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Mar/1010
Hoover SteamVac Dual V Widepath Carpet Cleaner, Plum, F7411-900
Hoover SteamVac Dual V Widepath Carpet Cleaner, Plum, F7411-900
SteamVac Dual V Plum
List Price: $239.99
Sale Price: Too low to display
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2:08 pm on July 30th, 2008
Rating
I had the older version of this machine. I bought it about 6 years ago and after attempting to clean the rugs last month I realized it was no longer picking up the water. Opened it up and saw that the internal suction hose had split in half. That was it .. time to find another cleaner. I have had good luck with Hoovers but did a TON of research before settling on this machine. I have a dog and a toddler and both do a number on my rugs. Juice, food, crayons, spit up, urine and everything else under the sun has ended up on my carpet in the past 2 years. I did not take care of my previous Hoover so it wasn’t the best in its later life. I just brought the new one home and oh my god, the water was black. I did not think anything could bring my carpets back but this did. They are so soft and clean. I love this machine because it has a rinse button if you want to make sure you have gotten all the soap out. I use really warm water and the machine directs hot air onto the carpet as you make your passes. The carpet dried super fast and just looks fantastic. I had to fill and empty the containers 4 times for my combination living / dining room but hey, I’m not complaining now that I see the results. I also like this machine because you do not mix the detergent in with the water. This is great because if you have detergent left over you just pour it back into the bottle. Based on my previous experience, here is what I learned and can pass on to future Hoover SteamVac owners:
1. Clean your machine after each use. That means taking apart the brushes and washing out the front nozzle. This is an investment and if you want it to continue working like it did the first day, you need to take care of it.
2. Do not leave left over or dirty water in the tank when you put it away. This will wear away at the joints and increases the chances the leaks.
3. Do not leave left over detergent in the tank .. see #2.
4. Read the directions when you put it together and make sure you read how to use this rather than just take it out and turn it on. I never read the first manual and didn’t realize I should have been cleaning and using the spray button a totally different way.
This is a great machine and I hope it will last just as if not longer now that I know how to take care of and use it properly.
3:45 pm on August 27th, 2008
Rating
I just got this carpet cleaner from Amazon.com and I am so happy with it. It outcleans everything I’ve ever used before, including professional cleaning companies. I owned a Kirby years ago and it can’t hold a candle to this Hoover cleaner. I found it was much easier to use than the rug doctor, which I’ve rented many times, and since I own it, I don’t have to haul it back to the store and I have all the time I want to clean my carpets.
It was very easy to use, and I particularly like the clean water rinse feature. It gets all the detergent residue out, and my carpet was soft and lofty after cleaning. Just think, you wouldn’t wear your clothes washed and not rinsed.
The power is awesome, my carpet was practically dry when I finished. I got back very close to the amount of water that was dispensed. My carpet was dry enough to walk on in an hour and vacuum in 2 hours. This machine is so well made that I look forward to having soft clean carpet for years to come. It has the quality that I expected from a Hoover. I researched all brands of cleaners dilligently on the net and even looked at some brands, including Bissell, in a store before I decided on this particular Hoover machine. I’ve never been so happy while cleaning my carpets before. I had it out of the box and ready to go in minutes. It’s as easy to use as a vacuum cleaner, plus, Amazon’s sale price was cheaper than any price for the same machine that I found. I am a happy camper with this purchase!
6:17 pm on September 4th, 2008
Rating
I just purchased this vacuum today to clean a filthy area rug at my front entrance. It was either try one of these to see if it works or throw out the rug. The rug is staying. Except for one area of dirt/stain on the bound edge of the rug, it came clean. It is very easy to use. I used at least 1/2 of the soap to clean the rug(only 4 x 6). I am sure as I get used to using this I will be more knowledgeable. The rinse only feature is great as leaving soap in the rug was a concern of mine. To insure quicker drying you just vacuum back and forth without pressing the wash or rinse button and you can see the water coming back out. I was informed by a former Bissell owner that the V shaped return of this vacuum is a great feature she wishes she had. Without it, I guess clogging is a problem. I definitely recommend this product which I purchased on sale for 169.99 at Kohl’s.
11:25 am on September 14th, 2008
Rating
This carpet cleaner is amazing!!! We have owned several cleaners in the past. Most recently a Bissel – after the second trip to get the Bissel it fixed and then to only have it braking again, we finally gave up. And I started renting a rug doctor to clean our carpets at least 2 times a year. We have three pets and then my husband and myself, and we live in the desert with all the dust and mud that tracks in from outside – and honestly we are not messy people. I am kind of a freak when it comes to our carpets and keeping them clean. 3 months ago I rented a rug doctor and cleaned all of our carpets, and within the couple of weeks it was starting to feel like I had never cleaned the carpets. I decided to try to get another cleaner.
I found this Hoover on Amazon and read the fantastic reviews, so I decided to give it a try. I tried to find it in a local story but had no luck. I ordered it last weekend on Amazon and it was here before this weekend started – quick shipping. I cleaned all of our carpets yesterday and they look fantastic! My husband said (several times) that it looks better than when I rented the rug doctor and better than when we had the Bissel. BRAVO Hoover – you have made an awesome product! The cleaner is very easy to push around – almost like a vacuum. The attachment was simple to use to clean in those hard to get to spots. And the whole thing was very simple and quick to rinse after I was done. I am very impressed with the whole thing.
This produce it truly an A+ for me.
6:24 am on October 3rd, 2008
Rating
This is my third steam vac in about 12 years. The first two were Bissels and were very hard to use. They were hard to push, were constantly breaking belts, etc.
This Hoover is the best. I just cleaned my entire 3500 sq ft. house with it-all bedrooms, stairs, area rugs, etc. It did a fantastic job. The best thing about it unlike the others that I have had, is it got out of the carpet almost entirely all of the water that went in. My carpet was dry by the time I was finished. I have never seen so much filthy water that was coming back out of my carpet. ( and I vac every week) The carpet in one bedroom had a bad odor that I had tried repeatedly to get out of the carpet, from a pet urinating. The odor and any stains are entirely gone now. The house smells clean and fresh. I had thought we were going to have to replace the bedroom carpet, because it was so bad. I even got on my hands and knees and smell nothing but fresh smell.
This is an awesome steam vac, well worth the money. Stanley Steamer usually charges me around $150.00 per year to come out and do a couple rooms. This paid for itself the first time and I was able to do my entire house. What I really love about having my own steam vac is that I can use it whenever I would like without the headache of having to wait half a day for someone to show up and do it for me.
2:13 pm on November 15th, 2008
Rating
I read all the Amazon reviews and decide to go with the F7411 rather than the slightly cheaper F5 series because of the separate cleaning fluid/water chambers and the upholstery tools. I had it delivered by the next day and it did an incredible job! Easy to install and the carpet is dry quickly as the backstroke sucks up the water. I have two puppies and they are… well puppies… there was no way we were getting rid of Gwen and Luca but the carpet was something to consider changing. We had professional do the job and it was “okay”… now my pups are older and still have accidents…. so I took a chance on this and it has incredibly enough restored the carpet to a nearly new appearance. It is worth the extra cost to keep the cleaner and the water separate.. no mixing needed and it was amazing to see the dirt coming into the reservoir for the dirty water… both reservoirs are easy to clean. The package included a long hose, a Rotating cleaning tool and an unholstery brush. It also comes with enough cleaning fluid to start out. Did a large bedroom in no time. Only drawback so far… thing is a bit heavy but I guess that’s why it is so powerful.
Buy it.
12:12 pm on January 26th, 2009
Rating
My parents told me they wanted to buy me a carpet cleaner for my birthday and were planning to get a Bissell similar to the one they have. I have a Consumer Reports subscription, so I figured I’d be able to find out what CR thought about various brands and models. It turns out that, as of January 2009, Consumer Reports hasn’t even bothered to test carpet cleaners.
So I hopped online to check out some reviews elsewhere, and the Bissell didn’t fare very well. In Amazon’s customer reviews, the Hoovers outperformed Bissells across the board. There was a sale at a local store, so I started looking at reviews for any Hoovers that the store sold. It didn’t take long to narrow down my choices to the Dual-V Widemouth and the All-Terrain (which both had great reviews on Amazon), so I opted for the cheaper one–which was also $20 cheaper than the Bissell my parents had originally planned to buy!
Well, yesterday was my birthday and we did the family thing today, so I got to open up my present and try it out for the first time. It didn’t take long at all for me to realize that my new Hoover beats Bissell, hands-down. You can stop reading now, because there’s simply no comparison.
Hmmm…I can see you’re still reading, so I guess you didn’t believe me the first time. Fine, I’ll make a few comparisons:
1. Sure, the Bissell ProHeat has a built-in heater, but you put hot water into the thing anyway and the water stays hot until you spit it onto the floor and suck it back up, so the heater offers no advantage, whatsoever.
2. The 6 circular spinning scrub brushes do a better job scrubbing than the long drum brush that most other carpet cleaners seem to have (including my parents’ Bissell and all the other Bissells I looked at during my couple days’ worth of research). The big long brush just strokes the carpet a few times each rotation, while the circular spinning brushes have tons of bristles constantly rubbing against the carpet.
3. The Hoover destroys stains and dirty patches that the Bissell could hardly even lighten.
4. The Hoover has separate dirty and clean water tanks, both about the same capacity. (There is one gotcha: the dirty tank looks like it can hold almost twice as much, but it doesn’t. You’ll see what I mean if you use it. I’ts not a problem though; just empty the dirty tank whenever you refill the clean tank.) My parents’ Bissell ProHeat has one tank that has separate compartments for both clean and dirty water. Since it’s physically only about the size of one of the Hoover’s tanks, the Bissell’s capacity is only about half that of the Hoover–which means you’ll be dumping and refilling twice as often.
5. The Hoover’s first-time use is a little more complicated than that of some of the other carpet cleaners I’ve used, but this machine has extra attachments and is easier to clean. Just read the book the first time you’re about to use it, and remember to clean the tanks and the pick-up area after each use. It’s pretty easy to figure out after that.
Still not convinced? Well, how about a little story. My parents brought their Bissell ProHeat carpet cleaner over to my house soon after I bought the place, and my dad did a thorough cleaning. He ran over a dirty patch in the hallway about 20 times, and spent a good 45 minutes trying to clean a stain in front of the fireplace–he must have gone over that stain at least 30 times. My fiance and I have borrowed both my parents’ carpet cleaner and her mom’s carpet cleaner a couple times since then, and no matter how many times we’ve tried cleaning the carpets, both the dirty patch and the stain defiantly stood their ground, just mocking us.
I ran my new Hoover SteamVac Dual-V Widepath over the hallway patch a couple times, and the dirty patch now almost matches the rest of the carpet. Then, for the true test, I took the cleaner down to the basement and cleaned that spot in front of the fireplace. I ran over it once and it seemed like it might be a little lighter. I thought, “Hmm, should have gotten a before & after shot.” Then, later on, I ran over it a couple more times and seemed to make even a little more progress. “I guess that’s a tough stain, so this isn’t too bad,” I thought.
Then I realized that my new carpet cleaner was still set on “rinse” for the second and third passes. I switched it back to “wash” and attacked the stain from a couple different angles. Now you can hardly even tell there was ever a stain there! I’ve had that stain for 4 years, and nothing–not spot cleaner, not carpet cleaners, and no amount of scrubbing–could put a dent in that stain. But a few passes with the Hoover erased the stain.
If you’re going to buy a carpet cleaner, buy this one.
5:38 pm on February 10th, 2009
Rating
We had the dirtiest, filthiest, crappiest carpet I have ever seen. For various reasons, we haven’t had a chance to clean it for over a year, during which time our little one managed to get everything imaginable and unimaginable into it. Melted creyolas, spilled coffee, diaper accidents, spilled fruit juices, dirt from outside, sand from the sandbox, and even “mysterious” black spots and stains which I only recently found out were coming from a black magic marker our son was playing with when we were not watching…
I was pretty sure that there was no way to clean such a carpet. But it was worth a shot to try to clean it at least once. We thought we’d throw it away, buy a new one and use Hoover SteamVac on that new carpet.
The first day I only tried a small area with worst stains (mostly from food and dirty shoes); within about 15 minutes, the difference was incredible and when the carpet dried out, the rest was crying for the same treatment.
The next day I took a couple of hours to clean our living room and dining area. I took that long because the carpet was horrible, and wanted to see what kind of results I could get with the Hoover.
Well, to make a long story short, it’s been a few days since I washed it and every time I come back from work I am surprised with my “new home”! It totaly looks like we just put in a new carpet! It is even fluffy again, and just like a new carpet you see impressions in it if you put something heavy on the carpet (like a jug of water).
I couldn’t be happier with the product, and I am pretty sure that there is no way anything out there can beat this little wonder, including commercial machines.
Just don’t expect to clean super dirty carpet in a few minutes. This does require a little bit of time if you want your carpets to be reincarnated into their previous life condition. But results are well worth it. We did it not only for looks but for our health too. And the water was pitch black every time I emptied the canister! If I didn’t wash our carpets all of that dirt would be filtered through our lungs.
A few tips: for best results on really bad stains, clean the carpet from few different directions, by going around it with the cleaner. Wash then rinse, then wash again and rinse again. Then come back to it a few minutes later. You can also slow waaay down with the cleaner (almost to a full stop!) when over a bad stain. All of that helps to get rid of those impossible stains.
Expect to refill and empty water often if you are dealing with a bad carpet like ours.
Bottom water canister has to sit properly on the tiny rubber seal on the front; then you have to lock it in place with two plastic rotating hooks on the side. Top water tank (clean water + detergent) has to click in place. If there was no click, it’s not sitting properly.
There are two modes of operation for this cleaner: water only (called “rinse”) and water with detergent (called “wash”). If you turn on the cleaner, and push the left button to “wash”, the cleaner will only try to suck in water, like a wet vacuum cleaner (do NOT use this as a vacuum cleaner though!). If you press the little button which is built into the handle, the cleaner starts spraying the detergent mixed with water (mixes it automatically which is very convenient) and is vacuuming it at the same time. As you push it forward, it will spray detergent and go over that with it’s rotating brushes; as you pull backward, the carpet is already wet from detergent, and you can see it sucking up all the dirt and dirty water. Then you can switch to rinse mode, and everything will be the same except there will be only water, no detergent. Go over the same area again, press that button (this will only spray water, no detergent), and then release the button and just over the same are to pick up the rinse water. You can see easily when the bottom tank is picking up rinse water and when there is nothing to pick up.
Then you can repeat it all if you still have a stain left. Some areas, like at your entrance door, may take 10-15 minutes of going over it from different directions washing and rinsing to bring the carpet to like new condition.
If you are doing everything right, the cleaner won’t leak or drip, and the carpet will be completely dry in a couple of hours.
Here is a list of advantages of this cleaner:
- Very powerful rotating brushes which clean carpet. No other brand that I know uses that.
- Very powerful suction, so carpet is almost dry when you are done.
- Excellent rinse, no detergent left in the carpet after rinsing.
- Intelligent design, fairly easy to use.
- No frustration of buying a product only to find out it doesn’t perform as expected. If anything, this thing outperformed my expectations.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Included user manual sucks donuts. If you’ve never used a similar machine, I suggest you get thoroghly familiar with this one, just by observing all the parts and especially seals – places where rubber meets plastic and there are a few places like that). Your figuring things out will make all the difference and you will have no problems with the cleaner. Otherwise, if you just think that you could follow instructions step by step and get it all done well, you may be in for a surprise.
4:57 am on September 3rd, 2009
Rating
It’s tough to decide how much to spend on a steam cleaner. On one hand, you don’t want to buy something so “cheap” that it doesn’t do a good job. But on the other hand, you don’t want to spend so much that it would just make more sense to hire an outside company to clean your carpets. I chose this steam cleaner with these things in mind.
I wanted a cleaner with rotating brushes and heated water, so that left out a lot of the cheaper models. I also really liked how many extra tools this came with, as well as other tools that are available for it. Hoover seemed to get the best reviews and have the happiest owners, so that eliminated the other brands. I ordered it and it came from Amazon quickly, as always.
First I vacuumed the carpet I wanted to clean, to get up as much of the dirt and carpet fibers as I could. Then I used the included cleaning solution and hot water to clean the carpet. That involves these steps:
1. Set the cleaner to Power Scrub and Wash.
2. Hold the trigger down and push forward.
3. Keep the trigger held down and pull back over the spot you just did.
4. Push forward along the same line, this time with the trigger not held at all.
5. Pull back again, with no trigger.
I covered the carpet and the water it sucked up was pretty dirty. After dumping a full tank of dirty water, I went over it all again with plain water and the cleaner set to Rinse. Once it dried, I vacuumed it again with a regular vacuum.
The cleaner not only sucked up a lot of dirt and other junk, it left my carpet looking almost brand new. It’s puffy and clean.
So what are the downsides to this cleaner? It goes through cleaning solution pretty quickly so you probably should buy more when you buy the cleaner. It’s also pretty loud. But I’m guessing that all cleaners have these same issues.
I would definitely recommend this cleaner over all others, if this is about how much you want to spend. If you spend less you probably won’t be happy with the results. You get what you pay for, and this cleaner is a good bargain.
5:51 pm on October 21st, 2009
Rating
I just purchased this from Amazon and chose the standard ground shipping. Much to my surprise, the next day, I received a shipment email stating that it was shipped via FedEx and would be at my house the following day. I thought – well, it may be coming FedEx, but probably ground and it would be a couple of days – but even so, that would be great as I wasn’t expecting it to even ship for another 5 days or so. Well as stated in the confirmation email, the next day I came home and found it on the front door step. I couldn’t be happier about the shipping.
I had been thinking about purchasing a steamvac and had done a little bit of research, but not a lot until two weeks ago. Sometimes men get these “wonderful” ideas. Well my man’s wonderful idea was to put the bag of grapefruit in our closet since it was dark, cool and would prevent it from molding before he could eat it. Well I’m sure you know how this “idea” is going to end – badly. That bag of grapefruit got “buried” underneath some things and of course it rotted. For some strange reason, it didn’t smell – but when it was discovered (weeks later), my tan carpet had a huge yellow, green, icky, moldy, wet spot on it. Luckily I was headed out the door so he had to deal with the initial clean up. But now it was imperative to get a cleaner and get it quickly (and books on organizing are obviously next). So I stepped up the research. My research showed that Hoover seemed to have great reviews and this site (http://www.consumersearch.com/carpet-cleaners) said that the 5914-900 was the best cleaner, but that this one – the 7411-900 was also in the top. So I did some more comparison and kept leaning towards the 7411 – but thought I shouldn’t stray away from the 5914. Well I went to the Hoover site and downloaded both manuals and reviewed them side by side to really see the differences. I quickly found out that to use the hand tools on the 5914 you had to pretty much disassemble the cleaner, whereas, with the 7411, you just attached it to the top. It became a no-brainer for me at that point and I purchased the F7411-900.
Just before I used it, I thought, maybe I should take a picture of the stain and I thought no – there’s no reason to. This stain is so bad, I’ll just be happy if I get the mold up and stop the damage and was thankful that it wasn’t in the “visible” part of the house. This stain looked like 50 dogs had urinated over and over in the same spot for a long period of time. I purchased the Hoover 40321130 Premium Pet Formula Carpet/Upholstery Detergent, 128-Ounce bottle but it turned out they didn’t have it and canceled the order, so I ended up using the sample bottle that comes with the cleaner which I think is the deep cleansing if I remember correctly.
We turned on the cleaner and pushed it forward while pressing the button to release the soap and then pulled it back, still pressing the button to release the soap (as it said to do initially). As we pulled it back, it was sucking up what it had already put down and you could see the yellow come through the clear front. As we pulled it back and “exposed” the spot, I was shocked, it was much, much cleaner and almost gone. So we did a rinse cycle and dry cycle and then did the cleaning cycle again. The book says don’t do more than 4 times in one area. If it takes more than that – let it dry and come back and do it again. But we didn’t need to do it more than 4 times – it worked WONDERFULLY!! I really could not believe it, nor could he. We just knew the carpet was ruined in that one area. I have had Bissell cleaners in the past and they worked OK – but nothing like this. Granted it’s been years since I had one and technology has changed – but still I can’t imagine Chem-Dry doing any better. And it really does pull a lot of the water out of the carpet – the spot dried in no time.
I haven’t used it on the rest of the carpet yet, but will this weekend. Although we just got it, I am very satisfied with it. I’m just kicking myself for not taking a before picture so that I could post a before and after – you just would not believe it.
For the price, I don’t see how you can go wrong – you can’t even get a professional to come clean 3 rooms for the price of this cleaner.