'A must-buy for homes with pets' - our expert reviewer gives full marks to the new VAX carpet cleaner

Despite the trend for hard floors, most of us have some carpet in our homes. Often it’s upstairs for a more cosy feeling underfoot when you get out of bed. And even if you’ve invested in one of the best vacuums, after a few years, your carpet gets deeper, ground-in dirt that means it could do with a more thorough clean. 

Our current love of plain, as opposed to patterned carpets, means that an odd make-up stain or splash of tea on a carpet is tricky to disguise. And since carpets are not easy to dispose of in an environmentally conscious way, it’s a good idea to look after your carpet and keep it looking pristine so it lasts for years to come. 

I’ve inherited my pale biscuit coloured carpets from the last owner of my house, and having lived with them for just over a year, I’ve noticed some marks and stains that I’ve also inherited. So when I was asked to review this carpet cleaner I was overjoyed at the prospect of freshening up and deep cleaning someone else’s dirt out of my carpets. Read on to see how I got on.

Vax Platinum SmartWash specs

• Watts: 1200
• Power cord: 9m
• Cleaning solution capacity: 0.45 litres
• Dirty water capacity: 1.9 litres
• Clean water capacity: 3.5 litres
• Weight: 8.9kg
• Accessories: 2.5m hose, 2-in-1 anti-microbial tool, SpinScrub tool, accessory bag, 2 x 250ml platinum antibacterial solution, 1 x 250ml pet stain & odour remover

Who tested this carpet washer?

Helen McCue

After completing a Home Economics degree, Helen went on to work for the Good Housekeeping Institute and has been reviewing home appliances ever since. She lives in a small village in Buckinghamshire in the UK, where she reviews all sorts of home and garden appliances using her wealth of experience. 

Helen reviewed Vax Platinum SmartWash Pet-Design Carpet Washer in her own home on two bedroom carpets, a rug and some carpeted stairs. Then she took it to a family member with several dogs and cleaned one of their carpets as well as an armchair. She plans to keep hold of it and loan it out to friends and family as needed.

Unboxing, setting up and first impressions

As I expected, this Vax carpet washer came in a fairly big box, but with handle holes on the sides, it was easy enough to manoeuvre away from the front door. Inside the box, two big polystyrene inserts protect all the components. And while I do see the need to correctly pack appliances so that they don’t get damaged in transit, many companies are now managing to avoid using polystyrene, so I would hope that this is something Vax are planning to change.

Once I’d removed everything from the box, there wasn’t really much set up required at all. It was simply a case of slotting the handle and tanks into place. Then all I needed to do was fill everything up and get cleaning.

But first, I spent a bit of time familiarising myself with the various tanks and accessories. At the very base of the carpet washer, two big rotating brushbars sit below the main water nozzle. Above this sits the dirty water tank, with the clean water tank at the top. At the back, there’s a carry handle with the cleaning solution tank above it. 

The great thing is that this Vax mixes the cleaning solution with the fresh water as you go, so you don’t need to worry about mixing them yourself and getting the right ratio. Similarly, all the tanks, brushbars and nozzle are all removable for cleaning and everything goes back together really intuitively.

The handle at the top doubles as a pretreatment wand. It has its own solution tank and when removed, you can use it to spray neat cleaning solution on any problem stains as a pre-treatment. Other accessories include a hose that plugs into the base of the vacuum. It can be used with one of two handheld cleaning heads for compact areas like stairs or for upholstery. There’s even some cleaning solution to get you started and a bag to store everything in.

The controls couldn’t be more simple, there’s a foot operated on/ off switch. It dispenses water and cleaning solution when you push it forward and sucks them back up again as you pull it backwards. And when you come to the end of cleaning, you press the ‘dry only’ button and it’ll stop dispensing any more liquid and will only suck up what’s already in the carpet. At the same time it’ll direct warm air into the carpet to speed up drying.

What’s it like to use

I must admit that when I first started pushing it around the room, I was struck by how heavy and bulky it felt. But once I got into the swing of using it, I soon got used to its size. You obviously won’t be using it all the time so personally I don’t mind putting in a bit of effort for a periodic deep clean. And the advantage of a big floorhead is that it covers a lot of ground very fast.

It’s quite intuitive to use, you just have to remember to pull it backwards over the area you’ve gone forwards on, as it only collects water from the carpet while it’s being pulled backwards. However, I really liked having the option to switch it to ‘dry only’ which means you can still collect the water easily, even if you’re not so diligent about how you move it around the room.

For general carpet cleaning I found the clean water tank had to be topped up about every 10 minutes. The dirty water tank had to be emptied about every 8-10 minutes. My biggest bugbear was that there are no indicators to alert you when the clean water tank is empty or the dirty water tank is full. So you have to keep an eye on both tanks and top up or empty as necessary. I started to pick up on a slight change in the sound it made when the dirty water tank was full, but I’d have preferred a light or beep to let me know that it’s no longer collecting dirty water from the carpet.

The roller brushes are fairly aggressive - I think they need to be to properly agitate the dirt out of the carpets. I noticed some carpet fibres were being loosened during cleaning. There were tufts of carpet fibre gathering on top of the carpet and I removed a good handful from the brushes at the end of cleaning. But having said that, the carpets actually looked fuller and fluffier after being cleaned, so I didn’t miss that handful of fluff!

My two bedroom carpets definitely looked cleaner and smelt fresher too. And the pile of the carpet was nicely lifted and fluffier. To give an example, the carpet around the bed is noticeably flatter at the sides of the bed, but still fluffy underneath the bed where it doesn’t get walked on. And it seemed to even this out, which was very welcome as I was planning to move the bed.

I cleaned a 4m x 5m room in about 20 minutes - albeit in two 10 minute sessions as I had to move the furniture from one side of the room to the other. After washing, I went over the carpet using the dry only setting and within an hour the carpet was only very slightly damp. I did however leave it about three hours to make sure it was dry enough to move the furniture across and wash the second side. But by doing one side first thing in the morning and the other side at lunchtime, it was dry enough for me to move everything back into position before bedtime.

On carpeted stairs the 2-in-1 tool was the best option. The tool continually sucks, but you have to press a button to dispense water and cleaning solutio,n which sprays out in a fan shape at the back of the tool. After I’d got the hang of when to push the button and when to let go, I got through the stairs pretty quickly. It’s a bit harder work than the main carpets, but it was worth it because the stair carpet really benefited from a wash..

Overall, my carpets were all brighter, with a lifted pile and a fresher smell. It didn’t remove every single stain but that’s not surprising given that they’re old stains. It did however remove a lot of dirt from the carpet which was evident in the murky brown water it sucked up as well as how much cleaner the carpets looked.

I was slightly concerned that the rollers would be too aggressive for my long-pile rug, but I gave it a go anyway. The rug usually sits on a hard floor but I moved it onto a carpet to wash it, just  in case lots of water went through onto the wood floor below. 

To my surprise the rollers didn’t agitate the rug too aggressively and it cleaned up really well.  I was pleased with how it lifted and refreshed the pile of this five year old rug. After cleaning I noticed a couple of stains, so I spot treated them with the wand and then went over those areas a few times with the 2-in-1 tool. And impressively the stains were virtually completely removed. I hung it over an airer overnight to dry and was super pleased with the end result.

Since this is a pet model and I don’t have pets, I took it over to a family member's house - they have five dogs so it got a good test! I cleaned a short pile, slightly ribbed carpet and on this style of carpet it didn’t remove as much carpet fibre. But it did remove an astonishing amount of muddy sludge as well as removing the doggy smell and lifting some stains too. The carpet was noticeably brighter and the room was much fresher, my family member was actually quite shocked at the difference it made.

Likewise, I used the handheld tools to clean an armchair that a dog sometimes sleeps on and in a short time, it was refreshed and smelt very clean. Though it wasn’t left as dry as the carpet and was still noticeably damp long after the carpet felt dry.

I did record the carpet cleaner with a decibel meter and it averaged around 80dB, which probably doesn’t mean much. But to give you a better idea, I’d describe the noise level as similar to a noisy cordless vacuum. And since you’ll use it fairly infrequently, it doesn’t matter if it's a bit noisy.

Cleaning and storage

Cleaning it after each use is important otherwise it’ll get very smelly. You must empty and rinse out the dirty water tank. It's removable and easy to rinse out in the sink. Likewise the brushes and the main nozzle all need a good clean before you store it away. 

The nozzle simply unclips, mine was quite full of carpet fibres and I couldn’t get it clean by rinsing alone, I had to poke something into the front to release some of the clumps. The brushes were quick to remove and rinse clean though. I also rinsed out the hose and the handheld tools too and allowed everything to thoroughly dry before I put it all back together to store away.

Although its shape is similar to an upright vacuum, the floorhead is much bulkier than your average vacuum, so it takes up a lot of storage space. Its footprint is about 33cm x 43cm so you’ll need to clear this much space in a cupboard, which for most households, is quite a lot of storage space to give up for something you might only use once a year.

Should you buy the Vax Platinum SmartWash Pet-Design Carpet Washer?

This Vax carpet washer is very good at what it does. It really will lift dirt and grime from deep within carpets and I love how quickly carpets dried after cleaning. Plus the hose and hand tool are a great option for stairs and upholstery. It’s a great buy if you’ve got lots of carpets, or if you’ve got pets and your carpets need a regular deep clean. It’s also reassuring that the Vax cleaning solution claims to kill 99.99% of bacteria - especially if you have pets and/ or children, making this the perfect companion to a vacuum for pet hair too. 

It is expensive though and very bulky to store, plus most people won’t need to use it all that often. So in my opinion it’s the kind of thing you could buy as a family or between a group of neighbours, and share it so that everyone gets to use it periodically.