave it an honest chance by using this product four times before returning it. While it visibility picks up dirt, the suctioning power is poor. Even when using the dry feature with slow...painfully slow.. multiple passing motions, it still left puddles of water behind. At this point, I had to resort to getting on my hands and knees to manually dry the entire floor, which at this point obviously defeats the purpose of even having this machine. I have smooth tiles as well as large textured tiles and there's puddles left behind no matter what.
Additionally, the brush bristles are short,flush, and rest very lightly on the tiles with no pressure. Now, we know grout is recessed below the tile plane, so there's a fundamental flaw in this design. It's physically impossible for the bristles to actually make contact with the grout, so the product cannot perform as advertised. The grout cleaning gimmick means water barely spurts on the grout, then, the questionable "dry feature" leaves the dirty water in the grout.
My Hoover 3045 was almost satisfactory for nearly two years before it too lost considerable suctioning power. The two models look identical except for the color accents. During this time, the cheap plastic parts easily broke away in many places from casual use. Many are design flaws. If you lay the machine down to clean the bottom as instructed,the cord clip will snap off. The tabs on the filter holder will quickly break since they're so thin. Water will leak and drop water from the bottom. It get worse as the machine gets older. Not good if you also have carpet or need to move the machine across your clean floors.
Summary:
Considering these machines are in the 150 dollar range, the life span and performance are unacceptable. If you get the H3044 or H3045, be sure to buy duct tape, and lots of drying towels, and diapers as they will become this machine's best friend.
Customer Review: Good little floor cleaner for tile, pergo, sealed wood
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great little machine that sprays floor cleaner, scrubs with a set of little brushes and then sucks up the dirty water and dirt off your floor.
I used to work for a office building janitorial company when I was in college and we used commercial floor machines that utilize the same methods as the Hoover Floormate...spray, scrub and suck...so I was very familiar with the process and happy to use this little wonder for the first time.
Now, it's not a heavy duty commercial machine but well-made and perfect for the floors in my little bungalow, which suffer traffic from me, several active college students and three dogs. It won't completely eliminate the mop or swiffer, but it does a good job of deep cleaning the floors and is really great on pet accidents.
Since I purchased my 2000 sq ft home 8 years ago I've replaced all of the carpet with mostly porcelain tile and some wood and pergo. I made sure the wood floors were sealed with a water tolerant poly finish so they could be mopped.
The machine is easy to fill and empty. You go back and forth like a carpet vacuum cleaner, spraying enough cleaner, scrubbing it and then you slowly pass over the area several times so the vacuum sucks up as much dirty solution as you can. If you're prudent, the floor will be almost dry. It works best in good sunlight so you can see the dirt well and if you back your way out cleaning small areas going back.
You may not think you are doing much, but when you empty the dirty solution cup, Wow! you realize how much it's picking up and your pouring that brown water down the drain and not leaving it on your floor like a mop does. It has really done a good job of wiping out those lingering dog urine odors Ginger left for us by the front door. I used Fabuloso floor cleaner just like when I was mopping (.5 oz per solution fill with hot tap water) and it works fine, just don't use a solvent cleaner. Mr. Clean worked well too.
Customer Review: Don't tell my husband, but I'm in love with another!
Summary: 5 Stars
Love it. Love it. Love it. I was a bit scared after reading some of the reviews on the other Floormate models but placed my money on this pony and I feel like a winner. Why am I in love? Well I have two big dogs that like to play in their water dish and drag paw prints all over the house. What's worse? I have OCD and most of my house is 18" tile. Just to give you an idea of it's usage, I have a 5bed/3ba house and everything is tile except the bedrooms. I used the Floormate for the 1st time and it took me 4 fill ups on the clean water tank and about 8oz of the cleaner. It does take a lot longer than mopping but your floor gets SCRUBBED it doesn't just swish around water like a mop. I have not tried the 'vacuum' only feature. I have no desire too. I have a Dyson for that kind of stuff. So my review is based only on the washing/drying features. Here are some other note worthy points:
PROS:
-Does a great job cleaning, no mop scrubs like this!
-It uses a lot less water that tradional mopping.
-Your floors are near dry immediately. No more barricading pets, kids, and no more wet socks! :)
-Only CLEAN water touches the floor. No more icky mop water swirling around.
-Clean up is easy, just rinse out the plastic tank! No rinsing, wringing and drying out the mop.
-When it's time to mop, I don't sweep first. I just use the Floormate and it does it all in one step. Yippy Skippy!
CONS:
-I don't think it would be worth buying if you were only going to use it in a small area. Only because of the time it takes.
-The floormate solution isn't carried by a lot of stores and is a bit pricey for how much I personally use per occasion. (I will opt for something else that isn't a solvent)
-Won't fit beside the toilets. :( But I'l glad that it's large for everything else!
Customer Review: Effective tile cleaner, with limitations.
Summary: 4 Stars
I have been cleaning my 1200 square feet of floor tile with either a mop and bucket or a Swiffer WetJet. The problem with either of these methods is that my floor is left with a film of dirt and detergent after I'm done.
The big advantage of the Hoover Floormate over the mop and bucket is that it applies a solution of detergent and clean, hot water to the floor, scrubs it with the rotating brushes, and then sucks the dirty water back into a separate holding container.
Like other reviewers, I didn't find using the FloorMate as a dry vacuum to be very effective, so I begin my cleaning process by vacuuming the floor.
I also didn't find that the FloorMate did a very good job cleaning my very dirty grout. The best method I found for cleaning the grout was to spray it first with Hoover AH30285 Floor Mate 32-Ounce Tile and Grout Spray, wait 4-6 minutes, scrub it with an Oxo Good Grips 37481 Grout Brush, wipe up the excess cleaner and loosened dirt with a sponge and then scrub with the FloorMate. This is a very labor intensive process, and is probably only necessary once or twice a year. Now that the grout is clean, I'm hoping that the FloorMate will do a decent job by itself.
I basically only use the FloorMate in the 'Wash' mode. I don't use the 'Wet Pickup' mode because the FloorMate does a great job sucking up the water in Wash mode, and, as mentioned previously, I don't use the 'Dry Vac' mode at all.
Overall, I rate the Hoover FloorMate H3044 as a very good value, considering the cost and performance. It is a bit specialized, and won't replace your vacuum cleaner and manual grout brush.