Clean Your Carpets Like a Pro with the Hoover Max Extract 60 (Review)

Clean Your Carpets Like a Pro with the Hoover Max Extract® 60 Pressure Pro™ Carpet Deep Cleaner

First let me start off apologizing for the before photos you are about to see.  My carpets are terrible, they are 15+ years old and have been through countless family gatherings, multiple dogs (including my new puppy) and a toddler that can not seem to keep her food on her plate (the puppy does not seem to mind this!).  We (and by we I mean my husband) vacuum on a regular basis, it is one of his "things".  It is not that we keep a dirty house, the carpet is just too light of a color to have dogs, kids and family gatherings and not expect it to get stained.  Eventually we will replace it, I am dreaming of hardwood flooring, but not until both the puppy and the toddler are grown.

I have had at least 2 full size residential carpet cleaners in the past and have not really been fond of any of them. I have found that they leave so much water on/in the carpet that it attracts more dirt and the stains come back with vengeance since the drying time was so long that it wasn't feasible not to walk on it while wet.  

Max Extract 60 Assembly:

As my husband will attest, I am assembly challenged.  I put the handle bars on backwards and wheels on the wrong side when assembling my daughters PlasmaCar.  So I was hesitant to open the Hoover Max Extract 60 box when it arrives (or when my husband was watching) so I waited until the weekend and opened it Saturday morning while he was sleeping in.  I was ecstatic to see that the assembly was one screw to attach the handle, clicking the two water tanks in place and winding up the hose and cord.  It was a breeze and took less than 5 minutes.

Max Extract 60 Operation:

Using the Hoover Max Extract 60 is almost as easy as the assembly, put cleaning solution in compartment that is clearly marked (add water if using 2x concentrate), fill clean water tank, plug in and GO!!!.  

I chose 2 high traffic areas to focus on for this test run.  

Area 1: In front of Doll House

 

  

The area in front of my daughter's doll house is high traffic for many reason: 1. We keep her toys in the main living area not her room. 2. She plays with her doll house on a very regular basis. 3. The location is on the direct path from the garage to the living room (we enter our house through the garage). 

As you can see in the before photo there are a number of dark stains, the after photo is after just a couple passes with the Max Extract 60 Pro.  You can still see the water trail of my first couple passes.  Notice that the large dark stains are considerably lighter, they faded even more by the time I finished my test run.

Area 2: Living room near puppy crate: 

The area near the puppy crate is especially stained.  I can't blame it all on the puppy since we have only had her 6 weeks.  The area we placed her crate in is right in front of the fireplace in the living room so it is a main point of entertainment during family gatherings and it high traffic when we use the woodstove in the winter.

As you can see, the Hoover Max Extract 60 did a fantastic job lifting the dirt and stains from the carpet.

They have all but disappeared, leaving a nice clean spot on the carpet in the middle of the room.

  

 I am going to have to clean the rest of the carpet

now so that it doesn't look worse with two nice clean spots but that will be simple with the Hoover Max Extract 60 Pro Pressure.

 The two test areas took me only a few minutes, you have to go over the area with a few passes for maximum cleanness but let me tell you, it is totally worth it to be rid of all those stains.  

The only downfall to the awesome capability of the Hover Max Extract 60 is that now my husband thinks the carpet has many more years of life left in is and it wavering on the idea of me needing hardwood flooring.  Oh well, you win some you lose some!

OK, now for the gross part, the extraction!  After briefly cleaning these 2 areas, look at what came out of my carpet!  

How disgusting is that? and this was after vacuuming prior to the carpet cleaning!  Clearly it has been some time since my cheapskate side allowed me to pay to have my carpets cleaned.

 About the Max Extract 60:
The new Hoover Max Extract 60 Pressure Pro Carpet Deep Cleaner is designed to thoroughly clean carpets and rugs.  Weighing in around 22 pounds, it is not the lightest household machine but it was easy to maneuver around for me.  The Hoover Max Extract 60 will set you back around $229.99 but trust me, don't skimp on a carpet cleaner, this is one of those things where you get what you pay for, making it well worth the splurge (just think of the money you will save not having to have your carpets professionally cleaned)

It features pressurized edge to edge cleaning capabilities (don't you hate that path along walls that your vacuum misses?  Not a problem with the Max Extract 60).  The scrubbing brushes (SpinScrub® 60) counter-rotate to surround carpet fibers, removing dirt from every angle (evident by the gross water photo above). The heated cleaning system is touted to get carpets dryer faster thus reducing the amount of time needed to wait before walking on cleaned areas.  I would like to see the heat system improved a little, while it did pick up a fair amount of the water, it was still a bit damp when I was completed with the two areas.  Since I did the test cleaning late at night while the kid was sleeping and the dog was outside, it had plenty of time to dry before they walked all over it so no problem there. 

Compared to other carpet cleaners that I have owned, the Hoover Max Extract did a better job pulling the water (and dirt) out of the carpet (as seen by the photo above of the extracted water, ICK!)

**Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting. I received a product to help facilitate my review, however, all opinions are 100% mine.**