BISSELL® Big Green® PET PRO Carpet Cleaner, 3288

I started out using this machine because I was in a pinch when our carpet vendor had to cancel. My first experience was with a rental from a local hardware company, per the recommendation of our rep. The rental had clearly been used a lot, and not well cared for. I was skeptical. However, our $5000.00 commercial machine was heavy, hard to fill, rigorous to use, exhausting to use solo, and an inconvenience for those occupying apartments. With this machine, I was able to complete the job in a fraction of the time, had no interference with other occupants, had no fatigue, and the end result was a much cleaner and sanitary carpet. I was so pleased I bought 4. I have since bought nothing but this. The upholstery attachments work well for furniture and tight spaces. The stair tool sees no loss of suction. The machine is simple to use, can be used by a single person with ease. The suction is less than more expensive machines, but the scrubbing bristles penetrate deep into the carpet and in my opinion yield a better clean. The capacity is small, but that can be seen as a benefit. This is not a machine for water extraction, but for cleaning. The machine is easy to clean, and upon first use it will be evident how much this machine really pulls out of the carpet. There is a clear channel on the top of the collection bin and you will be able to see the hair, dirt, and grime as it is extracted. There is a multi color pinwheel on the top of the machine for flow, that will let you when when water is flowing or the tank is empty. For areas with pets, it does extremely well with hair and dander. Rather than flood and suck, this machine will excel with proper chemical treatment. Pre-treat stains properly ahead of time, and mix the proper fragrance and general carpet cleaning solution for your needs with the clean water tank for optimal performance. It’s a prefect option for single households. For commercial, I recently chose to use this product over a much more expensive machine. A larger complex with indoor, carpet hallways. Roughly 2 linear miles (4 buildings, 4 floors per building) and 6 foot wide. To make it work I prefilled a 30 gallon tote with water and treatment, and one empty tote. I was then able to fill the tank when needed, as well as empty the collection tank with ease. Pretreated the stains with a backpack sprayer, and the end result was great. My legs and back are still thankful. One caveat is that it is still pretty loud.

Ive had these carpets for 17 years, but they are not in bad shape. Cats and children have taken their toll, but theyre still holding up. I have a Dyson Animal vacuum which removes large amounts of cat hair and my girls might lose more hair than the cats given how often I have to cut it out of the beater bar of the vacuum. A few points of note for this review. Ive only had the unit for one day and can not speak to the durability of the unit, but I can say that it feels solid and does a tremendous job cleaning carpets. Im also upgrading from a cheap carpet shampooer which now falls into the toy category. I started off by thoroughly vacuuming the carpets with the Dyson vacuum, removing bits of fuzz, cat hair, stuff like that. Then I loaded up the machine with hot water and the contents of one of the provided bottles, and went to town. It took me a few minutes to get the hang of maneuvering the machine, but I definitely got into a rhythm. It was hard to keep it slow as I wanted to see the results, but I was patient and kept going until the flow meter stopped spinning and I was out of water. I dumped the dirty water bin slowly into the toilet and I swear to God it looked like used motor oil coming out of there. These were carpets which were vacuumed weekly and shampooed a few times a year. Motor. Oil. Clumps of cat hair which must have been woven into the carpet fibers and held in too tightly for the Dyson poured out with the water. I ran out of time last night and was unable to test the hose attachment. This is needed for areas along the edges of the room since the shampooer cant reach that far. Pros: * Cleans very well * Its a good workout * The transformation is mesmerizing * Its heavy, so it is able to clean deeply by pressing on the carpet * Youll strike oil, right in your own living room! * Gave my carpets a few more years of life * The rooms smell better, but that might be the fragrance of the shampoo * It came with three small bottles of cleaner to get you started Cons: * $$$$, although cheaper than professional service in the long run * You will realize how disgusting carpet can be and consider replacing it with laminate, LVP, or hardwood * Its heavy, and cumbersome to carry up stairs * Supposedly the flow meters crack, but they are not expensive and are easy to replace * Why was there motor oil trapped in my carpet? * Its big and bulky, so storage can be tough even though the unit folds up

Did a great job. Will try again next week with the pretreat. Even alone, worked great!

We had usually hired professional carpet cleaners for years, twice a year, each visit about the price of this cleaner, just to have the carpets dirty again in a matter of days or weeks. I made an executive decision, said enough, and looked for the machines with the top reviews, regardless of price. This one came out near the top despite not being the most expensive. My wife was skeptical but when she saw the results she was won over. Adapter for upholstery cleaning a big plus. And trial size cleaning solution bottles included makes it easy to use right out of the box. But water does need to be changed after every 20-30 mins (half a large room) of use. Other than that, well worth it!

The most important adjetive for this machine is, AMAZING! First, Id like to recommend anyone researching this or any product... Read reviews. The good and the bad! Then, look for the trends in those reviews and from there, determine for YOU what is important versus what is not important. A handful of bad reviews that involve complaining about things that have nothing to do with the product specifically (i.e. packaging, delivery, etc) or a small percentage of reviews that have minor breaks or other minor problems versus the hundreds or better yet, thousands of great reviews on the same product, those bad reviews may need to be taken lightly. Unless, of course, those things are important to you. Do consider this. It doesnt matter how a product is made (assembly line or hand made), there will ALWAYS be faults. No matter the company or how good the product is overall. Obviously, the fewer problems the better but if you are seeing hundreds or thousands of good reviews to a few dozen or so negative, then that would be a reasonable percentage of errors with any good to great product. I know some people will have multiple bad experiences with the same product where others have no issues. There are a multitude of reasons that could happen but look for the overall, not just that one review. That said, I recommend and do this myself, but when looking for trends, if the bad reviews are all because something breaks but maybe its a different piece each time, then there may be an obvious trend. I would possibly take that into consideration. It may not make my decision for me, but the trend of what users say about the product is what Im looking for and its paid off for me quite well. Bottom line of what Im trying to say is, dont just look at one or two reviews and dont just look at the good or the bad, but rather review as best as you are comfortable with on both ends of the spectrum and decide what trends you find and how those trends impact your decisions. For me, reading actual buyers/users reviews are better in almost all circumstances then any lab testing or any company that does product reviewing. With that, I have started my research with company reviews, but in the end, WERE the end user! It is our perspective and experience that matters most. Id rather gain real world end user perspective then read an article that may or may not be paid for to make a statement one way or the other. On to my review. I have to say this first. When I was researching and reading reviews, my first thought, when I decided I was gonna make this purchase, was I hope my money doesnt go to waste, but if I get even one great cleaning, that is better than I could pay any over priced professional with a oversized vaccum in their van, that doesnt even lift out the dirt but just wets the floor and kinda cleans. Then ITS WORTH IT. I mean not to offended any professional out there but simple soaping the floor and suctioning it up isnt cleaning. Thats multiple experiences and eventually, history doesnt lie. Now, I did follow the recommendation of at least one reviewer in this review group that doubled up on the solution, and it worked. Im not recommending that for you. Just telling you my experience and what worked for me. Now I know you saw the pictures and probably felt ill just looking at that floor. Obviously, we thought so too. Its disgusting and thus we purchased the Big Green Machine. We can compare this unit to the many other ways weve tried to keep carpet clean in companies paid and products purchased and nothing else has come close to this. We have SEVERAL pets to which I wont mention how many but I will say I dont have enough fingers to count them all. We love our fur babies and other pets. We also like having a clean floor and clean house. The floor is the biggest battle in our household. Nothing is more off putting then walking into someones house and it wreaks of animal urine. But when its your own home and everytime you come home it smells. YUCK! Multiply that smell by 5 and and that is what anyone else coming into your home smells. Weve been there. We were just there. We didnt want to host anything because of the floors. But now, I can very happily and more than confidently say that weve found our cure. This machine is just straight up, Amazing. Ive never had a professional even come close to cleaning carpets as well as this BIG Green does. If I could find a professional to do this it would almost absolutely cost more than this machine, but I can get multiple uses out of this, as long as well cared for. You can see it for yourself in my posted pics. That dirty floor there is several months of pet stains because the moment we moved into this house my first dog discovered the location of the previous tenants dogs place within less than 5 minutes being in this home. We even waited outside with our dogs before going in to this house for the first time, while they all did their business and still she started this disgusting trend. So lets chalk it up to this. More than a handful of household free roaming pets and 11, thats right, ELEVEN months of this. So heres what we did. Machine arrived as quoted at time of purchase. That very next available day off, Saturday, I carefully went through the included manual and honestly, this machine looks like it could or should be difficult, but it truly isnt. Very easy to unpack, assemble, dis-assemble, and re-assemble again. Thats important as you will have to empty this unit and refill with clean solution every one gallon. VERY easy to push/pull. Dont leave solution in tank or in machine. Keep all parts clean and dry when in storage. Thats how Ive best kept any product that uses liquids with electrical devices. Never store liquids in the machine or attachments when not in use. Unfortunately sometimes that means tossing any leftover portions unless you wish to find another way to store the liquid. Diluted solution is not recommended to be put back in with concentrate as number one, it likely wont fit, and number two, youll ruin the concentration level of the original solvent. Next, I went to work on the floor. Now, I do have to say many people and these products suggest to pretreat. I did NOT pretreat. I wanted to see how this product (with double amount solution) would actually hold up. I started with a small space (4 x 4 landing) and immediately could see the difference. Then when I started the first trip down the hallway, my wife suggested to take before and after photos. Thats what you find above. My process with doing this was to make a forward pass (I divided the hallway into 3 sections. Moving side to side the up. Closest, middle, furthest). While moving forward, I moved the machine steady at about 1 inch a second or slower. I know that seems slow but look at it. It works well. Then on the backwards pass/pull, I moved at the same pace where the carpet was heavily soiled, but where it wasnt pet stained I went about 3 inches per second. This may sound slow but consider that you have to let the solution get into the carpet and let the machine do its job. No product can do that if you rush through it. And dont force it. Let it do it job. You just steer it and place solution accordingly. On the forward pass, I held the trigger to spray the entire distance, then on the backwards pull I only held the trigger where stains resided. The suction is at the very front of the unit and collects everything on the backwards pull. Where heavy solution was applied, another slow pass, without pulling the trigger, will gather up about 95% of the moisture. That said I did make 2-3 passes forward and back with applying solution where the stains were prominent. Which was a strong majority of the hallway. The first pass really did the job better then great but considering the nature of the stains, I wanted to be more than thorough. This hallway measures about 4 wide by 23 long and took about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. But, boy was it worth the time, money, and effort. The bedroom is my young daughters who struggles still with door knobs and thus her room is open for her, by which the pets in the house took full advantage. Still not good but they did keep most of there spotting to the hall way. Her room was just as, if not more important than the hallway to get cleaned for her benefit and sanitary health. Once I was done with the cleaning process, I emptied the dirty and clean water tanks and rinsed thoroughly. Then I put about 1/2 gallon of plain water (No solution) in the fresh water tank and ran that over the clean floor by spraying the water just as if I were cleaning the floor. I didnt use the full half gallon. I ran enough water through until I felt the solution was pretty well cleaned out. Probably a total of 1-2 minutes of total trigger squeeze. This was to allow fresh water to run through the machine to clear out the solvents in the lines that carry the solution from the clean tank to the sprayer nozzle. I cant confirm this was or was not long enough. Just going on experience to avoid damage of the unit while in storage. Once that was all done. The carpet was completely dry by the time we went to bed. So probably 4 hours or less. Its been 2 days since I did this and spots have NOT magically returned. This is a major win. I will try to update this post after a total 1 week has passed to see if it still holds. If so, Id call this an absolute winner, where other products have completed the job or professionals have left and within two days spots have returned. That has not yet occurred in this case. Also, to resolve the pet issue, we placed a very solid metal baby gate to block the dogs from going back upstairs without us, during the day, until its all our bed time. We work from home, so the dogs hang with us throughout the day. They sleep. We work. They have always and continue to go out at least 8 or more times daily or whenever they sit at the door and whine. Love em, but now we can live easier without never disappearing pet stains. Weve been renting in this house for almost a year and in our previous home we sold, we had hard floor, for a reason, and will do the same when we buy again in the next 6 months or less. Clean floor + landlord = No loss. Happy research hunting and good luck with your floors.

I should start this review by saying that my carpet is original to my house, which is 26 years old. I have had the carpets professionally cleaned and I have done them myself many times. I have owned several carpet cleaners in the past and really hesitated spending this much money for another. I have to say it is worth every penny! Seriously, it got out things I thought would never come out. My son had spilled Dr. Pepper behind a metal file cabinet in his bedroom, and of course didnt bother to mention it to me. It had set in for about six month by the time I found it, and the file cabinet had rusted on the soda. Not cool! So while I held out little hope, I pre-treated the stain with the cleaner that came with the machine (mixed with water) in a spray bottle. I let it sit around 10 minutes while I did other parts of the carpet. When I went over that area, almost all the stain came up, including the rust. I did go back and use the pre-treat again several times and each time more of the stain came up. There is a very faint rust stain that did not come out but you really have to be looking for it to see it. I found this machine to actually be more quiet than others I have used, which is not to say it isnt loud, because it is. But compared to other machines, even my husband commented that it was not as loud as the last one we owned. It cleans way, way better than other models I have tried and I didnt spend half my time running to the sink to empty and refill the tanks. I was blown away by the amount of water/solution that was sucked out of the carpet. Most other machines, even the professionals, leave the carpet so wet. Last time I had my Berber carpets cleaned it took 4 days to dry! With this machine it was mostly dried in 3 hours. I did have one spot that took till the next morning, but it was the area I went over several times. It was easy to operate and cleans on both forward and backward stroke. I also used this on my sofa, chairs, and an area rug with similar results. The hose is long enough to clean up the stairs, and the electric cord is long enough to not have to move it, at least in my house, very often. The Cons- It is heavy, which I guess is why it works so well but if you have stairs, you will probably have to carry it up in pieces like I did (machine, tanks separately). It did drip a little when I was carrying it to be emptied, which I hate, but every other machine I have owned has done the same...........Grrrrrrr! I dont like the water flow indicator. This little disk spins on the tank to show you the water flow. If you arent paying attention (I get into the zone when I clean and did this several times), you will be moving the machine around but no water/solution is being released. The way the tanks fit together make it a little difficult to tell when they are locked together. I was releasing solution into the carpet and nothing was coming back up. Had to turn the machine off, take the tank off and put it back on and fiddle with it to Lock it down. All of that said, I will and already have recommended this machine very very highly. Its really all about the clean!! The cons I listed are all small things that are more bothersome than real problems. I am please with my purchase and love that my carpet looks almost new again. Good for another 26 years??

I purchased this for the sole purpose of cleaning my Karastan rugs. Somewhere on line there was a comment (might have been Bissells site) that said this machine was intended for carpet and not rugs. Whatever the case, the Green Machine did an outstanding job on my Karastans. Last year, I paid $750 to have my 4 rugs cleaned. This included me having to roll them up and bringing to the cleaner. That was a major pain AND expensive. This year, we had a sick dog who did some serious work on two of our rugs. It was gross so we took the rugs down to the garage and fired up the Green Machine. The first 9x12 Karastan used a complete tank of cleaner for two complete passes. We ended up cleaning the rug 5 times till the water ran clean. Next rug was 5x8 and it needed 6 passes. And to be clear, the first 5 passes produced waste water that was like mud. My wife and I couldnt believe it nor could she believe how clean the rugs were. I reread the manual and saw the instructions on running passes till the water runs clear. That sure was right. Couple of points: The clean water tank is a little less than 2 gallons. No where could I find that stated so I measured it. The cleaning solution that came with the machine ((3) 8oz bottles) stated 2.5 oz per gallon of solution. The smart filler cap is a measuring cup as well and the fill line is 2.5 oz. Filled to the top, it is 4oz. So, the manual says to use two capfuls which I assumed to be capfuls to the fill line which would be 5oz of cleaning solution. I actually used a filled to the top (4oz) capful and added about 1.5 gallons of hot water (about a 1/2 inch below the full line) and that worked beautifully. The machine is easy to move and is very smartly engineered. However, under power it is a beast. The brush system and the suction make it fairly difficult to move consistently. My wife and I got the hang of it after the first 10 minutes but the work wore my wife out after 10 minutes or so. She needed a break (or she just wanted me to do it!). Either way, be prepared to get a workout if youre going to use for an extended period. In all, we are very glad we purchased this machine as it paid for itself immediately. I was a little hesitant after reading Consumer Reports but one needs to read those reviews carefully. For actual cleaning, this machine was tops in their tests but they ended up rating it towards the middle of the pile because sound and dryness scores knocked it down. To us, it is not deafening and we expected the rugs to be damp (about a third to half of the cleaning solution was extracted). And frankly the most important thing we wanted, by far, was a clean rug. And thats what we got. Great machine.

I would have given this a five star review had it not been for the lame directions. With the exception of one wall to wall carpet in my bedroom, the rest of my rugs are rooms sized rugs and I have two dogs - one of which is old and has become incontinent. I have previously rented a rug shampooer from Lowes and after I buy the cleaner it usually costs over $80. After you pay to rent the machine, you still have the hassle of loading in your truck and then have to get it back on time not to mention you dont know what kind of filth it has been used on prior to you using it. As it turns out, the Big Green Machine is the exact same machine I have been renting. At the cost of $400 it more than pays for itself after four uses. Plus, I dont have to spot clean accidents and cringe between rentals thinking about the residual germs and dirt I wasnt able to get up. It really does do a fantastic job. I cannot stress the importance of vacuuming your rug immediately before you use it. I vacuumed my living room rug right before I used it but the bedroom rug had been vacuumed a couple of days earlier so I tried to cut corners and it was a mistake. The hair I couldnt see would collect into nasty wet globs and interfere with the suction of the machine. Even the rug I had vacuumed immediately before shampooing still had hair on it the shampooer pulled up but didnt interfere with its operation. It just goes to show how powerful the cleaning is. But as to the directions.... Since I had used the same machine several times before I was already familiar with the basics. The manual that came with the machine was limited (10 pages) in information. You would think for $400 you would get a little more detailed info. Just about everything I have ever brought will give you bold instructions on what you need to do before you use it the first time. This did but it was only safety instructions to keep from getting electrocuted or injured. The box said it included three trial size bottles of cleaner but I couldnt find them. Instead there was a random piece of packing cardboard in a plastic bag (picture attached) by itself so I assumed it was a factory mistake and that the bottles of cleaner were supposed to have been in that bag. I followed the directions in order and filled the tank with water and cleaning solution, put it on the machine and then put on the dirty water tank as it said on page 4. Page 5 told how to clean your carpet and gave tips. The first tip was to remove the cardboard cutout from the foot. I looked down and saw a little piece of cardboard sticking out from the foot area and pulled it and it came off. My thought process was it must be a small piece of cardboard since it wasnt mentioned in the directions until after it tells you how to fill the tank and put it together to start using and it, plus you cant turn the machine on its side after you fill the tank and, again, it was only mentioned as a TIP. So, after removing the cardboard I started cleaning my rug but after a while I looked at the dirty water tank and the amount of water in the tank didnt seem appropriate to the amount of solution I was applying. I continued to go over and over the rug trying to suck up water and after a good while stopped and looked up troubleshooting. It said check the rollers so I removed the tanks and turned the unit on it side and there was my problem - a LARGE piece of cardboard that stretched from one end of the base of the machine to the other. I would hardly call getting that thing out of there a TIP - It should have been clearly stated as BEFORE USING OR FILLING THE TANK BE SURE TO REMOVE THE BIG A*# PIECE OF CARDBOARD FROM THE FOOT OF THE MACHINE. But at least I had found out the problem and was now able to suck up dirty water. The dirty water tank filled and now it was time to go outside and empty the dirty water. Imagine my amazement - and embarrassment (neighbors were walking by) - when I poured out the water and out came the three bottles of cleaner AND a huge piece of cardboard. I definitely looked like the proverbial dumb blonde. It wasnt until later when I looked at the Whats in the box section that I saw the very last thing mentioned was the cleaner was in the dirty water tank. Who would have thought?! I had made the mistake of looking at the outside of the box to see what was in it and never bothered to look at that part of the manual. Plus, the manual showed pictures of what was inside the box and since I glanced over the pictures, I didnt think I needed to read a description of the very last thing mentioned which was the three bottles of cleaner. My advice to Bissell would to please change your manual and include: BEFORE YOU USE FOR THE FIRST TIME! 1. Turn the unit on its side and remove the large piece of cardboard from the foot of the machine. 2. Open the dirty water tank and remove the three small trial size bottles of cleaner and the large piece of cardboard from the tank. Like I said earlier, the machine works great but I could have been saved a lot of time and aggravation had those two small but important steps been included prominently as BEFORE YOU START items in the manual. But the machine does work great!

When it came time to do the Spring Cleaning this year, I decided to purchase a new carpet cleaner. The Hoover Platinum had served me well, but keeping the machine clean was a pain, it left the carpets pretty wet and the resulting shampoo residue led to the carpet getting dirty much quicker. When I started researching new cleaners, the Bissell quickly rose to the top of the list. The primary reasons were the simple, easy to clean design, powerful motors and all of the excellent reviews from fellow shoppers at Amazon and across many sites on the Internet. I was not disappointed. The cleaner arrives in a large box, fully assembled. This model also includes an upholstery tool with a pretty long hose. Other than removing a few pieces of cardboard from the base and inside the dirty water tank, it comes ready to go. I love the overall design of the unit. It is manufactured of rubbermaid-like plastic that looks like it will hold up fine. Unlike other consumer cleaners, such as the Hoover Platinum, there are not a bunch of fancy lights and other bells and whistles on this one. It is simply the base cleaner, a clean water tank, dirty water tank and top that directs dirty water into the tank. The power cord is 25-feet long, enough for a large room without going back and forth to the wall to disconnect and reconnect it to other outlets. The machine is ugly when compared to the fancier consumer models, but I cared much less about that than how it worked and the simple design that makes it ugly also lets it work well and be easy to maintain. Using the unit could not be much simpler. Fill the water (bottom) tank with hot water from the faucet and the right amount of cleaner (water tank cap is also a measuring cup), re-attach the dirty water tank on top and you are ready to go. This unit dispenses water and cleaner while moving both forward and backward if the button on the right handle is depressed. The instructions advise you to make a forward and backward pass while dispensing water and a without pressing the button to suck up excess water and heat dry the floor. I followed the instructions, but made a second dry pass just to get the carpet as dry as possible...Im not at all convinced that second pass made a difference and it is absolutely not required. In my experience, the water tank is adequate to clean about 80-90 square feet of carpet, depending on the number of passes you make and how much you overlap. With a single pass and a 2 inch overlap, I got about 90 square feet between fills. Having used 5 or so different carpet cleaners from Bissell and Hoover, at all ranges of pricing, I am very impressed with the Big Green. It did a great job cleaning the carpet. Its strong suction led to the carpets being dryer after cleaning than any until I have ever used or seen used, rental and professional cleaners included. In fact, during the cleaning, the Bissell was regularly deposing small balls of hair and fur that 4 passed with my Dyson did not get out of the floor and the Dyson has excellent suction. The carpets took about 2 hours to dry in a 68 degree Fahrenheit room with the ceiling fan circulating air and the windows open. The Bissell also cleaned up several stains in the carpet that were left by my Hoover. That said, I am also using a new cleaner, the Bissell Pro brand so it is hard to say if that is due to the shampoo or the machine. There is a handy flow meter than is directly driven by water flowing past that lets you see when the tanks are empty or if there is still water in the carpet that needs extracting. This unit is heavy and bulky. It is not much heavier than my Hoover Platinum, but the extra bulk of the design makes it harder to carry up stairs. Doable but folks with less upper body strength might need help. Emptying the Bissell is easy. Pull the black handle on the cover forward, remove the cover (I tilted it off from the back to keep from dripping on the floor) and then carry the tank to the toilet for a dump. One thing to note here is that a significant portion of the top of the dirty water tank is exposed. While the water level in there is 1 1/2 or so from the top after using a full water tank, those who are balance challenged may want to push the machine close to where they plan to dump to avoid spilling on the way. After dumping the dirty water, it is a good time to fill the clean since it is on the base of the machine below the other tank. This process is simple as well. Lift the handle and pull the tank up from the machine, open the lid and use it to measure the amount of shampoo to add then fill the tank to the line, which is basically a completely full tank. One thing I appreciated is that water does not drip when the tank is removed, even though water is drawn from a valve at the bottom of the tank. The only downside to the design of this tank is that the bottom is not at all flat, so you cant just sit it in the sink and get a full tank. Not a big deal, but some may find it the weight of a full tank a little hard to hold below the faucet. The Upholstery nozzle and host is nothing special as far as design goes, but the suction from the Bissell motor lets it work like a champ. I used it to clean carpets and it worked very well. Would be nice if there was a way to mount it to the machine but the design does not allow that and it is something I am willing to deal with. Cleaning the unit when done is a snap. Rinse out the tanks and the top cover and then use a towel to wipe it all dry. The handle folds down to minimize the space this takes, but it is a bigger unit so plan on dedicating a spot for it. Overall, this gets a strong recommendation from me. Its roots as a commercial rental machine help this shine in the home. The design is simple and easy to learn to use. There are not a lot of bells and whistles to break down...the only indicator is a simple flow meter not some fancy electronic gadget. And it works and works very well. Exactly what you would expect if you shelled out $50+ dollars to rent one.

After owning a little green and having that ultimately break after 7 solid years of pet and kid ownership, I was looking for a replacement. We already had a traditional upright cleaner, but the hose/commercial cleaner combo caught my eye on the Big Green. We wanted a little more HP than the little green could offer from the hose. I also knew that to get the best you have to spend the best and laid out 4 large for the Biggen. Machine comes fully assembled which a rarity these days. Out of the box and onto cleaning in about 5 min. Construction: This thing is built like a tank. Thick, HDPE, and ABS plastic in most places with very little pieces of the cheap crack prone plastics used in the lower models. Thick, heavy cord with plenty of length. Solid no frills handle. A single switch! ON/OFF. Any questions? Tanks are of superior quality com paired to the standard uprights you find in department stores. I know because 1 went tumbling down an entire flight of stairs full of solution with zero breakage. Tanks lift right out of the machine with no latches to mess around with. There is not a single piece you touch that feels like the bean counters were looking over an engineers shoulders on this one. Vacuumm is of commercial grade and will rival most shop vacs. Lights dim when you turn it on, indicating the power within. Design: Commercial, and heavy. I can totally see this machine being rented or used by professionals, and it shows as soon as you start using it. Locating the pivot for the handle at the wheel axle was genius compared to the horrible Rug Doctor design that tips constantly. This machine cut my time by 2/3rds over our old upright. The water tanks are easily twice as large and allow you to clean MULTIPLE rooms before attending to the tanks. Our old upright would have to be changed about 2-3 times per room. Hose attachment works great with about 3-4 times the suction of the Little Green. The hose brush is also about 2X as wide which makes cleaning stairs and your auto go much faster. It also accepts Bissels standard brushes so you could swap out a narrow one for tight spaces if desired. No provisions for hose storage. I am neutral on this. It would be nice, but we had this on our old upright and removed it. I can see why they didnt put them on this. Hoses can be a pain while cleaning carpets because they tend to fall off. With the commercial theme of this vacuum, professionals would not mess with such a large hose falling off. Another nice feature is the flow wheel that spins when water sprays. This gives you instant feedback if the vac is spraying or not. No spinny, no water. This would help diagnose a pump failure if one ever happened. Cleaned carpets dry in about 1-2 hours depending on pile length. They used to take about 6 hours to dry. Negatives: Clean water tank runs out about twice as fast as the dirty tank. I dont know why Bissel engineers can never get the golden ratio right with these things. From my experience, you always need a much larger capacity water tank than dirty because of how much water is retained in the carpets. While this machine certainly leaves the carpets dryer than our old machine, it is not even a close call on what will run out first. I tried rolling the machine down my stairs like a dolly. The handle locks in upright position so I didnt think twice about it. WHAT A MISTAKE! The upright handle lock gave way sending the dirty tank full of dirty water tumbling down my stairs. Luckily I have the machine to clean it up and the tank didnt damage anything. I then see a handle on the front of the machine for lifting. This machine is fairly heavy and I am a grown man, but having to carry this machine full of water anywhere is not fun. The handle lock should be able hold the weight of the machine and tanks for a machine costing 4 large. Not a major flaw, but I cant see a single women operating this machine if she had to navigate a flight of stairs. This is a mans machine, or a womens machine in a rancher. Hose is about 4 stairs too short on length to cover an entire flight without having to carry the machine to the other end. Conclusion: This is a solid machine that instantly proves its worth in how much time it saves you cleaning your carpets. Yes, it is worth the price when you can clean 1200 ft^2 of carpeting in 2 hours. That used to take me all day. Minor quibbles as stated above, but shes got it where it counts. Great suction, wide cleaning path, easy to operate, cleans better than anything Ive used before, and saves you time. If you value having clean carpets dont waste your money on lessor products. They are too much of a pain to use which causes you to use them less. This machine is so easy and fast that you wont dread cleaning them.