Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First off, for the record, my home is not a disgusting mess, my floors are sealed bamboo that was installed a little over a year ago, and I clean them regularly. I do also have to preface this with the fact that I have 4 year old twins, three dogs, a cat, and a doggie door, so everyone except the kids can come and go from the backyard as they please. I was sweeping daily and using a swiffer wet jet at least every other day and was hoping to find something that would let me use just one machine to accomplish both tasks. I also had a shark vac and steam, but while I like the vacuum, the steamer died after a year so I felt like it wasn't worth my time to pull out the vacuum if I was going to have to mop with the swiffer again afterward. I read the reviews on the floormate and decided to give it a try, with the caveat that if I tried it out and was unimpressed, I would be sending it right back. So, placed my Amazon order and decided to give up cleaning the floor until the product got here. So, two days of no sweeping or mopping, and I was going to give the machine a workout. No sense in going easy, if this thing is going to work in my house, it's going to need to pass my test. So, pulled the machine out of the box, and in less than 10 minutes I was cleaning. I would say vacuming, but I decided after reading some of the reviews, that I would see what would happen to the dog hair if I just started wet vacuuming... So, the long and short of it is, if you have ever steam cleaned carpets, think of this as steam cleaning your hard floor. Push forward with the trigger pulled to release the solution onto the floor, and then pull back slowly with the trigger not pulled to suck up the dirty water off the floor. Easy peasy.... Also, I was doing small sections at a time, and there was never a time that I felt the need to use the "dry" feature. The amount of water released was easily picked up with just the clean mode, and what remained was comparable to how damp the floor would have been after a wipe with the swiffer, and dried by the time I was ready to move to the next section. Now comes the disgusting part... After refilling the cleaning solution tank twice, it was time to clean out the dirty water tank. Very easy to remove, and unlike other reviewers, I did not have a problem with spillage when removing the tank, maybe because I was watching out for it. Anyway, the first thing I noticed was the fact that the water looked like chocolate milk in the tank. Ewww..... So, I pour it down the kitchen sink and see that there is a ring of dirt and what looks like sand in my sink. Double ewwww..... Well, then I look back in the tank, and see a good inch or so of sediment left in the tank. Get where this is going??? Triple ewww.... Lastly, I rinse out the tank and filter, and I had to take a picture of all of the dog hair that the machine picked up along with the dirt. Totally gross.... Anyway, with the amount of dirt that I found in that tank, the only assumption that I can make is that in addition to the dirt that was obviously on the floor's surface, it was also pulling dirt out of the crevices in between the floorboards, because my family would have looked like the Peanuts character PigPen walking with a cloud of dirt around our feet if all of that dirt was on top of our floor. So, the long and short of it is, I have put out there for the world to see, some pictures that probably have my mother rolling over in her grave, but if that helps anyone to make the decision as to whether this machine is right for them, then so be it. Would I buy this machine again, YES... Granted, I have only owned this for one day, but I promise to update this review if my opinion changes for any reason.... UPDATE 9/20/2013---- I have now realized that I have met the love of my life, and his name is Hoover Floormate. I keep this machine in my hall closet so it's close at hand, and will pull it out daily to use the dry vacuum feature for the pet hair (Oh yea, since my last review, we were adopted by a stray kitten, so it's now 3 dogs and 2 cats worth) and generally every other day I will throw some water and cleaner in there and go to town. From pulling the machine out of the closet to putting it away, in less than half an hour I can wash all of my hallway, living room, kitchen and dining room (about 800 sq ft) and it is totally dry and looks brand new. I used to dread any day that we had rain, as the dogs would come in with muddy feet all day long, so I had to lock them in the house and they would cry by the doggie door all day, and then when I would let them out I would have to catch them on their way in to wipe 12 muddy paws. It's kind of embarrassing to admit it, but now I just let them in, wait until their feet are no longer making tracks, and a quick pass of my floormate and I'm done. I have to say that I was starting to regret tearing up carpet and putting in wood floors, but this machine has me loving my renovation again.