Gransnet forums

House and home

Just purchased a Vax carpet cleaner- can recommend

(27 Posts)
jeanie99 Tue 05-May-20 04:00:01

Cleaned my lounge and bedroom carpets and my god they were so filthy. Couldn't believe the colour of the water.
Carpets look great and so soft to walk on I am so pleased.
I bought the least expensive cleaner at £169 from Argos because of the good reviews and which had the large water containers rather than the more expensive one at £249.
Another job done.

GrandmaKT Tue 05-May-20 05:56:31

Yes, I have a Vax and am very happy with it. It's mainly used for our holiday cottage to give the carpets a good clean once or twice a year. I can't remember how much it was, but I went for the one with the stair attachment as guests are always leaving a trail of tea up the stairs, presumably from taking cups of tea up to bed (I do provide trays smile ).

Lisagran Tue 05-May-20 07:35:25

Interested to see these comments as I had been looking at the small portable Vax - Spotless Go. Anyone got one of those? Could do with something for the stair carpet, but otherwise have wooden floors / rugs

Ginny42 Tue 05-May-20 07:51:57

A carpet cleaner is going to be my next purchase so I'm very interested in recommendations.

The ones for hire are so heavy I had difficulty managing it last time and had to book an extra day as I was exhausted before I'd finished.

Maybelater2020 Tue 05-May-20 08:00:31

I have the Vax Platinum, which has an attachment for stairs, and it really does clean better than the brands you can hire.

NfkDumpling Tue 05-May-20 08:04:06

I don’t know which Vax we have. It’s years old and gets lent out around the family. At present it’s in lock down with DS. It does it’s job well - although I do have to warn the neighbours when I use it as it’s very noisy!

craftyone Tue 05-May-20 08:12:06

another good reason not to have carpets, all that hidden dirt

Lisagran Tue 05-May-20 10:26:15

Ooh, thanks, maybelater - off to google that....

Franbern Tue 05-May-20 18:03:34

I Vax carpet cleaner. Reasonably easy to use. When I moved into the flat there was (is) fitted carpet throughout. Had some strange black stains like oil on them, mainly in living room,. Managed to get them all out with this machine.
Yesterday I knocked over a milk shake I had made for myself - (milk, banana, icecream). Only had one mouthful before I knocked it down. Did soak it all up and washed the carpet, but today I noticed there was a nasty stain where it had fallen.
So, today got out this Vax Carpet Cleaner, and that has dealt with the problem easily and without really much effort on my part.

annsixty Tue 05-May-20 18:37:38

I am impressed by these positive reviews and if I can persuade someone to operate one for me I am tempted to buy.

Franbern Wed 06-May-20 10:43:10

They are easy to operate - rather like a largish upright vacuum cleaner. Nothing difficult there.

blondenana Wed 06-May-20 11:18:39

I have just bought the cheaper one, from Very £129 on offer,
I love it,had a bissell for years, but this is much better, can highly recommend
I only have stair carpet and bedroom carpet, but brought them up like new,
Shame there isn't an attachment for stairs , though with this one

Ginny42 Wed 06-May-20 11:20:47

Thank you for these reviews. I have cream carpets throughout and they are in good condition with only me here most of the time. I had them professionally cleaned once and did them with the hired cleaner once, but I really would like my own cleaning machine. It looks so easy in the ads so it's good to read what real users say.

Ginny42 Wed 06-May-20 11:21:56

I need a stairs attachment.

seacliff Tue 23-Jun-20 19:56:23

I was thinking of getting the Vax Platinum (Which Best Buy) but didn't really want to pay £249. I have never used a carpet cleaner. I want one that does some upholstery too.

I see the cheaper Vax Rapid power at £169 which Jeannie mentions. Not sure what difference there is between the two? There are so many models, it's hard to know which is best.

Jane43 Wed 24-Jun-20 14:25:31

That’s interesting as we are just debating whether to hire a machine or invest in a carpet cleaner. We did have a Vax some years ago but the first time we used it a lot of black smoke came out of it so we took it back and had a replacement. It wasn’t the best, especially the attachment for stairs and upholstery so Vax must have changed the design. I have used a Bissell carpet cleaner in the USA and it was very good but very heavy to handle, it was also difficult to take apart to empty, clean and put back together. I am thinking of looking to see if they sell them on QVC as you can return items within 30 days if you are not satisfied, I’m not if you have to pay the Return charge yourself. It’s food for thought anyway so thank you for posting.

PamelaJ1 Wed 24-Jun-20 14:39:28

I bought one last year, it was a fantastic deal on the Martin Lewis website. It’s a rapide ultra. It was about £75.
It’s excellent, easy to use and like Nfk. It’s used by a few families.

Lyndylou Wed 24-Jun-20 16:31:48

I purchased a VAX Platinum at the start of lockdown because of the write up in Which. We have used Rug doctor 3 or 4 times a year but the marks always seem to re-appear. The VAX cost me £249 but it is not only worth every penny. it has saved me a lot. I have a 20 year old yellow carpet in my bedroom which I love, but we decided to move things around in there and the difference in colour on the carpet between hidden areas and open areas was obvious and I was seriously thinking about replacing it. Took a risk to buy the VAX but ALL of the carpet now looks like new. I would not have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself and two months later the marks have not returned. Expensive, I know, and the solution is not cheap, you get a small bit free but the large bottle costs £30 so you need to add that into the calculations. I got a free steam cleaner with it, (VAX website) but my inner housewife has not surfaced enough to try that out yet.

seacliff Wed 24-Jun-20 16:38:36

That sounded an excellent deal Pamela, not much more than hiring one. Can't see anything that low now.

PamelaJ1 Wed 24-Jun-20 17:03:49

Seacliff - it came directly from the manufacturer. I get martins emails regularly and just happened that this caught my eye. I hadn’t thought of buying one but felt I couldn’t pass up such a bargain.

ladymuck Wed 24-Jun-20 17:45:34

I also have a Vax, which does an excellent job when you have a large area to clean. For small areas I can recommend Dr. Beckman's carpet stain remover. I couldn't believe how quickly it removed the dried-in stains on my carpet.

Dsuarez22 Wed 02-Dec-20 20:30:30

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Franbern Thu 03-Dec-20 08:46:45

Dsuarez if you read back over this thread you will see peoples opinions about carpet cleaners.
The Vax I purchased had a stair cleaner, which I never managed to operate. Thpught it was just me. Recently my daughter borrowed this cleaner to use in her house. Her foru children were moving bedrooms as eldest had gone off to Uni. Even her tech minded hubbie could not get this to work, so it was not just me.
For the rest - this cleaner did a sterling job on those carpets, some really quite filthy (IMO). brought them all up beautifully. My daughter did NOT use Vax own liquid, just the supermarkets own (much cheaper). Did have to give a couple of those rooms at least two good go's.
Think these machines are ideal to be purchased by two or three households.

Witzend Thu 03-Dec-20 09:00:44

My latest Vax was new a couple of years ago.
I don’t use it that often so it still comes as a bit of a shock when I see the colour of the dirty water going down the sink!

One other thing IMO they’re really useful for - if anyone spills the likes of red wine, Ribera, coffee, etc. you can flood the area with water and immediately use the carpet cleaner to suck the whole lot up. This has worked like a dream here.

bikergran Thu 03-Dec-20 09:41:49

I have vax carpet cleaner. it has two rotating brushes on, maybe something to look for if your going to buy, some don't have the rotating brush. Some don't have to tools, this one doesn't have tools , so can't do the stairs.