BISSELL Big Green Professional Carpet Cleaner with XL DirtLifter PowerBrush 9-inch Long Reach Hose 6-inch Tough Stain Tool

Okay. Just ordered this in a few days ago. We are moving and needed our carpets cleaned. I didn't want to hire it professionally done because we're going to have to do it again after everything is moved out. After reading tons of reviews in various shampooers and watching "death match" carpet shampooer videos on YouTube, I decided on the Big Green. I finally got to use it today. Unboxing was easy as it was all put together and use was simple if you've ever used one of the red machines you rent at the store. I decided to start with my movie room. Let me just say that our couch is a sectional and it all kind of links together, so taking it apart and putting back together is a nightmare. Needless, to say I haven't moved it out since they out it in teo years ago. I will vacuum under it beat I can but that is about it. I took it apart today and let's say it was awful. Not quite an episode of "Hoarders" but with four kids and two dogs it was a lot worse than I thought it would be. After picking up the jewelry, candy, wrappers, hair clips, hair bands (about 1000), pencils (no wonder we can never find a pencil in our house), and some spare change ($1.57 yeah baby!), I was ready to go. What I was left with were some stains that had literally been ground in. Stuff that I was convinced would never come up. I have read this thing was nice, but nowhere in the instruction manual did it ever mention turning water into wine or any other miracle, because that is what it was going to take to make this carpet look good again. I considered for a moment boxing the machine up and using the money to get new carpet, but I thought, "What the heck. Let's give it a try." I started by spraying on a pre treatment on the stains in the carpet. Let it sit for a little bit while I looked for a "miracle" setting on the machine. After spending 10 minutes and not finding one, I decided "what the heck" and went for it. The result? Well the first 3-4 passes not too impressive. I didn't see much happening. Ground in stains - 1, Big Green - 0. But don't despair folks. My story isn't over yet. I watched enough videos in this thing to know that some really bad stains may take more than a few passes. So here we went again. This time Icouldnt believe my eyes. The stains were staring to fade. But they weren't completely up yet. Ground in stains -1, Big Green -1. This is a close race folks. I decided to give it another few sprays with the pre treatment and use a brush to work it in. I let it sit, went over it again and BAM! THE STAINS ARE GONE!!! I can't believe how good the carpet looks and how clean it got. This thing is amazing! Like the other reviews said, this is heavy (not real heavy. I mean it's not like you're trying to lift the earth here...). Probably not the machine if you want to do spot touch ups. However if you want to do it yourself and want to get professional results (and hate paying $100-200 every few months to have it done professionally), I can't recommend it enough. Worth every penny. Now if you will excuse me, I have more carpet to shampoo and am going to check the dirty water tank just in case it turned the water into wine... Read more

I am writing this immediately after the first few uses, so at this point cannot speak to the longevity of this machine. Currently, I'm extremely pleased with this carpet cleaner, which was purchased to replace an old and fried Bissell ProHeat model from a decade ago. Because that machine broke, we haven't really deep cleaned the carpet in our house in a few years. After the first use, I'm absolutely thrilled with how well this machine is doing. The carpets in our basement in particular are quite dirty/musty, with heavy basement smell (and subtle notes of cat to complete the bouquet). My first use only cleaned a small section of carpet but there's been a massive improvement in the ambient aroma, and the amount of dirt pulled out was spectacularly satisfying, especially considering the carpet in question is a looped carpet and the brush can't really get down into the fibers at all. Some other notes: Pros: - Ease of cleaning the machine after use: compared to the old Bissell we had, the water tanks on this machine are very easy to clean thoroughly. - excellent suction: This machine really does get the vast majority of water out of the carpet within a few passes, and so far they've been dry within a few hours, where our old machine would leave the carpets wet for much longer. - simple setup and operation - this is a very straightforward machine to use with little effort. Comes right out of the box ready to go. Cons: - very heavy, not very nimble. This machine is fine for me but could be a challenge to someone with little lifting capability - getting it up and down the stairs requires some effort. I find it perfectly easy to push, and I think the added weight is what helps it suck up so much water, but can definitely see this giving some people trouble. Other bits and bobs - there is no heater in this machine, but you can use hot water with it just fine. I don't mind this so much, and I find a lot of pet odors and kid mess cleans up a little better with cooler water anyway. Additionally, it seems to work best when you go really slowly, and do multiple passes. This means to do large areas, it's going to take you quite a while to get through them. Lastly, the solution is put in the water tank directly, rather than in a reservoir or dispenser. On the one hand, this lets you adjust how much you use, but on the other, if you're only doing a small spot, it can be hard to measure out without wasting some. Overall though, these things aren't too problematic for me though others may find them annoying or difficult to work around. All that said I love this thing, even though it's going to take ages to get through all these carpeted areas :) Read more