Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I purchased this carpet cleaner at Target after reading many on-line reviews of many different carpet cleaners. I gathered from all the reviews that carpet cleaners in general seemed to break after a few years if not a few months. I got the impression, however, that Hoover carpet cleaners seemed to be less problematic in general than Bissell carpet cleaners. I therefore strongly advised that my wife purchase a Hoover carpet cleaner rather than a Bissell carpet cleaner, even though she much preferred the style/design of the Bissells (Hoover could take some pointers from Bissell in the styling area). I advised the purchase of another Hoover carpet cleaner, but it was not in the store and I liked the description of the features on this one, even though there were zero reviews on this particular model at the time we purchased it. We went ahead and purchased this MaxExtract 60 carpet cleaner. We have since used the carpet cleaner about 8 times in the 3 months since we purchased it. We have not had our carpets cleaned professionally or otherwise since we purchased our home new 8 years ago. We have 3 kids though no pets. The entire path from our entryway to our kitchen was fairly dark from heavy traffic, even though we make a habit of taking our shoes off. After just a few passes with the carpet cleaner, you could see a significant difference. After a few more passes, the heavy traffic area looked like new from a color perspective though there was some carpet fiber wear and matting that no cleaner will remove. We proceeded to clean the rest of the carpets with less drastic results but overall the carpet looked brand-new again. We have used the carpet cleaner since the original cleaning multiple times to clean-up from kid messes, including multiple #1 and #2 messes from a potty training child (he's just like an untrained dog, though this one knows how to take his diaper off). On some of the #2 messes we had to use the hand-held attachment (this model does not have a spinning brush on the hand-held attachment; I think the 77 brush model might have the spinning brush feature) and this worked very well. We have even cleaned up sun-lotion from our trouble-maker son, which we have historically seen long-term staining from; no stains with this carpet cleaner. I'm not seeing a big need for the spinning brush attachment and the 60 brushes that are available seem to work fine; not sure how much better 77 brushes would work but it may not be worth the extra $$ I concur with other reviewers that the carpets are dry in about 2 hours. The carpets are only damp after the cleaning; they are not soaked at all. The size of the clean and waste water containers seems like a good compromise between cleaning time and effort to push the cleaner. You can run through a round of water pretty quickly (3 rounds for a deep cleaning of a 10X10 room), though the separate soap dispenser seems to last 2-3 water rounds. The size seems pretty good relative to Bissell cleaners and other older Hoover cleaners Cleaning the cleaner is fairly straight-forward; just pop everything off and rinse it off. In some spots you may need to use a pointed utensil to remove clumps of hair and carpet fibers. You also may need to run your finger along the two metal screen filters to remove any collected carpet fibers and hair. I did not go to the level of removing each individual brush and cleaning it; just ran it under some water and spun the brushes using the male motor attachment; this seemed to work adequately and pooled any hair and carpet fibers in one spot so I could remove it. I have not seen any issues with dripping or pooling water as I've read with some Bissell cleaners. There is a little dripping when removing the clean and waste water receptacles and I clean the cleaner on linoleum instead of carpet but have not seen any significant issues. The length of the manual attachment hose is sufficient to allow me to clean stairs all the way up to the first stair landing before I need to carry the entire cleaner up the stairs. This is a lot better than a vacuum we have where the vacuum needs to be carried up each individual stair. I'm a little worried about how thin the gasket is between the lower and upper parts of the waste water receptacle. Given that the water level does not reach this gasket line before the motor makes the high pitched sound indicating that the water needs to be emptied, however, it hopefully won't be an issue. The handle on the waste receptacle is touted as a means for carrying the carpet cleaner. I only use this handle to carry the waste receptacle itself; it appears to be a piece added on top of the waste receptacle and I'd be worried it would crack if carrying the entire weight of the carpet cleaner. I use the main handle and put one hand under the bottom of the carpet cleaner to carry it upstairs. Overall we've been very pleased with this carpet cleaner. I've had good luck with a Hoover vacuum lasting over 7 years thus-far so I'm hopeful the motor on this cleaner will last as long. The attachments on this carpet cleaner seem more sturdy than the ones on our vacuum, though I could see us replacing the hand-held attachment once the brushes wear down. Update: It's been 2 years since we purchased this carpet cleaner and I continue to see great cleaning results. Nothing has broken so far. We had a number of black spots more recently on our high-traffic section and it took all these out like a champ. My son go ahold of the cap that keeps the clean water in and ended up losing it, so I partially inflate a zip-lock bag and stick it where the cap used to go; that seems to keep the water in fairly well. One of the best purchases we've made; carpets look pretty new other than wear/matted down fibers in spots. We might end up trying to sell our house in 5 years and we might be able to get away without buying new carpets.