For many years, people wash their floors with a mop & bucket. That was until the 1950s when Hoover introduced the Floor Washer. Then came the Floor-A-Matic in the 1960s & it was made til 1999 after a few name changes (Scrub n' Vac, FloorMAX Deluxe) In 2001, Hoover came with the Floormate. FAMs are the best of the bunch because the base is made of cast aluminum & had a metal handle; you can polish, scrub or wax hard floors or shampoo carpets (do NOT use Wet Pickup mode on carpet or when using solvent-based cleaners or for dry pickup!)
The Floormate is a fine machine since it can pick up dry material; but its all plastic & most don't last longer than 3 yrs. While a FloorMate can eliminate the outdated mop & bucket, it does OK on floors that aren't very dirty; but it can't remove heavy dirt like the FAM can. But you can put a spring on the FloorMate's "Spin Scrub" brush post & attach green "scrubby" pads onto the brushes & you'll see a HUGE difference.
There are many models of the Hoover FloorMate; but I recommend only the Model H3000 because it's the easiest to use & least trouble-prone unlike the newer style FMs. I have always wanted the Floormate ever since it was introduced; until when I got my first used FAM from eBay (I have 1 FAM in Sky Blue that my parents bought new; it has NEVER been used at all) I am still looking for the FAM with headlamp, which is the most elusive Floor-A-Matic followed by the two-speed FAM (Model 3614) I will get more into the two-speed Floor-A-Matic later on.
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