Review on Hoover FH51050 Upright Cleaner and Shampooer by David Moreno

This is a mid-range carpet cleaner: easy to use, little liquid, decent but not excessive suction. If you want to clean your carpets, this cleaner is for you. Heavier and more expensive non-commercial units hold more liquid, have more suction power and are easier to empty, clean and fill with liquid than this vacuum. But these devices also cost twice as much and take up twice as much space in your closet. This cleaner uses liquid, a large whisk, gravity and vacuum to get the job done. The weight of the machine creates friction on the fan brush that follows just behind the soap and water dispenser under the machine. A passage forward allows the discharge of the cleaner and the work of the racquet. This is followed by a second cycle of drying, which is pulled back over the freshly washed carpet while the vacuum cleaner removes the dirty liquid from the carpet. You don't tend to. You simply roll the machine forward and pull the trigger on the first pass, then flip it over and suck on the second pass. I cleaned carpets professionally during my studies and am convinced that Rotos (floor wipers) with brushes attached to a disc and liquid containers with the cleaning liquid are the best carpet cleaners. You can stick a buffer in the dirtiest spots and really go to the trouble of cleaning and then finishing with a wet vacuum. Steam cleaners penetrate deeper with heat. This machine lacks the buffer processing capacity and heat of steam cleaning. But if you clean your own carpets and don't want to rent or spend $1,000 on a buffer or don't have the skills to run a heavy floor machine, this is a pretty good job. It doesn't heat the water - it needs to be heated from the tap, and the "HeatForce" feature of dehumidifying with warm air seems like a joke to me. But my father-in-law used this shampoo for years to keep the white carpet in his living room clean, even though many grandchildren played there. Some precautions: 1. Be careful not to overuse the cleaning solution when cleaning carpets. I usually clean with a solution once and just use hot water the next two times. Excessive use of cleaning solution will cause carpets to attract dirt over time. Hoover charges big bucks for the cleaning solution. Do not abuse the solution! 2. Vacuum carpets thoroughly before using this or any carpet cleaner. Using this machine on carpets that are not vacuumed will rub dirt into the fabric.3. Be sure to place patches of plastic or aluminum foil under wooden furniture that sits on wet carpet. Tannins and stains on wood often leave indelible marks when the wood is laid directly onto a wet carpet.