ClarkeMA10 12E Floor Scrubber (107408160)

For years I've been using a Hoover Floormate in my daily cleaning of our dog and puppy areas. I had no issues with the performance of the Floormate in general except that it burns out a motor every few months! They are terriffic about replacing machines that are in their 1 year warranty, but when I had to get my 4th machine in a one year period, I decided I had to step up to a commercial machine. Enter the Clarke MA10 12. This machine is an "entry level model" of commercial cleaner. It is, as expected, much heavier than my lightweith Floormates, but also TEN TIMES the cost. Because of that, I guess my expectations were pretty high given the huge price tag. Unfortunately, this machine did not live up to my expectations. First thing to note is that all latching systems on this machine completely suck! The front tank latch is so hard to pull open that I can't do it with one hand (and I'm pretty strong!). So, either you put both hands around the latch handle (which won't fit so pinkies always have to stick out) and you give it a heck of a pull and it wraps you knuckles every single time. Or, if you are strong enough to pull it with one hand, beware of the danger of pulling a fingernail off! OR, you do what I had to do and get a 1/2 dowel about a foot long and use it as a lever. Not handy, but it works. Once you have the tank assembly off, you must get the attached "clean water tank" disengaged from the dirty water tank. Again, an awkward and potentially painful task. When it is time to empty the tank, once again you have to disengage the awkward latch system on the clean water tank and remove. The "latch system" on the dirty water tank is a joke. it is just a tab of plastic on the tank that sticks out and is supposed to engage into a slot on another tab that sticks out on the top portion of the tank (one on each side). It is a system that is designed to fail. I don't see it lasting out the year. But, I've learned to manage all of the above in favor of what I'd hoped would be a superior cleaning machine. Again, after years of using the Floormate, I was used to putting down clean water and sucking up dirty water and debris from the floor. Generally speaking it was just what I needed in terms of keeping my dog and puppy areas clean. The Clarke, on the other hand, while designed on the same general premiss, one would expect it to work in ostensibly the same manner. Let me assure you that it does not. While I give the machine an extra star because it's cleaning roller brush does a good job at loosening ground in dirt, it has ZERO debris pick up. NONE...AT ALL! I chased a TINY piece of toast crumb all over my kitchen and it never did capture and suck it up. As to any dog hair mixed into wet paw prints etc. FORGET IT. You'll never have to worry about dog hair clogging your machine because it won't pick up a single hair....not one! This feature is beyond annoying and would have gotten the machine a 1 star rating had it not been for the above mentioned good job it does on scrubbing up ground in dirt. So now, rather than a one step cleaning process, I have a two step process where I have to use a rubber broom to first go over the entire area and sweep all hair and lose debris into a dustpan BEFORE I even begin to scrub even though this is a VACUUM scrubber. Naturally, when you have wet messes on the floor, you can't use a regular vac (which still would have been an extra step) so this two step process takes twice the amount of time and I paid 10 TIMES the amount of $$$ for this machine. Total disappointment. UPDATE....I'm about to toss $1200 into the dumpster. That is how disgusted I am with this machine. All of the above, PLUS.....wait until you clean the "filter" on the top of the base unit! OMG. I use the term "filter" very loosely because to me, a filter is something you take out, clean and put back. This is just a grunge hole that has no means of lifting out any type of "filter" and cleaning it out. Oh, NO.....You have to plunge your fingers into this muck fill cavity and drag out months worth of filthy, slimy, disgusting glop. After doing this yesterday, I thought, well.....at least it should work better now. WRONG. Now it is making puddles and smearing them all around without picking anything up. I am so DONE with this piece of junk. I really believe rather than try to delve into what is causing the issue, I'm going to just cut my losses and chuck it. What a miserable machine. Take away the two stars I gave it initially. It deserves NO STARS.

I got a good price and like the unit. It is good for smaller less soiled jobs.

There are other machines available for about $300 which are probably just as good as this one.

We have a 3000 sq ft showroom that we bought this machine to clean the floors. Our initial order, the machine worked well for the 1st few cleanings, then after several weeks, the machine would lose power in the middle of cleaning. We returned the machine to Amazon and they sent a replacement. When the replacement arrived, we attempted to do the 1st cleaning and no water would come out of the machine. I called the factory and they told me that its under warranty and a tech would come out and service the machine...weeks later...no tech and no factory follow up...returned to Amazon.

We have purchased a few of these to operate in pour commercial operations. Tough, take the punishment and do a great job. Cost savings in the amount of cleaner actually used and needed to clean floors.

I have used this machine to clean about 5000 square feet so far. It has functioned well for me so far with no problems. I have read some reviews here for this machine as well as a similar or same machine that is listed several times with several groups of reviews. I have found a few 1 star reviews to be ridiculous. One sad silly woman thought this would function like a vacuum cleaner and pick up pet hair and large debris from her filthy house. No. It is not a vacuum and you must do a preliminary clean up. Her house was so dirty and she so misunderstood this machine that she clogged up the filter then complains about it. This machine is for the dusty ground in layer that accumulates from regular traffic. It also is not for heavy grime and stuck on debris. You will have to scrub that off by hand. I get about 450 square feet per tank which is .8 gallons of water which is about what I expect. I overlap by about 50% per row. It is much less work for me than mopping with a sponge mop or rag mop and does a better job. It has a nearly 1 HP motor and it will suck up almost all the water from a nearly flat floor with grout lines possibly being wet but it dries very quickly. The gray tank has "janky" latches as described and you have to slap it together. Also the tanks are a bit difficult to get apart and back together - weak handed people will not like this. The legit complaint I see is that the handle is poorly engineered and will snap if you tug it - no excuse for that one. We'll see how it holds up, but so far its my only option as the $300 hoover was DOA and a nightmare to get taken care of - do not buy amazon's extended warranty for anything.

Disregard the ridiculous review left by Jane housewife... It couldn't be further from the truth. I have no doubt that she had a difficult time using a commercial machine, but it is in fact a commercial machine. Unless you're running a flooring business you really have no reason to buy this. If you are, it works just as advertised and is very inexpensive compared to other units. For less than $1,500 you really can't go wrong with this machine, I have used it without any problems whatsoever as described in the other review for 2 years. The difference is, I know what I'm doing and I use this thing at least once a day. if you are just trying to clean the floors in your house you should go to Target or home Depot and buy something made for your home. If you are a contractor in need of a small scrubber I strongly suggest giving this a chance.

Total junk. Bought two units. One lasted 3 months, the other a year. The repair shop has been waiting for parts for more than two years.