Vax V-124

Machine is just within its 6yr guarantee. I was using it and a cloud of acrid burning smoke came out of the rear. I had to quickly unplug and put the machine outside. Rang Vax and was promised a call back. Thus never happened. So I rang again and was given the best example of 'we cannot help you at all on this' that I've ever heard. What they didn't know was that I worked for the two major shower manufacturers in the UK as senior product support engineer. In my position I would act fast to retrieve the appliance and appease the customer. Sorry Vax. Your customer care needs serious overhaul

We recently bought this machine. It nearly killed us. It was recommended by Which? and Good Housekeeping.

it caught fire, blew up and burnt our carpets. I dread to think if there had been a child in the room.

One of the most scariest things to happen to us.

Vax offered to refund the machine and clean the carpets (see below). Avoid at all costs if you value your life.

FROM VAX:

To confirm the detail of our conversation:-

The machine was received by us yesterday and the tests we ran on the machine have given inconclusive results.

We recognise however your statements of personal distress and would like to offer you a full refund of £330 against the full purchase cost of the machine.

We would also like to offer to have Service Master return to your property and complete a full professional cleaning of your carpet with the aim to completely remove any marking. We would look to alternative resolutions if this was not 100% effective.

If you wish to reject this offer please can you indicate if you would like Vax to return the machine to you for your own personal inspection.

Please note: For us to refund the purchase cost of the machine we would need it to be released to Vax. This offer to refund will however remain open allowing you to conduct any actions of your own if you wish to retain and then release the machine at a later date.

Kind Regards

Richard Taylor

Richard Taylor

Management Information Co-ordinator

Vax Limited

DDI: 01905 799606

M: 07824 709304

E: [email protected]

W: www.vax.co.uk

My experience so far with the Vax V-124 has been excellent and I would recommend it to anyone. My stair carpet has never been so clean, and I was equally embarrassed and amazed by the black, dirty water gathering in the recovery tank after the cleaning process. I had no idea my carpets were that dirty!

The Vax V-124 arrives in a very large, heavy box, and at first glance after having never used a carpet washer, the instructions seem complicated. However the Vax is partly assembled so finishing it off is straightforward following the step by step instructions in the manual.

I started off by cleaning our loft room, which is a low traffic area (cats and kids are banned). Again, following the very clear steps in the guide it took me no time to get the hang of the Vax V-124. The first strokes with the Vax brush the cleaning solution and water in to the carpet and the later strokes operate a drying mechanism. Dirty water from the carpet fills up in one of the three tanks (the other tanks contain clean water and the solution). The Vax was much noisier than I expected, but despite its size and the fact the tanks were full of water and cleaning solution, it was not as heavy to operate as I thought.

I then moved onto the stairs which were filthy due to pets and children. This took longer to do, but the attachment tools made it simple, although I did have to move the Vax from top to bottom of the stairs half way through to enable the hose to reach all the steps. I was impressed with how quickly the stairs dried after use because of the drying mechanism.

The Vax V-124 is very effective machine, and my carpets are visably cleaner. I really did not expect it to clean as well as it has done so would not hesitate to recommend it.

My experience with the Vax V124 has been excellent so far.

The box it came in was large and heavy - but I was pleasantly surprised to find most of the unit assembled ready for use, I would not of liked to put it together myself as it does look like a very technical piece of equipment. There were just a few tools that needed fitting on the back and they were not much trouble at all. I found the manual a bit daunting at first, but when I read it step by step with the carpet cleaner in front of me and looked at the diagrams it all became very clear and simple.

Basically you fill the top tank with warm water, the side tank with cleaning solution and the bottom tank collects the dirty water. There is a button which you press in on the handle (as you are holding) which releases the water mixed with solution to the carpet and when you let go of the button the cleaner then switches to sucking mode and draws the solution back from the carpet along with all the dirt etc. So you do it in patches with a stoke forward and back with the button held in and wetting the carpet and a stroke forward and back with the button released and machine drawing in the water and dirt.

The first room I cleaned was my daughters. The water that was collected in the bottom tank was black! It looked disgusting, but I felt pleased that it was in tank rather than spread around my daughter's room where she plays! Seeing the color of the water really shows you how thorough this machine cleans. I have used a smaller Vax spring washer before and had been a little frustrated at how slow I had to go to get a good cleaning suction, but this machine allowed me to move a bit quicker getting the job done faster (not at the speed you hoover, but I expect that when cleaning your carpet as I want good results). It also dry's very well and my daughter was able to potter about her room when I finished (I actually found her smelling the carpet and rolling around on it, so it must of been nice clean!) The ultra plus solution we used left a nice clean smell behind and really seemed to get a good deep down clean on the carpet. Much better than the supermarket one I had previously used.

I was impressed with the other features on the cleaner. You can have it set to wash or rinse and have the brushes set on or off (brushes on and wash on is what you used for a good carpet clean) Rinse is water only - without solution. I used the rinse and sucking mode when my daughter has a little accident on the carpet and also when my husband spilt a can of larger and it picked up the entirety of both without leaving a trace I was thrilled.

I have now cleaned many carpets in the house and even both sets off stairs using the hose and tools which I thought would be confusing and difficult at first glance and the equipment looked rather technical, but it was very easy when I got down to it.

Emptying the dirty water is very easy you just push the handle down and unclip the bucket and pop it back in. Each time I have used the machine I have found the bushes work very well, afterwards they can get a bit dirty, matted in hair and gunk from the clean so have been giving the unit a clean and pulling off these excess bits of dirt where possible as I was a bit worried about it all getting clogged up and not cleaning as well.

One thing I found happening a lot towards the end of cleaning a carpet was that the first cleaning strokes and spread of solution became soapier and suddier, I realised that this is because the warm water tank (top) needs topping up as there is not much left to mix with the solution. This is something I forget to do when I'm in the zone having a good cleaning session! There is also a yellow float in the bottom tank that tells you then the dirty water needs emptying as if it is too full the cleaner will stop working as there's nowhere to store the dirty water.

I wouldn't be without this carpet cleaniner now, it has become a necessity to me and makes keeping the household clean so much easier. I would definitely recommend one if you can afford it, it is money well spend for a high quality piece of equipment and is not as technical to use as it looks. My husband is thinking of doing the car upholstery next and all the family want to borrow it!

We used the Vax carpet cleaner as soon as we received it and were very surprised by the results. Having a beige carpet we always find it is mucky - it is constantly used by us, our toddler and the dog! After our initial test we found instantly that the carpet was a lot cleaner and set about cleaning the stairs carpet and upstairs. Again we were pleasantly surprised that the carpets did appear a lot cleaner.

In the past we have used other carpet cleaners and feel that they did not work so were very skeptical over whether this particular carpet cleaner would work. One thing we noticed was although it is a fabulous carpet cleaner it is certainly not a stain remover!!

The technical bits . The machine is a beast! It is quite heavy (even the UPS delivery person struggled to carry the huge box) and large so make sure you do have suitable space to keep this when not in use.

It was very easy to setup - but do read the instructions before you start! The clean water (3.7l capacity) and solution are in separate containers and the dirty water fills in another separate tank (3.3l capacity). We found this handy as we were not wasting any of the solution when were no longer cleaning! We were shocked by how quickly the dirty water tank filled with dirty water, but it also proved the cleaner was doing its job!

This particular Vax has heated cleaning which I feel helps clean the carpets better than other cleaners, I certainly felt the heat when I was pulling the cleaner back towards myself.

Alongside heated cleaning the Dual V-124A has 5 brushes that gently scrub your carpets ensuring to get get deeper into the grain and giving it a thorough clean. The cleaner has an Automix system for mixing the clean water with the Vax Ultra Plus solution, we probably used around a third of the bottle just on our downstairs carpet, but for this it was certainly much much cleaner.

Neatly attached to the main section of the cleaner is a separate powered 'SpinScrub' hand tool (has 3 brushes), this is easily attached via the long hose (2.3m) to the clean and dirty water tanks in order to easily clean the stairs or upholstery. We found using this on slight spills seemed very effective as it was easy to control cleaning a small surface area.

The main On/Off Controls and also Wash/Rinse are on the main handle just lower than where you place your hand to grip the cleaner.

All in all a very easy to use and very sturdy carpet cleaner that does actually work. It is an aesthetically pleasing cleaner and when using because it is quite bulky you do feel it sticks to the floor ensuring it cleans everything in its path.

My own personal opinion is that the heated element of this cleaner and the brush technology ensures the Vax V-124A Dual V works better than any other cleaner and I will certainly be using it again and will recommend to friends. The price tag is a little hefty (RRP £329.99) but with a little shopping around a cheaper price can be found. Definitely worth the money and definitely worth trying!!

I've owned this product, the Vax V-124 for a couple of years, I have a dog, 4 cats and a messy parrot so this item is very important to me to keep my house clean and smelling good.

I wash my carpets every two weeks, and my sofa every 3 - 4 months and its easy to swap between the upright and the hose function. Its so easy even my husband uses it!

It's heavy when fully loaded, so getting it up the stairs can be difficult, I just take out the two compartments and it suddenly becomes that much easier to carry.

The trick to using this product is to take it slow, give the brushes chance to get deep in to the carpet. I tend to go over my carpets in different directions to make sure I get them as clean as possible.

Bought from Amazon as it was best price found,received within 3 days. Have just tried it out on lounge and dining room carpets.Quite impressed with the result.It is quite heavy to use but not a problem if used as per instructions.If you have spot stains suggest these are treated first.This cleaner sucks up most of the water to almost touch dry.I'm impressed,would recommend,the 6 year warranty is a bonus.

I used to have a bissell before this Vax V-124 and I paid more than I did for this for it, and it clean not even half as good. The weird looking cleaning heads don't leave horrid marks and it drys ultra quickly. 6 year warranty sold it to me after issues with a bissell, has everything and would recommended to anyone.

Overall the heated cleaning aspect of the Vax V-124 is good using the motor heat to heat the water and solution on impact and then helping drying the carpet. However, the handheld tool you cannot wash with water and the mains plug does not come off so its a nuisance to wrap the thing around the unit when wet but you have limited choice.They need to make the cable detachable like Flymo do with their Lawn mowers.