Kitchen & Housewares : Vax V-026 Rapide Deluxe Carpet Washer

Rating: - DO NOT BUY!!! GOOD REVIEWS HERE OBVIOUSLY FAKES!!
It's actually practically impossible to find anything positive to say about this. So i'll stop trying.
This is an abismally designed piece of cr*p. It was probably never tested.. and if so no one cared that IT DOESN'T WORK. Simple flaws like the over flow float cutting suction after around 30seconds of use. To get suction back you have to switch it off and on again.. then you get around 10 seconds. I bet you don't believe me. "you've over foamed it" you'll say.. or maybe "it's full" but no and indeed no, I really couldn't believe it either... IT DOESN'T WORK. Really. I'm an engineer and a technician.. I know when things are just rubbish, even if I can't quite believe it. This could easily of been fixed with a little and obvious change in design.
Another problem is the tank.. it leaks.. just keeps coming. Another ridiculous piece of bad design.. Why have the rubber water seal at the bottom of the tank?? Why not a straw??? Why o why. Oh! I near forgot to mention.. It doesn't clean much either.
The manual can be found in the dictionary under "something completely pointless" It spends more time describing how to attach tubes ur not gonna use any time soon, than it does on how to use the thing.. They were probably too ashamed to describe how it doesn't work. They also make reference to various parts by various diferent names, just to keep you guessing.. and even have some instructions obviously off a different model.. seems they haven't read their manual either. I've glanced over the good reviews here and can only speculate that these people work for vax.. read them.. they even have cheesy tag lines. Please don't buy this. Just get a wet and dry hoover.. they're like 30 quid.. and hand shampoo then hoover. MUCH MUCH quicker.. and MUCH MUCH BETTER!! Good luck guys.. don't trust the fake reviews

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Rating: - Reservations about this one
I guess the V-026 represents reasonable value at Amazon's price (50% off), but it is ultimately a frustrating machine to use. As stated in other reviews, the dirty water collection tank shuts off when only 1/3 full, even when using the carpet shampoo at a reduced strength to reduce foaming.

You'll spend most of your time to-ing and fro-ing from the kitchen sink to empty it - my averagely sized 2 bed flat took ages to clean as a result of all the stoppages. Irritating when this seems to happen every square metre of carpet. Cleaning performance is fair it must be said, leaving my light coloured carpets looking fresher. The rotating brushbar seems to make no difference whether it is switched on or off though.

I can see this cleaner being useful to spruce up the occasional rug or mop up spillages, but to tackle all the carpets in an average house it simply doesn't cut it with all the stoppages and repeated emptying and refillings. Approach with caution - probably worth it at the discounted price, but only just.

Edited to add - it sounds like Concorde taking off too, very noisy! Minus another half star for this.

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Rating: - Vax Rapide Deluxe
Well you're thinking of buying this model? If like me you're reluctant to part with your hard earned cash don't worry with this model! I read the other reviews and was nearly put off, however i could no longer stand my dirty tan carpet and this wee machine saved its life as i was going to replace it. My Vax came this morning and within half an hour it was sucking lots of dirty filthy water out of it. I can now invite people into my house in daylight now! I don't know why some have gave this bad reviews but i found it excellent value and a great washer just like it said on the tin...:-)

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Rating: - Makes old carpets look cleaner......but still old
Don't expect miracles from this machine, although if you get it for a good price it's a worthwhile purchase.

I was lucky enough to be able to buy this machine from Amazon for about £60 delivered - it must have been a price mistake, as at the time it was a full £90 cheaper than from a certain well-known High Street catalogue store. In fact, it was about the same price as hiring a Rug Doctor, so I thought I might as well own a carpet washer outright so I could use it a few times rather than pay for a single 24-hour rental on a Rug Doctor.

The V-026 was fairly easy to setup when it arrived. However, it won't make old carpets look like new. At the moment I'm getting ready to sell my house after 12 years of batchelor abuse - spilt Guinness, coffee and the odd curry and so on. The carpets are probably as old as the house itself, which is almost 12 years, and so I was possibly expecting too much when I hoped the Vax would make the carpets look like new.

Don't think for a second that one simply pushes this Vax forward and back once, like hoovering-up spilt flour, and immediately one unveils a strip of gleamingly clean carpet - it's more like back and forth....and back and forth....and back and forth....over the course several cleaning sessions in order to get the best results.

The brushes on the V026 seem to need a decent depth of pile on the carpet in order for them sufficiently to agitate the carpet and get the best result. My carpets are well-trodden and I can see the difference where the Vax attempts to clean a section of flattened carpet versus where the coffee table or the sofa has been for the past 12 years - the untrodden raised pile seems to clean a lot better. However, the machine still gives good results although you might have to clean a carpet a few times to get the best outcome. Rooms certainly smell fresher once cleaned and the machine sucks up enough water to ensure that carpets dry naturally within a couple of hours.

Washing carpets can be hard work. The clean water tank can be quite drippy when carrying it from the tap to the machine. It's easiest to fill it from the bath tap and I ended up wrapping the tank in a bath towel when carrying it to the Vax. Emptying the dirty water reservoir is best done down the toilet rather than risk blocking one's sink with the wet dust bunnies. It's amazing how dirty the water gets and the machine certainly seems to collect a lot of dust from what appears to be clean carpet. But one has to fill the clean water tank and empty the dirty one every ten minutes or so, so there's a lot of carrying back and forth do to.

On the plus side, the supplied bottle of AAA solution is the same size as one can buy on the High Street and lasts a fair amount of time. (Tip: Wilkinsons sell the same size of solution for less than £3 a bottle, so running costs are almost insignificant).

The supplied hand tool looks a bit pathetic at first but actually works quite well, as it has its own solution spraying button and is effective at sucking the solution back up again. It's very good for using round the edges of your room to avoid that inch-wide dark perimeter line of dirt which one's vacuum cleaner and Vax always seem unable to reach.

All in all, I'm happy with the machine for the £60 I paid, but for £100 or more I'd be more reserved. Just don't expect miracles from it and you'll probably be happy.

If it's any recommendation, an estate agent valued my house this evening and said the carpets looked nice and clean. But then, don't estate agents always tell you what you want to hear......? :-)

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Rating: - VERY VERY Disappointed
We have a beige carpet in the hall, stairs and landing and a 6 year old (bad mix).

The hall carpet is easily marked with people walking through. We hired a carpet cleaner from H0mebase about 6 months ago and we were pleasantly surprised how effective this was at cleaning the carpet. You could actually see the clean strip of carpet as the cleaner moved along. This removed all stains we had.

A few later and the carpets were marked again so we decided to invest in our own carpet cleaner and after much research opted for this model.

To be honest we did not expect miracles but we did expect so much more than we received!

The cleaner did not remove the marks on the carpet. Only very light surface marks were removed. Even using the hand tool the marks were not lifted and still remain (slightly faded).

The back of the cleaner spits out water which covered my painted wall on 1st use and leaves small drops of water in its trail.

The plastic tool attachment broke on 1st use.

I just did not get the impression this was deep cleaning the carpet. The solution seems to do down but the carpet does not seem to get that wet. The rotating bristles are as much use as a 10 year old toothbrush.

This could be a case of "you get what you pay for" but I will be returning this today and will not take the risk of buying a more expensive model.

Our daughter dropped her dinner plate on the living room carpet (nothing to disastrous just salad etc) and we used the cleaner to address the marks. Yep you guessed it they are still there even treated the stain with pre-treatment spray.

I would not waste your money!!