Vax Platinum Power Max Pet-Design Review: Powerful, deep carpet cleaning

Verdict

The Vax Platinum Power Max Pet-Design is a well-priced carpet cleaner for anyone who needs to deep-clean their home.

A combination of brushbar and SpinScrub heads, combined with Vax’s cleaning solution, make short work of most inground stains, while the handheld tools and pre-treatment wand are great for spot cleaning and pet messes. I found that this model cleaned exceptionally well, with only the tricky-to-use boost button and loud operating noise getting in the way.

Introduction

Vax has a huge range of carpet cleaners, but the Vax Platinum Power Max Pet-Design manages to find a nice niche.

Offering top-end cleaning power, without hitting top-end prices, this carpet cleaner works well with even tough stains, while its handheld tools add variety and cleaning options, particularly for pet owners.

Versions

There are two versions of this product. The main units and suction power are the same, as is how they’re used, but there are some differences in bundled tools and accessories.

The standard version is the Vax Platinum Power Max, which has the handheld SpinScrub tool and pre-treatment wand. This version ships with the Vax Platinum Professional cleaning solution, which Vax says is capable of removing 93% of bacteria.

The Vax Platinum Power Max Pet-Design, which I have on review, comes with the same tools as above, plus the 2-in-1 antimicrobial tool, which is great for dealing with pet stains where you don’t want to cross-contaminate with the the SpinScrub Tool.

This product ships with the Vax Platinum Antibacterial Cleaning Solution (kills up to 99% of odour-causing bacteria) and a spray-on pet odour remover. If you’ve got pets, it’s worth paying the small price increment to get the extras.

Design and Features

• Combination of brush bar and spinscrub tools
• Auto mixes detergent
• Clever pre-treatment wand

The Vax Platinum Power Max Pet-Design uses a combination of Vax’s carpet cleaning technology, with a floor head that has both a traditional brush-bar that rotates to agitate dirt, and seven SpinScrub heads that rotate to do the same. It’s a useful combination, giving two cleaning methods in the same head.

This carpet cleaner is 39cm wide and has a 35cm cleaning width. It is a touch wider than the Vax SpinScrub Power Plus Carpet Cleaner, but that means you can clean more with each swipe.

In the box are a range of useful accessories. First, there’s the plastic guard that clips over the main floor head to create suction to lift water out of the carpet. This ships with a hard floor squeegee, so you can use the cleaner to suck water up on a hard floor, which could be useful for a spill.

Given the size and weight (9.6kg) of this carpet cleaner, I think it’s easier to have a separate hard floor cleaner.

Vax also provides a clip-in 2.5m hose that connects to the front of the carpet clean and is long enough that you can easily cover an entire sofa or most of a set of stairs without having to move the carpet cleaner. This tool can be used with the SpinScrub tool, which is brilliant: it has a brush that spins around to agitate dirt.

As this is the Pet-Design version, a 2-in-1 tool, that comes with bristles and a rubber brush, and is great for spot jobs.

There’s also the pre-treatment wand, which lets you saturate an area with cleaning solution for dealing with deep stains. Vax recommends leaving the spray for 15 minutes, before cleaning as normal.

There’s not much assembly to be done before the Vax Platinum Power Max Pet-Design can be used. The handle needs to be clipped into position and locked into place. Cleverly, I could unlock this and remove it, making it easier to store the cleaner when not in use.

There’s a 3.5-litre water tank for clean water, which should be filled with warm water (maximum 40°C). This tank also has a separate 250ml area for detergent, with the carpet cleaner automatically mixing water and detergent at the correct ratio.

I like this kind of design, as it means that detergent lasts for longer, and you only ever have to use the right amount for the job at hand.

This size tank is about standard for a carpet cleaner and gives good coverage, but the smaller SpinScrub Power Plus has an even larger 4.5-litre tank for even greater coverage.

There’s also a 2.9-litre dirty water tank. This has a float in it that prevents overfilling, and the change in vacuum noise warns you that it’s time to empty. Given that some water remains on the floor, the dirty tank needs emptying about every time the clean tank needs refilling.

Using the Vax Platinum Power Max Pet-Design is easy. There’s a foot pedal to turn it on and off, and then a foot switch to release the handle and swing it back, starting the floor brushes moving.

There’s a trigger to release a mixture of detergent and water onto the floor. Vax suggests dosing on the forward motion, and then just sucking up dirt on the pull-back. That’s easy enough to use, and there’s a Boost button that increases the water output for handling deeper stains.

This boost trigger has to be pushed down with a thumb and is a little stiff to use. I can imagine that people with weaker hands would struggle to use it.

The top-of-the-range Vax Platinum SmartWash has trigger free, automatically dosing on a forward push, and sucking up on the backwards pull, which makes it easier to use overall.

To adjust the amount of detergent used in general, there’s a switch that goes between Deep clean (the most amount of water), and Quick clean when you just need to give carpets a refresh and want them to dry very fast.

A switch at the front of the Vax Platinum Power Max Pet-Design lets you change the mode from Wash to Rinse, using clean water only to remove any built-up soap suds. You may not need to use it, but it’s nice to have the option.

The clear plastic at the front of the cleaner makes it easy to see dirt getting sucked up. I tend to keep going until clean water flows, and then use the Vax Platinum Power Max Pet-Design without solution until barely any water is being removed from the floor.

Performance

• Excellent stain removal
• It won’t make the carpet too wet
• Very loud

I set the Vax Platinum Power Max Pet-Design to work on various stains around the lab. I started with the dried-on mud stain on my test carpet.

This kind of stain can normally be removed by a carpet cleaner, but it can take a while. I found the Vax Platinum Power Max Pet-Design was very powerful and it only needed a few strokes to clear the mud, and leave fresh carpet behind.

I then moved on to the dried-on red wine stain. I used the pre-treatment wand to soak the stain.

I then used the Vax Platinum Power Max Pet-Design in its normal upright mode. Again, this only took a few swipes to remove the stain, and I didn’t have to use the handheld tools at all, which is very impressive.

After finishing cleaning the carpet and sweeping over the area to remove as much moisture as possible, I measured humidity at 20%, which is very good. The carpet didn’t take long to completely dry.

Moving around the Trusted Reviews Home Technology Lab, I used the Vax Platinum Power Max Pet-Design on general mess on the carpet tiles. I found that the orange carpet tiles had some colour restored, and the general muck was removed, but the carpet cleaner alone couldn’t remove the chewing gum that someone had trod into the floor.

I turned to the SpinScrub tool, using it to dose the gum with detergent.

I then only needed a few swipes to dislodge and remove the gum, leaving the carpet clean and undamaged below.

As with other Vax carpet cleaners, the main problem with this one is that it’s really loud. I measured it at an ear-splitting 84.7dB. While this cleaner’s on, you really can’t hear anything else around you, and this is not a product to use early in the morning or late at night.

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