Hoover FloorMate Deluxe Hard Floor Cleaner Machine, Wash and Dry Mode

This came in the mail on Friday and I got to use it Saturday. It was triple packed so no damage was incurred via shipping. ASSEMBLY & USE: This floor cleaner was easy to assemble - almost intuitive. Using it needed directions. I didn't realize that while cleaning I should be pressing down on the dispenser button built into the D-shaped handle. Solution still is released even if you don't push it (it can be tedious to press down constantly) but just not as much. Then there's a boost button to press for extra detergent which was intuitive and self-explanatory. Using it while pressing down on the solution dispenser button does not "drown" your floor. When NOT pressing down on the solution dispenser button when pulling the cleaner back, it expedites your floor drying. VACUUM: A word on the vacuum part, which can be "activated" by switching to the "Dry" mode - keep in mind that this is primarily a wet floor cleaner and not a dry vac. Just like your advised not to order a steak when you go to a seafood restaurant, you shouldn't use this as a vacuum the way you'd use your regular dry vacuum. You're going to wear out the squeegee faster, for a start, but the solids you vacuum up will go into the dirty water tank making it more disgusting to clear out. If you have hairs on the floor from yourself, family members, or pets, that will more likely tangle in the suction parts or the filtered part of the dirty water container and that's sick to clean and weed out. Then when you dump that in your sink, you're dumping solids that don't always dissolve in water, so you're in turn doing your sink a mis-favor. True, one of the reasons to get this is the superior cleaning this does to traditional cleaning methods and the ease, oh, the ease! Nonetheless, you're way ahead if you sweep away solids with a broom and dust pan first, or use your regular dry vacuum instead of this. Cleaning that gunk will have to be done manually one way or another. Better to get at it before using the floor cleaner than not. If you use the floor cleaner to get it, the energy and extra work you thought you saved will get you anyway when cleaning out the suction section, brushes, filter of the dirty water container and from the sink hole. I did sweep very thoroughly before I used this but I didn't vacuum. There was a minimal amount of gunk and hair, but I was grateful it wasn't worse, like if I hadn't swept. Get it? Good :-) CLEANING QUALITY: Most of my house is carpets but my kitchen and hallway (connected) are imitation wood laminate and my bathroom floors are ceramic with brown grout. I did the bathrooms last - the dirty water dispenser wasn't so bad. But the kitchen... Check out the photos some people have shared (black mud water) and that's how my dirty water container looked after the first run. Nevertheless, the floor felt different. My spouse said it even looked lighter in color (blushing cheeks). After the second run, it was a slightly lighter black mud water. With the third run it was mud colored... I tell you, it was starting to get tedious and I was starting to grow suspicious that maybe the solution had a chemical reaction when touching the floor to turn a certain color. My suspicions were wrong and yes, paranoid. There was sediment with every cleaning in the dirty water dispenser. Then I went over the floor a fourth time and the water was a lot closer to looking clean. Really it needed a fifth or sixth time but I was beat (I had to move heavy things out of my hallway and bathrooms, plus I was house cleaning other things in between.) While the floor cleaner didn't get the corners and baseboards, doing so the old fashioned way - by getting down on my hands and knees with solution and a brush was infinitely easier and definitely way more enjoyable since with the floor already cleaned. And that's when I noticed something else: the smell of my floor: fresh. There was a slight solution smell but that is only close up. Before cleaning the floor, I remember dropping something that creeped its way under the stove. The floor smelled like it had a lot of foot traffic - not a foul smell, but like black pepper mixed with floor, if that makes any sense. Side note - I cleaned under the stove and refrigerator too...got rid of so so so so so much dust (first sweeping it, then wiping the floor with a Clorox wipe). Behind the fridge I found a collection of dust around the fridge vents, thank goodness I found it before my motor burnt out or a fire hazard happened. It was time to wrap everything up so I made sure both containers were empty and relatively dry. Then I popped out the brushes and rinsed them and cleared out the squeegee. That was that. EFFECT ON ALLERGIES: Normally I wake up slurpy - thanks to the "benefit" of allergies. This morning was different. Even though my bedroom is wall to wall carpeting, much like the rest of my house sans kitchen, bathroom, and hallway, I didn't think about how the minority clean hard floors would impact my allergies. I woke up still having allergies but no slurpiness - no runny nose and less crusty eyes. Yes, cleaning under the stove and the booming Dustopolis under, on, and behind my fridge I'm sure were a great help, but I also believe having such clean floors for the first time really made a difference! BOTTOM LINE: I love this floor cleaner. If I move, I'd try to find a way to take this with me in my car instead of ship it with the movers. I'd use this magic machine to clean floors in a place I'm moving out of to make the floors as good as new and definitely use it in a new place to clean the floors like they've never been touched, even if it takes more than 4 runs like my floor did (blush).

Cleaning is my life. With 11 cats and a clumsy husband, it has to be. I owned the original model Floormate back at the turn of the century. It worked fantastically for 9 years and then started to fail in various ways. I've been using a Swiffer wet mop ever since. Lately, the Swiffer has been leaving streaks and some sort of white film on all my floors, so I bought another Floormate. Right out of the box, this one is superior to the first. The tanks are on either side, allowing you to get under lower objects when cleaning. The controls are straightforward, allowing even an instruction manual tosser like me to use it right away. The brushes scrub dirt off the floor. Now, if your careless spouse dripped syrup on the floor and nobody noticed for a week, you're going to have to go over it quite a few times. The Swiffer would never get that up. To address the issues some others have had: Go slow. Give the brushes time to work. Remember that the brushes engage and the nozzle pressurizes and sprays with each forward pass. On the backward pass, all of that has to switch gears and the squeegee has to engage. Also remember that none of this happens instantly. It's a floor cleaner, not a life support machine. If you run it back and forth quickly like a vacuum, no, it won't clean well. As for the leakage: Yes, it does leak a bit. But again, you have to remember the mechanism and the fact that the entire bottom of the machine gets wet while it does its thing. Give it an extra backward pass to compensate. And when you stop cleaning and take off the tanks, that little reservoir where the cleaner tank connects has water in it. Blot it out with a paper towel and it won't leave a puddle on your floor. This machine cleans really well, judging by the gray and brown water in the holding tank. That came off my freshly Swiffered floor. It handled my tile extremely well, cleaning muck off of it in one pass and doing a halfway decent job with the grout. The regular laminate floors worried me because any amount of water on them makes it swell and curl, so I went gently, not using too much solution and making sure to get it extra dry. Yes, it did leave streaks, but that smooth, shiny surface is prone to them. The LVP came clean in the wink of an eye and because of the wood grain texture, had no streaks. My sheet vinyl came clean easily, though there were a few extra passes to get up the kitchen grease that spatters in front of the stove. I love that this is so light and compact. I'm a small person and large machines make me not want to use them. It feels quite sturdy and I think it might well last as long as my old one did, or perhaps longer. I have no trouble at all recommending this to a friend because the darn thing simply works.

Update 2/20/20: After a couple weeks of exchanging emails and proving that I disabled the unit, Hoover is sending me a replacement. I wouldn’t say the customer service is top notch, but I am happy they are replacing it. Update 2/3/20: The machine no longer works. After using once every two weeks, disassembling it with every use and only using Hoover products, the motor gives off a high-pitches screeching sound. Trying to contact Hoover on getting a refund or replacement. The call center is supposed to open at 8am, but when I called at 8:45am I got a recording that the call center was closed. :-/ Update 9/24/19: I still really like this machine, but it is not as described. The machine described comes with a grout brush and hardwood brush. The machine you receive comes with one multipurpose brush. I feel like it leaves light scratches on my hardwood, but it does a great job cleaning. I’ve been using this once or twice a week for nearly two months and haven’t had any issues. If you have hardwood floors, I recommend the hardwood solution to use in the machine. While I do like the machine, I wish I had known that it did not come with the hardwood brushes. That may have impacted my decision to purchase it. Original post: So glad I took the chance and bought this. I had bought one of these years ago, but it was so heavy, I barely used it. Now that I have a family and two German Shedder Dogs, keeping my hardwood floors clean is a never ending battle. No matter how often I’d mop, they just never FELT clean. And the whole idea of mopping - washing your floors with water that’s already dirty - seems rather fruitless. So I read the reviews and agonized over whether or not I take the chance and buy this thing. I wanted to wait to review it so that I could comment on it’s longevity, but I was so thrilled by my purchase, I couldn’t wait. I immediately opened the box, attached the handle and the nozzle, filled it with water and the cleaner it came with and was on my way. Before getting started, I swept all of the tumbleweeds of German Shepherd hair and surface dirt. This model is much lighter and easier to maneuver than my original model. As I was cleaning, I eagerly watched the tank where the dirty water went, and my, was it dirty! The idea that I had just mopped the day before and the floor was filthy made me feel horrible. What type of squalid conditions had I been subjecting my family to?!! I’m too embarrassed to post a picture of how dirty the water was, but believe me, it was bad. I cleaned the entire downstairs of our home (1300 sq ft) with two tanks of water and cleaning solution. It was so easy, but I took my time letting the machine do it’s work. Based on the other reviews, I bought the extra protection through Amazon, so I’m sure it will last at least until the day after the warranty expires lol. At this price point, if it lasts for three years, I’d be completely fine with that. I’m planning to update this review in a few months or when this thing conks out - whichever comes first. But as for now, take the chance, I think it’s well worth it.

I have waited a year to buy this bad boy. And I have to say I'm pretty disappointed. First when I opened it. The product looked as tho it may have been used! But I put that aside to maybe just the people who built it. And put it together anyway. I immediately started using it and LOVED how well it cleaned !! I was giggling with delight watching the dirty water fill up! I got threw my living room and was ready to start the kitchen when it stopped sucking. The tanks were both still only half full. So I emptied the dirty one and as I did that I noticed one of the rubber valves were barley attached. But I was determined to not give up! I put it back together and to my delight it was working great again! Then within 2 min it started making a weird sound (like a winding sound) I look down and my floor is covered in dirty water. I pulled it out and reattached it and it still wouldn't suck up the dirty water that it spilled. Again I emptied it and it sucked it all up. But I'm still pretty upset bc I'm pretty sure they sent me a refurbished one when I paid for a new one....O yea it also won't pick up harder sticky stuff like a steam mop will do. But I think it works way better than a steam mop all in all. As you can see I have posted pix threw out my process from the moment I opened it until I was done. Update 2017 My original one broke (my child over extended the thing and the hose snapped) I couldnt find the right replacement part so i bought a new one..i work in dog rescue and have 3 little kids. So going back to an original mop For a week was hell for me. My floors never got clean. I really missed my machine. So I gave in and ordered a new one. this time I opted for the bending handle. When I pulled it out of the box it was already put together and ready to use. And it was CLEAN! Which furthermore proves that the original one I got was a used one. I'm happy with this new one. Altho it doesn't suck up water as well as my other one. I'm so relieved to have it. I will never go back to a regular mop again.

I just recently bought this machine and I adore it! I have a senior dog who unfortunately is incontinent. Poor baby girl goes for a walk and doesn't realize that she is still dribbling. Luckily, I have tile floors on the main floor of the house, but, I need to clean them at least once a day if not twice a day. As you can imagine, I was getting reallllly realllllllly sick and tired of scrubbing my floors, specifically the grout lines every day. So, I went hunting for a new method and came across this bad boy! I tried his predecessor and was not impressed but after reading all of the reviews, I decided to try him out. Not going to lie, it took some trial and error to figure out the perfect method. First time I used it, I wasn't very impressed, I just didn't feel like it did anything. Second time around, I used a different floor cleaner solution. Again, wasn't thrilled. Finally, I decided to give it one last try. I sprayed Clorox Urine Remover for Stain & Odor on the tiles specifically making sure that the grout lines also got sprayed and then used the Hoover FloorMate to deposit the solution and scrub the floors and grout, I do a pass over a 4 ft by 1 ft area twice. (Up spraying solution, down sucking up the dirty water, up spraying the solution to rinse, down sucking up the moisture and any remaining dirt and move one to the next row). I usually work in a 4 x 4 foot area and each area takes about a minute and half for each area. The solution in the tank is a tsp of bleach and water. Finally, if for some reason I deposited to much solution on the area I will use the dry mode on the hoover to suck up the remaining solution, but, most of the time I don't need to use it. The whole first floor which is about 450 sqft take about 40 minutes to clean. If I was just doing a quick once over without the clorox spray prior, it would probably take me about 20 minutes. This method cleans my floor beautifully. One, it get's rid of the odor. Two, it loses up any dirt and picks up the dog hair. Three, leaves the floors disinfected. Four, the grout lines are nice and clean and not at all grungy (the brushes actually seems to clean the grout lines, maybe not perfectly but well enough that you don't need to scrub them each week like I was doing before. Now, I just steam my grout lines once every six months and the Hoover FloorMate keeps them relatively clean until the next deep clean. One of my major complaints with using a Swiffer and/or Steam Mop [Yes, I have owned both, and all four Swiffer models] was that they never cleaned the grout but rather made it worse). Five, dust is nonexistent. Six, I can do it daily and doesn't strain my back or hurts my knees. Seven, no dirty water is left on my floor. Eight, no need to pre-vacuum. I only have a few complaints. First, it does tend to fill up rather quickly and I have to re-fill the water tank usually three times per session. Next, it doesn't seem very well balance and has dropped a few times after I stood it up to re-fill/empty the tanks. The cleaning solution it comes with is completely worthless. It also does seem to leave a bit of a puddle by your feet while doing a section, but usually once I start on the next section I suck up the puddle, but I has resulted in wet sock a time or two which is an annoyance. Overall, I would definitely recommend this machine to anyone who wants to keep there floors clean and specifically the grout in between the tiles clean! I am thrilled that I purchased this product and I will do so again in the future.

Cool concept, but was disappointing. The Floormate was pretty easy to set up initially. The lever on the handle to release water was very stiff. I was OK with it, but I am not sure if my wife would be comfortable with it. The brushes remove surface dirt and it sucked the dirty water up well, but it did not really do anything to our grout. The brushes were not stiff enough or powerful enough to really clean grout at all in my experience. I could see someone with completely smooth surface floors liking this machine much better. After cleaning our whole house I admit the machine picked up a great amount of dirt and left the floors pretty clean. I could still get a little bit of dirt on my paper towel when I checked to see if the floors were completely clean. The tanks do leak if you put the machine in the upright position and let it sit for a minute, but that is not a big deal since you can suck up the water when you resume cleaning. the tanks, brushes, and front piece all need rinsed after use as well. If the machine cleaned better and was even passable on our grout I would consider keeping it, but at the end of the day mopping is not any less trouble. This Floormate might be a good value for some when compared to more powerful commercial units at over $1,000, but for me this machine really did not save me much time or scrubbing effort at the end of the day so I am returning it.

First off, let me just start by saying I LOVE MY HOOVER FLOORMATE!! :-) I have really bad knees and OCD, which leads to being unable to get the floor as clean as I want. I hate how steammops just push grime and dirt around and I hate having to rinse traditional mops all the time. I usually resorted to scrubbing the floor with rags under my feet since I couldn't kneel. So, I started searching for an easier way to mop. I wanted a machine that acted like a vacuum cleaner - push it back and forth and it does the work for you. The Hoover Flooremate does exactly that. I really, really love using it. Here are my gripes: 1. I have brand-new vinyl flooring. The first time I used the FloorMate, the lines between the edges of the vinyl showed up. No bueno. As I've used it more, the lines are less noticeable (just goes to show how NOT clean my steam mop was getting the floors). 2. It's loud. Okay, this isn't actually a gripe. I don't mind the noise. It's just like using a vacuum cleaner, which makes sense, since this functions like a vacuum cleaner. But for people who are expecting something noiseless, you gotta understand that this floor cleaner isn't going to be able to sneak up on you. :-) 3. The on/off button is hard to push. It's in an awkward place and you really have to push hard to get it to turn on/off. I don't really care for the smell of the cleaning solution. It bothered me at first - it's an unfamiliar, faint, chemical, cleaner smell. I adjusted after the first use and it no longer bothers me. It's just not that strong, honestly, and now it represents clean floors. :-) None of these gripes have prevented me from LOVING the machine, which is why I've given it five stars. What I love: 1. Not having to do the work myself! I really enjoy vacuuming - I get into my own world while pushing the machine back and forth. It's nice knowing the scrubbers are taking care of things. And it's nice knowing I'll still be able to keep my floors clean after my next knee surgery. 2. How clean my floors look and feel after using this! A note: The Hoover FloorMate DOES NOT vacuum things up. The squeegee on the front of the machine that scrapes the water off the floor prevents this (it pushes things around). But this hasn't been a problem. Just sweep first. :-) As I said, I have vinyl floors. (MUCH prefer them to tile. We removed tile and put in vinyl that looked like tile. It's warmer underfoot, doesn't crack or chip, is easier to maintain and keep clean, and things that drop onto it don't break.) I've used both the softer bristles and the harder bristles without problem. The Hoover FloorMate is probably my favorite household cleaner. I've been using it for several months now without problem. I really love how clean my floors are!

I love this machine! The day after I bought it my German Shepherd had a diarrhea explosion and drug his cage all over my tile floors. It was not pretty but I was never so thankful for the timing of Amazon prime delivery. I did have to do some mopping beforehand to get the bulk of the mess cleaned up. The picture I posted of the dirty water in the tank was what the Floormate got off my floors after I had just mopped three times. While I was mopping I was changing the water every few swipes to make sure I wasn't mopping with dirty water. The Floormate was still able to pull dirt and oil off the floor that I couldn't see. I will say the single most important tip to using this machine, and really get a good clean out of it, you must go SLOW. Think of this machine like carpet cleaner but for your hard floors. If you've ever steam cleaned a carpet you know that you must go slow, and the Floormate is no different. If you rush and use it in a quick vacuuming motion then you will end up with streaks and some missed spots. The spinning scrub brushes need time spread the solution onto the floor and scrub the floor. People on here complaining about water leaking, I haven't had that experience, but I do notice water pooling on the floor after you're done. I think it's just what's left on the brushes that are wet. No biggie, just wipe it up. I was hoping that the Floormate would clean my grout really well but it didn't quite reach my expectations. It's not terrible on the grout but certainly not lifting any old stains and returning it to it's original color. It just took surface crud off the grout, which I'm ok with since it's technically clean and sanitized. The actual tile itself has never been cleaner! I'm super impressed with that part. Also people complaining about motors not lasting, I guess I'll have to see how long it lasts, to me if it lasts a year I got my monies worth. Way better than scrubbing on my hands and knees. The second picture was taken after my floors were nice and clean. The texture of the tile even felt different under our feet. The area in the picture took about three full tanks of water and cleaning solution. Every time you refill the tank, remember to empty the dirty water tank too. It has an auto shut off and WILL NOT suck anymore water off your floor if the dirty water tank is full. It will look like you can squeeze a bit more in the tank....just don't...it won't let you. Then you'll think it's broken of the first use. It does state this in the instructions....but who reads those. Lol!

Es mi primera aspiradora y al recibir buenas criticas de la pagina de amazon de EU decidí probar suerte con esta, tengo pisos de azulejo tipo madera en mi casa y el uso del trapeador y la escoba solamente al principio fue suficiente pero con el tiempo empezaron a acumular entre los bordes suciedad que no pude quitar con escoba y trapeador y que solo cepillando se removía. El cepillar todos los pisos de la casa no era algo que me gustaría hacer constantemente para que los pisos amaderados lucieran bien, por lo que adquirí esta aspiradora, y fue una agradable sorpresa ya que con la primera pasada se vio una mejora que si lo hacia con puro trapeador, al pasar la aspiradora cepilla realmente los pisos y los deja muy bien, no tan bien que si pasaras cepillo manualmente. Una de las cosas que me encanto es que ahora no tengo que ensuciarme las manos para secar el trapeador y cambiar el agua constantemente por lo sucia que queda despues de una pasada, ya que la aspiradora cuenta con un tanque para el agua con jabon y otro para recoger la suciedad, por lo que el agua que el piso recibe todo el tiempo es limpia y no agua sucia o medio sucia por las pasadas que se le da con la jerga. La Floormate cuenta con un boton que de acuerdo a las instrucciones se utiliza en los casos en que hay una mancha mas pegada o el piso esta mas sucio sin embargo en mi caso en particular tengo que presionar todo el tiempo este boton ya que de lo contrario no limpia el piso bien, pues por los bordes de los pisos estos absorben mas agua. Por esta misma situación he decidido mejor antes de pasar la aspiradora pasar la jerga rápidamente por el piso para que este se humedezca y al pasar la aspiradora pueda remover mejor la suciedad. Un dia se inundo una de las habitaciones por una fuga y con ayuda de la aspiradora seque inmediatamente, ya me habia pasado alguna vez en otro cuarto por tener mucha presion en la tuberia y para limpiar todo me llevo una hora aproximadamente pero en esta ocasion con ayuda de la aspiradora secar me llevo unos 15 minutos. Por ultimo cabe mencionar que la aspiradora no es capaz de aspirar mas que polvo, pelos de animales cuando mucho, pues si por ejemplo hay un grano maíz palomero este no sera aspirado, por lo que antes de pasar la aspiradora debe pasar la escoba. Después que se acabo el limpiador liquido que viene en el paquete utilicé fabuloso con agua y me funciono muy bien.

I got tired of mopping my floors, so I bought myself this. I love it. Description is exact. But heavier than a vacuum and a bit louder too. Cleans my apt laminate floor and tiled bathroom floor with ease. Easy to snap together. Comes with a small bottle of cleaning solution. Only thing, it is hard to find the cleaning solution that goes with it in stores, most is carpet cleaner from this brand, cant use solution that has lots of suds. DIY solution should work as long as its not bleach or dish soap.

Worst and waste....don't buy.......first non return....second no spares and service available in india....even one min its not working.....0 🌟 is not there to give my rating....

El producto es bastante bueno. Lástima la capacidad que lo obliga a uno a tener que llenar el receptáculo varias veces. Tal vez para áreas pequeñas funcione bien una sola llenada, pero para áreas grandes hay que llenar dos o tres veces el tanque. Fuera de eso, talla los pisos de maravilla, ojo funciona aún mejor si se pasa muy despacio y se deja actuar bien a los cepillos y a la succión. De hacerlo así los pisos quedan como en su anuncio secos, así que si hay que dedicarle un tiempo. Los productos de limpieza duran muchos usos si se compran en original. En realidad limpia bien pero no es el producto de 10 minutos antes de que lleguen los invitados, hay que darle su tiempo a trabajar para que deje los pisos como tallados a mano. Lo recomiendo ampliamente.

Ah, the Hoover FloorMate—the mop that dreams big, tries its best, and occasionally just pees a little when you give it cold water. Let’s start with the positives: this thing cleans like a champ! My floors have never been shinier, and I’m honestly questioning whether I was living in filth before. It scrubs, it vacuums, it dries—all with the enthusiasm of a golden retriever discovering its first snowfall. Bravo, Hoover! Now, the quirks. First, it doesn’t like warm water. At all. Pour in anything more than lukewarm, and it throws a little tantrum, leaking like a nervous intern on their first day. Solution? Treat it like a spa guest and serve only cold water. Then there’s the Clean Boost button, which I suspect was designed by someone who enjoys chaos. Touch it, and you might summon the ghost of all past spills. Water goes everywhere. The floor? Cleaner, yes, but also a slip-n-slide. My advice? Pretend that button doesn’t exist. It also seems to be connected to the system leaking. Despite its little personality quirks, I genuinely love this machine. It has taken my cleaning game to the next level, and I honestly can’t live without it (well, I could, but I’d rather not). Final verdict: 4.5 stars! A lovable, slightly dramatic cleaning companion.