Hoover Carpet Cleaners

This past year we tested 16 different carpet cleaners. In this guide we talk about the five Hoover cleaners we tested.

PowerDash Pet

The PowerDash Pet is the smallest and cheapest Hoover carpet cleaner we tested.

This model has a very narrow cleaning path. Its cleaning path was measured to be only 7.5” wide vs an average of 10” for most other carpet cleaners we tested.

The PowerDash Pet also cannot be used with a hose and spot cleaning attachment. There isn’t a port on the front of the cleaner to attach a hose like there is with most full-size carpet cleaners.

Otherwise, the PowerDash Pet performed reasonably well in our tests.

Its suction at the nozzle was measured at 2.28 kPa vs an average of 1.89 kPa for all of the other carpet cleaners we tested.

It also performed reasonably well in our upright stain test. Through the center of its cleaning path it cleaned all of the stains in this test in only 34 total passes. The average for all of the cleaners we tested was 45 total passes.

The major negative for this cleaner is that it’s very difficult to clean itself. There’s only one small hole through which you can rinse its dirty water tank. This tank doesn’t come apart for cleaning.

You also can’t remove the PowerDash Pet’s brushroll without a screwdriver, so you’ll usually just clean around it. The problem is that there’s very limited space between the brushroll and the compartment that surrounds it so cleaning this area without removing the brushroll is quite difficult.

Overall, the PowerDash Pet is the second-best compact cleaner we tested.  The #1 ranked model is the Bissell TurboClean.

PowerDash Pet+

The PowerDash Pet+ looks very similar to the PowerDash Pet.

The Pet+ improves upon the Pet’s design when it comes to cleaning the carpet cleaner itself.

You can actually open up the Pet+’s dirty water tank to clean it. And you can pop open the compartment surrounding its brushroll to clean it. So the Pet+ is much easier to clean itself than the Pet.

On the negative side of things, the Pet+ has less measured suction than the Pet – the Pet+ was measured at 1.93 kPa of suction at the nozzle vs 2.28 kPa for the Pet.

Most importantly though, the Pet+ performed much worse than the standard Pet model in our upright stain test. It took 53 total passes to clean the stains vs 34 total passes for the standard PowerDash Pet.

Because it performed so poorly in our upright stain test we generally do not recommend the PowerDash Pet+.

PowerScrub Deluxe

The PowerScrub Deluxe uniquely uses multiple “SpinScrub” brushes instead of one or two large brushrolls to agitate and wash carpet.

With this design it cleaned the stains in our upright stain test at only an average rate of speed – it took 46 total passes to clean vs an average of 45.

That being said, its unique design allows it to spread stains much less as it cleans. Take a look a the screenshot below. Note how much less the PowerScrub spreads the stains as it cleans than one of its main competitors – the Bissell ProHeat 2x Revolution.

The PowerScrub also left the carpet much drier after cleaning than most competitors. After our stain test we measured the moisture level of the strip of carpet that was cleaned using a moisture meter. The reading for the PowerScrub was 25% vs an average of 27%.

According to our testing, the PowerScrub can also clean a much larger area than most competitors before you need to refill its clean tank (with soap and water) and before you need to empty its dirty water tank (of dirty water).

All things considered, it’s the best midrange carpet cleaner we tested.

PowerScrub XL Pet

The PowerScrub XL Pet also uses SpinScrub brushes to clean and so it also doesn’t spread stains very much as it washes carpet.

The problem with this model is that it performed very badly in our upright stain test. It took 63 total passes to clean, which is the worst result of any carpet cleaner we tested.

Because of its performance in this test we generally do not recommend it.

SmartWash

The SmartWash is called the “Smart”Wash because it automatically dispenses soap and water when you push it forward and it automatically extracts moisture when you pull it backward.

With most other carpet cleaners, including all of the models I’ve discussed so far in this guide, you have to manually hold down a trigger to dispense soap and water, and you have to manually release the trigger to maximize extraction when you pull the cleaner backward.

Unfortunately, this feature didn’t cooperate well with our testing.

The problem is that we push cleaners very slowly in our upright stain test, and the SmartWash requires a minimum threshold of speed to automatically dispense soap and water. So it would sometimes not automatically dispense on the forward push as it should. This happened rarely, but the fact that it happened at all definitely impacted the SmartWash’s performance in our upright stain test. It only cleaned the stains in this test after 54 total passes. Recall the average for this test was 45 passes.

The SmarWash also left carpet wetter than average after cleaning. The strip of carpet it cleaned was measured to have a moisture level of 28% vs an average of 27%.

All things considered, we generally do not recommend the Hoover SmartWash.