Hoover Max Extract Dual V WidePath Carpet Washer, F7411900

I will have to say that I am somewhat disgusted at what has come out of my carpet when cleaning with the Hoover MaxExtract Dual V. We cleaned them about a year ago and decided to pick this up because we have a 2 year old and 2 dogs. It actually cleans fantastically, but the brush drive is terribly designed. The cleaner has a plastic female end with a square hole and the brushes are all driven from the one drive. And, yes, you guessed it. The square pin that fits into the female side is also plastic. It failed after about 3 heavy duty uses. We sent it back and received a replacement. If this one fails, I have a plan to make a new pin out of SS keystock and engineer it myself. The cleaner is great so I don't want to get another one.If this one small pin breaks, which is on only one of the brushes, you have to purchase an aftermarket brush assembly rather than being able to buy just one brush. I think the cheapest I found them was $26. So, unless you want to pay that every so often, or are confident in your abilities to engineer a better design...I'd PASS on this cleaner.

I purchased my love shack almost 10 years ago. Over the years I've rented and used the Rug Doctor as well as borrowed a Bissel from a friend of mine. The Hoover is superior to the bissel in so many ways. Suction for the hoover is better than the bissel which means that you not only get more dirty water out of the carpet, but the carpet will be dry in less time. Cleaning the hoover is extremely simple. I've used it a few times now and it still looks brand new because I clean it after every use. The Hoover is lighter because it doesn't have a heater to keep the water hot. However, I put extremely hot water in the tank and it stays hot until I've used it all. The heater inside the bissel only causes it to weigh a great deal more. As far as the rug doctor comparison, the rug doctor does clean better. Better than either the hoover or bissel. However, the cost of the rug doctor ( assuming you'd buy one and not always rent it ) is way more than the hoover. The hoover does have better suction though so, again, your carpet will be dry soon after you've cleaned it. Renting a rug doctor is a pain cause you can't do spot cleaning or traffic area cleaning on a regular basis very easy ... you also have to go to the store to rent it and then you feel obligated to do quite a few rooms.Another thing I love about the hoover is the components that come with it. I just did my stairs using the hand held scrubber and hose attachment. Was really easy and cleaned my stairs very well. The only thing I didn't like about the hose attachment is that the suction to pull the water back up doesn't seem as strong as the base unit so my stairs stayed wet for about 3 or 4 hours ( with fans blowing on them ).All in all, my only regret is that I didn't buy this sooner. I love it and my carpets look ( and feel ) cleaner and softer.

We foster rescue dogs, not all of them housetrained, so our carpets go through more than your average wear and tear and general dirtiness. Over the years, we have hired professional carpet cleaners every 2-3 months to prevent the carpets from looking gross. They were either expensive, or did shoddy jobs, or sometimes both. I figured, if I wanted a shoddy carpet cleaning, I could do it myself. So I finally invested in the Hoover SteamVac.This was my first experience with a carpet cleaner. Why it's called a SteamVac, I have no idea as there doesn't appear to be any steam or heat generated from it. As a first time user, the machine is pretty easy to use, once I had my boyfriend read the directions and then show me how to use it.We used it to clean 1 small room the first time and loved it.I loved it when I cleaned 1 small room the 2nd time. But when I continued onto the 2nd room, that's when I started noticing problems.First, many people here have complained about a leakage. One reviewer gave a tip on how to prevent this, stating that there was 1 specific instruction in the manual that people who experienced the leakage problem probably skipped. We saw no such instruction in the manual, but were happy when we first used the cleaner and discovered no leaking. We didn't notice this problem either times when we only cleaned 1 room. However, when we moved onto the 2nd room, that's when I noticed the leak.It began as a slow drip from the bottom "clip" that holds the hose in place. The drip was so slow, I'm betting that it happens to many people but they just don't notice it since the carpets are wet from cleaning anyway. When I noticed the drip, I detached both buckets of water to make sure I hadn't attached them incorrectly. I re-attached them about 6 times but nothing stopped the leakage.As I continued to clean, moving onto the 3rd room, the drip became a more steady flow of leaking. I couldn't tell exactly where the dripping water was originating from, only that it dripped off the cleaner at the point of that "clip." I *think* it originated from the bottom of the shampoo holder because when I held the clean water bucket up, eventually I saw water dripping from the little black nozzle that sits at the bottom of the shampoo compartment.I believe the leak is stronger the lower you angle the handle of the cleaner. So if you're taller and don't need to angle it so much, maybe you won't experience so much of a leak. I'm 5'1" so the handle is angled pretty low.Also, despite vacuuming with our Dyson prior to using the carpet cleaner, there was still enough pet hair that got caught in slots surrounding the brush wheels. The manual includes directions on how to remove the brush wheels to clean which is a nice touch, but it is still extremely difficult (to the point of impossible) to clean out the slots. I can foresee over time, that pet hair will continue to accumulate around the brush heads and just clog.By the time we got to the 4th room, the mouth of the cleaner was actually LEAVING BLACK STREAKS on the carpet! I had shut the cleaner off to say something to the boyfriend, and when I moved it, there was a long solid black streak in the carpet. It did this twice (the first time I hadn't realized what had caused it). Luckily, I was able to use the cleaner to shampoo those marks out (though it required A LOT of shampooing). What was that about?? Our carpets are cleaned regularly and aren't THAT dirty! I just made sure not to leave the cleaner idle on the carpet after that.I think the more rooms you use the Hoover to clean at a time, the more issues, so maybe it's better to do them in smaller batchesOverall, this cleaner is a good investment for the price. We were paying $80-$200 to have our carpets professionally cleaned, so the Hoover will save us some mullah that will allow me to continue with my borderline crazy dog rescue addiction. I'm sure it doesn't clean as well as the professional cleaners do (at least not the GOOD ones), but for the price, it's a handy gadget to have around for maintenance cleaning. Obviously it's got some problems, but at this point, we're still keeping it and will just put on a stiff upper lip regarding the leakage and mysterious black streaks.UPDATE REGARDING LEAKAGE: I took a closer look at the instructions and several times, the manual states to use HOOVER shampoo only. That's what everybody says about their appliance, isn't it, to continue to milk the cash cow? So I pretty much disregarded it and bought some Earth-Friendly shampoo. But after rereading the manual, it states "Use HOOVER shampoo only. Using other brands may result in too much foam or CAUSE LEAKAGE." So I wonder now if somehow the other brand of shampoo was the reason the Hoover started leaking. I'll have to pay close attention to this in the future and maybe switch back to the Hoover brand.UPDATE 6/2013: So we've now had this cleaner for over 2 years. My boyfriend is the one who usually shampoos the carpet and he has not had any leakage problems. So was it a fluke? Was it because I'm significantly shorter (5'1" vs his 6'1") and therefore hand to angle the cleaner lower? Was it because I didn't mix the non-Hoover concentrated shampoo properly prior to putting it in the cleaner? We'll never know (as long as I'm not the one who cleans the carpet). So I'm upgrading my star rating to 4 stars since the leakage problem does not seem to be a problem anymore.