VAX carpet cleaner - good or not ?

[cycleruk]

My better half wants to get a Vax carpet cleaner and fancies one of these :-
https://www.vax.co.uk/vax-platinum-smar ... =SmartWash

Looking up a few reviews there are lots of good but also some bad.
Does anyone on the forum have one and thoughts of their effectiveness etc.

Cheers.

[Bonefishblues]

https://try.which.co.uk/

[rjb]

When we moved house we thought about hiring a carpet cleaner before we moved in. Our new neighbours loaned us there Vax carpet cleaner, not sure which model and prices seem to vary from £50 upwards. From our limited trial the carpet cleaning solution was expensive and soon ran out. We substituted washing up liquid which appeared to be just as effective. We were surprised how dirty the cleaning solution got. It was easy on an empty home. If you need to move all the furniture out you may reconsider doing it frequently. Lidls occasionally sell older Vax models at a substantial discount. We have been tempted but never bit the bullet.

[Elizabeth_S]

I've had a couple (when the kids were young) and I'm not convinced, once the carpets were cleaned they seemed to need to be cleaned more frequently. We just stopped all shoe wearing in the house, buy brownish carpets, and have low standards .

[Cyclewala]

In my experience they're not worth the money.

Carpets don't need a wash often, maybe every 2-3 years, if you don't wear shoes in the house. In such event, you can hire Rugdoctor from Tesco (and other places) for a weekend for something like £20.

[francovendee]

When we came to France 18 years ago we had a Vax 6130. This did carpets reasonably well but was an awkward machine to use. Here we don't have carpets but found you could buy a hard floor head to fit the machine. It's still going and is still awkward to use but cleans tiles beautifully, leaving them almost dry.
We miss carpets but when you see how dirty the water is after the weekly clean you begin to realise how dirty carpets must be.
We wear slippers in the house and the floors look clean before cleaning, the waste water tells a different story.

[Mike Sales]

We miss carpets but when you see how dirty the water is after the weekly clean you begin to realise how dirty carpets must be.
We wear slippers in the house and the floors look clean before cleaning, the waste water tells a different story.

In Sweden I was persuaded of this point of view. I have wood floors with easily liftable mats, in the Scandi manner in my new cabin.

[cycleruk]

Thankyou all for the replies. We usually wear slippers in the house but the carpets have been down a few years now, We have had them cleaned professionally once but Mrs Cycler wants to do it herself.
To me it's not the cleaning but the lugging and shifting of furniture that's the chore.
Will give the hire version some consideration but when her minds set we will see.

Cheers.

[Ride-sleep-repeat]

In such event, you can hire Rugdoctor from Tesco (and other places) for a weekend for something like £20.

Rugdoctor and the like strip the protective coating put on Carpets at manufacture hence them needing cleaning more often after the first clean.IIRC you're supposed to reapply a Scotchguard type protector after using such cleaners.
We gave up on carpets years ago and only have one on the stairs.This gets changed every couple of years when we redecorate so never needed to clean one!

[philvantwo]

There's no coating on carpets!
The vax machines are not powerful enough and leave a residue of detergent in the carpet.
Hire a rug doctor and with the hose attachment you can clean your car!!

[ClappedOut]

rug doctor as vax poor results, unreliable and generally HYPE

[Ride-sleep-repeat]

There's no coating on carpets!
The vax machines are not powerful enough and leave a residue of detergent in the carpet.
Hire a rug doctor and with the hose attachment you can clean your car!!

Yes there is.Have you never been in a carpet shop?As soon as you walk in there is that familiar smell.
They are generally treated with stain resistants.Some are treated with flame resistants and water repellants.Rugdoctor strips these and as a result actual ruins the carpets lifespan.
I think you will find that all furmiture,soft furnishings and the like are coated with something or other
Car upholstery and carpets are the same.This doesn't stop the salesman trying to con you into paying £200+ for a 'Special' coating like Diamondbrite or such like.

[irc]

+1 for Rug Doctor. Looking at the colour of the used water I pour away they work. The carpet is clearly visibly cleaner afterwards.

We have 2 dogs in the house so just taking shoes off at the door wouldn't work.

After using the Rug Doctor as per instructions I go back over the carpet with using plain water to rinse them and get more of the shampoo and dirt out the carpet.

We clean ours once a year so the Vax would take more than a decade topay for itself as well as needing stored all year.

[Bonefishblues]

+1 for Rug Doctor. Looking at the colour of the used water I pour away they work. The carpet is clearly visibly cleaner afterwards.

We have 2 dogs in the house so just taking shoes off at the door wouldn't work.

After using the Rug Doctor as per instructions I go back over the carpet with using plain water to rinse them and get more of the shampoo and dirt out the carpet.

We clean ours once a year so the Vax would take more than a decade to pay for itself as well as needing stored all year.

Transformational:

https://www.muckypupsdogshowers.co.uk/

[fastpedaller]

We bought one of the Vax cleaners at a special price £99 - it's the 'heavy duty' one with 2 tanks called a 'dual power max'. It has a vacuum function and a beater bar for good measure. We cleaned the dining room carpet, and realised how dirty we must be . The dirty water was quite horrific. A couple of days later our Daughter spilt some coffee on said carpet, and after the initial groaning we got out the cleaner saying 'no problem'. It was then we found the drive belt to the beater bar had broken! So we were thankful for the spillage. Emailed Vax and asked where to take it for repair, to be told "It can't be repaired, just dispose of it and we'll send a new one". Hmm, looking on youtube showed a repair, and although the base plate looked different (even more retaining screws) it looked similar and I was confident the basic design hadn't been changed.- £10 or so would have bought a belt I could have tried. We received the replacement cleaner, so I advertised the broken one on gumtree giving the full description of fault, and info that it would vacuum ok, but no beating in its present state. Someone bought it for £30, but he telephoned later in the day to say "I phoned Vax and they said they'd told you it couldn't be fixed and you should destroy it and you shouldn't have sold It - I don't want it if it's dangerous". Fortunately he seemed a reasonable guy, and I sent him the youtube link (stating I'd have tried myself, but for the fact they'd sent a new one) and also forwarded the email from Vax which said to dispose of it, and at no time saying it should be destroyed or was dangerous. I also said if they'd considered it dangerous they (surely ) as a manufacturer would have taken it back and destroyed it themselves. Anyway after that long story I'll sum up
1) I think we were just unlucky with our one.
2) They regularly launch a 'new model' which is about £250, and has small changes (sometimes only name or colour), and the 'old' one is discounted to about £100
3) I agree with the comment about carpet 'coating' as the carpet seems to get dirtier afterwards. I suspect some Fabsil or similar could be useful, and may well try it.
4) A reasonable purchase at £100 (as long as it doesn't break) but not worth £250 (only my opinion of course)