I can't imagine they get much better

My husband and I batted around the idea of getting a steam cleaner for years. I'd read all kinds of horror stories about leakage and poor performance, and just wasn't sure it was worth the expense or hassle--that is, until we got a puppy.

We were going to get a spot cleaner, but opted for the full-sized model. I picked it up at Wal-Mart for just under $300. We put it to use RIGHT AWAY!

FEATURES
Water Heating: You should use hot water anyway, but this model will heat the water up to 25 degrees hotter. This feature can be turned on or off.

Spot Cleaner: You can spray undiluted cleaner on stubborn stains.

Variable Cleaning settings: This is one of my favorite settings. Sometimes, when you keep going back and forth and back and forth over a dirty surface without rinsing it with just water, you are just rubbing the dirt deeper into the carpet. You can change the dial to Clean, attachments, water rinse only.

Trigger activation: The machine only stops suctioning and expels cleaner solution and water when you pull the trigger. As soon as you take your finger off the trigger, it immediately begins sucking up the water.

Clear suction window: The water tank is clear, and the part that actually sucks the water out of the carpet is clear, so you can easily see if the unit is still sucking water out of the carpet, and how much. I was using it the other day, and I kept spraying the nozzle, but nothing was coming up, and it wasn't making sense. I kept checking everything, and realized my husband had used the attachment, and the suction had been redirected to the attachment hose. But had I not had that visual window to watch, I would not have noticed as easily. The window also lets you see if you still have a lot of water in the carpet or a little.

Air blower: While its effect is minimal, this unit blow dries the carpet is it suctions up the water. This blower actually helps propel lint from the carpet away from the unit, so that it does not clog up the cleaner. It's a messy, but real part of steam cleaning the carpet.

Onboard tools: There are onboard attachments for stairs or upholstery to use, and let me tell you they work! My dog did a number (you know which one) on my basement stairs with off-white Berber carpet. My husband spot-cleaned the puppy stains, but now the rest of the stairs look FILTHY except for these little circular clean spots. The tools worked remarkably well.

SET-UP
As I have aged (eh-hem), I have become fairly slow to adopt new gadgets. I look at them, and dread having to figure them out. At first, it looked harrowing, but in all honesty, it's fairly simple. The solution tank is on the back of the unit. You just pop it off, take the cap off and fill it up. For water, you just pull the clear base of the unit, lift the cover and you carry the whole thing and put the hot water in a hole. The clean water tank is actually a balloon inside the portable base. You just fill it with hot water. As the machine sucks up dirty water, it goes on top of the balloon containing the clean water. It's ingenious actually because the clean and dirty water are in two separate compartments in the same piece, but they never mix.

Anyway, so you fill the solution, you fill the clean water, you pop the cover back on the base and sit it back on the machine, and you are ready to go. You turn the heat option on, if you want it. You put it on clean, and you pull the trigger and it does it's magic. Since it only holds about a gallon of water, you will obviously have to do many refills to do an entire room. If you are spot-cleaning (which is all we have done with it, so far), one tank will do the job.

This machine is good, but you have to be patient. It may take several passes to get tough stains out, but in my experience it is worth it. We rented steam cleaners several years ago that left dark stains in a yellow carpet. This machine got those stains out. We also had stains from when we bought the house that this machine was able to get out.

This machine is slightly larger than an upright vacuum, and slightly heavier. The designers thought of just about everything because the little carry handle on the front of the machine comes in handy to maneuver the machine around.

SUCTION POWER
This machine does a good job both scrubbing AND picking up the water it puts down. You do have to run several passes to get the excess water out good, but it does the job. And I have not experienced any random leaking like people have mentioned with out types of units.

CLEAN-UP
After you clean with this unit, you want to dump the water. And the water can get NASTY. You might not want to know what's in your carpet! Luckily, cleaning the water tank is easy...pretty much take it apart just like you are filling it, only dump the dirty water off the top of the clean water balloon (and probably rinse) and voila!

Hands down, I would say this machine was worth every penny. I love it. It says it can clean hard surfaces, too, but I haven't tried that. Come to think of it, I need to try it sometime. I would buy this again in a heartbeat. Not too often I feel like I got my moneys worth, but I honestly feel like this was a good buy for my family. We use it and have gotten great results. No one can tell that my puppy thought our living room area rug was her potty for the first two months!