Hoover FloorMate Deluxe Hard Floor Cleaner Machine & Renewal Tile and Grout Floor Cleaner & Renewal Hard Floor Cleaner for Sealed Hard Floors, Concentrated Cleaning Solution for FloorMate Machines

Okay, I've only used it once, but I'm sold. I used this on tile floor in 5 areas on our residence.I bought the deluxe version so that I had the tile and grout brush, along with the wood floor brush, rather than just an all purpose brush that comes with the lower priced model. Also, I bought a bottle of the tile and group cleaner from Hoover, rather than use the all purpose cleaner that comes with the unit.The unit worked great. It was easy to set up, and easy to push around the floor. It has a special cleaning capability on tough spots, and that worked just fine. It also has a dry-only mode, and I only used that on one area. I picks up dirty water as it goes along, and left the floor reasonably dry. You just run the unit over an area a second time without spraying more cleaning fluid, and it picks up the dirty fluid on the floor.And the dirt really came up. I had run our steam cleaner over the floor a month ago, but the floor apparently was in need of a cleaning. The dirty water that is vacuumed up shows you just how much dirt was on the floor. This can help you judge how often you need to clean. If the water comes up fairly clear, maybe you can wait longer, and vice versa.Picking the dirty water up is just about the best feature. No more moving dirt around with a mop, or scrub brush, or steam cleaner. The dirt get vacuumed up, and is gone.Clean up was a snap. Easily rinse the two tanks out. Take off the squeegee thing in the front, and rinse it off. The brushes were not dirty and needed no cleaning, but they come out easily for cleaning, or to swap out another brush type.Although I vacuumed first with a new vacuum, by the way, the FloorMate seemed to pick up even more dust. It showed up on the dirty water tank, and in the squeegee area, as clumps of dirt. I even noticed one small dust clump that vacuuming missed. I watched it get sucked up into the brush area of the FloorMate. It seems to have a pretty good vacuuming ability. There is a filter that the dirty water flows through, but it didn't seem to get very clogged. Rinsing it out was easy too.Okay, there might be one or two criticisms. The power button is mounted pretty low on the unit, not near the handle. I don't like that. Also, it does not have a self-storing cord as on the new Hoover vacuum we bought at the same time. That would be a nice feature. These are not major points though, but I wanted to point them out to be fairAs you can tell, I'm sold. I'll be telling my friends about this. One of my better purchases, for sure.

The first time I used the Hoover Floormate it leaked all over my floor. I chalked it up to user error and tried re-seating the tanks. It still leaked to some extent but was usable. Initial impressions were good. As the floor dried, I could see that the unit only cleans the "loose" dirt. Any dried stains (in my case dog drool from his food and water dish) will not be cleaned unless I go over the area 4-5 times, and sometimes they still persist.The Floormate worked moderately well for about 2 months until it suddenly started emitting a high shrieking sound and a burning smell. I checked the Hoover web site for information, and it directed me to a service number. I called 3 times, each time I waited for over an hour only to give up out of frustration. Before I disconnected eact time, I requested a call back. One week later I received a call from an out-of-state repair shop. The technician asked me a series of question and told me that the unit was under warranty. The person asked me what the specific issue was and after I explained she requested that I turn the unit on she could hear the issue for herself. I complied and she said, "I don't hear anything out of the ordinary". After a bit of back and forth she finally agreed to solicit a repair request with Hoover. I said, "you're not from Hoover?" and she replied "No, we're an independent repair shop that just assess as to whether a warranty claim is valid".40 minutes into the call she finally entered the claim and told me that Hoover would be in touch via email. She also said that I would have to drop off the unit at a local repair shop, which is an 80-minute drive from my home. I received the email form Hoover and contacted their service rep. The rep wanted me to go through the entire process again, this time requesting video proof of the problem. Before we got too far into the conversation, I told them that I had surgery scheduled and would be out of commission for 3 months, so I could not drop off the faulty item at the repair shop. They said that a drop off is my only option. At this point I had enough of this nonsense and decided it was better just to take the loss, toss the unit in the garbage and never buy products from Hoover again.I also have a Hoover rug cleaner which broke after about 6 months due to a rusty turbine, which is a known problem they refuse to address.BUYER BEWARE!