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(More customer reviews)Hi.
We bought this model at a local retail store last weekend. I had used a different model of the same brand previously (borrowed from in-laws). I have used it once, on my entire living room--a cream colored cheap wall-to-wall carpet laid down about 3 years ago by the previous owners. Probably artificial fibers. Just saying.
The carpet was getting spotty. We have a cat who has hairballs regularly and two four-year-olds. The cream colored carpet was showing spots around the kids computer, both couches, and the high-traffic areas at each doorway. We had some washable-marker marks here and there, and one sticky place. We live in the south so we had red clay marks, too.
I assembled the machine--had to get a long, thin screwdriver from the garage because the kind with the changeable tips is too fat for the holes in the upper handle. Assembly was easy, but I was left with an extra wand that had no home. Ours came with a small, medium, and large unpowered wand plus a powered wand and a crevice tool. At this point I was thinking that all the unpowered wands were kind of redundant.
I filled the machine with hot water and the 'fiber cleansing' solution my husband picked up because he didn't realize there were two bottles of solution inside the box. Not a big deal, we'll use it all, I'm sure. The soap tank was a bit leaky for just a second, so I let it drip til it stopped, then rinsed off the outside.
I grabbed the blue squirt bottle of 'tough stain precleaner' that came in the box and squirted each little gray, brown, or sticky spot. Didn't do anything else, just squirted. Gave the gray area near the doors a sort of 'misting' to get the job started.
I turned the dial on the Bissell to 'normal cleaning' and started near one door. Wet stroke forward, wet stroke backward, dry stroke forward, dry stroke backward. Had a little trouble with the suction at first, but I later determined this was probably because the machine had tipped while it was on. It makes a pop noise when it loses suction, and you pretty much have to shut the machine off and turn it back on to 'reset'. A few places in the carpet needed an extra going over with the wet/dry strokes to get the spots up.
After just a couple of strokes, the machine started spitting out little 'hairballs' that were gray--presumably cat hair and carpet fiber wads. I had read about these in the manual and so was not alarmed. I decided to let them go and after the carpet dried I'd get them with the dry vac.
About half-way through the room (13x18, roughly) it was time to dump the dirty water and refill. The water was like diluted hot chocolate in color, and had hairballs in it. Removing and replacing the tank is quite easy. Originally I was thinking I had to lay down the handle to get at the connections, but this is not true--the machine can be standing up and you can still get the water tank out. Not sure about the soap tank, though.
Note that while cleaning, you're dripping on the back stroke. So you start at one end of the room and work *backwards* to the other end, not forwards. Probably a no-brainer, but there you go. I tried using one of the unpowered wands for a spot under the kids desk, and it did OK but didn't really wow me. It was nice to have the trigger right there on the wand to be able to squirt soap at the spot, and the wand did fine at pulling the water back out. Didn't try the powered wand for it--I just went over it again with the big machine and the spot was completely gone. I'll try the powered wand another time.
Back in action, I finished up the room with no other highlights. I chose not to use the 'rinse' cycle on the machine at all, I guess I'm testing the anti-resoiling agent in the soap. :) I didn't really want to spend the time going over every inch of carpet twice.
When finished, I put down a couple of clean towels to walk on since we can't avoid using the room. The carpet itself was dried within a couple of hours--even the bit at the start where I was having trouble with suction.
Once dry, I have to say the carpet looks great. There might be one or two places where the spots wouldn't come out--but they have been cleaned at least 3 times now with three different machines and have persisted through all of them. Anyway, I do notice that the carpet nap is starting to look a little worn--it's cheap carpet. I haven't been back over it yet with the dry vac to get the hairballs up, that might change the appearance.
Husband said the smell of the soap was pretty much gone once the carpet dried, so it didn't leave a heavy stink of 'just washed the carpets' behind. The soap smell was itself reasonably pleasant and not overpowering even when wet.
So on to disassembly and cleaning. Emptying the dirty water was again no big deal. I rinsed out the tank afterward to get the hairballs out and keep it from getting stinky (why leave microban a big job, after all). I left the remaining soap in the soap tank for the next time. Since the shields over the nozzles and brushes are clear, you can see how scummy they get after just one use, so I grabbed my screwdriver again and popped off the clear shields (one screw for the front 'suck' piece, and two screws each for the side 'edge cleaner' areas) to rinse them out. The brushes themselves were exposed at that point and I could see the surfaces behind them were scummy but I didn't feel like removing the brushes so I just wiped with a rag to get the scum out of the places I could reach. At this point the vac is lying on its back in the kitchen, in the way. But one more wipe of the sole plate (where the dirty drips come from) and reapplying screws and shields and it all went back together easily. It took about another five mins or so to clean the machine after use. Then I grabbed a clean rag and the reassembled machine and moved it to its storage home. Since it's sitting on the carpet, I put the clean rag down first, then the machine on the rag to catch any drips I might have missed.
I am very pleased with how the machine performed. It made a dirty carpet look clean again, which is exactly what I wanted. It was relatively easy to use and clean (might tape a screwdriver to the machine just to have one handy) and it did a great job.
If I were going to improve the machine, I'd make those clear shields use a fastener other than a screw so they could pop off by hand. I'd maybe add one more fastener for that spare wand. I might include a plastic tray to sit the thing on when it's not in use. I might try to work on that suction pop noise thing to make it clearer that you need to stop and fix something before you squirt more soap down. I might also leave off all the marvelous stickers identifying special features. Not needed, and they get in the way of seeing what the machine is doing. And if I were really working hard to improve, I'd have a 'self propelled' motor to assist the user to move the machine at the proper speed (slow) and with the proper contact between machine and floor (to improve suction).
I hope the machine will last for the amount of time we intend to keep this carpet. Other reviews make me wonder if my satisfaction will last, since it seems other people have a lot of trouble with their machines, regardless of brand and model. I hope to update this review again later, after a few more uses.
-----edited Nov 30 2009
After using the machine several more times, I am still pleased. It's kept the carpet looking pretty good, and sometimes I'm able to get up spots using only the warm water without soap. That's nice. I haven't used up all the carpet soap that came with the machine (and that we bought by mistake). The cat was quite ill over the summer and kept throwing up all over the carpet, everywhere..and you really can't tell at all. Likewise the kids have repeatedly gone after the carpet with washable markers and crayons, and those marks are gone as well. Red clay marks gone. There are some shadowy gray areas at the main entrance/exit to the room that the shampooer doesn't seem to be able to help, I guess the carpet is just showing its age.
I have taped a gallon zip bag to the front of the machine, in which I have the manual and the screwdriver I mentioned earlier. Very handy. I've used the powered wand a few times now, and I like that much better than the unpowered ones. Agitation really helps get the gunk out.
I like using this machine better than my Spotlifter now, it does a better job. I do tend to 'save up' spots so I can run the machine for long enough to make it feel 'worthwhile', but it even gets up the old spots.
Anyway, I'm pleased with the machine, it does what I wanted it to do. After months, it doesn't stink (I still rinse it out after each use), and it hasn't made anything scummy while it sits waiting for the next use.
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