Do Vax carpet cleaners really work? A Vax Platinum SmartWash Carpet Cleaner review

This post is a review of the Vax Platinum SmartWash Carpet Cleaner. I was sent this Vax carpet cleaner for the purposes of this review. All views are my own.

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I have a large peace lily in my bedroom that is over 20 years old. It stands, rather inconveniently, in front of one set of wardrobe doors, but its positioning is strategic. For at least three years it has been covering up a rather bright yellow stain on my carpet.

I couldn’t tell you where the stain came from – a neon cat vomit incident perhaps? – but one day there it was. My chosen method with most things I don’t want to deal with is just to pretend they’re not there, (see the satsuma on the car dashboard incident), and so the plant found its home.

Now you’d THINK that as a professional, seasoned blogger type, the first thing I’d have done before I tested out our new Vax Platinum SmartWash Carpet Cleaner would have been to take a photo of the stain for a before and after comparison. Here I have a bit of a confession to make though. I was upstairs with the Vax, my phone was downstairs, and I thought to myself ‘ah well, it probably doesn’t matter because the Vax isn’t going to get rid of it after all these years is it?’

*GASP*

I know, I’m sorry Vax, but I admit it, I was cynical. I’ve never owned a carpet cleaner before, (I’ve never cleaned my carpets the whole time I’ve lived here), and I always assumed carpet cleaners were one of those hyped up things that people bought and used once and then stuck in the garage, like foot spas.

If you’d have asked me a couple of weeks ago ‘do Vax carpet cleaners really work?’ I would have probably scrunched my face up cynically and said ‘Ha! I doubt it!’

If I’d even just had a look at the Vax Platinum SmartWash Carpet Cleaner on the website I’d have seen that it has won awards, kills over 99% of bacteria and has been shown to outperform the leading rental cleaners, but oh no, I thought I knew best.

HOW WRONG I WAS.

I gave the stain a couple of goes with the Vax and POOF. ‘Well this is awkward,’ I thought to myself, ‘I really wish I’d taken that photo…’

And of course now I look like a complete fool because all you have is a story about a stain that may or may not be true. You’ll have to take my word for it and trust me that I would not make up a story that made me look such an idiot. What I can show you though is the waste water container of the Vax Platinum SmartWash Carpet Cleaner after it had gone one round with our hallway.

I think that speaks for itself doesn’t it? I have to say it was incredibly satisfying to see so much filth coming out of the carpets. Disgusting yes, but still satisfying when you can so clearly see something working.

I can also show you a comparison of a patch by our front door, where we normally have a mat. The mat works well – underneath it is spotless – but the area around the mat leaves a little to be desired. This shot shows you before, where you can see the line of muck and general grubbiness, and then after just one clean with the Vax.

It’s not the easiest thing to take a photo of but you can definitely see the difference right?

Is the Vax Platinum SmartWash Carpet Cleaner easy to use?

Yes is the short and boring answer to that.

I’m not normally inclined to spend ages reading through instruction booklets, but the Vax Platinum SmartWash is generally pretty intuitive. Things fit together with reassuring clicks, and it’s very simple to fill with water, empty the dirty water and add the cleaning fluid.

You go back and forth with it, just like a hoover – on the forward strokes it washes and on the backwards strokes it dries. The Vax Platinum SmartWash is actually the UK’s first carpet cleaner to have this motion sensor technology and it does make it incredibly easy to use. You can also press a button to make it just dry, which is useful for when you’ve finished and want to give the whole carpet a final go over. Once we’d finished the carpet was a little damp in places, but nothing that meant you couldn’t put furniture back or walk on it.

The Vax does come with some attachments too, including a useful one that we used to do the stairs, but again these are very straightforward.

Can the Vax Platinum SmartWash Carpet Cleaner deal with pet hairs?

Cat hair is a big issue in our house. We have three cats and everything we own – carpets, furniture, clothes, our own skin – is permanently covered in a fluffy layer. Before I agreed to the review I checked about cat hair, because I didn’t want to try to use the Vax carpet cleaner only to jam it up with years worth of fluff.

It turned out to be completely fine. I gave everything a vacuum before cleaning and although the Vax did still pick up a significant amount of hair over the course of the whole house, it wasn’t an issue. Every so often I just took off the clear front panel, where you could see the cat hair collecting, and gave it a wipe out. When I emptied the Vax’s dirty water tank I took care to get rid of any hairy build up in there too.

Do Vax carpet cleaners really work?

To go back to my original question then, I have to say yes, Vax carpet cleaners really do work. The Vax Platinum SmartWash Carpet Cleaner also comes with a six year guarantee, so should anything go wrong you know you’re covered.

We did the entire house before we went off on our puffin spotting mini-break and it was so lovely to leave the house looking and smelling cleaner than it has for ages. I was a little cynical, I’ve admitted that, but I’m very happy that Vax proved me wrong.

Find out more about the Vax Platinum SmartWash Carpet Cleaner now.