Hoover FloorMate SpinScrub with Tools, FH40030

Got the Hoover FH40030 FloorMate a few days ago. First time I used it, I vacuumed and cleaned two tiles and it seemed to work fine. We have two dogs in the house so there is always lots of dog hair and few reviews questioned the vacuum operation, it worked for me. The noise it makes is not a concern for me. All machines make noise.How I used to clean living room/kitchen floor:Pull out Dyson vacuum and go over floor a few times. (I love the Dyson, it works great on carpet, but not too good for dog hair and tile)Next pull out hose and get next to the walls and TV stand. Put Dyson away and get out the Wagner Steam Cleaner.Spray Simple Green on two tiles at a time and steam clean, Get down on knees and wipe dry. Steam alone does not work that well.Repeat until whole floor is 'clean'. Takes me all day to do the floor, I'm not into cleaning floors so I take lots of breaks. lol.FloorMate:Turn dial to vacuum, the attachment is closer to the floor which sucks up dirt and hair without blowing it to the sides or out front. It got all the dog hair off the floor. It's a little hard a push, feels like it is stuck to the floor. Surprised me, but it works good.Empty bottom container as suggested. (Read the user manual, not something I do)Added warm water and the included cleaning solution. (I also added a little simple green to the first line, next time I'll spray the simple green on the floor)Turn Dial to 'Wash' and pushed FloorMate over floor slowly. (You have to use it like a carpet cleaner) Go slow, pro cleaners with pro cleaners go slow as well.Floor clean and almost dry. I could still see water on the floor. I had to go over a few heavily stained areas a few times, but that was better than hands and knees scrubbing.Empty dirty water.Clean water/solution is at the top, dirty water is collected in the bottom container and it sucks up the dirty water as you clean.Since I just got this bad boy, I put the dial on 'Dry' and went over the floor again to try that feature. There are few wet spots left over but not enough to worry about.The Grout attachment seems to be a waste of time, then again, I've only tried once and I didn't want to snap the handle like I did the Wagner by pushing down (scrubbing) to hard. I'll do the grout by hand or try the other hand attachment it came with.I also have a swiffer hard floor cleaner and vacuum, neither one matches the FloorMate, in my opinion.This was worth the cost and shipping fees I paid. I would not buy a hoover vacuum, but their carpet steamer/cleaner and FloorMate are very good cleaners. I have both and love them. The Wagner is still good for the bathroom tub and wall tile, but not for my tile floors.If you got dogs and lots of tile, this bad boy is an all in one floor cleaner for you. Then again, nothing beats hands and knees scrubbing, if that's your thing. I know people that do that as well and get good results. I'm happy with the FloorMate. Make sure you get the latest model if this review helps you.Oh, it also came with an attachment bag. That's a plus and worth every penny if you have ever misplaced attachments. Clean test is to clean your floor, then use a white cloth and see it's still white after you wipe over the clean area. I tried that as well with the steam cleaner, was not impressed after all my hard work with the Wagner steam cleaner. No video/pictures as I don't want people 'dogging' me over dirty floors. I didn't clean the floors before I got the FloorMate because I wanted to see if it would work and it did, I got the dirty water to prove it.Update on Grout attachment.Looks pretty good. Had to wait awhile for the grout lines to dry, I might have used to much cleaner on them so they looked black while wet. 24 hours later they look almost new.

Bottom Line:I think this product performs very well and would recommend it. Now for some particulars.We live on a dirt road in a rural area and have a long-haired dog. About half of the floors in our home are either rough-textured ceramic tile or solid oak wood planks. The wood floors are milled to a simulated hand-scraped finish and so are not smooth but have small "valleys" in the boards. I was especially concerned about the wood floors, to see if water would pool in the crevices or the joints between boards. After using the new Hoover, I can say I'm very satisfied with it's perfomance on wood and not concerned that it might damage or not clean the boards. You easily control the amount of water and solvent applied, and after the drying cycle which uses a squeegee to help, the floor is barely damp and was in fact dry in most spots by the time I finished.The machine also did a good job on our textured ceramic tile. It dampened the tile sufficiently for the rotating brushes to do a good cleaning, but didn't leave puddles and dried quickly. Like others, I was amazed and somewhat embarrassed by the amount of crud the machine picked up. Clean-up takes a few minutes. You have to remove and clean the dirty water tank and its two filters, as well as the floor nozzle and brushes. But it just requires rinsing these parts with water and the disassembly and reassembly is easy. The long cord and folding handle are worthwhile features and I found it reasonably light and easy to manuever.Yes, it's all plastic and made in China, but seems pretty well designed and constructed. The two water tanks lock easily in place and I had no leaks or puddles during use.There are a few nits I would pick. It's fairly loud. The dry vacuuming ability is minimal, though it did pick up dog hair and small dirt and dust particles. The clean water tank is small and requires filling more often than the dirty water tank needs emptying. The electrical cord would benefit from a cord hook near the top of the handle to keep it out of the way during use. I haven't used the tools yet, but suspect they will be handy though seldom needed in our case.All in all, I think this is a fine product that will fill the bill for many households.

The media could not be loaded.  Does a good job, doesn't leave the dirty streaks that my other mop did-the kind that you buy replacement pads and solution for- My floor just looks cleaner to begin with now that I'm using this machine. The dry feature even works well. The vacuum feature is not very good though. I usually sweep first or use the Floormate vac setting only if there is not anything too large to pick up. It works better than I expected it too. My only regret is that I bought the version with the tools. There is vcirtually no suction with the small power head and it is not worth the effort to attatch it only to have to go over the area with something to dry it anyway. The grout tool is not any better, actually it's worse-suction-wise, though it does have stiffer bristles. The bag they give you for the tools is nice though....not $40.00 nice however. I have no regrets about buying the Floormate, if I were to do it again, I would just not buy the tools. I thought I would regret not paying the extra money for them, even though others said they are not good, and I see now that they were right. All in all, I'm very happy with the unit, and I would even say I find it fun to use. I recommend the machine itself, just not the tools.***Update 5/31/2013 STILL works great. No problems at all...have not even needed any of the spare parts I ordered for it. Love it. Still a bit loud, though. Still annoys my husband. Still enjoy annoying my husband with it.