I’d been reading numerous short articles in newspapers and magazines about the contaminants and dirt accumulating unseen in my carpets. Pounds of dirt, dust mites, dander, and dust were accumulating and compounding deep within and beneath the carpet fibers daily. The information gleaned from these alarming articles lay latent in the recesses of my subconscious mind till the weight of their cumulative mass drove them to the forefront of my consciousness and stirred up an unrelenting urgency to take action for the welfare of my family and self against the hidden menace of these microscopic monsters.

For at least ten years I have been using a dry cleaning product called Capture. It is a powder that’s sprinkled onto the carpet, brushed in, and vacuumed after a half hour or more. I have been more than pleased with the results of Capture, but then those nagging thoughts about the unseen made me wonder if my clean carpets were only an illusion, and that buried beneath the superficially clean surface was a thriving civilization, millions of bugs, germs, and unthinkable horrors. I resolved to buy a carpet steamer and thus began a many month long odyssey of research and looking and questioning.

I narrowed my choices to the Bissell deep heat cleaner and one of the Hoover models. The Hoover cleaners come in many configurations. Not wanting to second-guess myself for being too cheap again, I decided to buy their top of the line Hoover Wide Path. It was on sale at Sears for $279. In fact, it was “on sale” at that price 6 weeks ago and still is.
Anyway, the day I pulled the trigger there was a 10 percent off everything sale and I had a 25 dollars off coupon. My final cost was $226, a pretty good deal, I thought.

I must say that after reading numerous epinions, corresponding with several owners of Hoovers, and talking to salespeople, I unpacked and assembled our new Hoover WidePath with great expectations. Assembling the cleaner was relatively quick and easy, even for a ten-thumbed person like myself. I had some difficulty locating the two bolts for the handle, but once I found them taped to the body everything went smoothly. Eagerly I filled the upper container with hot water and 5 ounces of cleaner after choosing two area rugs and a section of the family room on which to baptize the cleaner and get acclimated. To say I was underwhelmed is an understatement.

The Hoover carpet cleaner is not a steamer. Hot water is sprayed onto the carpet, which is agitated by the six revolving brushes. Two wet strokes are then followed by at least two dry strokes. I deposited a gallon of solution onto the carpets and picked up only a few ounces. The carpets were wet for days. They didn’t look much better than when I started, just a lot wetter. I called Sears and asked if I could return the Hoover for a refund. After a brief interrogation and some hemming and hawing the saleswoman said I could return it. I decided to give the cleaner one more try before returning it. Many epinionators raved about the dirty water pulled up from their carpets, and I felt cheated unless I could experience the same results.

The next target was the upstairs hallway, covered with a very light solid colored carpet. It had at least ten small stains and has to be cleaned often. I sprayed the stains with a precleaner and began the trial. Again I noticed that the Hoover was not picking up the water very well. With some aggravation I pushed down on the recovery tank on the cleaner’s body and noticed an immediate difference. Dirty water was flowing vigorously into the recovery tank. I did the entire hallway hunched over so I could push down on the cleaner making it lower to the carpet. I noticed as it picked up more water I didn’t have to push down because the weight of the dirty water was enough to lessen the space between the carpet and the cleaner. On subsequent trials I initially added water to the recovery tank to add some weight. I also used many more slow dry strokes. I had to empty the tank more often, but it was easier on my back and seemed to improve the suction and recovery of the water from the carpet.

PROS

There really aren’t too many. I do like the bright light on this WidePath and think it’s the best feature. It does a passable job cleaning the carpets, and it is gratifying to empty dirty water and sludge from the recovery tank. Afterwards the carpets do look somewhat cleaner, though not as good as after a dry cleaning with Capture. The drying time was only a couple hours now when I cheated by adding water to the recovery tank first. I don’t find it hard to push this machine, and it is easy to set up and empty. The cord is very long as is the flexible hose for the attachments.

CONS

I am not greatly impressed with the carpet’s appearance after cleaning. Spots still remain, and the carpet’s new appearance is not even close to being restored. After using the cleaner in my hall there are lumps in the carpet and the original installation seams are visibly pronounced now and somewhat frayed. This could be because the carpet has been down for ten years or because of user or carpet installation error. Again my wife and I were much more pleased and impressed with the job done by Capture. I twice tried cleaning a large, ferret-caused stain downstairs with the Hoover. There was no improvement. Later I used Capture on the same area and noticed a marked improvement.

I'm not impressed with its bare floor cleaning performance. The WidePath drenched the kitchen floor and soaked up precious little water. The floor’s appearance was barely improved. Rotary attachment cleaning is mediocre. Suction is very poor. Putting my hand to the attachment hose I noticed the suction wasn’t much greater than that of a person inhaling.

CONCLUSIONS

I’m somewhat disappointed with this cleaner considering the positive experiences of many others but have decided to keep it. Maybe my expectations were too high or unrealistic . After all this is not a steam cleaner. It deposits water onto the carpet and then weakly inhales some of it back. It can be used to clean up massive liquid spills or to treat new stains quickly. I found cleaning the nozzle to be a pain but did notice that the carpet’s appearance improves if treated a second time with plain water to rinse out the soap.

Would I recommend it? - I would with some reservation advising the buyer to have modest expectations and only if the Hoover could be had for a substantial discount. I would not pay three hundred dollars for this machine.

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 226