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If you have carpeted floors, a spot carpet cleaner for spills and small messes is a must. The Hoover CleanSlatePlus Carpet & Upholstery Spot Cleaner can do the job.
The Hoover CleanSlate Plus is portable; it can be moved from room to room to clean up small stains or used on stairs for a full cleaning. Weighing less than a pound when not filled with water, the Hoover CleanSlate comes with multiple attachments, including a WidePath tool with bristles and TightSpot tool for corners.
The Hoover CleanSlate is priced at $130 on Hoover’s website and regularly costs $140 on Amazon, but it is on sale there and priced at just $125 right now. The machine comes pre-assembled and includes a small bottle of cleaning solution.
With more than 4,500 reviews on Amazon, the Hoover CleanSlate has a total rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. More than 74% of customers give the cleaner a full 5-star rating, with reviewers saying it’s easy to use, has great suction power, is lightweight and also works well as a spot cleaner.
While most reviews are positive, a few customers say the spray nozzles didn’t work as well as they had hoped. Others say the product had leaking issues and it doesn’t have enough suction power.
![](https://www.simplemost.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/hoover.jpg)
Hoover sent me the CleanSlate Plus to test out, so I made sure to see if I noticed any of the issues some Amazon customers mentioned.
While I have mostly hardwood floors, we have not yet gotten around to removing the carpet on our stairs and upstairs hallway — and I will admit they needed a good cleaning (I do have a spot cleaner from a different brand, but it’s too small to clean stairs.)
While the CleanSlate Plus is also suitable for upholstery, I only tested it on stairs because I had recently cleaned my furniture and it likely wouldn’t be able to pull up enough dirt for a fair test.
![](https://www.simplemost.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/hoover-carpet-kaitlin-1-e1666006555186.jpg)
The first things that intrigued me about the Hoover CleanSlate Plus were the TightSpot Tool for crevices and the 18-foot cord. My current carpet cleaner does not have extra tools, which means I can never really get into corners. Plus, the cord is quite short, which isn’t great for cleaning stairs because I only have outlets at the top and bottom.
The instructions are easy to follow: simply add water and solution to the fill line, then turn it on. I started at the top of the stairs, spraying a generous amount of water and solution by simply pushing a trigger on the handle.
While other cleaners I’ve used seem to only pull the water/dirt up when pulling backward, this one pulls it up when pushing forward and when pulling back. Because the nozzle is quite wide, I was also able to scrub the areas that seemed a bit dirtier.
It took me a total of 1 hour to clean the stairs, including spraying, scrubbing, sucking up the water and refilling the tank a few times. Take a look at my before and after. You can see the middle of the steps — which is pretty much where all the dirt was — are much cleaner:
![](https://www.simplemost.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/carpets-kaitlin.jpg)
My main complaint is that the water tank is fairly small and I could only do four stairs before refilling. Because this machine is meant as a spot cleaner, however, this makes sense. The dirty water section is quite large, so you likely won’t have to empty that more than once even while doing a large area.
While I have only used the Hoover CleanSlate Plus once, I found the suction power better than other cleaners I’ve used and had no issues with leakage, unlike the Amazon customers noted above.
Some customers also complain that the 7-inch nozzle sprays too widely and I have to agree; this can be inconvenient in small spaces. I ended up having to wipe water off my walls. On the other hand, a wide spray cuts down on the time you’re laboring, so it’s a bit of a Catch-22.
The best part in my opinion is the brush for corners. This worked very well pulling up hair and debris that’s been tucked away for quite a while. You simply switch on the main nozzle for the corner piece, spray, scrub a bit, then use the suction to pull it up.
As you can see in the image below, the Hoover CleanSlate Plus fit perfectly on a single stair step. In the other picture, you can see the color of the water after I completed cleaning, which shows how much dirt it picked up:
![](https://www.simplemost.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/hoover-kaitlin-1.jpg)
If you’re looking for something a bit different, Amazon has a handful of similar spot cleaners as well including the BissellLittle Green Carpet and Upholstery Cleaner, priced at $123.59.
The Bissell Little Green cleaner is the No. 1 bestseller in Amazon’s Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning Machines category and has nearly 48,000 reviews. Customers say it’s easy to use, does a great job and is worth the money.
![](https://www.simplemost.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/BISSELL-Little-Green.jpg)
Another option is the Rug DoctorPortable Machine for $216.56. For non-carpeted surfaces, this McCulloch Heavy-Duty Steam Cleaner comes with 18 accessories and is on sale for $50 off right now. You can also add a $7.50 coupon, bringing the price to just $142.49.
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