Hard surface floor cleaning.

[volvoguy87]

The house in which I live has mostly wood floors. The kitchen and bathrooms are vinyl (very poor quality vinyl). Mopping doesn't get them clean enough and I just don't have time to get down on my hands and knees and scrub every square inch by hand. My eyesight is also pretty lousy so I tend to miss things anyway when working by hand. I need a machine to do this job for me. What do you recommend?

I've looked online at the Hoover Floormate with Spinscrub. The scrubbing brushes are important to get out the ground-in crud, especially on the soft sheet vinyl. The vinyl's days are numbered, but I still have to live with it for the time being. I like that the Hoover will dispense and suck up the cleaning solution, but how good a job does it do, and how durable is it? Are there any better alternatives?

What's your opinion?
Dave

 

[circlew]

Hey Dave, I don't have the Hoover FloorMate, but have a friend who does. He likes it quite well.

A much less expensive alternative is to get a scrub brush with a long handle. I cleaned the filthy kitchen floor (textured vinyl tile) in this rental house using such, and it turned out much improved. I tried several cleaners, and found that P&G Professional Dawn Heavy Duty Degreaser (the purple stuff) worked the best. Of course, I had to mop up the liquid, and rinse a couple times.

Also, you might find a floor scrubber-polisher machine at a yard sale for a good price. Again, this would require mopping up and rinsing after.

 

[whirlcool]

We have one of these. We really like it. The Spinscrub does a nice job. And if the brushes get cruddy it's a simple thing to pop them out to clean them and put them back in. It also does a great job on carpeting too.

We use ours on our kitchen floors. It does a good job even removing muddy footprints from the dogs. It uses the heat from the motor to dry the floor. It's like using a squeegee on the floor. It's dry within moments. The only thing I don't like it is the smell from the Hoover Hard Floor cleaner that comes with the machine. We use the Bissell hard floor cleaner, which smells much nicer.

It's a robust machine, shop around the prices are pretty variable.

 

[petek]

I'm of the opposing view on the Hoover Floor-Mate

I find it much too cumbersome and it's too noisy for my liking. As well I don't think the bristles are stiff enough for some dried on dirt. I've pretty much gone back to using my Vileda microfiber mop with matching bucket and for the quick once overs I use my Swiffer Wet Jet.

 

[mixfinder]

Combo Approach

I have a Hoover Spin Scrub Dual V carpet cleaner which I use on the tile and it does a great job of scrubbing and picking up the water.  I also have a Haan steamer that really doeas a nice job of cleaning the laminate.  I have also found that the steamer does an incredible job of removing spots on the carpet and cleaning the darkened areas on high traffic areas of carpeting as well.

 

[mattl]

Long time Hoover Floor mate user, and it's predecessor too. I think the older model with the twin scrub brushes does a better job on tough dirt, but the newer model is fine for most everyday type cleaning. It has a 3 position knob, 1 to vacuum that I never use, and see little use for, 2 to scrub and vac up the water and 3 to really vac up the water with out the brushes running.

One trick I've learned is to remove the pick up tank if you want to soak the floor a bit.It will leave the water on the floor and allow you to scrub it a bit more. when I do my yearly floor finish removal I use the older unit, as it's brushes are much more aggressive and easily loosen the finish.

I only use the Armstrong brand floor cleaner. It's available everywhere, smells nice, and needs no rinsing.

 

[sudsmaster]

I've had the 1st generation Floor Mate for about 10 years now.

It does a good job on vinyl flooring. I've also used it on hardwood.

For the vinyl I've switched over to using the Mr. Clean No-Rinse Floor Cleaner concentrate (diluted just like the original Lysol hard floor cleaner that came with the machine). It's cheaper and doesn't foam, and seems to work very well, better than Simple Green as well.

I also use a spray bottle with diluted floor cleaner and a long handle scrub brush for stubborn spots. This is only generally necessary if I've not kept up with regular cleanings.

Good idea about removing the pickup tank to force the machine to work the cleaning solution into the floor. I'll have to try that next time.