Hoover FloorMate 300, 500, 800 Bare Floor Cleaners
Hello and welcome to my hard floor cleaner guide. I operate a business refurbishing hard floor cleaners and carpet shampooers. Over the past two years, I've worked on literally hundreds of Hoover FloorMate hard floor cleaners.
The original FloorMates were the models H2800, H3000, H3001, and H3010. While still available, I'm not going to spend much time talking about this series as, in my opinion, they are obsolete. The new FloorMate series 300, 500, and 800 aka model numbers H2850, H3030, and H3080 are a vast improvement. The new FloorMates all have larger motors, larger turbines, and folding handles. Quite frankly, they do a much better job than the old style. You'll not see many FloorMate 300 / H2850 on eBay as they were just released as a lower price version of the FloorMate 500 / H3030. The only difference between the 300 and 500 is that the 300 uses a drum type brush and the 500 uses 6 rotary brushes.
So, what is a FloorMate designed to do. It's not a vacuum cleaner and it's not a carpet shampooer. It's designed to clean hard floors such as vinyl, tile, and sealed wood. That's it, don't expect anything more from these machines. They will not clean your carpets in any way. They are made to apply cleaning solution to bare floors, scrub the surface, and then suck up the dirty solution and that they do that very well. They also have a setting to dry vacuum hard floors. It works, but understand that FloorMates have about half the suction power as does a vacuum cleaner or carpet shampooer (6.1 amp. vs. 12.0 amp.) so, in the dry vac mode, they don't pick up dry dirt as well. They do well, but they may miss a Cheerio or two.
Let's look at the FloorMate 500 / H3030 and the FloorMate 800 / H3060. These are the two newer models that you will find on eBay. These are the same basic machines, same design, same motors, same turbines, same handles, etc. The differences are the cleaning path and accessories. The 500 has a smaller cleaning path with 6 rotery brushes. The 800 is the WidePath model with 7 brushes, a hose port, hose, caddy, wand, grout tool, and hand brush. Both machines come with a second, interchangeable grout brush block. This second brush block has stiffer bristels designed to clean grout lines in tile floor.
What to look for when buying a FloorMate 500 or 800? These are complicated machines, make sure the seller has tested any used, open box, or store return machines WITH WATER and offers a warranty. Both machines should come with the standard brush block AND the grout brush block. The FloorMate 800 should include all of the accessories that I mentioned earlier. If you have to replace a missing 800's "Detail Kit", it may run you over $100. The seller should also provide a manual. These machines are very difficult to pack and ship. Make sure the seller includes shipping insurance. And, watch the shipping cost. I've seen these machines range from $25 to $75.
I hope this guide has been some help to you. If you need new machines, refurbished machines, cleaners, parts, or accessories please visit my eBay store: BudgetSaver
Thank you very much.
Steve Metzger (BudgetSaverFloorCare)
)