wash ‘n’ go (Hoover Aqua Wet & Dry)

Member Name: gryphon

Product:	Hoover Aqua Wet & Dry
Date:	21/04/01 (2482 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: wet and dry pickup

Disadvantages: have to hold it on the stairs

Take two Hoovers into the front room?

Not me.

Keep two Hoovers under the stairs?

No way.

I just wash ‘n’ go


The Hoover Aquamaster is a normal motor-on-top-of-a-wheeled-canister sort of vacuum cleaner, with the important addition of being able to be fitted with a tank of cleaning solution and dispensing/pickup tools so you can wash the carpet to remove those stains that even a Dyson won’t touch.

It’s Hoover’s answer to the aquavac, and I have found it extremely reliable and useful over the years- the pickup container is plastic, so won’t rust, and is resilient to life’s little knocks: ours has taken inadvertent trips downstairs, but still come back for more.

It looks a little like R2D2 with a carry handle on the top- like R2D2, it has problems with stairs: although the hose will reach most of the way, I find it best to carry it with me to clean the last few treads, rather than reach down from the top- the Hoover can [and does] decide to come and visit you rather suddenly.

It’s been used on a regular basis for normal vacuum cleaning, and has a standard set of tools to use as you tow it around by the hose. It rolls easily on its 5 castors underneath. Over the years, because it has a large capacity to take fluids, it can weigh quite a lot when not emptied, and the strain finally killed the hose: I had to buy a replacement for around £13.

The filter is a stiff cloth bag that covers the outlet leading to the motor, and like all filters, loses efficiency as it clogs, but is as right as ninepence after a quick wash, so we’ve never needed to replace it.

When using for wet pickup or cleaning, you have to empty the cleaner first, to avoid making a rather unpleasant variant of mud, and remove the filter. The reservoir for cleaning fluid sits over the top of the hoover, and a thin tube leading from this clips to the pickup hose an
d attaches to a cleaning head.

It’s a simple matter to treat the area to be cleaned, switch off the fluid feed with a little button under your thumb, then hoover up all the grotty gunge and liquid into the pickup container. The carpet is left remarkably dry very quickly- although they recommend leaving for a couple of hours, in practice it can be walked on almost immediately after cleaning, especially if its a warm breezy day, and you’ve got the windows and doors open.

Either empty the pickup tank onto a compost heap, or straight down the loo, [unless you really enjoy fishing muddy fluff out of the plughole]: because there is no filter in the way when doing wet pick up, it is very efficient.

We tend to use ‘Vax’ carpet cleaner, because it’s cheaper than Hoover own brand, but any low foam formulation will do the trick. The hoover stops picking up when the tank is full, because the liquid/slurry floats a ball up to block the hole the motor sucks through. I find that I only need to empty twice when cleaning a 5m x 5m lounge and large carpeted hallway, and it takes me around 90 minutes.

The end result is well worth the effort, and almost makes me believe in spring cleaning, when I see the autumn and winter’s worth of dirt that the kids have tracked in disappearing, to leave a bright carpet once again: . . .
. . ready for the kids to track in a spring and summer’s worth of completely new dirt.

Practical considerations when shampooing the carpet:
Spend longer hoovering up than you think necessary, and it’ll be a lot dryer a lot quicker.
Always finish off your hoovering of an area so that you ‘go against the grain’ thereby fluffing the carpet up. This not only allows it to dry better, but also restores some of the volume and bounce to the pile.
Don’t try to scrub too hard or too long at one spot- carry on elsewhere, then return for a quick se
cond go once the shampoo has had a chance to work on the stubborn stains. This’ll stop your carpet getting overly damp, and cut down the work you have to do. Alternatively, pre-treat any problem spots first, then go over the whole carpet, including the problems. This should help minimise any super-clean/lighter spots shouting out ‘I used to be a stain’.



When dirty carpet gets you down
Don’t you worry, don’t you frown
Just reach under the stair,
And use the Hoover you find there

When facing piles of mud,
Or an occasional spot of blood,
Don’t say something obscener
Just use your Aquamaster cleaner

and. . . .

Always look on the bright side of life
[whistle]
etc

[apologies to Eric Idle]

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