Review: Hoover's Floor Mate

We have all kinds of animals in our house - dogs, cats and even a raccoon. So, it doesn't make a lot of sense for us to have carpet in the house. At one point we did have it in most of the house, but it was so much work to keep it clean, we replaced it with tile and laminate.

The floors get very dirty, but now, I don't have to scrub carpet, I can easily clean my floors. I used to use the old mop and bucket and that worked just fine, until I saw the advertisement for Hoover's Floor Mate. I knew that it would make my floor cleaning much easier, so I got one.

My Floor Mate is the best investment I ever could have made for myself. I have the original version of it, which is a few years old now. It is still working just fine and going strong for me. I saw an ad the other day for the new one that has attachments for it. That would be nice, I'm sure, but I will continue to use my original until it no longer works!

I buy the Floor Mate cleaner for multi-type floors. It works well on both my laminate and my slate tile. I didn't want to have to buy two cleaners for different types of floors and then have to switch back and forth. This makes it much easier. I fill the tank with mostly warm water, add the concentrated cleaner and get to work.

The setup makes it very easy to work. To release the handle, you step on the right side. The on/off switch is down on the left side while the switch between the wet/scrubbing action and the drying action are located on the handle for easy access with my thumb. There is also a trigger on the handle to release the cleaner. I can control how much I want dispensed onto the floor. I usually do a 4' x 4' section at a time. Once I have dispensed the cleaner, I continue to go back over the section of floor with the scrubbing action turned on. Most of the time, they scrub up everything unless it is something tough like hardened gum. When that happens, I will soak it well with the cleaner and let it sit for a while. When I go back to scrub, it will come up easily. Once I have finished scrubbing, I switch the action over to the drying action. It sucks up most of the water on the floor. I usually make two or three passes over the section before I move on to the next.

The Floor Mate can also be used as a regular vaccuum cleaner, but I usually don't use it for that. I have a lot of hair from the pets and I don't want it to clog up my Floor Mate, so I usually sweep first or run my other vac over the floor. I can clean my entire house (approx. 1700 square feet) with one and a half tanks of the water/cleaner mixture.

It takes a little more work on the tile to get the grout clean with the scrubbers, but it will get it if I don't try to rush. It cleans the laminate with no hesitation at all. Once I'm finished, cleanup is simple. I pour out what is left of the upper tank with the clean water. Then I pull out the lower tank that holds the dirty water. This may also need to be dumped while cleaning. If the Floor Mate makes a change in pitch and stops sucking, then the dirty tank is full. This tank also has a filter on top that I take off and rinse. I pour out the dirty water and wash out the tank. If I don't wash it out well, it will sour and really start to stink. But, that is just regular maintenance on it and has nothing to do with the product itself.

The Floor Mate is easy to use and very affordable. The bottle of cleaner can last for months, so overall the system is very cost effective. I do recommend purchasing this product if you have a large amount of hard floors in your home. It saves a lot of back ache and time!