I have cats; three of them. And anyone with cats knows that cats and wall-to-wall carpeting is not necessarily a combination that work well together. Thankfully I found a small hand-held carpet cleaner that treats most of our day-to-day carpet cleaning needs, but I was still paying large amounts of money to hire professionals to come in our carpets top to bottom at least twice a year. And so I decided to take the money I would normally pay to the professional carpet cleaners in one year and purchase a top-of-the-line carpet cleaner of my own.

After researching several different brands, I settled on the Hoover Platinum Collection Carpet Cleaner. At $399.00 it wasn't prohibitively expensive (considering the price of hiring professional carpet cleaners) and it had the Hoover reputation and a limited six hear warranty behind it. I must say that I haven't regretted my purchase in the least.

The Hoover Platinum does an excellent job of deep cleaning our thick carpets and removes enough of the water that it only takes a few hours to dry the carpets completely. The brushes have a multi-directional feature that enables them to get even the most ground-in dirt and release all the cat dander that accumulates in the deep recesses of the rugs. It also has integrated spot cleaning that can be adjusted for smaller stains or larger, high-traffic areas and a selection of cleaning tools that are attached to a stretch hose and allow the cleaning of small crevices of carpet, upholstery and other hard-to-reach items.

My one complaint about the Hoover Platinum is that it is a bit on the heavy side and a little unwieldy to maneuver, and it tends to be loud when in the process of cleaning, as well as being difficult to take apart. But the actual performance of the cleaner itself lives up to the Hoover reputation and is worth the price.