SteamVac on hardfloors 
My house primarily contains wood and tile floors. I have only two small rooms with carpet. I found the SteamVac out of the box came with two bottles of carpet cleaner and NO hardfloor cleaner. This annoyed me as I primarily wanted to use the SteamVac on my kitchen floor which is terrocota tile and the carpet cleaner states not to use on hard floors. I used the Steamvac first on my kitchen tiles. The brushes worked OK however my machine left pools of water on my floor. I had to let my floor dry overnight since there was so much water the machine was unable to suck up. My floor then had dirty water marks since the machine could not suck up most of the water. I was very disappointed with this result and will be going back to my mop and bucket to clean my kitchen floor. I then used the SteamVac on my carpeted rooms and the results were fine. It got rid of most stains. However I purchased this product to replace my mop and bucket. All in all not worth the $299 price tag!!!
Great carpet extracter
I purchased this extracter for my home. With two dogs, my carpet becomes dirty very quickly. The first day I received it, I cleaned my entire living room in one hour. The machine was easy to use and very effective at removing dirt from a carpet. I'm a housekeeping manager and I tried this machine at work. I was even more impressed than I was at home. The dirt this machine extracts is amazing. The carpets have never looked better. I ended up purchasing the commercial grade version of the carpet cleaner for my work site.
I have used a lot of carpet cleaning methods and equipment. For home use or small areas (offices) this machine works great. I strongly recommend this product.
Not a happy customer
I had this product for a year (the warranty JUST expired) and after a year of light use, it is now fit for the trash. It leaks cleaning fluid either from the top by the resevoir or the bottom by the floor. When I say "leaks" what I mean is ALL the fluid spills out uncontrollably. I had heard a lot of good things about this unit but my experience with its reliability has been the worst.
Great cleaner that has paid for itself many times over!
We have saved a lot of money and people can't believe how great our carpet looks. We used to rent the steam cleaners from the grocery store, but now we can clean it well any timw we want and not have to worry about bringing it back to the store. Just watch out because all your relatives and friends will want to borrow it!
This cleaner sucks - in a good AND a bad way
The good suction:
I have used this cleaner on my entire house. I must say that both the clean and the dirty tanks are easy to clean and fill. The extraction is so good that the carpets usually are dry in about 1/2 hour. I have successfully removed dried cat vomit, gooey unknown substances left by a 4 year old, as well as standard filth with this cleaner.The bad suction:
I have had problems getting the dirty tank to remain snapped into place to get a proper vacuum for removal of the solution. The cleaner does NOT like going from carpet to linoleum - I have multiple areas where my carpet is set next to the linoleum with no running strip near it. The solution usually gets sprayed unusually heavy in patches on smooth surfaces, and the machine has a hard time switching from carpet to smooth surface for extraction (i.e. it leaves a puddle on the linoleum). The rotating brush attachment for stairs is a total disappointment. No matter how many times I try to use that thing (at least 10) - it will not pull an adequate vacuum for extraction. The manual says to "purge the air from the system" by holding your hand over the inlet - still doesn't work. I end up using the upholstery tool on the carpets with adequate results - it usually takes a couple of days for them to dry due to excess solution being left behind though. Also, it is VERY hard to clean the extraction part of the cleaner, especially if you have short haired cats. I cannot for the life of me remove all the hair, even with the little flexible tool that is intended for this purpose.
For those with homes that do not have carpeted stairs - I think this cleaner would be fine, especially if you do not have unusual levels of filth from pets and kids. If you have stairs, keep looking.
