The Hoover F5914-900 SteamVac is one of the most popular steam cleaners on the market today. It gets great reviews on most retail sites and is also quite reasonably priced at about 0. Many a consumer indicates that this machine pays for itself after the first use as it costs less than bringing in a professional cleaner and it does almost as good a job. Most owners feel that it is money well spent.
When you first get the F5914-900 it requires some assembly but this is fairly easy and can be done with just a screwdriver. The F5914-900 is powered by a 12 amp motor and can be used to clean carpets, bare floors or even upholstery. Although Hoover indicates that this unit should not be used on hardwood floors.
The F5914-900 has no water heater so "steam cleaner" is a bit of a misnomer. One fills the clean water tank with hot water from the tap and the machine uses the hot tap water and detergent to do its cleaning. Detergent and water are mixed automatically and applied to the carpet via a trigger in the steam cleaner handle while a series of spinning brushes massage the dirt and grime out of the carpet. The unit has 5 spinning brushes that have both high and low speed settings. These can also be turned off (for delicate hard floor cleaning) and are removed very easily for maintenance. Several owners indicate that it is important to clean the brushes after each use because they gather hair and carpet fibres. If they are not cleaned regularly they can get stuck and no longer turn.
Like a number of other Hoover carpet cleaners this one uses two water tanks. One tank is for clean, hot water and the other is for the collected dirty water. The clean water tank capacity is 133 oz or about 1 gallon. The dirty water tank is purportedly very easy to empty but a little small.
This machine comes with a feature called "Clean Surge" which feeds more cleaning solution to the brushes for extra cleaning power. This is done via a button on the steam cleaner handle and is mostly used for cleaning major stains or high traffic areas. The unit is also capable of providing hot air from the motor directly to the carpet after cleaning for quicker drying.
The Hoover F5914-900 sports an 8 foot hose and when combined with the special upholstery nozzle, is good for upholstery, stairs and spot cleaning. The cleaning path width of this steam vacuum is fairly narrow at 11 inches and it comes with a 24 foot power cord. The F5914-900 is not a lightweight machine at 20 lbs but most steam cleaners are fairly heavy. It carries a 1-year limited manufacturer's warranty.
The F5914-900 is a very popular steam vac and consumer ratings are therefore widely available. Ratings in general are very good averaging in almost all cases greater than 4 stars out of 5. Those that bought the steam cleaner write that it cleans carpet very, very well and that the machine's strong suction pulls up most of the dirty water from the carpet. They also indicate that the hot air drying feature helps carpets dry very quickly after cleaning. Some owners, however, are frustrated that the dirty water container volume is not larger and that it needs to be emptied frequently when cleaning. Also, there are a number of comments indicating that the tanks sometimes leak, although others highlight that following the installation instructions carefully helps properly seat the tanks thereby limiting or eliminating leakage.
This steam cleaner is a best seller on Amazon and consumers generally agree that it does a great job on carpets and is also priced right.
