The Hoover Smartwash Automatic carpet cleaner was incredibly powerful and convenient. It was the absolute best carpet cleaner for stain removal, outscoring all of the other machines in our comparison. It was also packed with features. The only thing that hurt its score was the high price and below-average water extraction.
Hoover Smartwash Automatic carpet cleaner review: Features
One of the surprising things about this carpet cleaner was the maneuverability. It was about average in terms of weight, but seemed lighter because it was still really easy to move around. It had rubber wheels that protected the flooring and made for smooth transport.
This is also self-propelled, an unexpected extra.In some cases, it was almost a little too much propulsion forward, but you control the speed on the way back, and on a longer cleaning job the help on the forward part of the passes will likely save you some fatigue.
It only took three passes to clean our dried grape juice stain out of the carpet, which was the best in our comparison. The same can’t be said for water extraction. It didn’t do a great job of removing water from the carpets, which resulted in a longer drying time. The Rug Doctor Deep Carpet Cleaner was great at removing water.
This machine uses sensors to automatically decide when the machine is distributing soap and water and when it is extracting it, which is a pretty cool feature; however, since it wasn’t extracting much water, the feature wasn’t as helpful as it could have been. There is a “Dry Only” button if you want to override the sensors and focus on drying. This could help with the soggy carpet problem.
Should you buy the Hoover Smartwash Automatic Upright carpet cleaner?
This Hoover Smartwash Automatic Upright carpet cleaner was great for tackling long cleaning jobs and whole-home cleaning. It has a large tank and long cord so you don't have to stop very often. There is also a hose for cleaning furniture, stairs and other surfaces. Additionally, it’s not too loud, and the cleaning path is relatively large to cover a lot of ground quickly.
The price is a little high, although it has enough innovation to justify it for some budgets, especially if you are wanting a full-sized machine for cleaning the entire home.