BISSELL® Big Green® PET PRO Carpet Cleaner, 3288

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.

Ive tried a variety of carpet cleaning machines. I dread carpet/rug cleaning!!!! I finally decided I needed to invest in something that worked WELL so got this machine. Wow it works!!! Even on a shag rug. The key I think is to pretreat any very dirty areas with the solution (dilute in a spray bottle or even in a hand held compression spray container...the kind you mix fertilize/weed killer in). If the solution can sit on the carpet/rug even for 10min it makes a big difference in how clean the carpet/rug will get. Then use the cleaning machine. It takes a few passes but it gets it clean. Take a bit of time going over the area several times if you want it almost dry. I cleaned a shag rug a few hours before I had company and it was clean and dry in a very short period of time. I went over the rug very well with just suction and it was almost completely dry. To get the last bit of perfect cleaning... Do a final clean with just hot water in the machine. Leaves the carpet/rug soft with no cleaning residue left in the carpet/rug.

Hi, If you are in a big hurry, skip this review, it is long and involved, written by a guy who has cleaned carpets in many houses (mine and as a landlord) for many years - and is a retired engineer. Spoiler Summary - Super sturdy, heavy and semi-hard to pull because it is sucking down so hard pulling up dirty water and dampness. I like it. Introduction - I have owned a half dozen or more carpet cleaners for 20+ years, mostly lower priced Hoovers. This is a review after buying this Bissell and using it for 3000 square feet and two sets of carpeted stairs.I chose it after reviewing many alternatives focusing on the suction capability. Many shampooers leave the carpet pretty wet, even after secondary dry passes that dont pull much of the water out. This not only leaves dampness, but dirty water you are trying to remove. First Blush - Sturdy delivery box, and sturdier machine. This machine looks more industrial than many lower priced ones - more like something you would rent at a grocery or rental place.No assembly required - nice long cord, large tanks to allow you to keep going. Set up - As I dragged this upstairs, I realized this is significantly heavier than others I have owned. But do-able (I am 140 pounds, 60+ years old now). You have to mix the solution into the water. Usage - The instructions say to push away and pull back a strip while releasing solution, then repeat the push/pull without solution (dry mode). I repeated these steps in really black or high traffic areas. Doing so with my carpets, which looked okay, yielded almost coal black return tank water with dirt in the bottom of the tank. I did this washing, then, per room, I repeated the same steps as above with clear water for a complete rinse cycle. The water looked less dirty, but I called that good enough. Result - These carpets look better than they have in a long time. I am impressed. Pluses - (1) The machine is very heavy duty, so are the tanks. It sucks very well. Once I didnt seat the receiving tank well so suction was compromised, I pulled back 3 feet and thought wow, this thing has just gotten way easier to pull. Then I reseated the tank and felt again the strong resistance to pulling return. (2) I am an anal engineer. On one rinse cycle, after the carpet was damp from washing, I measured the amount of water I spit out and the amount that was sucked back in. The machine pulled back around 75% of what it laid out. You may think, wow, I would have guessed that you would get back all you lay down. No, you do not, with any cleaner, as it seeps into the carpet. But this 75% was way more than I have seen in the past. Plus, my carpets dried in 1/2 the time. Minuses - This thing is pretty heavy and pulls hard. I dont think my 105 pound 60+ year old wife could lug it up the steps, or use it for long. Other - It would be nice if the soap was separate, so you could toggle between wash and rinse. It is not, you put two tank capfulls of solution in the tank. I got around this by working with the solution, then, as mentioned above, repeated with plain water.It would be nice if you could turn the beater brush on and off, to give the carpet a break when you are just trying to suck up the solution. Oh well. You do have to keep an eye on this spinning disc on the top that indicates solution flow, to tell when you are out of solution, as the tank is so heavy duty, you cant easily see the level as you use it. No big deal, as this spinning beanie disk is in your line of sight as you work. Overall - I like this unit and am glad I bought it, and it works better than the last 5 - 10 units I have purchased.

Of everything Ive ever purchased on Amazon, which trust me has been a lot, I have never purchased anything Ive enjoyed using more than this carpet shampooer. The Bissell Big Green is so worth the money! Its literally a workhorse! I cleaned my big overstuffed sectional and it looks brand spanking new! After using the big green on my carpet, it looks brand new. This thing cleans like crazy!!! And I love it. Its easy to prepare for use. The shampoo that goes with it (by Bissell) is what you want to use. It cleans so well. I could not be happier!!!! If youre considering a carpet shampooer you might want to consider this. It will pay for itself eventually. I have had many carpet shampooers over the years but Ive never had one that does what this one does. Its absolutely awesome!!!

The unit works great.

For really dirty carpet it takes a few passes as others said but it actually works. The pet urine cleaner mix gets the visible pee stains out and gets the stink out. The cleaner gets pretty dirty and needs cleaned before storing.

When I first bought my home, there were some pet stains that the owners could not remove. I did not have time to clean it myself, so I hired a professional cleaning company. Needless to say, I was not impressed. So I rented the Rug Doctor and after several passes, I was able to remove the stain. I continued to rent the Rug Doctor over the years for my carpet cleanings and had been pleased. The last time I used one, I did notice the carpets were somewhat stiff. I am going to attribute this to the fact that I may have used too much cleaning solution. Then spring came around again and I wanted to clean the carpets again. I had stains from drinks, heavy traffic areas and again some pet stains. I own two lovable cats, who sometimes like to leave love spots. I went to my local grocery store to rent the Rug Doctor and they did not have any machines available. I went to several other stores and could not find one. Someone told me to try the Home Depot or Lowes. I went to Lowes and they had the Bissell instead of the Rug Doctor (RD). Never having used one and very unsure that it would perform as well as the RD, I decided to give it a try. First off, I noticed the rental rate was higher due to the deposit required. I loaded it into my car and home I went to give it a try. I am not sure if it is lighter or easier to maneuver than the RD when removing from my car. I followed the simple instructions and off I went cleaning the carpets. One of the things I noticed was the cleaning solution is applied in both the forward and backwards movements. Cleaning was pretty straight forward and exactly as I expected. First mistake I made was dumping the dirty water. I slipped and dropped the dirty water all over the floor. Quick fix, use the vacuum aspect and suck up the water. Another positive I noticed was the filling of the water. No more filling a large bucket and dumping it into a smaller fill slot. You fill the bucket, which removes and add solution, tighten the cap and place it back on the Big Green. No more water saturated lines on the carpet when I pour too fast. Place the empty container that will collect the dirty water on top, secure the latch and off you go. I have read that people are experiencing clumps of dirty hair, etc when using the Big Green. The ONLY times I notice this is when I fail to vacuum my carpets thoroughly first. I also noticed that the suction is somewhat better than my vacuum, so it is picking up cat and human hairs (that vacuum cleaners can and do miss) and depositing them on the carpet. No Problem, just pick them up. As a note I noticed this as well with the RD, so it is NOT a specific problem to the Big Green. You must vacuum before using the cleaner. The other major positive was the drying time using the Big Green. It is MUCH less than the RD. So I purchased this on 6/22/12 and opted for next day delivery. I ordered this mid-morning to mid-afternoon I believe and by 9am the next morning I had my Big Green. Less than 24 hours for shipping! I opened the box, removed a few cardboard packing materials, removed the bottle of solution from the tank, filled it with water and off I went. No more than 15 minutes total from unpacking to cleaning. No assembly required!!!! I am happy with my purchase. If you are familiar with using a RD, the Big Green is similar in size and maneuverability. This is not a small upright vacuum size. For me it seemed to maneuver easier than the RD. It removes stains, leaves your carpets feeling great and dries faster than any other cleaner I am aware of. The Bissell cleaning solutions smell nice and are not over powering. Pros: cleaning capabilities Less drying time Carpets feel soft ease of use Cons: cost, rather expensive but worth the cost for thorough deep cleanings

It got the stains out of my carpet. It definitely works. I did several passes & used double the solution like some of the other reviews said. I added before & after pics.

First, I am an engineer .... which means I analyze everything. I was concerned about the hand tool portion of this product, but I neednt be. It worked very well. This product not only gets the carpet deep clean, it sucks out nearly all the moisture from the carpet and allows it to dry in no time. Seriously, by the time I got to the other end of my living room, the side I started on was already dry. The tanks (clean and dirty) are super easy to use. I prefer to fill and empty in my laundry room wash tub and these both work great in there. The unit has a little spin indicator when you are applying solution. This is great since you always know the moment you are out. The cord wrapping mechanism is the best I have ever seen in a product. Super easy and fast. Yes, it is more expensive than the typical cheap model, but it is worth it in spades. Additionally, the materials this thing are made out of are super durable. It is built like a tank and I expect many years of use. It is a bit heavy compared to the consumer models, but it is oh so much better at getting the job done. It is worth the little extra space it takes up in the closet and the fact that I have to move it up and down stairs for my wife to use on different floors (it is a bit much for her). At the end of the day, I am a consumer where the most important thing for me is does it work well and last a long time. Everything else is secondary.

This machine saved my carpet. It cleans far better and dries far quicker than the Rug Doctor which I tried first. We have a condo rental unit and a fully carpeted home, so for us, a good machine is worth having. We havent shampooed our carpets in several years, so they were in bad shape. Bad enough that we were planning to soon replace our great room carpet. A few weeks ago I narrowed the search down to a Rug Doctor and the Bissell Big Green. An app on my phone pointed me to Kohls for the Big Green, but all they had was the Rug Doctor, on a pretty good sale. So I thought, why not, Ill give it a try. Took it home, cleaned the great room rug pulling disgusting water up and it looked pretty good. But the carpet was very wet and took all weekend to dry. The manual said it should pick up 70-80% of the soapy water, but no way it was more than 50%. I utilized the bucket used to fill the machine to measure the dirty water coming out. By the time, it dried, the stains had wicked through from below leaving it dingy again. The matted high traffic parts were still matted. Disappointed, I returned it, and turned to Amazon for Big Green. A few short DAYS later, it shows up and I got to work. AMAZING RESULTS! The carpet is noticeably brighter (a white carpet), the matted parts are re-fluffed, and to top it off, was dry before I finished the two couches and lower half of the stairs. The water was far dirtier, darker, and sandier than what the Rug Doctor pulled up, and it had first crack. I waited several days to write a review to see if stains would re-appear. NOPE! Moving on, the couch tool didnt look like much, so I wasnt expecting a lot, but with the Bissell soap, the couch went from an oily and matted down microfiber suede, to normal dry looking fabric with the texture restored. (It is still a 10 year old couch, so some of the texture is missing from when new, but it breathed new life into these old couches. The main machine doesnt get extremely close to the wall, and we had some black lines along the baseboard from walls that breathe letting the carpet act like a filter along the baseboards turning it black. Well, using their soap, the upholstery attachment and a separate scrub brush, the carpet is white along the baseboards too. The strong suction of big green pulled the soap out nicely leaving the baseboard sections to dry quickly as well (though not dry as fast as the rest of the carpet.) In the end, we are not going to replace the carpet for a while now, and I thought it was overdue to replace. This machine, despite the steep price, already paid for itself saving this carpet. This machine is built tough. Thick plastic parts, large clips, strong motors. Having 2 removable tanks is easier than toting an open bucket to the machine like the Doctor. This is easier, fill at the sink, dump at the toilet. Folds up nicely to store, get a tote bag for the hose, and it will store nicely too. The warm air exhaust has a diffuser to hit the carpet evenly to aid drying, not just an open hose like on the Doctor. I see the upholstery attachment as something that could break with any misuse, so I would be careful with it, but this might be an excuse to pick up the brush attachment that reviews poorly with the smaller Bissells but very well when used with Big Green. Where it attaches could particularly be a weak point, pointing to the soap hose connection. On the plus side, if youve had any other smaller Bissells, those attachments might fit this too. The drawback is it didnt get the toughened design treatment the rest of this beast got. I picked up an extra belt seeing that as a wear item, like on any other vacuum. Plan on finding a medium bristle scrub brush to help along the baseboards where the machine cant reach. (If they designed it to reach there too, there would likely be a few compromises from where this thing shines and not worth the trade off) Ive heard Bissell is weak on Customer Service, so if it breaks under warranty, Ill probably just find parts on Ebay which seem readily available there. It seems built such that I doubt Ill need that help. This is a great machine! Hope this helps. Update, after 7 years it’s still running strong. I typically do a rinse after shampooing the carpet and then run the water until it stops spraying when finished. So far, no problems. Maybe the rinsing and draining is preventing some of the flow meter and other issues I see in other reviews?