Carpet Cleaners Reviews

I paid BIG bucks for this cleaner. It works amazing, when it works. But,every time I use it, it has to be repaired before I can use it the next time. And the guy I take it to, had 5 of these in his back room waiting to be fixed. I will NEVER, ever buy another Bissell product. No matter how much you pay for this, it isn't worth the trouble of lugging it in for repair.

I used Hoover and others in the past. The Bissell 1694 series Powerlifter is the best carpet cleaning machine I ever used! Great suction, superior lifting ability, excellent tank capacity for cleaning solution and carpet waste. Quiet, powerful, easy to use (just like a vacuum). This is quieter than my Dirt Devil floor vacuum! Definitely a must buy!

I highly recommend the Bissell 16943 Powerlifter Upright Deep Cleaner. I was not prepared how well this vacuum would clean carpets. It has a very powerful motor and extracts the dirty water from the carpet very well from the cleaning. If you want a powerful and excellent product, purchase ANY Bissell vacuum or Bissell carpet cleaner. I have never been disappointed in a Bissell product.

How I wish I had checked these reviews out before I wasted money buying this! The second time I tried to use it, would not spray, that should have told me something. Sent it back for warranty, they fixed it but never gave answer to what the trouble was. I only have 2 rooms with carpet and live alone, so not used much. Guess what, started to clean today, no spray again. Well going to town to buy another but you can bet it want be a Bissell product. Wasted money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am writing a review because this product is just horrible. I read the other reviews and bought one because some of the people had good experiences with it. I can not urge you enough to avoid this cleaner!!!! TRUST ME! You will SAVE money going with a better brand. The guy at the repair shop I had to take mine to because it never worked told me to send it back rather than repair it. He took me in the back and showed me at least 30 of the same model that had all been brought to him for repair. He told me that Bissell and Hover are both bankrupt and these products are always breaking down. He told me to go with a Dirt Devil model that runs around $250.00 if I didn't want to go high end with my purchase. Please trust me!! I gave it a chance but after mine didn't work and I saw ROWS and ROWS of them at the repair shop, I felt I had to leave a review to warn other potential buyers. DON'T BUY THIS!!!!!!! I had to give it one star in order to post this but it doesn't deserve it!

I recently adopted an elderly and rather obese, but utterly charming, cat. She is sweet, playful and cuddlesome. Unfortunately, because she is obese (despite my best efforts to get her to reduce) she has trouble cleaning herself "back there". Her solution: butt surfing the (already dirty and ugly) beige carpets in my newly purchased condo. (Why do people insist on having white or beige carpets? Unless you are constantly cleaning, they look filthy.)

Well, I am planning to replace all the carpets with tile or laminate as soon as I have the money saved, but until then, I have to live with this already yucky carpet which my cat is now using as toilet paper. (And yes, pet enthusiasts, I had her checked for worms--she doesn't have them.)

I tried spot cleaning with brushes and spot solutions, which, no matter how I scrubbed, only became pale representations of the filthy stain they were before. Another cat-loving friend recommended I try the Proheat and I managed to purchase one for $169.00.

After I did, I read the reviews here and elsewhere about how awful it was. Other friends told me I had wasted my money on it. But boy, it cleaned great the first time--you can't even tell a cat lives here. (No smell, no little brown skidmarks on the rug.) I will say as a caution that no matter how much you vacuum before hand, cat hair gets imbedded in rug fibers and the carpet cleaner pulls them out, but rather than sucking them in where they could get bound in the gears, the Bissell spits the hair back out on the rug and I vacuum them up after.

The naysaying friends kept telling me I would be sorry, that I should have bought anything else but this. And this morning I believed them. My wonderful carpet steam cleaner wouldn't work. Oh, it turned on and it made the floor kind of wet, but there was no sucking, no cleaning, no nothing. The bladder came out with absolutely clean water in it. I almost cried...more because I didn't want the naysaying friends to be correct.

Then I checked instructions. Duh. I had turned the controls to "tools and preheat" instead of "floor cleaning". Once I adjusted the controls, WOW! Clean carpets again and only slightly damp fibers. YAY!

My only real complaint about this machine, then, is that it is awkward to use. The hose for the attachments is in an awful spot and pops free every chance it gets. It can't be removed and rewinding it only seems to make it more determined to free itself. I'll be happily cleaning and suddenly find myself tripping all over a hose. On the plus side, the machine is heavy and it does give you quite an aerobic workout. I'm still happy with it after a few months and cleanings. But if there's a change, I will let you know.

I wanted a small deep cleaning machine so I bought one online. It was great. I was thrilled with it, then about a year later I wanted to clean a spot on my carpet..It did not work at all, no water was coming out. I called the bissel company who tried to help, but it still would not work at all. The warranty was over and I was stuck with a worthless machine which I only used 4 times.

Now I am looking for a better one, I hope I can find one with a better warranty.

I had the very first little green clean machine by Bissell. It had to be at least 15 years old, maybe older. I just recently had to replace it. I bought this one without the heating unit. I saw no need to spend the extra money for that. It is just one more thing to go wrong with it and this one works just fine. No leaking and cleans great!!! Even though it says that you can store it ready to go with solution in it I do not do that. When I am finished with the machine I run clean water through the spray mechanism by filling the solution container with clean water and then I put some clean water in a container and suction it through the unit as well. This worked well for my previous unit. It lasted a long time. I am very happy with this little Bissell steamer. Great for stairs and quick spills. Furniture too!!

I owned an original Green Machine (all green) when they were first introduced. It worked well (but didn't have enough suction power) until it refused to squirt solution. I needed a small nylon internal piece to fix it. Bissell wouldn't sell it to me. I ended up dumping the unit, and bought the next model (with two side-by side tanks) as a replacement. The tanks leaked, and Bissell (to their credit) sent a replacement. It still had problems, so they sent one of their "newest design" units, which is the current model advertised here for sale with tanks on each end.

I've used it for about four years to clean up after an incontinent dog. The unit still doesn't have enough suction (in my opinion), but has done the job. After about two years of use I replaced the collection tank in an attempt to get rid of the smell. As others have pointed out here, the design of the tank is flawed. It's sealed so you cannot easily clean all the nooks and crannies on the inside, and several areas like to collect material that will eventually turn to mold and stink. The tank can only hold a limited amount of dirty water due to its design. Also, the unit will occasionally refuse to squirt solution, although it's fixable (see hints below).

The collection tank has begun to leak into the main unit when cleaning, which puts some of the dirty water/solution back onto the floor or carpet you're cleaning. The cause: a black gasket that attaches to the main unit and separates the air return from the collection hose. The collection tank sits on top of this gasket when it's inserted into the unit. The gasket has come loose and no longer makes a good seal. Once again Bissell refuses to sell the part, although anyone with moderate skill can replace it without disassembling the unit. I intend to get some rubber gasket material and make my own.

Here are several tips for using the product:

1) When using the unit, flush the collection hose with hot water immediately after you're through. I run hot tap water in my sink, then turn the unit on and suck up water from the stream. This will help keep the collection path/tank clean and avoid a quicker buildup of smelly residue.

2) If you've been lazy (like me) and didn't rinse the unit every time, fill a bucket with hot water and Pine Sol cleaner (see label for mixing instructions). Suck up water from the bucket until the collection tank is almost full (won't take long!), then turn the unit off, dump the tank, and repeat until the bucket's empty. You can also refill the bucket and submerge the solution tank, then let it sit and soak a while. Pull the tank out of the bucket, cover each end with your hands to seal the entrance and exit holes, and vigorously shake it. This will distribute the solution around and may dislodge some of the smelly residue. Rinse the tank with clean water until you no longer get foamy water out of it. This will help disinfect the tank, and as a benefit will put out a clean odor when you're using the unit, at least for a while.

3) When you're finished using the unit, turn it off and hold the spray head straight up so the hose goes toward the floor. Press the spray trigger. If you look at the bottom of the spray head, you'll see the cleaning solution drain out of the head and go back into the hose. If you don't do this and start waving the head around, it will dribble cleaning solution over your floor. This is another design flaw.

4) When the unit refuses to squirt solution, don't bang the spray head on the floor in frustration (like I did). You'll break the spray head and the brush will refuse to stay in the head. Instead, follow the instructions in (3) above to drain the spray head then remove it from the unit. Take the spray head off, then run a Q-Tip inside of the spray channel and clean it out. The tiny exit hole gets clogged with foreigh material easily and this cleaning usually removes it. Test it by (carefully!) blowing through the large end of the supply tube. If you can blow easily through the tube your solution will now squirt again.

THE BOTTOM LINE: When this unit dies I will try to replace it with another company's product; unfortunately Bissell seems to be the only company making something like this.

I have had my Little Green Machine for about three years. It's helped me successfully keep my carpet from being ruined many times from stains such as red wine, blood, coffee, and normal foot traffic. I often use Spray and Wash as an added cleaner on tough stains. I also use the Little Green Machine to keep the car carpets and mats clean. It's incredible!

I bought a bissell spot remover thingy at Sam's Club once, I tried it and immediately returned it. It was about the size of a breadbox. Well, this is just SLIGHTLY bigger, and WAY better. Let me put it this way, my kids spilled 1/2 gallon (yes, half a gallon) of Sherwin Williams Cashmere flat enamel on my new carpet. (latex paint) I was MORTIFIED! My neighbor, who, blessedly, happened to be there at the time, said, "Do you have a steam cleaner?" I replied, "No, just a foam shampooer, not an extractor." He ran next door, and handed me his "Little Green". I was so freaked about the stain, I just dug in and started sucking with this little thing, with no regard to what paint would do to it. (Nice neighbor I AM??!) Anyway, it got out EVERY BIT. I had to empty the tank a few times, but come on! It was HALF A GALLON OF PAINT~! Anyway, the paint DID stain the inside of the brush head and the dirty tank, but it didn't slow it down a bit. As a courtesy, I traded the affected pieces with parts from a new unit, and have already used it 3 times in the last month. Praise God for this little wonder. (And the neighbor!!)BUY IT, QUICK! BET YOU'LL USE IT BEFORE YOU CAN PREDICT NEEDING IT!