The SV's brushes are turbine driven & the FM's brushes are powered by a "Mickey Mouse" motor that does a less efficient job than the SV; circuit breaker on FM too sensitive when washing floors (FloorMating) Its hard to stop the SV's SpinScrub brushes (unless screen is dirty); so the Steam Vac wins at washing floors/carpets. FloorMates can only do hard floors & can't do rugs/carpets; the FM's brush motor is useless.
I use the SV as a weekly floor washer; but I alternate the Steam Vac one week & the FloorMATE the next. Once a month I use the good ol' Floor-A-Matic (I wish Hoover still made them instead of the FloorMate) but the FAM is out of service due to a leak at the base.
Will opening a Floor-A-Matic's motor do any harm to it? I had to clean out a FAM because the nozzle was clogged with dirt. Folks SHOULD NOT USE A FLOOR-A-MATIC for dry pick-up or water pick-up from carpet! Only use it to pick up water from HARD FLOORS