BISSELL SpotClean Portable Spot Cleaner

BISSELL SpotClean Portable Spot Cleaner

 

• Permanently removes stains on carpets, rugs, upholstery and auto interiors
• Deep reach tool removes embedded dirt and stains
• Removable tanks are easy to fill and empty
• Slim design fits comfortably on a stair
• Includes a trial size Spot and Stain formula and a trial size Oxygen boost formula

Clumsy householder? You need this!
By Peter Lee
This really surprised us as it actually worked better than we expected! We're a little bit clumsy and often find we spill things onto our carpets, such as food and drink in the lounge and kitchen, and toothpaste & mouthwash in the bathroom, and over the years we've tried carpet cleaning sprays, foams and powders, all of which claim to work wonders but the reality isn't so impressive. This however really does seem to do the business.

It comes in a fairly large box and the first impressions weren't great, as a long cable and a shorter ribbed hose with a large nozzle stretched from the unit itself and I envisaged it being the kind of thing I'd stick in a cupboard and find tangled amongst everything else every time I wanted to use it. However, the box contains three plastic clips which, when inserted into the main unit (it's easy to see where they go) hold the power cable in two easy-release catches, and the ribbed hose winds around the base and is gripped firmly at the rear of the device. Once everything is wrapped away it takes up only a small amount of space and is easy to carry, if a little heavier than I expected. The product specification here says it weighs 7 kilos, but this includes two trial bottles of cleaning solution.

It's simple to use. The instructions are brief and easy to follow. One side of the unit has a clear plastic tank for dirty water, and the other holds the water and shampoo. The water tank has two sets of markings - one for small stains and one for larger areas. Fill the tank with hot water (from the tap) to the relevant mark, then add the Bissell shampoo and finally top it up to a third mark with the booster solution - the two solutions are available from Amazon and elsewhere. Plug the unit into the mains, switch it on, and you're ready to go. The nozzle has a trigger which, when pulled, squirts the water and shampoo onto the carpet. Spray the area to be treated, leave it to soak in for a few minutes if you feel it needs it, and then you use it a little like a vacuum cleaner. It's quite noisy, especially as you will be kneeling close to the unit when you're cleaning your carpet, but as you scrub and squirt the shampoo onto the carpet you can see it shooting up the tube and into the dirty tank, where you can see just how much muck is being sucked out of the carpet. After a little while the dirty tank gets full, and the suction stops, so you switch the unit off, take the dirty tank out, remove a rubber plug from the top, and tip it down the sink, then once replaced you're off again.

This isn't a device you'd use to clean the whole carpet - the water tank is too small for that and it would take forever - but the product is clearly marketed as a spot cleaner. We used it on a couple of spills, plus on two grubby areas of carpet that the aforementioned sprays and powder cleaners had failed on, and they've come up really well and there's a vast improvement. For the price, and the portability of the unit, this is a little cracker. We're delighted with it.
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful.
Great for rugs
By Paul B
We don't have carpets, but we do have rugs and kids...and a dog. The Bissell Homecare Spot Cleaner seemed like an idea tool to keep nearby for emergencies and one that doesn't take up as much space as a wet and dry vac.

Inside the box you get the main machine, 2 bottles of cleaning solution, which are samples but can be used quite a few times, though both are needed at the same time, plus 2 swivel handles that fit on the device and hold the wire and tubing.

The machine was easy to set up, with just the tube and tool to add to the swivel holders and clip on the front. Getting it ready to use involves taking off the clear plastic section on one side (the other side is for the dirty water) and filling to the lines. There are 2 sets of lines, one for small jobs and another for larger jobs.

The device needs three things; water, cleaning solution and an additive. There are lines for each of these to know exactly how much to use. The water should be hot tap water, probably to reduce the time and effort to heat the water up. Once in action, the trigger can be squeezed to squirt the water and solution on to the rug or carpet you want to clean, then hoover up the resulting soaked stain. It certainly makes a big noise for such a small device, but with mostly small jobs in mind, this doesn't really cause an issue.

We found that the stains on rugs were removed well, which was good, but the rug remained wet even after hoovering. It wasn't a problem for us as the rugs could then be hung out to dry for a bit, but I could imagine it being more of an issue for carpets. Part of the solution may be to work out just how much of the water to spay on and probably hoover for longer, but it's worth noting if you mainly plan to use this on indoor carpets.

For us, though, the Bissell devices works perfectly on our rugs and has removed all the stains that we've tested it with. It's certainly something we're going to be keeping handy.
39 of 41 people found the following review helpful.
Fabulous for carpets
By kinggx
Kids = mess = carpet and upholstery stains. I had a variety on which to test this machine out.

First, the two-week old brown coffee stain (9-month old knocked a cup of (cold) coffee onto the floor) on the living room carpet. We'd done our best to get it out with 1001 cleaner and a cloth but a faint brown stain remained. Top marks to the BISSELL machine - it cleared it up so you'd never know it had been there - very happy about this.

Second, the over-one-year-old baby-milk-sick stain (don't ask how it stayed there so long without being tackled - I've no plausible excuses) on the bedroom carpet. Again, disappeared by the BISSELL machine - great stuff.

Third, the variety and marks and discoloration that had accumulated on our sofa over time (not sure I can wholly blame the kids here, but I will anyway). Unfortunately, the BISSELL machine seems to have met its match here - no noticeable difference after cleaning. A shame, but perhaps a little too much to ask for.

The machine itself could be easier to use, such as having to add two types of solution and water to it (surely these could be combined into one bottle) and the need to make sure the water containers all line up correctly for fear of leakages. It is generally fine, though, just requires careful following of the instructions on first use.

I think it is a great product to have nearby when the inevitable spillages happen - those with kids or pets will probably value this the most.
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