Russell Hobbs RHCC5001 Lightweight 600W Carpet Washer & Cleaner, White & Aqua with 1L RHSMP101FL Carpet Shampoo in Rose Fragrance Solutions, 1.5L Water Tank & Free 2 Year Guarantee

Product Information

There are no attachments of the sort that would let you clean stairs – this is intended for room carpets and rugs. It does work on all floor surfaces though so it’d do well on carpet tiles in the kitchen, laminate or hard flooring. For a light sprucing up of carpets and rugs, the Russell Hobbs Refresh & Clean does a passable job at removing surface dirt and not leaving the carpet too wet. It’s rather noisy; frustratingly, the filter needs regular maintenance; and the static cleaning brush is a bit too soft to properly agitate into the carpet pile. No surprise then that the RHCC5001 is fairly useless for removing deep stains such as our challenging red wine spill.

Continuing on for a few minutes, going over the area, we got to about as clean as this shampooer was going to get with deep liquid spills… and it wasn’t great. There was still quite an obvious dark stain on the carpet in the same shape as the original spill.It does clean quite well, despite its underpowered motor. We tested it on some difficult stains and it got them out very nicely. It’s good with ‘unexpected pet stains’ too!

While we might have expected the scented equivalent of Julie Andrews spinning through the house singing “The Hills are alive…”, the reality was rather more industrial. More Dettol than dancing in dandelions, to be honest. It’s quite easy to set up and use and would be a good option if you just want a cheap carpet cleaner to deal with the odd spill here and there. Performance The waste tank pulls off easily and affords access to a small filter. This requires cleaning by removing and running under warm water. We had to do that often – at least every clean tank full.The main downside is that it’s really noisy. You don’t expect a carpet cleaner to be silent but it’s not exactly a JCB, is it? I found myself wearing earphones while using it. Pros Deep cleaning– Its innovative technology ensures thorough dirt penetration and visible cleaner results. Putting the Refresh & Clean together requires no more than attaching the handle to the main body. But that does require a firm push and a small cross-head screwdriver. The unit needs to be stored fully assembled, upright, unless you want to keep removing and replacing the two screws. We noticed the suction reducing markedly after a short while. The small foam filter was clogged up with dirt and lint from the carpet. That happened a few times during testing, so regular maintenance will be required. That adds a bit of unnecessary faff to cleaning proceedings, and pre-vacuuming your carpets before shampooing is essential.