Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsI hate this thing...
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2011
Well after struggling with this thing for a few months and determining that it actually is horrible, I decided to share my experience. I use this thing to clean a 12 x 12 tile kitchen floor and it usually takes me over a half an hour.
Vacuuming: First, if you are vacuuming up anything other than hair or dust, this thing will not do it. I have two cats and a 9 month old and routinely need to vacuum puffs, cat food, all various types of crumbs etc. I have totally given up even using it to vacuum, instead I use my Bissel stick vac which works awesome for these things. So already this has gone from a 3 in 1 to a 2 in 1 if you consider drying a separate feature.
Cleaning: First, to dispense the water you pull the trigger. This causes a dribble of water to flow out behind the machine in a random sort of way, usually ending up about 3 feet behind where I wanted it. If you are trying to clean a transition area, where tiles meet carpet, you'll have to push it out onto the carpet to get the edge of the floor wet as it seems the only way it dispenses water is through this stupid dribble in the back. This also means you must clean barefooted as you will end up standing in a lot of water/cleaning solution. I am unable to get the brushes to scrub up anything but dirt, and even that is trouble some. If something is stuck on your floor (which it usually is when cleaning up baby food or whatever) I first have to spray something down on the floor to pre-treat to loosen it and then I basically sit the brushes on the spots with a little jiggling. This gets only about 90% of the stuff up. Today, while using it I resorted to scraping the bits up with my fingernails. Also, it is basically sucking water up as soon as it is laid down so I don't know how the cleaner has a chance to even work.
Drying: This works ok but after the suction from the cleaning setting, there isn't much left on the floor.
Tools: These are laughable. Here's how you install the tools. Take a hose and insert it at the bottom of the machine where the water comes out when cleaning. Opening this door dribbles all sorts of either clean or dirty water all over the floor. The tools also come with a handy telescoping extender, however if you are scrubbing up stuff the machine inevitably left behind, it continually collapses on you. To use them, I was basically kneeling on the wet floor scrubbing with the tool and not using the extension. Then, when you are done with the tools, you unplug the hose which lets clean/dirty water dribble all over the floor yet again and then have a wet hose to deal with. Unlike a hose on a regular vacuum, this does not stay on the machine all the time. Thankfully they have provided a mesh bag for the tools because when you are done they are wet and must basically air dry in there.
Pros: I bought this because it would scrub and it liked not having dirty water go back down on the floor.
I used to use my Bissel stick vac and a Shark steam cleaner but I didn't like using two things and the Shark didn't scrub stuff up very well. I bought this thing to fix that problem and find I am still using two things and my floor still requires quite a bit of manual scrubbing and is never really more than 95% clean when I'm done. NOT WORTH IT. For all those who like, I'm glad because I've spent a bit on this and now it is totally wasted.
