Suggested dilution rate is a variable feast, depending on which instructions you look at. The manual says categorically to use only one capful per tank of warm water. The bottle is equally certain you need four capfuls per tank. Go figure. 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 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! 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. 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. A capful is around 10ml. That gives you a staggering 50 tanks per bottle at weakest dilution, 12-or-so at the strongest. Either way, that’s impressively frugal use of cleaning solution with commensurately low consumable running costs. We split the difference and opted for two capfuls per tank in our test.Moving over a hallway carpet, the Russell Hobbs did an okay job of lifting daily surface grime that vacuum cleaning alone leaves behind. It buffed the surface reasonably well and left the carpet moist, but not too wet. The waste water showed plenty of murkiness, which is a good sign. A couple of older, deeper stains and some mud deep in the pile remained untouched, though. Factor in the budget price and it’s a good gadget for light refresh of carpets, but don’t expect anything like the cleaning power of better specified models. Verdict

Easy to assemble and use– Simply use a cross headed screwdriver to attach the handle to the main body, then fill the clean water tank, plug in and away you go! In use, with a full clean tank and the cable trailing, it weighed in at 7.1kg and wheeled around easily. The cable itself is a very useful 8.5 metres long, providing plenty of cleaning reach.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.

The cleaning process is visible. Through its transparent container, it can be seen that the dirt is lifted up from the carpet through the water inside the Russell Hobbs RHCC5001. Uses technologies that make cleaning more effective and easier The business end of the floorhead uses a fair-sized 24cm spray bar and a similarly sized static bristle brush. Compared to models with rotating and agitating brush heads, a little more elbow grease is going to be required. 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. PerformanceThere 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. 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 Given the affordable asking price, it’s no surprise that accessories are conspicuous by their absence. One 500ml bottle of Russell Hobbs-branded carpet-cleaning solution – and that’s it. Our bottle promised to waft the scent of an Alpine Breeze.

Deep cleaning– Its innovative technology ensures thorough dirt penetration and visible cleaner results. 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. Powered into life, you certainly won’t be stealth cleaning with the RHCC5001. It’s seriously noisy. At 85dB, it’s well above the sound of most modern vacuum cleaners, and started off by emitting a high-pitched whine as well. Thankfully, that disappeared after a little use. A rear foot switch tilts the body of the machine, leaving the floorhead in touch with the ground. A switch on the side fires up the 600W motor, and a squeeze of the trigger injects cleaning solution into the carpet via a near-full-width row of jet nozzles.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.