gatorgirlie's Full Review: Hoover F6212-900 / F6215-900 SteamVac Agility Up...
Alrighty... I have a husband, three cats, a dog and a baby on the way (two months and counting). I also have a house with mostly carpet. As I was looking at my carpet the other day I realized how dirty they were -- it was time to choke it up and buy a steam cleaner. Afterall, my child will be crawling before I know it and I'd rather they crawled on clean carpets!
Background:
Before I spent my own money on a steam cleaner, I routinely borrowed my parent's Bissell ProHeat. I loved that steam cleaner, but it broke... after only two years of use. However, I was undaunted. I drove to Target and bought the Bissell ProHeat. I then drove home and tried to use the Bissell ProHeat... which was broken. So I drove back to Target and exchanged it for another ProHeat, which broke after a month of use. So back to Target I went... in search of another steam cleaner. I liked the Hoover V2 Widepath, but no way on the face of this planet am I paying $300 for a steam cleaner (vacuum, yes... steam cleaner, no)... so I decided on the Hoover SteamVac Agility, and while it's not everything that I wanted, it's a very good steam cleaner.
Because I liked the Bissell so much, I am going to compare the features of the SteamVac Agility to the Bissell ProHeat.
What it has, and what I like about it:
The Hoover SteamVac Agility has 12 amps of power, and a row of five spinning brushes that scrub your floor clean.
It can clean bare floors, upholstery and carpets with no problem (my Bissell could only clean carpets and upholstery). I really like the bare floor option because it means I don't have to buy a hard floor cleaner for an extra $100.
It comes with a detachable tool caddy with an upholstery tool and a spinscrub brush (for hard to clean stains on the floor and to clean stairs).
It has a "Clean Surge" button that dispenses extra cleaning solution/water mixture for tough areas where it's needed most. Personally, I don't really see the added bonus for this feature. If I need more solution, I will just continue pushing the button for solution!
It has separate tanks for clean water/solution and dirty water. This is a feature I love. I realize now that the Bissell did NOT have this feature. I was cleaning with dirty water after the first pass (with the Bissell), but with the Agility I have the assurance that only clean water is touching my carpet.
It comes already assembled and folds the handle down for easy storage! I like things that are already assembled!
It's very light weight (only 13.6 lbs!), easy to use, and has a decently long cord length (24 ft).
What it doesn't have, and what I don't like
You do not have a separate solution container, you must mix the solution in with the clean water. This means it doesn't have a clean rinse option (which is one of my favorite features of the Bissell). I feel that it doesn't get all the soap off of the carpet, and thus not it's not as clean as it could be. This also means that if you finish the room with half a tank left of water/solution, you have to throw it away (which, to me, is wasteful).
The tanks for the clean water and dirty water are extremely small. I had to fill the clean water tank for every room I did (and my house is 3000 square feet, so that was a pain in the rear end).
The upholstery tool was a little unwieldy to use, it kept spraying solution everywhere. I still haven't figured out how to use it to clean my couches effectively. All it does is spray the water/cleaner solution everywhere (but where you're aiming it)... it doesn't really clean the furniture (there are no brushes on this) and it leaves them soaking wet. The fabric, when dry, is crunchy to the touch... which is odd.
So how did it perform?
For all the pros and cons about it, I must say that the SteamVac Agility cleans carpets very well. The amount of dirty water that was pulled out of the carpets was astounding (especially since I just cleaned my carpets a few months ago!). Since it is so lightweight, it's very manueverable and can get into tight spots. It also seems to pick up the remaining water fairly well, my rooms were dry in only a few hours (with the Bissell my carpets would take overnight to dry). However, I'm not quite sure about the suction overall. When I used the Bissell, clumps of hair would be pulled out of the carpet (even though I use a Dyson Animal to vacuum) at random intervals. It was disgusting, but it really made me feel like I was deep down cleaning. That never happened with the SteamVac Agility... and even though I know this is silly, a small voice inside says it didn't really DEEP clean my carpets. However, it didn't seem to leave any residue on the carpets, and left them smelling nice and fresh.
My experience with the bare floor option was less than satisfying, however. I hate to scrub my kitchen floor. I have the type of linoleum with grooves and pocks (I guess to simulate more expensive flooring options) that trap and lock dirt no matter how often I mop. I purchased some bare floor cleaner and tried to use my steam vac as usual... it sprayed the cleaner on the floor, but failed miserably in its efforts to pick any of it up. I checked and rechecked the manual to see if there was a different way you needed to clean hard floors, but nothing was listed. It simply didn't work at all when dealing with my linoleum... that was a big let down.
Overall Recommendation and Final Thoughts
Though the Hoover SteamVac Agility has some definite pros and cons, I would recommend this steam cleaner for even the dirtiest, dingiest carpets. It seems to clean well, it can clean bare floors and upholstery in addition to carpets, it's lightweight and it has separate tanks for clean and dirty water. However, it doesn't separate clean water from solution, you have to refill it fairly often, there is no clean rinse option, and I'm worried about deep cleaning effectiveness. Besides the deep cleaning question, the other negatives are that it doesn't clean upholstery or hard floors very well at all. While I'm sure there are reasons that it didn't pick up clumps of hair, that doesn't explain the poor showing it made on my kitchen floors. To be honest about my carpet, my Dyson is being employed once every few days, and it is a better vacuum than my previous one. So the Hoover SteamVac probably deep cleans just fine, I'm just neurotic. I also cannot attest to longevity with this vacuum (updated at the end), but it seems fairly easy to take care of... so I'm hoping this will last for a long time!
That being said, the price more than makes up for any hesitation on my part. I paid $179.99 for my Bissell, and $199.99 for the Hoover SteamVac Agility. For an extra $20, I feel you do get a slightly better machine overall.
If you really wanted to splurge, you could shell out $280 for a Hoover V2 Widepath which does have a clean rinse option, separate solution and clean water tanks, and larger tanks than the SteamVac Agility. However, for almost $100 less, I feel my SteamVac Agility is the better bang for the buck!
UPDATE 12/16: It's now been well over a year and a half since I bought the Hoover SteamVac and it still performs as well as day one. I clean my carpets every month or so, and I haven't had any problems with my cleaner. The routine maintenance is simple (just clean out the brushes) and the performance has never deteriorated.
At last, a cleaner that makes deep cleaning your carpet as easy as vacuuming. Lightweight, maneuverable and full of convenient features - like a fold...More at Amazon Marketplace
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