I just bought one for a whole-house tile floor. The floormate 500? It works great!

Lazygardens.did you have the regular floormate and ,if so, can you tell us what is different?

I got one since no-one here had yet, so I can tell you. To me it seems sturdier overall than the previous model. I had a lot of trouble on my old one with the tank that holds the cleaning solution popping loose and not dispensing anymore, and this one does not do that. The controls are a bit more logical and the whole thing seems better designed and built to me.

I got the green one (sorry, forgot the model number) which comes with extra attachments. I have used the grout brush and it does work; the dirty water it pulled up can attest to that! There's no way to remove the grunge work out of that job, though, it's still hands and knees. But being able to vacuum up the dirty water as you go really helps to make your work more effective.

The original floormate apparently tried to run the suction and brushes with ONE motor. The 500 and 800 have two motors: one for the brushes and one for the suction. It's still a poor vacuum cleaner, but we have all-tile floors.

I never had the original - a local store was closing out the 500s to make room for the coming 800s, so we swooped on it.

Some hints:
1 - pretreat spots by spraying them with water or floor cleaning solution

2 - move slowly back and forth about 2 feet per stroke (one comfortable arm extension, then back) overlapping strokes.

3 - squeeze the trigger on the forward stroke, the scrubbing one, don't squeeze on the return (that's suction)

4 - don't expect it to get rid of months of grime in one pass.

One website hint recommended using a broom and sweeping the cleaning solution over the floor first, then running the scrubber. The extra soaking might do wonders.

I'll be working my way through the house for the next few weeks, one tank at a time.

Janiner:

Congrats on the new floormate and I agree w Lazygarden's observations.

I don't know which one I have, it just says Spin and Scrub on the front. We have had it for about 2 years and I love it, given what it is for and how well it does the difficult task of cleaning tile. We have 1550 square feet of tile (the whole house, including the bedrooms), no pets or kids, and I hate housecleaning, so do as little as possible. But the tile is light, so I still have to do it every 6 weeks or so. The worst is always the kitchen, especially under our restaurant-style thick rubber mat in front of the cooking area. It has lots of holes for things to drop through and can be quite a mess.

When we bought the floormate, the sales staff were clear in stating that it was for flooring, but not specifically for grout and that the brushes would only reach the grout if is was very high -close to the height of the tile itself. Our grout is darkish, so it is not much of an issue.

Here is a tip for you on a way to pre-clean any really dirty stubborn spots: Go to Sears and pick up a Scumbuster by Black and Decker. This little battery operated hand-held device has rotating scrubbers (and several attachments) that will clean any tile or grout, no matter how bad it is. I love it. For floors, it is still hands and knees (or sit on a low stool or chair, which is what I do). I also use it in the shower, though there is not much to do there, since we don't use bar soap.

Back to the floormate, my normal process is to use the stick vac to clean up crumbs and heavier dirt, then the swiffer for dust and to get under things, and then the Scumbuster (only if needed, which is not too often) and lastly the Floormate. While I know the floormate will do dry vac work, I have not found it to be very good at that unless you have a wide open area and not much dirt to get up. I still love this useful device, but am dreaming of the day when we can hire a housecleaning service. We can afford it, but hubby "does not want strangers in the house...."

Lynne

Hey, I used to have a Scumbuster - gave it to my MIL because I never used it, but that was in a previous house that had no grout at all. Guess I should have kept it, that's a good tip. It would actually be great in combination with the grout attachment on the new Floormate - use it to spread the solution in the grout line, then the Scumbuster to scrub any stains, then the Floormate attachment to vacuum it back up. That's the most important part, to get the loosened dirt up off the grout before it reattaches itself. It is my completely unscientific impression that the hand-held grout tool does a better job of this than just running the machine over the tile floor.

We've had a housecleaning service for most of the last six years, since we started our own business and gave up all our free time, but in all that time I've never had one I was really happy with. So we've decided to try doing it ourselves for a while. I still may not be happy with the results but at least I'm not paying good money for them. :)

janine