Anyway, the husband loves the concept of anything that will remove pet ick without actually dealing with it, so the obvious choice was the SpotBot.
The tanks are a pretty good size, but the clean water tank is large enough to do about 2 cycles with the "Surface Stain" setting, and 1 cycle of the "Set Stain" setting. There's actually some cleaning liquid left after 1 "Set Stain" setting, which drives my OCD crazy.
You fill up the clean water tank with water and then with cleaning solution. This product only uses the small cleaner fluid. NEVER use the full size cleaning fluid in this. Husband destroyed a Little Green Steam Cleaner by putting the full size cleaning fluid it in, which foams more and we had a LGSM that had foam coming out of everywhere, including the motor... it wasn't pretty, but it was funny.
Once you have water and cleaner in the clean water tank you simply plop it on the spot in question, plug it in and select the surface stain or set stain button and walk away. Little brushes start scrubbing the area and dispensing cleaning liquid, sucking it up and rinsing as it goes. The surface stain setting takes about a minute or so, the set stain takes longer and uses a lot more cleaning liquid. Once it is done, it beeps to let you know it's done.
We had an older model that would beep forever if you didn't hit the "Stop" button. While it is handy to be reminded about it, the non-stop beeping made you want to beat it with a ball bat. The newer models only beep twice. It is a three beep... wait... three beep reminder. I'm guessing too many were beaten with ball bats, but from a capitalist point of view... more sales.
Once it is done, you dump out the waste container and you are done.
The bad things about it:
It has a little rubber gasket in the waste container that you have to clean each time. If you don't, then dirt and waste and gunk build up and before you know it, it will start to leak. If it leaks, you'll have to clean up nasty stuff where the the container sits and it doesn't suck as much water up. Also, the tanks don't have flat bottoms so you have to hold them to fill them and clean them. The gunk tank only has a small opening, so it's difficult to clean entirely, you have to fill it with hot water and swish it around... and when you do that, make sure the gasket stays on or you'll have another mess to suck up.
It does seem to not suck up the water very well. It leaves a perfectly round wet spot where it was working. You can actually use it, then use the onboard brush and suck up more water. The older one didn't do that, but the newer model seems not to have the same mighty suction power to it.
The onboard brush is lacking. It uses the same hose, which means there is residue in it when you unhook it, so you're probably going to get ick on your hands. It does have a handy little storage spot onboard for the wand, so it's easy to find. You click the brush on the end of the hose and select the hose button and you can spray cleaner and suck up the mess. It doesn't seem like it has as much power as the Little Green or the SpotClean Pro.
Overall, if you're looking for a cleaner that you can plop down and it does the job for you, this is a good item. Just know that it will leave a damp round spot, and the gasket needs to be cleaned.
I'm giving it three paws because it does the job, it's handy that you can just leave it and go about your business until its done, but it's not perfect.
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