Fred I think you are right. The newer ones have the button right where you can hit it with your thumb.... the older ones had the slide switch halfway up the body of the cleaner where no vacuum should have it... they had 2 pedals, the trigger, the power switche and the thumb slider for wet/dry... the new ones have a fold down handle too... and just one knob to control everything. I was selling vacuums at Sears when the first Floormates came out and customers had two complaints.... the controls were too hard to figure out and they didn't get in the grout. I don't know if the newer ones clean any better or not, but the sure do look better than the first ones.... Even my Hoover Steam vac does a halfway decent job on bare floors and it's not even made for them, so I imagine that the Floormate with much stiffer bristles would be great.
I'm thinking about it because it can suck up wet stuff.... I cook/bake a lot and I can never vacuum my kitchen floor with a regular vacuum because there is always some amount of water on the floor just from having a "used" kitchen.
