Hoover H3000 Floor Mate Hard-Floor Cleaner

5 Comments

1. Anonymous says:

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   After using this product for the past three months, I have chose that I could not live without it. I have tile floors in my kitchen and hallway – and the grout had become so dirty and I never felt that mopping was doing much more than redistributing the dirt. It is a pleasure to clean the floor with this machine! I use HOT water which really helps to kill the germs and by taking the dirty water up off the floor after it is scrubbed, it truly gets the dirt up and off the floor. Thirty years of dirt embedded into the grout is coming out – and my once blackened grout is now white again.

   The other benefit of this is that the floor is dried nearly instantly – which prevents my small children from slipping on a wet floor.

   If this machine ever broke – I would replace it immediately. I place it in the same indispensible categories as my dishwasher, vacuum, and washer/dryer.

   I recommend this machine – which is especially nice to be able to clean floors such as basement, garage, and other areas where a sink is not available to aid in mopping – besides, this gets it much cleaner.
2. Pruitt Hall says:

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   Guys,

   Let’s face it. The ‘tools’ we like are named DeWalt, Makita, Milwaukee and Porter Cable. There are many more, but as ‘handymen’ we can all agree on one thing: Hoover ain’t at the top of that list, do you agree? Well, this Floor Mate absolutely deserves to be in the ‘way cool and why didn’t I reckon of that first?’ category. It is OUTSTANDING!

   I got my first introduction to the Floor Mate by my better half who came home one day after using one at her friend’s house. Now she doesn’t get terribly excited about ANY tool, appliance or such life necessities as I do, but she was nearly speechless when she got home. ‘Honey, you have GOT to see this thing! The floors are spotless, it’s simple to use and it WORKS!’ Huge talk indeed from someone that just HATES vacuuming, so I figured it MUST be better than the average bear. So I tell her, why not question your friend if we could borrow hers? (Yeah, I’ll admit it; it’s the male way of choice on major buys). So she did, brought it home and let me try it.

   MAJOR IMPRESSED. We have vinyl flooring in the kitchen, wood in entries and hallways and tile in the bathrooms. I tried the Floor Mate on them all and I was simply blown away. Tile is the most notable to see, as the grout just POPS out at you in its cleanliness. If it did NOTHING but tile, it would be worth it. But just change chemicals and it will do your wood floors as well. On EVERY surface I tried it on, it made the floors squeaky clean and a pleasure to not only walk on, but to look at as well.

   How does it do it? First of all it has a series of scrubbing brushes up front that are quite aggressive in their cleaning action (but aggressive only in getting down to the surface; they’re soft enough I’d surmise they’d never hurt a end). So, it adds a ton of elbow grease for you and never complains. The total way it works, as on a vinyl floor for example, is:

   –Load cleaning solution in cleaning tank.
   –Use the Floor Mate on ‘Dry’ vacuum setting to get up the majority of loose crud.
   –Using the trigger, apply cleaning solution, while you’ve got the unit on ‘WET Clean’ setting. This is the step that dispenses cleaning fluid and scrubs.
   –Then use ‘Wet/Dry’ vacuum mode to suck up the liquid.
   When you’re done the floor is ALMOST 90-95% dry; instead of needing a half hour to dry, it’s completely dry in under five minutes (and that’s being conservative; it’s more like 1 minute).

   This thing must be the best kept secret in housecleaning. It reminds me of a rice cooker. Once you use them, you wonder how you ever did without them. It’s a pretty vertical niche application, but what this Hoover Floor Mate does, it does EXCEEDINGLY well.

   I never thought I’d get excited about something made by Hoover, of all companies, but the Floor Mate truly must be used to be believed. If you’ve got a friend with one, borrow it. Or don’t borrow it; if you do, you’ll be buying one soon, it’s that excellent.
3. Dwight Koslowski says:

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   This was a nice piece of hardware, but I wonder if it was ever tested on a really dirty floor.

   The FloorMate went together well, and was simple to use, but don’t reckon that this is a substitute for a dedicated floor scrubber. It was effective at cleaning floors that had small build up or dirt, but wasn’t up to the challenge of a dirty, high traffic spot like a kitchen floor.

   I cleaned a three foot by three foot area of the floor, spending nearly 10 minutes on the test area, with small noticeable improvement. The cleaning agent provided, coupled with the very soft brushes did small at removing stubborn dirt. Hoover’s suggestion of using a strong detergent and a stiff brush to remove the dirt made me wonder why I needed the machine in the first place.

   There is no way to disable the vacuum pickup, so using a stronger, non-recommended cleaner was not possible since the vacuum would bring it into the machine. If the vacuum could be turned off, it could be used as a simble scrubber, but even that is not possible.

   The scrubbing brushes provided are very soft, with no substitutes available for harder jobs.

   The FloorMate is a excellent machine to use if you have already spotless floors and want to maintain them. But, don’t expect it to compete with a dedicated floor scrubbing machine.
4. Anonymous says:

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   With over 1000 square feet of tile flooring in my home, I bought this hard floor cleaner with high hopes. My high expectations weren’t completely met, but because this machine does its primary job very well, I’m giving it 4 stars.

   Here is a list of irritations:
   Noise: This is a very noisy machine. I wear ear plugs when using it.
   Soft brushes: This machine comes with soft, sponge-like brushes, which are excellent for hard wood floors. But, these soft brushes will not scrub out dirt that has worked its way into the pores of the tile. It also has a hard time with sugary messes that have accumulated dirt, such as the jelly spill behind the trash can. I wish Hoover sold additional types of brushes, such as a stiff scrub brush, since the brushes can be removed and replaced.
   Speed: This machine is not quicker than mopping. You must go slow to do a excellent job.
   Small spaces: It would be nice if I could reach behind the toilet with an attachment, but I suppose that would make the machine too bulky.

   Despite these irritations, this machine does an brilliant, thorough job at cleaning up ordinary surface dirt. It certainly does a better job than I could ever do with a mop, and with much less mess. The floors are never cleaned with dirty water and dry quickly. The machine is also frugal with its use of floor cleaning solution. One tank is nearly enough to clean a 11×15′ room. When cleaning, it’s a excellent thought to walk to one side, so your dirty shoes won’t leave footprints.

   PS: You need to make sure you install the tanks correctly, especially the waste tank and filter, or the suction disappears and the machine won’t pick up anything. This also happens when the waste tank fills up. The manual could clarify this a small better, since installing the tanks correctly takes some practice.
5. Korillian says:

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   When we went to Florida, I was not prepared to live in a house that is completely tiled. With beige tile. That shows every speck of dirt. And all the hair left behind by two dogs and a cat.

   Do you know how long it takes to mop a 2000 sq. foot completely tiled house? A LONG time, especially if you do it right and change water frequently.

   So, we did some checking, and based on reviews here and elsewhere chose to try the Floormate. It was an expensive gamble but it paid off.

   As any pet owner can attest, vacuuming doesn’t ever get up all the hair. This is what makes the Floormate a valuable tool. When you use the Floormate, you’re really sucking water up off the floor. This means that whatever residual hair/dirt that was on the floor is being removed with the water, instead of pushed around as it would be with a conventional mop. After vacuuming and Floormating the house, there is NO grit left. The floor is unbelievably clean under your feet, so much so that when I mopped the floor last week using my ancient mop, I noticed the difference immediately. I may as well throw out my mop now.

   There are a few considerations that should be pointed out. In my house, with the amount of floor space and hair, I vacuum before using the Floormate. I don’t find this inconvenient — I would have to vacuum before using my ancient mop anyway — but if you’re thinking to replace your vacuum with the Floormate you may want to take into consideration how much area and dirt you’re dealing with. The unit is noisy to run but no more so than my vacuum cleaner. And the Floormate doesn’t deal as well with corners or working around items as a string mop would, because the unit has a straight head that has to come against something straight on. But personally I never thought my mop did a excellent job at cleaning under my kitchen cabinets or around my refrigerator anyway. If I were more of a cleanliness nut, or someone who had more time on her hands, I would do those areas with spray and paper towels. Some reviewers have talked about the clumps of hair caught in the filter. We did not find this to be a problem, and indeed consider the cleaning of the filter to be a small price to pay for floors that feel the way mine do after we use the Floormate.

   The bottom line: if my Floormate breaks, I will immediately go out and buy another one. That should tell you something about how highly I recommend this product.