Our house is full of carpeted rooms and with two dogs the carpet gets dirty fast. Renting a commercial carpet cleaner is not only expensive over time, but it is heavy, bulky and not always the most sanitized item in my opinion to bring into my home. I wanted a lightweight carpet cleaner that I can pull out on a rainy day to clean up the mud that gets track it. The Hoover Power Path Deluxe Carpet Washer will allow me to stay on top of these messes as they happen instead of cleaning month old stains that never seem to disappear.
When unpacking the carpet cleaner I was surprised to find only a few pieces that would need to be assembled. There were 3 pieces and 3 screws in total as well as an instruction book. What was really nice was when I noticed that the carpet cleaner came with an accessory mesh bag, 8ft accessory hose, upholstery tool, stair tool and a 16 oz. bottle of solution. The carpet cleaner has a 20 ft. cord which allowed me to be able to cover a large area without having to continuously unplug and re-plug the cleaner in. The total time to put the carpet cleaner together from the time the box was opened until the water tank was filled was less than 10 minutes.
The Hoover Power Path Deluxe Carpet Washer has dual spinning brushes that lift the carpet fibers up so the deepest of dirt can be reached. The carpet cleaner has a wide cleaning path at 11 ¾ inches. There are dual water tanks one for the clean water and cleaning solutions with the other holding the dirty water. The clean water tank is located on the top and has an easy to remove twist cap that also acts as a measuring device for the cleaning solution. The dirty water tank has a rubber snap seal that locks down keeping the dirty water from spilling out.
I measure out 2 ounces of cleaning solution which was easy since the cap is 1 ounce. After filling the water tank, I plugged in the carpet cleaner. Pressing down and holding the red spraying lever I made two passes on the carpet. One forward and one backwards which puts down a good amount of cleaning solution. To remove the cleaning solution and water I stopped pressing down on the red lever and repeated the forward and backwards cleaning motions. I was surprised how clean the carpet was after one pass, but I did redo the area a second pass. The manufacturer states that the carpet sound be rinsed with plain water after the area has been cleaned. I will say that after rinsing I did not see that much difference so this is one step I may only repeat every few cleanings.
The carpet I cleaned is a plush thick cream colored carpet. As I stated before I have two large dogs who deposit hair everywhere. The carpet cleaner did have issues with the hair even after I vacuumed twice. Did it function well yes, I just had to stop to clean the hair out more often than I thought I would. However, this does tell me that the dual brushes are cleaning deeper than even my vacuum does.
I tested the cleaning accessories on my sofa and found it to clean very well. The sofa had a slight dampness when I was finished, but it dried quickly. I found it easy to attach the cleaning hose (8ft) to the base of the cleaner. The upholstery tool to be easy to connect and operate. I will be using this tool often. I then tested the stair tool on my carpeted staircase. The hose was long enough to clean almost all of my stairs without having to move the cleaner. I carried the cleaner to the top of the staircase and was able to clean the rest of the staircase with no problem.
Overall, I found the carpet cleaner to work really well for a lightweight carpet cleaner. It does struggle with the dog hair, but really that tells me it is really getting deep down in my carpet. When comparing the amount of cleaning solution to the amount of dirty water it was really close which I was surprised by. My carpet was slightly damp like my sofa, but they both dried quickly. When testing the carpet cleaner I tested half of the room first. Since my carpet is a cream color the pictures did not show the difference in the carpet that the human eye did. Without telling anyone I asked everyone after the carpet dried to tell me if they noticed any difference in the carpet and they all could point to the clean area. The carpet even felt softer on the cleaner section. Now, just to say this as an honest point this is not a commercial cleaner and will not clean like one either. This is a great cleaner to stay on top of the dirt, spills and pet accidents, but it is not going to do any major carpet cleaning. I clean my carpets once a year with commercial carpet cleaner, but if I use this carpet cleaner monthly I will not need the commercial cleaner yearly. Which means I will not have to bring in that germy carpet cleaner anymore. The carpet cleaner is sturdier than I thought it would be. It is easy to put together and the directions are clear and easy to follow. I like that a storage mesh bag is included to keep my cleaning tools and hose handy. I am completely happy with the Hoover Power Path Deluxe Carpet Washer and would recommend it.
I received this as a complementary sample in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
