Hoover Floormate {a Review}

I don’t particularly enjoying the frequency in which I have to vacuum and mop our floors; so, needless to say, it doesn’t happen as often as it should. Before Christmas I was on a quest to find the best mop for our needs. I asked a bunch of people, tried out a few, and finally made a decision I could live with.

I wanted something that could vacuum and mop the floors, in one fell-swoop, leaving them relatively clean. At least clean enough that the bottoms of my feet aren’t turning black within a few hours.

I tried the Shark Electric Steam Mop, but while it “sterilized”, it didn’t really do a great of actually getting things off the floor. Not to mention the pads were filthy within a matter of seconds. It certainly left a lot to be desired, since I felt like I was just steaming the floor and not actually cleaning anything.

My sister in law has the Eureka Steamer, which she felt did a great job. I looked at it, but felt that it really just did the same thing as the Shark, which wasn’t what I wanted.

I finally tried a Hoover FloorMate. When these first came out a few years ago, I thought they had to be the coolest things: Vacuum and mop all in one! It sounded perfect, but even that one wasn’t. The vacuum feature while wonderful, doesn’t get a lot of things off the floor. It does a great job of getting the little tiny things up, but didn’t do too great a job of getting dog hair or anything else up.

While I still have to sweep and vacuum the floor first, this thing does a great job of getting the floors clean. Sterilized, no; but, clean yes. I don’t even use the chemicals they recommend, because I really don’t like the way it smells. I can use hot water from the tap with a 1/4 cup of vinegar: It does a great job. How great? Here….Tell me what you think….pretty impressive huh?

Ave dumped the contents of her mud boots on the floor, which I didn’t realize were filled with muddy water. One push forward and one pull back got the majority of the mess off the floor. A few more passes and the mess was gone and the floor was clean.

This is what I love most about the Hoover FloorMate. I don’t have to fill and refill a bucket with water to sop up the numerous spills in our house. I make sure the tank is empty and the reservoir is full of hot water and away I go. For our bigger and dirtier floors I do need to refill the reservoir sometimes, but not too often.

So far I don’t have many complaints about it (the motor is a bit loud)…all though I do still wish it would vacuum as well as a regular vacuum.