Bissell Reviews

We have mostly hardwood floors and ceramic tile with only a few rooms of carpet and area rugs. So the compact design was a great draw for me. The size is perfect! It is easy to carry around even when full with water. I purchased this based on reading the reviews and seeing it in action. Our cousin had new white carpet that their very large dog had an extremely loose stool on. I watched as The Little Green was loaded up with solution and water. I was thinking they had better get a professional over ASAP. It did take a little time as it was a large area and again white (not off white) carpet. Unbelievably, within minutes all appearance of the accident was gone along with the odor as the solution has a clean scent to it. We have an ill cat and I thought if it worked on that mess it should clean up anything our cat does. The day we brought it home, there was approximately a 3 x 3 area of a reddish (cat food coloring) stain on our light colored carpet. I set off to start the green machine and remembered that we didn't purchase solution. Surprise, nice of Bissell, they included a sample with the machine. :-) The mess cleaned up within minutes just as I had seen a few months earlier. Later that day, a friend stopped by and could not believe that the stain was gone. I am grateful to have it readily at hand!

I had two reasons for buying this, we have two small children and a new puppy. I needed something for spot cleaning. I read lots of reviews for different machines and looked in the stores, this one seemed best for us.
It is easy to fill and easy to cleanup. Just suck up some clean water when you done, it cleans out the hose and dirty water chamber. It also says you can leave cleaning solution in the machine while storing, which is nice for quick cleanup of spills. I liked the small cleaning head with the brush for small spaces and the car.
I have used mine quite a few times and have no complaints. It is much easier to use and doesn't make a mess like the professional cleaner we rented. Also, the chambers are clear, which makes it easy to see the amount of cleaning solution and dirty water.

I bought the Little Green because I have three cats, a husband, and a first home with off-white carpet. So far, this machine has cleaned up several wet messes -- soda, hairball incidents, mud, and grease -- and one incredibly dried on mess. A cat was ill while we were away, and she had hidden the mess by moving some clothes over it. When I found it, the carpet was caked with gook. I let the solution in the cleaner soak and then just used the brush over and over in the same direction. The machine lifted the mess off of ther carpet and cleaned deep into the fibers -- you would never know anything happened by looking at it!

This version does not stay hot, but in my experience, that doesn't affect it's performance. I found it at a brick-and-mortar store for a fraction of the cost listed here, and much cheaper than the pro-heat model.

I got this last summer, Because i was bored one night and flicked on a TV selling show (we all do watch them at times i am sure) Well they had the bissell on and i watched the pitch,. But was not ready to order from the TV, As we know the internet is a better place to locate items at the prices we trust.... Well i ordered my unit for the store, it is 65 feet x 35 feet, and around july, i figured to give it a test spin, i followed the directions., and was UTTERY SICKENED,. when i saw the DIRT......I felt like a complete SCUM BAG.... I use a HEPA BAGGLESS 12 AMP FANTOM VACCUM, But this bissell found stuff that was DEEP DOWN., So i ended up doing the WHOLE STORE (all 7 rooms) and from commercial carpeting to the DEEP PILE CARPET.....it made these carpets look new again. Then i proceeded to do the HOUSE I LIVE IN......and it made the whole house smell wonderful (we have 3 male cats, or should i go deeper into this?? No....But the bissell made it easier to breathe with the anti allergen additive, and I also use a AIR IONOZER for the Stuffy noise., But after cleaning, i was able to breath freely, And I also became a neighborhood deep cleaner for some close friends, i am waiting till it is open window time in PENNSYLVANIA, so i can do my spring cleaning to get the salt and winter tracked iun grime off again.....So if any one doubts the way bissell cleans!!! Get this one and give it a fair chance! you will be thrilled as much as i am, And EVEN save $$$$ from the people that drive the vans with the hoses......it will payfor itself many times over, and well worth the investment!!! (i am not a employee of bissell or amazon.com) i freely posted this message! as a super satisified user.... 3/20/2004

In the past I have always rented machines to clean my carpets. I decided that I was tired of having to go to the store, put the machine in my car, carry it into the house, and then rush to clean my carpets so that I could return the machine and not get charged for an additional day of rental. After investigating a number of models, I bought this one, and I'm happy to report I made the right decision. I love this machine. It's easier to use than the much bigger and heavier rental units, and does a better job. Not to mention the cost savings - it will pay for itself after only 2 uses. I also like the fact that I can now clean one room at a time without having to feel rushed, becaause the only place I have to return this machine to is the closet. Do yourself a favor - stop renting and get yourself a Bissell. You won't be disappointed.

With four dogs and 4 cats we needed something to keep our couch and area rugs looking nice. I was really suprised at how well this product worked! The colors in our couch look "new" again (with the build up of kitty hair-it had a look to it as if you were viewing it with a soft focus lens). It also did a respectible job on our area rugs. Considering the cost of this cleaner, I would say that it is an awesome buy for small cleaning jobs.

I've used other portable steamers in the past, and the Bissell Little Green Proheat is definately the best one I've purchased. I only wished I would have got one of these a couple of years ago. With three dogs and three cats this steamer gets used a lot.

OK So I bought this little baby before we got our puppy. I had bought it for the 2 cats that we have and thought it might come in handy for little messes.

My wife bought me a puppy for Christmas, and since then I wll say that I thank myself every day for deciding to buy the Little Green. I have used it almost every day since our puppy arrived, and it works great! Takes out every stain that the little girl can throw at it (at trust me she has thrown a lot!). I wouldn't reccomend it for large surface area cleaning since it would take for ever and there would be a lot of work constantly filling the clean side and dumping the dirty side. But for those little messes, it works like a champ. Haven't had any problems or leaks, but I have only had this for a little over a month. So far it has been well worth what I paid!

After just a few uses, I encountered the same problems described below: clogged jet, unstiff brush, fair suction power, etc. Essentially I now have a $100 wet/dry vac. It looks cool though with that green plastic, I guess. By removing the brush, I can spray the solution, but will probably revert to using a bucket of hot soapy water, a stiff brush, and elbow grease and use the Little Green to then suck the water up. Remember: the key to getting your carpet spots clean is EXTRACTING; otherwise you're just moving dirty water around your carpet and leaving it there. You'll still need to bring in a truck mounted cleaning crew to really clean your entire carpet areas.

I have an older Bissell model called Little Green Deluxe which I have used successfully for pet stain removal. The various tools have become difficult to remove from my old machine so I just purchased the new Proheat Turbo--I always assume new is better but in this case it is not.

The brush on the turbo just isn't stiff enough. I think there should be a stiff brush for carpets that can take a beating and a softer one for upholstery. The stain I cleaned seems to have been partially removed but some parts look brighter and lighter than others--perhaps the cleaning solution has been improved. However, the heater doesn't do much. Bissell customer service claims the heater will add 25 degrees to the heat of the water/solution mix you add to the input container. Oddly enough the instruction book says you can leave unused solution in the container and ready to go but in talking to a customer representative I was told NOT to do that because the heater will only heat cold water to 25 degrees. They recommended I pour the solution in a different container and heat it in my microwave (but do not boil) and then pour it back into the Bissell input container. Furthermore they suggest you keep unused water/solution mixture in a jar and never in the Bissell container if you will not be using it immediately.

The reason I called customer service is that the second time I used the unit (within a few days of first use), the nozzle had clogged. Easily unclogged with a pin but I never had this happen with my old unit. Instructions say that if the unit doesn't spray the nozzle could be clogged but does not tell you how to unclog it. I got through to customer service right away but was thinking that if this was Sunday when they are closed I would not be able to resolve this issue immediately--best to have had those instructions in the manual.

I also notice that there has been no improvement to the way the tools attach to the hose part. They snap together much like a vaccuum but in time my old unit has become very hard to push the little button down to release the tool from the hose. I have resorted to using the back of a spoon or anything else I can think of to depress this little piece of plastic. I have tried petroleum jelly around the connections hoping it would make the release easier but that did not help. I am talking about an older unit but don't understand why the new one has no improvement in this area.

The suction on the Little Green Proheat is not great--even on my older unit I have wanted better suction power. I was using the turbo brush on a tightly woven garage carpet and could not understand why it just was not sucking up the dirty water. When I finally gave up on the job and took the machine to the kitchen sink to clean it up I discovered the turbo brush water intake area was clogged with dog hair even though I had thoroughly vaccuumed the area before using the Proheat. This is not a problem experienced with my older unit but then it doesn't have a turbo brush and the intake area of dirty water on the regular brush seems to have a larger opening. I guess I should have resumed the suctioning once I discovered the dog hair but by that time I was done with this whole thing and proceeded to empty the containers and clean the unit.

Cleaning the Proheat is no easy chore. A great improvement would be a completely detachable hose. Be sure that the hose end is hanging in your sink or you will have dirty water on the floor, countertop and maybe on you. I looked into the hose and saw clumps of wet dog hair so I ran water into the hose to see if I could flush it out. That worked but it also flushed out a lot of yucky stuff into the area formerly occupied by the bottom of the dirty water tank so that created another mess. There is also an area where I could see more guck but couldn't reach it--kept probing with my fingers and wishing this machine came apart and could be properly cleaned out since once the guck dries it might really be stuck in there. Many water flushings later I think I got most or all of clumped dog hair and guck out--not easy to lift the machine and shake it upside down over the sink. No matter how many paper towels I used, I could not get all the remaining sand out of the area where the base of the dirty water tank sits. After it dried overnight I was able to vaccuum up the remaining sand with another machine. More time was spent on cleaning the Proheat than using it.

Although this machine looks "cool" and it is nice to see the water levels in the tanks, you cannot stand those bottles up when they have liquid in them. This is minor but I had an occasion where I wanted to set the container down and didn't have it capped yet and that is not possible (phone rings at the worse times).

I expected Bissell to have made a much better product and I don't think there's much else currently on the market for quick spot cleaning of home carpets or car interiors. The idea of this machine is great--a useful product for many people but this machine needs better design, more suction power, perhaps real "steam", detachable hose, improved tool to hose connection and easier to clean would be on my want list.

Until improvements are made I will use my older model and take this new one back to the store.

I heavily researched before buying this model. I was attracted by the heater and turbo brush, and I read many positive reviews. It works great on carpet cleaning, however, within three uses the trigger 'jammed up.' When I took it to a Bissell repair shop (a very reputable vacumn repair shop) I was told that the cleaner burns onto the heater each time it's used, causing it to stop spraying. He recommended that it be flushed through with hot water after each use and stored without the fill/empty canisters. Otherwise, it would continue to break. He also said that the heater only adds about 10 degrees so it's a minimal benefit. He strongly encouraged me to return the model for a basic unit (1400) which is ... cheaper. He repairs all brands and encouraged me to purchase the Hoover SteamVac Jr. instead. He rairly encounters problems with their model, but sees many Bissells.
I purchased one and have used it once. I really love it. It works as well as the Bissell (both clean extremely well) but is easier to operate. I no longer have to 'flush' the system each time I use it (who has time for that?). With two little ones, purchasing a portable steam cleaner is a must; Bissell and Hoover make excellent choices (but stay away from the heater units)
I hope this is helpful.

This cleaner never did a good job. Didn't suck up hardly any water that it put out, the attachments are a laugh. Your better off buying the low end Dirt Devil. Bissell does make good vacuums though.

I found this cleaner did a nice job on my oriental rug. It cleaned so well that the wonderful colors in my rug have come back. The machine seems well built but it is somewhat heavy to push and the water tank-in-tank is very small making it neccesary to dump and refill much too often. I find that I really should have done more research and shopped around more before making this expensive purchase. Live and learn.....