7 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
could be better
Date of Review: Jun 20, 2008
The Bottom Line: I'd keep looking, if I were you.
You can't always just go with the most-trusted name, I guess. This cleaner worked very well at first, but has developed some problems over the last year and a half- and the warranty only covers it for a year.
First, the water bladder is really small. I was in a studio apartment when I bought this thing, and I had to change the water out at least two or three times in order to do the whole place. Considering how heavy this machine is to push around, you'd think you were carrying about a bathtub of water in it, so it's frustrating to continually have to stop for a refill.
Also, the machine will let you continue cleaning after you've run out of water or solution, which can result in a very sticky, expensive mess all over your carpet or furniture if you're not paying attention.
It's pretty difficult to get the machine clean once you've used it, as well. I have cats, and find that the machine tends to collect their hair in fluffy little balls and then deposit them on the clean rug periodically. Short of taking the whole thing apart with a screw driver (or blow torch???) I can't find a way of getting all the furry out of the machine. The hose is especially difficult to clean. Mine has taken on a yellow tinge to it, although I'm quite careful about rinsing it out after every use.
The base for the hose attachment is pretty brittle and definitely not designed to stand up to long-term use. The whole thing is held on by only two or three little plastic tabs, which snapped off once while my husband was recoiling the hose. Now we have to wrap the hose around the handle, which looks tacky and can't be good for the hose.
Finally, our heater has become unreliable over time. Sometimes you'll start cleaning and see a nice, sweet-smelling steam rising from the carpet, and then a few seconds later you realize that the steam is gone and you are spraying your carpet with cold water. I have no idea why it does this. How typical that it would wait until the warranty had expired before giving us this kind of trouble!
