Vax V-125 All Terrain Carpet Cleaners be afraid (VAX Appliances V-125 All Terrain)

Member Name: Groovegal

Product:	VAX Appliances V-125 All Terrain
Date:	01/04/09 (398 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fairly easy to use once you get the hang of it, does clean carpets really well

Disadvantages: Like using a flymo indoors

Vax V-125 All Terrain
I have recently purchased this carpet/upholstery/sealed floors washer. Having found other peoples reviews helpful I thought that I could add my experiences of the cleaner to help other potential purchasers make an informed choice. This is a detailed review hence the length but hopefully it will tell you everything you want to know.


The Price

The cleaner varies in price depending where you buy it from however as a guide it's RRP is £322 however I paid £222 for mine in a sale from Argos hence that swayed my decision to purchase. It would also be worth checking Amazon as I this was the next cheapest retailer I could find.

The Packaging
The box is very big I have a family size car and found that the box wouldnt fit in with my boot empty it is very large this is without having my seats folded down as my kids were in the back I could have got it in otherwise. Might be worth considering delivery. I ended up having to have my friend bring it up in a black cab.

When you actually open the box there is quite a bit of cardboard packaging holding various accessories.

Assembly
The instruction booklet supplied states that you need to put the handle body on yourself however mine came pre assembled other than this its really just a case of putting on the tool caddy if you should choose to as its optional. Also the instructions can be a little confusing when you first run though them


What do you get?

Other than the machine and hose you can expect
Upholstery tool, spinbrush adaptor, hard floor squeagy, 2 small bottles of soloution for different floor types

There is a caddy to hold the hose etc but I found it cumbersome to use on the cleaner so might suit being mounted in a garage etc

The important bit-Performance
Okay so this is possibly the most important part of the review. Let me say that to get started you pretty much just need to add water and cleaning soloution to the clean tank that is on the top of the cleaner HOWEVER the process of mounting the tack in place can be a little tricky as whilst trying to line up the outlets to the correct points on the machine you can lose fluid from the tank which initially I didn't figure out and spent an hour worrying my new machine had a leak.


Standard Carpet

I have used the cleaner on 3 carpets now my toddlers room which was quite a challenge as she had kept taking her nappy off and weeing so the smell was lingering it cut through that and it was very noticeable on her carpet which is lilac the areas that had been cleaned next to those that hadn't and it didn't look particularly dirty until I started cleaning. It didn't get out a stain that was made when my daughter rubbed moisturiser over her carpet other than that superb results. Its worth saying that was just the main unit I used possibly if I went back at it with the manual spinbrush tool it might come out. I would say the carpet was quite dry straight away and a few hours with the heating on finished it off. The other two carpets were cream and I felt they didnt look particularly cleaned up eg darker marks still there however the filty water tank told a different story

Stairs

For this part you have to connect the hose and upholstery tool. The tool certainly could be better as there is no mechanical assistance (say like a Dyson turbo head) also you have to start with the machine at the top of the stairs and move it downstairs to do the bottom half due to the length of the hose.


Hard floors

This element of the cleaner I can report on as you can only use it on sealed floors and I dont think laminate falls in to this category even then I probably would find mopping easier.

Upholstery
I tried it today on one of my dining chairs which has a velvety feel cream cover it was stained with ketchup (again the work of my lovely toddler) it came out


My verdict

So would I spend my money over again? Yes I certainly would I have 3 kids at home and the cost of the machine is easily balanced when you consider the cost of hiring a pro to come to your home plus you have the convenience of choosing when and how often you want to use it.

A couple of things you might find useful to know


The cleaner is heavy so might be a challenge for elderly people etc
It requires a fair amount of room to store
Keep a big old towel handy for mop up when changing the tanks and taking off the hose
It goes through soloution very fast so bulk buy if you can
ITS VERY NOISY

So that concludes my review I hope that it has been useful to you and that I haven't been excessive with the detail I've provided

Summary: Well worth investing in

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