The Hoover FloorMate SpinScrub Widepath is your all purpose hard surface floor cleaner that washes and vacuums up the dirty water for easy floor scrubbing.
Ease of Use/Performance: 23/25
Convenience/Storage 24/25
Appearance/Design 22/25
How much I enjoy 21/25
Total: 90/100
The Hoover Floormate SpinScrub Widepath is a great hard surface cleaner with plenty of features to easily clean any hard surfaced floor without all that kneeling and hand scrubbing. There are several models of the Hoover Floormate hard surface cleaners, the Widepath model is the one I am reviewing.
The FloorMate Widepath does a great job scrubbing and mopping floors and replaces that kneeling and scrubbing on the floor with scrub brushes that we all love so much. The FloorMate does a great job of putting down some of the clean water from the top tank, scrubbing the floor with the scrub brushes and vacuuming that water back up again into the bottom tank.
The Hoover FloorMate SpinScrub Widepath comes with the FloorMate in several pieces but it is very easy to assemble. The two brushes are very easy to install and there are two small bottles, one grout cleaner and the other a floor cleaner.
The FloorMate has a handle that folds easily for excellent storage in a closet with room above for coats and such. With the handle folded the FloorMate is about 26 inches tall and with it extended it is about 44 inches tall.
The Hoover FloorMate will not take the place of a really good hard scrub like we do about once a year on our floors. It will also not replace having to occasionally get down on the floor to scrub out those corners and edges around the room and under cabinets. But it will do all the general regular mopping and scrubbing you do week in and out for our hard surfaced floors.
The Floormate is your back saving floor scrubber to get the daily grime and such off the floor quickly and easily. The Floormate has three basic settings; Dry Pick up, Wet Pick up and Wash. The dry pickup does a pretty good job picking up the dust and dirt we miss with a broom but it will not take the place of sweeping if you have pets or a good amount of debris on the floor.
The nozzle does a pretty good job with suction power but it will quickly and easily clog if you have much pet hair or other debris to pick up. I found pet hair will plug up in the filter area even when you do sweep first but it does not make the Floormate unusable. I had no problem using the dry pickup in my kitchen and hall and then going right into the wash and wet pick up.
The Dry Pick up and Wet pick go into the same bottom tank so your dirty water will have all the gunk and hair you pick up. This makes dumping the water down your kitchen sink pretty gross so use your toilet or utility sink. The dirty water tank has a filter on it so the really fine dust and debris does not go into the motor of the vacuum.
The Wash setting does a great job of slowly putting down the wash fluid from the clean fluid tank and spraying it lightly on the floor. During the Wash setting the brushes spin for your floor scrubbing action that does a great job on regular linoleum and wood floors.
The FloorMate Floor-To-Floor solution that came with the FloorMate did a good job on the floor but did not leave a very noticeable shine. If you want a very shiny floor you may want to use some other floor cleaner or after scrub floor treatment. The Grout Cleaner did fine on the cracks as well as a tough stain cleaner for the floor in general but leaves the floor kind of dull.
The Wash with the scrubbing using both the general scrub brush and the grout brush works well and they are very easy to change. I have this fake tile pattern and the cracks do pick up more grime and such so using the grout brush first and then the SpinScrub brush did a great job.
The separate wet pickup function also works very well and picks up most of the wet stuff off the floor. The brush does not even turn while the Wet or Dry Pick up is on so dirt is not flung about the floor and room.
The two separate tanks make a quick job of my small kitchen but may have to be refilled for larger rooms. The tanks are both easy to fill and empty as well as very easy to clean out which is one of the best features. The tanks on some vacuum cleaners are often partially sealed so are more difficult to clean.
The FloorMate dirty tank comes completely apart for easy emptying and cleaning as well as taking the paper filter off. The paper filter that is on the very top stops the dust from entering the motor area and comes off easily right when you take the tank off the FloorMate.
The clean water tank has a small connection that seals when the tank is off the Floormate that works fine without spilling water all over the place. You have a clear marking for a full line on the tank for easy filling.
The dirty tank has a valve that closes with a float for stopping the vacuum from taking water up into the vacuum parts and possibly electrocuting you. This does not shut off the vacuum but puts a plug on top of the float against the hole that the vacuum comes from at the top and rear of the dirty water tank.
The dirty water tank is a little more than twice the size of the clean water tank so to fill it up you would have to use more than two tanks of clean water. This nice oversize tank means not much of a worry about over filling the dirty water tank even if you have spilled a liquid and are using the Floormate to clean up the mess.
The Floormate SpinScrub Widepath works very well and does a great job of the general scrubbing and cleaning of hard floors. I tried out the Floormate on my linoleum kitchen and bathroom floors as well as the several hardwood floors that make up the rest of my house. The scrubber did a great job of cleaning the cracks and crevices as well as the entire floor surface.
The Floormate does a good job of getting near the edges and corners but you will still have to do a little work now and then to get the edges of a floor as well as those corners. I really enjoyed this review and I think the FloorMate SpinScrub Widepath really does a great job of scrubbing and vacuuming up the wash fluid.
Although this will not replace having to occasionally scrub the floors for a good cleaning the FloorMate SpinScrub Widepath will replace that mop and bucket for those weekly cleanings. I highly recommend the Hoover FloorMate SpinScrub Widepath for a great floor scrubber that will keep you off that grimy floor, most of the time.
