I thought that I kept a pretty clean house. It isn’t pristine or anything; we do after all do a whole lot of living in our house, and no one can (or should, really) spend the bulk of their time cleaning. But still, I was fairly certain that my house was reasonably clean–especially the carpets in the living room and throughout the upstairs hallway and bedrooms that I vacuum several times a week in order to keep up with two cats. That is, until the Hoover Max Extract 60 Pressure Pro Carpet Deep Cleaner came into my life.

After being taken out of the box it shipped in, it was incredibly easy to assemble. All I had to do was screw the handle into place and click the two separate water tanks into their (easily distinguishable) designated areas, and in just mere minutes, it was ready to go. The assembly directions included were very easy to understand and had ample diagrams, so even if you were to find yourself surrounded by parts with no idea what you were supposed to do with them, the directions could easily guide you through it.

I mentioned that this carpet cleaner has two separate water tanks–a clean tank and a dirty tank–which is really great. The clean tank is filled with water (hot water is recommended for best results) and has a separate compartment for detergent. The dirty tank sits in the bottom of the machine and gradually fills with the dirty water that is extracted from the surfaces you’re cleaning. Having two water tanks means that only clean water is being used during the cleaning process, and dirty water has no way of ever filtering back into the clean water, and thus back out onto whatever you’re cleaning.

The first area I cleaned with the Hoover Max Extract 60 was the living room floor, which has a light beige carpet that was sporting a few small stains. One stain in particular, a black mark that I can only assume was from the people who lived here before we bought this house, has absolutely refused to budge in the countless times I have tried to clean it out. I have no idea what could be so fiercely lodged in there, but it has been consistently mocking me and my feeble attempts at stain removal for months. Using this cleaner is very easy, and I was able to clean my entire living room carpet in about 30 minutes. In terms of operation, it works almost exactly like a standard vacuum cleaner, although this is definitely heavier but still easy enough to maneuver. I went over each area of the carpet a total of four times–two wet strokes that, by squeezing the lever on the inside of the handle, activates a wall of pressurized water that loosens dirt, grime, and lifts stains, and two dry strokes that extract the water back out of the carpet, along with all of the gunk that has been hanging out in there, and sends it all into the dirty water tank to be disposed of. The entire time you are cleaning, there is a row of green SpinScrub brushes that rotate to get deep inside the fibers of your carpet and remove dirt wherever it may be hiding. A powerful motor also sends out waves of forced heat that clean and dry your carpets faster than with standard shampooers. In order to get the most out of this machine, it’s important to go over the carpet slowly so it can pick up as much dirty water as possible, which also cuts down on drying time. Speaking of drying time, it only took my living room about two hours to dry completely with absolutely no hint of dampness.

My living room carpet looks amazing after using the Hoover Max Extract 60. Wouldn’t you know, the black stain that had been there for who knows how long before we even moved into this house six months ago is now long gone! Also, I was downright shocked at just how much dirt was picked up. Remember, I vacuum my carpets several times a week, which is a must when you have two cats who shed seemingly non-stop, and because of this, I really didn’t think there would be too much dirt hiding in the carpet.

After using this carpet cleaner, I’m now looking at my poor vacuum cleaner as if it has let me and the house down. But that was nothing compared to what this cleaner did to my couch.

At about 20 years old (a handful of years in my possession and about 15 in my father’s before that), my couch has been taken care of excellently and still works perfectly. However, it has not had a good, thorough cleaning in quite some time. Using the upholstery tool attached to the 9′ hose, I was able to make my couch look brand new again. Seriously, it looks like it was just delivered from a showroom; it’s just incredible. However, while using this cleaner on carpets saves time and energy, using it to clean furniture is time-consuming and exhausting. The upholstery tool is small, the hose has a significantly weaker suction than the bottom of the machine, and the clean water/detergent trigger attached to the handheld tool hurts your hand after a while. Cleaning my entire couch with this tool took me over an hour and it was an uncomfortable experience that left me in dire need of a nap. But again, this machine worked. It did its thing and the amount of dirt that was lifted out of my couch was astounding (and gross), and it now looks better than it has in probably a decade. A helpful tip: When using the upholstery tool, you absolutely must go over each area with more than just two dry strokes. Because of the hose’s less powerful suction, it needs more time to really grab all of the dirty water from the upholstery and carpet.

I am thoroughly impressed with the cleaning power of the Hoover Max Extract 60 Pressure Pro Carpet Deep Cleaner. It makes a professional-grade clean attainable at a more than reasonable price, and I have done nothing but rave about how clean my carpets and couch are now. This has actually made me excited to clean because I know that I’m not just wasting my time going through the motions, but am actually making a significant difference I can see in the dirty water tank after every use.

I received a sample of this product to facilitate my review, but my opinions are entirely my own.