Hoover’s PowerDash has impressed tons of pet owners attempting to rid their homes of dirt, grime, and tumbleweeds of fur, so we were excited to try it out, too. Did the PowerDash live up to our expectations? Read on to find out. With two large dogs and a cat in our home, trying to combat the messes our pets leave on the carpet often feels like an exercise in futility. We’ve tried other carpet cleaners, but they can be heavy and bulky, and not many of them can stand up to pet hair that’s trapped in carpet fibers. Enter Hoover’s PowerDash Pet Compact Carpet Cleaner, a lightweight machine designed to remove the mess our furry friends leave behind. The easiest piece to clean was the dirty water tank. We had no trouble spraying out leftover grime and residue thanks to the removable nozzle near the bottom of the compartment. As mentioned earlier cleaning the appliance itself was no cake walk. After using, the brush was full of hair and grime, and we had to use a rag to agitate the bristles and pull it out. While we appreciated the brush removing pet hair from the carpet, we were pretty disgusted with having to clean it. Cleaning the brush compartment, which houses the brush, is another beast entirely. We found tons of pet hair lodged between the brush and the compartment wall, but we couldn’t clean it without unscrewing the compartment, removing the belt from the brush, and removing the hair. Not a simple process.

This carpet cleaner is loud; it scared our cat and one of our dogs half to death. Ease of Cleaning: A pain, if we're honest Editor's Note (September 2023): This product review was originally written and published in 2020. To make sure we are still recommending the best products for your needs, we recently reviewed this story to make sure it is still accurate and that we stand by what we wrote. In addition to this original hands-on review, we also had the opportunity to test this product in The Lab. Thanks to its at-home and lab performance, it is still a top choice in The Best Carpet Cleaners despite newer models and options being available on the market.