Carpet Cleaners Reviews

Years ago, when I was in college, friends would speculate on the grade their term papers would receive based on their weight. The Steam Fast SF 850 Housemate Steam Vaccuum Extractor looks and feels like an A+, but the steam function, performs like a C, at best.

The unit is solid. The attachments are made of heavy-duty rubber, vinyl and plastic. The locking mechanisms are study and durable. The Steam Fast SF-850 appears as though it would stand up to years of hard use, if I did want I needed it to.

I liked the design of the unit, especially the handle on top that makes it very easy to pick up and move. The controls, once you read the manual, make a lot of sense. The unit itself has a decent vacuum cleaner (though the actual design of the attachments could use some tweaking). The suctioning power for liquid spills was impressive. I was taken by surprise when I was cleaning the hose and it just gulped down a small bucket of water.

Where the unit lacks is in it's actual steam-cleaning ability, perhaps it's the way the steam and vacuum features function together??? The primary reason for purchasing this device was to clean approximately 800 square feet of carpet that are ravaged on a daily basis by 3 untidy border collies. For the last 10 years I have been using a Hoover Steam Vac with rotating brush that I purchased at Sears. That little unit rocked, but after years of use, finally died. It was great for cleaning up accidents, shampooing the carpets, and even scrubbing the tile floors in my kitchen. I hoped that the SF-850 would give me additional flexibility for cleaning showers (water stains), windows, etc.,

Unfortunately, the Steam Fast SF-850 can't hold a candle to my old Hoover's carpet cleaning prowess. While the SF-850 can deliver a good blast of steam for short periods of time (a minute or two), it does NOT appear to be able to deliver a consistent blast of steam powerful enough to pull the dirt out of the carpet. The carpet area I experimented with did not look cleaner, or smell a whole lot fresher after I finished using the steam and extract features of the unit. I tried all 3 flat attachments and none did the trick. With a retail price of $899, this unit should work way better than the Rug Doctor rental units you might see at your local grocery or hardware store. It should certainly work beter than my old Hoover did. It doesn't.

It did, however, do a decent job cleaning 1/2" mosaic,tumbled marble floors in our bathroom (area is about 4' x 6'). Mopping just makes a lingering mess in the little grout lines. I think the SF-850 is meant more for solid floor cleaning than carpets.

Other complaints:

oThe first one is minor: the fill bottle broke the first time I used it. A small piece of plastic holding the "plunger" snapped off while filling the unit.

oIf I ever decide to purchase an industrial strength steam cleaner (home units obviously won't do it), I would be more inclined to purchase a unit that could be refilled on the fly. This particular unit needs to cool down for more than 45 minutes before it's safe to open the water-fill valve. That said, I have no idea why a unit with a tank that holds water at such a super-heated temperature has a problem delivering enough steam/pressure to pull dirt out of the carpets.

The SF-850 has the potential to be a 5 star cleaning machine, but it just doesn't deliver.

This machine steams floors and then simultaneously (instantly) vacuums up the resulting dirty water. Because it is steam, floors are sanitized without the use of soap. There is no residue of soap left on the floor. There is no residue at all, as the floor is actually left dry because all the water (and dirt) from the shots of steam are instantly sucked from the floors leaving floors bone dry, clean and sanitized. This is clearly the best, most sanitary way to clean hard floors. I tested it on a really dirty floor and it left the floor white and dry and white-glove free of dirt or residue. There was nothing left on that floor. No smudges, no dirt, no soap, no water was left.

If you have babies in the "on-the-floor-a-lot" stage or pets who wash their paws you do not have to worry about your baby getting germs or your pet constantly ingesting cleaning solutions from their paws. (There was a case of a German shepherd and other animals who died after washing their paws after Swiffer pads were used on the floor.) If we use antibacterial soaps on a regular basis, antibiotic-resistant bacteria (super-bugs) will begin to grow in our homes. So, we should not regularly use antibacterial solutions for household cleaning.

The SF-850 steamer is really the ideal way to clean kitchen and bath floors. Steaming with immediate suction of the residue is the most sanitary method. Steaming kills the bugs without antbiotics the same as if one could BOIL the floor. The steam hits the fllor for an instant and then gets sucked away taking the dirt with it.

However, I was truly hoping that th SF-850 could also serve as a carpet cleaning sytem as well. The SF-850 does steam the carpet and scuk away the water, but since it is perfectly calibrated for truly first rate HARD floor cleaning, the SF-850 does not, cannot, remove those traffic and pet stains from dirty and stained carpets.

The carpets seem to need more aggressive steam, vacuum and brush agitation than the SF-850 delivers. Hard floors need precisely the amount of brush the SF-850 offers, deep carpets needs more settings more suitable for the deep pile. If the SF-850 delivered carpet-suitable agressive and deep burst of steam on hard floors,it would just be a mess, so maybe that is why the manufacturer did not offer deep carpet settings. They didn't want us to use those carpet-suitable settings on the hard floors. As the user, we would learn quickly to use either floor or carpet settings as appropriate.

The SF-850 is flawlessly calibrated for floors and would need to offer a new set of settings to really also do carpets equally fantastically. To do capets better, the SF-850 would need a specific setting for carpet pile, which would offer a deeper, larger burst of steam (to get into the pile) a differently designed brush (and/or a hard edge squeegee)) and significantly much more suction power to pull the water out of deep pile. All of these carpet settings COULD be incorporated by the maufacturers into this unit, but it is NOT so-designed now.

The SF-850 is FANTASTIC for really sanitizing HARD floors, but not currently calibrated for equally killer deep carpet cleaning. Yes, it steams carpets now, but isn't calibrated for deep and stained carpet pile. Maybe if the manufacturers read reviews like this one, they will put out the truly best floor AND carpet cleaner extraordinare! This they could do. I will look for it.

If you really want a way to REALLY sanitize and wash, clean and dry hard floors without residue of any kind, this is THE machine to do it. The attachment to clean grimy baseboards etc is excellent too. Bath floors? Fantastic result. No dirty water left in the grout depressions. No drying of the floor is needed as the dirty water is instantly vacuumed up. The wand is marvelous to use. This is a first rate peice of equipment. With a new set of settings for deep carpet pile it would be THE product on the market for truly having it all and doing it all.

If this is available at the price quotes of under $20 its the best deal. Hoping that amazon.com keep up its word and send me 2 of these as per order for each of my floors- first and second.Nothing can beat it.