Vax Platinum Power Max Review: ECB1SPV1 Carpet Cleaner

Presenting the Vax Platinum Power Max

The Vax Platinum Power Max is a master of its craft, zooming across floors and picking up all the dirt it can reach. It dries as it cleans, allowing you to get back to normal faster, and it works wonders on pet stains. It’s the kind of carpet cleaner that can be used in any situation, and perfect if you have children, pets, or areas of the home that receive a lot of traffic.

Of course, it may not be the right model for you. Its main disadvantage is that it is really loud and also a little heavy. For some, these are features that can’t be looked past, the Bissell Instaclean is a lighter and quieter carpet cleaner worth considering.

Design and Features

It’s a good looking machine, none of us can deny that. Sleek and modern, it has the kind of design that you want in your home. An added bonus is that it all slots together with minimal effort or construction required.

The handle is attached using a couple of screws, which are provided by Vax, and take hardly any time to actually put in. Once done, it is pretty comfortable to use, and it has a convenient little foot pedal on the main floorhead, which can be used to tilt the carpet cleaner back; ready for action.

The main floorhead is pretty chunky, but in the best way. It contains a set of spin scrub brushes for deep carpet cleaning, as well as side brushes to get right to the edge of the room.

I’ll go into more detail about its cleaning power later on. The floorhead also features a rinsing tool that sucks all the water up from the carpets. It’s completely see-through so that you can check how dirty the water is.

The Vax Platinum Power Max comes with a 4.6m stretch hose that will offer you superb reach when you are ready to undertake above-floor cleaning, or if you want to use it in the car.

This is really easy to attach to the machine, as there is a little cap on the floorhead for the main hose, as well as a detergent cap where a smaller hose can be placed. This redirects the flow, giving you full access to both the water and the detergent.

The controls are easy to access and clearly labelled. The trigger for the detergent is on the handle, and on the main body of the machine you can select a deep clean or a quick clean; something else I’ll be exploring more a little later on. The power button is simple to access as well.

It may seem like an obvious feature, but not every carpet cleaner has a set of twin tanks. The Vax Platinum Power Max does benefit from a clean and dirty tank, however, and it’s not just this separation feature that they are proud of. It also mixes the detergent into the water for you because of the separate areas for pouring them in. 

So, there is no need to measure anything by hand, Vax does it all for you. They even include a small bottle of cleaning solution to get you started.

How Noisy is it?

In terms of noise, it is quite loud. Coming in at 80db, it is quite loud and certainly more so than most modern vacuum cleaners. It should also be noted that this means it is at the maximum volume permitted by EU regulations.

Cord Length and Storage

The 9m cable is pretty good, and should be more than enough for you to clean multiple rooms without strain. As for storage, it is quite a tall machine, so it might be a tight squeeze in small spaces.

The good news is that it’s rather slim, so you won’t need to worry about it being too wide for your cupboard. If worst comes to worst, you can remove the handle and screw it back on when you need it to maximise on storage space.

Weight and Handling

When full of water, the Vax Platinum Power Max weighs 13.9kg, which is quite a lot. However, you won’t really need to lift it, and the wheels on the base help to better distribute the weight.

This makes it a lot easier to push across the floor as well, for a cleaning session that contains less effort. Unless you plan on lifting it up the stairs, the weight shouldn’t be an issue.

The handling is smooth, thanks to both the wheels and the easy design of the carpet cleaner. The controls are relatively simple to locate. The only major issue here is that you need to hold the trigger down while you clean, which can become uncomfortable during long sessions.

Tank Capacity

I have to say, the Vax Platinum Power Max has a superb tank capacity of 5.2L. What makes this better is that it is a twin tank, as I mentioned before.

Therefore, the clean and dirty water is kept separate at all times to make things easier for you, and also to ensure that dirty water doesn’t get back into the carpet.

Emptying the tank is really easy. All you need to do is press the release button and it will come free for you to lift out. When you have emptied the water and rinsed the tank, you can close it back up and then click it back into place.

There is also a little filter to catch debris that can be washed, as well as a stop valve that will cut the power off if it becomes too full; keeping you and your machine safe.

Read Here: Best Wet Dry Vacuum Cleaner

How Well Does It Clean and Dry?

It’s surprisingly gentle on hard floors, thanks to the included attachment, and won’t leave stains or marks after the water and detergent have done their work. You only need a couple of passes to get the job done, and you’d be surprised by how much dirt actually settles on wooden floors.

The floorhead used for wood is perfectly designed, ensuring that you get the best results in the quickest time. The wood will also dry faster than carpet, which is a nice little bonus.

It’s fantastic on carpets as well. Four passes are the recommended maximum, as you don’t want to over-soak your floors. The scrubbing brushes on the bottom make quick work of dirt and grime in your carpets, and will remain gentle on the fibres as they agitate.

Using the trigger, you can ensure a constant stream of detergent for the best results.

The main floorhead also has the benefit of side brushes. These are better than many of the others you find on the market. They reach right up to the edges of the room so that you don’t have a visible border after washing, and also ensure stray dirt is collected quickly.

The attachments and flexible hose will also ensure that you can wash the stairs, the spin scrub brush (which I will be talking about later) being the best for this task.

As for the drying time, this really depends on the setting you use. The deep clean is fantastic for reaching right down into the carpet and sucking up some seriously old dirt. However, the drying time for this is a good few hours, with the best results being leaving it overnight.

If you want a speedy drying time, the quick wash is the choice for you. This gives the carpet an excellent clean, but reduces the drying time to a mere hour. Perfect for those quick jobs.

Read Here : How to Clean and Maintain Carpets

How Well Does It Cope with Stains?

It’s important to know how well a carpet cleaner is able to deal with stains. The truth is that none of them can completely remove something like an old wine stain without pre-treatment and a few cleaning sessions. Saying that, the Vax Platinum Power Max actually does a near-perfect job.

Even without the pre-treatment, muddy boot prints and pet stains are lifted surprisingly quickly. In fact, there is barely any trace of them left behind, and you have to look pretty closely to be able to see the outline.

That’s only after one session as well, a couple more and it will have faded so much you’ll barely notice it. 

However, old stains are harder to get rid of and it only managed to fade them (albeit very well), and in a couple of cases, it caused the faded stain to spread.

It does remove stains on hard floors, but it is less effective. This is especially true for wood, as the stain often soaks deep into each plank if it is not cleaned immediately. If you are searching for stain removal, it’s only really going to achieve this on carpets.

As a quick side note, it is worth getting post-treatments for your floor as well, because these will help to prevent it from soiling as quickly in the future.

Accessories

Carpet cleaners don’t always come with a lot of accessories, but the Vax Platinum Power Max has a nice selection available.

Of course, there is a flexible hose and the hard floor tool that I mentioned earlier one, but there are also some handy additions to make the process easier.

The mini scrub brush has a similar design to the floorhead, but with only one scrubbing brush instead of many. It can be attached to the flexible hose and used on the stairs, as well as areas that are difficult for the main floorhead to reach and the interior of your car.

The pretreatment wand can be used on stained areas, working the stains and loosening them before the main cleaning event. It’s really simple to attach and use, although we do strongly recommend the Vax brand treatments for the best results when using this carpet cleaner.

Finally, there is the upholstery tool. This is used for furniture, mattresses, and sometimes car interiors (depending on the material). It’s quite handy, as well as compact. It can even be used on pet bedding if it’s really grimy.

Read Here : Best Carpet Cleaner Guide

Should I Buy the Vax Platinum Power Max?

Now that you have read through this review, should you buy the Vax Platinum Power Max? It’s a fantastic carpet cleaner, and the fact that it can cope with dirt and pets so quickly and effectively is a massive bonus. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t pick it up.

Sure, it’s a little heavy and slightly loud, but otherwise, it’s a near-perfect machine that works wonders on both carpets and hard floors; a rarity in a carpet cleaner. 

In fact, I would rate this the best carpet cleaner that we have reviewed. It’s exceptional in every way and one that you should have in your home. I would give this model a solid 5/5 stars.

What did you think of our Vax Platinum Power Max review? Do you agree with our thoughts on the carpet cleaner, or are there others that you think are better suited to the task? We love hearing from you, so make sure you leave us a message in the comments below.