To avoid over-wetting the carpet, never use more than four shampooing strokes on a single section and, as a precaution, be sure to test-clean a small hidden patch of carpet first just in case the detergent causes discolouration. When it’s dry, slide your foot over the carpet to ensure all areas of the pile are facing in the same direction or it may look a little odd. It had no impact on old, dried-in stains, but easily dealt with a new spill of red wine after just three passes. Aside from one mishap when the water lid’s catch inadvertently popped off and spilled slightly, this top-tier cleaner performed with aplomb. We actually found that the multi-purpose Antimicrobial Tool was just as efficient for rugs and carpets, but it’s nice to have the option of a secondary solution. There’s also a 250ml pre-treatment solution included in the box, designed for tougher stains, and a handy accessory bag to keep all the tools, hose, and cleaning heads compactly stored when not in use. Automated detergent mixing and a boost in power make this cleaner stand out – but it’s quite expensive and bulky, too. Do cleaning results make up for this? Let’s find out. Vax Platinum SmartWash Carpet Cleaner design and features – Despite its size, it’s easy to push around READ NEXT: The best carpet cleaners to buy right now Vax Platinum SmartWash review: What do you get for the money?

The third container is a 1.9-litre waste tank for dirty water. On any particular cleaning cycle, you’ll need to empty the water tank a couple of times for each full tank of water that goes in.Weighing 7.4kg and measuring 107cm high, the Vax Platinum Smartwash Carpet Cleaner can feel a little bulky when you first use it. It’s shaped like an upright vacuum cleaner but is a little more awkward to manoeuvre around your home. Once we got used to the feel of it, however, we found it easy to use. There’s a handle on the front of the body, which made lifting it up the stairs relatively easy. It’s an effective carpet cleaner, however. Switching the machine on will set its rotating brushes and suction off, while a trigger on the handle releases a 2% mix of Bissell’s cleaning fluid (of which 236ml is supplied) and warm water. Squirt a bit of that into the carpet, then let the brush do its work. It wasn’t as hard-working in our tests as more expensive models, but it does an excellent job for the price. For any content that you submit, you grant Vax a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, transferable right and license to use, copy, modify, delete in its entirety, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from and/or sell and/or distribute such content and/or incorporate such content into any form, medium or technology throughout the world without compensation to you. The machine also comes with useful tools included for targeting smaller stains and spills – simply connect the hose and add your desired tool. These include the 2-in-1 antimicrobial tool for both multi-purpose cleaning and mess such as pet spills. The angular shape of this 2-in-1 tool means it can reach into crevices easily, which makes it useful for getting right into the sides of the sofa or on stairs, for example. We found this tool worked particularly well when we were trying to scrub out an old stain on the carpet. The kit also comes with a SpinScrub hand tool, which is designed more for targeting stains and stubborn marks on rugs and carpets.

So versatile, you can use a Vax Carpet Washer and Spot Washer to clean sofas, upholstery, stairs and even car interiors. You wouldn’t believe how dirty a fabric sofa can get and vacuuming frequently isn’t enough to remove deep down, embedded dirt trapped within the fibres of your sofa. The Vax Platinum SmartWash effortlessly outperforms the UK's leading rental and delivers a deep clean 7 times more effective than vacuuming alone ‡, ensuring you have spotless carpets, clean upholstery and fresh car interiors. Kill over 99% of bacteria with the Vax Platinum Smartwash and Platinum Antibacterial solution.

Although this Vax is a beast of a machine, it isn’t too hard to push around. In addition, there’s a fair amount of flexibility in the head to let you partially get under furniture, such as beds. Use of the content you supply does not violate these Terms of Use and will not cause injury to any person or entity.

If you would prefer to use less water and get your carpets dry sooner, there’s an Express Clean option that’s not quite as thorough but leaves carpets dry within 30 minutes. There’s even a spot wash option that squirts an extra dose of cleaning fluid from the front so you can efficiently target a stain before you set it washing.

That is, or may reasonably be considered to be, defamatory, libelous, hateful, racially or religiously biased or offensive, unlawfully threatening or unlawfully harassing to any individual, partnership or corporation; I also tested the upholstery attachment on a section of my once cream-coloured sofa that’s seen three children grow up on it. This also lifted off a lot of dirt but requires more work because you have to do the scrubbing yourself. Everything about this carpet cleaner is over-sized, including the large floor head with two brushes. These have blue bristles thanks to an anti-microbial coating, and are similar to the those on the Vax ONEPWR Blade 4 Pet. READ NEXT: The best hard floor cleaners to buy Is there an alternative to spending good money on a carpet cleaner?

There’s a Dry Only button that turns off solution dispensing completely, so you can run over a carpet at the end of cleaning to get it as dry as possible. One downside is that this cleaner is very loud: I measured it at 84dB. This is around the same as loud city traffic. Fortunately, this isn’t a tool that you’re likely to use very often. Should you buy the Vax Platinum SmartWash Carpet Cleaner? With a Vax Carpet Cleaner, you can deep clean your carpets all year round, without the hassle of hiring or renting a carpet washer machine. You’ll save more money in the long term when buying your own and can use it as often as you want for carpets, stairs and upholstery cleaning. You can also clean your own home at your own convenience, without having to return a rented Carpet Cleaner. The Vax Platinum SmartWash Carpet Cleaner looks like a vacuum cleaner. Well, an absolutely massive vacuum cleaner. Measuring 1070 x 325 x 480mm and weighing a hefty 7.4kg, this is an absolute beast of a machine, so you’ll need some space to store it when it isn’t in use.

Learn how to choose the best carpet cleaner with our handy buying guide and bite-size reviews

Vacuum cleaning on its own isn’t enough to remove deep down dirt that’s embedded within the carpet pile. Dirt can build up over time to eventually weigh down and flatten carpet fibres if they’re not thoroughly cleaned. Vax Carpet Cleaners remove this build-up of dirt, odours and brighten the overall appearance of carpets. The NEW Vax Platinum Smartwash is our best ever carpet washer with next generation motion sense technology, it’s effortlessly simple to use. To accelerate the drying process there’s a dry-only button, which stops adding more water when pushing it forward and just lifts water out of the carpet. I found I needed to do this a fair bit to collect the moisture from the carpet but it leaves it surprisingly dry considering the amount of water that’s passing through the system and collecting in the waste tank. It still needs a few hours after cleaning to completely dry, though.