Vax SpotWash Max Pet-Design Review
A super-powerful spot cleaner for the toughest of stains
Verdict
Larger than most spot washers, the Vax SpotWash Max Pet-Design is a beast of a cleaner, able to run for longer and clean faster than its predecessors. Powerful suction made short work of my toughest stains, cleaning in minutes and leaving my carpet in a state where it would dry quickly. For bigger or tougher jobs, there’s nothing better.
Pros
- Very powerful
- Excellent range of tools
- Clever hose clean design
Cons
- A little bigger than other spot washers
- Loud
Key Features
- TypeThis is a spot washer, designed for tackling smaller areas on carpets and upholstery.
Introduction
Spot cleaners are useful tools for all kinds of jobs, but the power limitations mean that they’re normally better suited for smaller jobs. The Vax SpotWash Max Pet-Design is designed to be different.
This is a more powerful spot washer with a wider range of tools; this is built to deal with all the mess that life can throw at you.
Design and features
- Hose cleaning port
- Wide range of tools
- Large tanks
Although not large, the Vax SpotWash Max comes in two versions: the Pet-Design version that I have here and the Duo version that’s a little cheaper, as it doesn’t come with the SpinScrub tool. Otherwise, both versions are the same.
Although not large (the washer weighs 5.5kg), the Vax SpotWash Max Pet-Design is a little chunkier than most spot washers that I’ve reviewed, such as the Vax SpotWash Home Duo. That’s down to several reasons.
Foremost, the tanks here are bigger than I’d normally expect. There’s a large 2.8-litre tank for clean water and detergent, with lines marked on the side for large or very large areas of cleaning.
The dirty water tank is 2.2-litres in size, which is far bigger than normal. That means that this spot washer can cleaner further and for longer than a regular spot washer. It’s still as easy to empty, though: pull up the dirty water tank, and the lid comes off, making it simple to empty and wash out.
In the box are lots of tools. There’s a wide head, for normal jobs, which comes with bristles for hard floors, and a soft brush for carpets and upholstery.
Then, there’s a secondary, smaller Messy Clean Up tool, with just a brush, which is designed for those nasty pet messes. It’s a good idea, as there’s separation between the tools, so you can use one for regular jobs and the other for dirty jobs, without worrying about cross-contamination.
With the Vax SpotWash Max Pet-Design, there’s the SpinScrub tool, which is similar to the one on the Vax Platinum SmartWash Pet-Design carpet cleaner. This spins around as it cleans, agitating hard stains and removing them.
Finally, there’s a crevice tool, which has a small brush and a suction-only size, which is designed for getting into those hard-to-reach areas.
In the box, Vax provides a sample of its pet stain & odour remover spray, which is a pre-treatment for pet mess. There’s also a 500ml sample bottle of its antibacterial spot washer cleaning solution, which is bigger than you usually get because of the larger tank here.
Using the Vax SpotWash Max Pet-Design is easy. There’s a single power button on top that turns the unit on.
Then, the 1.7m hose has a manual spray control, for saturating an area with cleaning solution, before you scrub to suck up the dirty water and stain.
With a 6.5m power cable, there’s enough reach on the Vax SpotWash Max Pet-Design to cover a wide area from a single power socket.
Performance
- Cleans very quickly
- SpinScrub tool removes the effort
- Very loud
I started with a dried mud stain on the carpet. Spraying the area with fluid and then agitating it into the dirt, I then started to suction out the fluid and stain. Immediately, I could see dirty water flow up through the clear hand tool. After just a couple of passes, the stain looked much better.
In all I needed three sprays of the area, and then a few minutes of sucking up the mess to return the carpet to its former glory, which is very impressive. At the end, I measured the carpet’s humidity at 26%, which is slightly damp to the touch, but it wouldn’t take long for it to fully dry.
Next, I moved to the dry red wine stain. Here, I used the SpinScrub tool, which made scrubbing the solution into the carpet much easier than doing it by hand. I found that after the first slow pull back, the Vax SpotWash Max Pet-Design sucked a lot of the stain out, and I could see red-coloured water being sucked up.
It took another couple of soakings and a bit of extra cleaning, but within five minutes I had lifted the stain. My carpet measured 24% humidity at the end of the clean, showing that it was damp to the touch, but would dry rapidly.
This spot washer is very loud at 81.5dB. It’s not something that you’d want to use late at night, that’s for sure.
At the end of cleaning, the tanks are easy to empty out and clean, and the hand tools come apart for washing. I love the hose clean port. Add about an inch of clean water into the tank, then turn the Vax SpotWash Max Pet-Design on and stick the hose into this port to clean out the hose.
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Should you buy it?
You need a spot washer for the toughest stains
Extremely powerful and versatile, with a large detergent tank, this spot washer makes short work of tough stains.
You have more limited needs
If you only have a bit of light cleaning work to do, a smaller and cheaper spot washer will do the job.
Final Thoughts
Larger and more powerful than its rivals, the Vax SpotWash Max Pet-Design is a spot washer that can cope with bigger areas and tougher stains.
Its excellent range of accessories makes it easy to tackle any job, and its powerful suction removes even the toughest of stains fast. The regular version is a bit cheaper if you don’t have pets. For those who don’t often have tough stains to deal with, the regular Vax SpotWash Home Duo may make more sense.
How we test
Unlike other sites, we test every carpet cleaner we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Tested with real-world dirt in real-world situations for fair comparisons with other carpet cleaners
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FAQs
The detergent tank is a large 2.8-litres, with fill marks for large and very-large areas.
One is for regular spills and the other for messy clean-up, so you can separate tools based on the job.
Full specs
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
