BISSELL® Big Green® PET PRO Carpet Cleaner, 3288

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

This. Thing. Rocks. What more can I say? You arent going to get any better than this at home short of going onto carpet cleaning specialty sites and buying an 800-5k machine. The suction is great and rooms are dry within 2 hours. This thing is so strong (and the rolling brush is such a good design) that it actually pulled up embedded fur from a pet that hadnt lived in the house for 2 years. (backstory: we have had a black-haired dog for 6 months and have lived in the house for 2 years (no dog prior to Gilbert). I vacuum multiple times a week. The previous renters had had a white dog over 2 years ago.) Mind you, I thoroughly cleaned the carpet when we moved into the house with a rug doctor. And yet, two years later I was pulling up white fur. Vacuuming regularly with a shark and a dyson for two years did not pick this stuff up. I think it works. :) I was appalled and pleased in equal measure when I used it. It was so GROSS to see all that stuff.... brown/charcoal water full of fur, dust, dirt, sand, grass...you name it. By the same token, so pleased to know that was all out of my carpet. Further grossed out by the fact that it was almost as dirty the second time around....and yet further pleased. You get the idea. Having rented a rug doctor three different times to do multiple rooms each time, I am quite familiar with them. I have to say that I love using this Bissell SO MUCH MORE. Pros when compared to the rug doctor: 1.) It is more comfortable to use (handle pivots at the bottom in stead of the top). 2.) I cannot overstate how awesome it is to be able to go forward and backward. The RD only drags backward. It is more comfortable, MORE EFFICIENT, and more intuitive to move both directions. If you dont believe me, try dragging your vacuum backwards, and then locking the head up, tilting it off the floor to go back to the top of the stroke and then doing a whole room that way. 3.) REMOVABLE TANKS. REMOVABLE TANKS. REMOVABLE TANKS. Good luck if you finish and have leftover solution in the RD. Good luck. Also, makes it super easy to transport and clean. 4.) Did I mention being able to move FORWARD & backwards? 5.) Spinning brush head actually pulls things up out of the carpet fibers instead of juts agitating them. Just like your vacuum. While the agitating bar might be a unique feature of the RD, Im not so sure that its working in RDs favor. About the only reason I could recommend that type of brush would be that it is probably more gentle on carpets. The black clumps that people complain about with this machine are real and they largely consist of carpet fibers and pet hair that were pulled up with other debris mixed in. If you vacuum adequately, these clumps are few and the machine sucks most of them up anyway. 6.) Flow indicator: that little spinning thing is super helpful to show you when youre out of solution and it works just like its supposed to. 7.) THIS MACHINE IS MEANT TO BE SERVICEABLE! THAT MEANS YOU CAN BUY REPLACEMENT PARTS IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG. This is a HUGE bonus. If something breaks, you dont have to scrap your whole machine. Professional through and through. And those parts are easily attainable right on Bissells own website. Try that with your Waldemort special. Wont happen. Other pros include the fact that it folds down and is easily store-able, has a hose attachment which does work well and is amply long, uses less solution than many other cleaners (youd be surprised how little water is actually necessary to still clean well), the tanks are large enough to do a whole room. Long story short- Im in love with this machine and so happy that I purchased it. Also, 5 year warranty. Epic. Update a year later: I have now used this multiple times in two different houses and have used it to clean my cars upholstery as well as couches. Excellent every time. The hose is plenty long for doing your car (if you move it around to each door) and couches. Every time I clean our carpets, they stand up much more and are noticeably revived. This rolling brush perks up your carpet much more than a normal vacuum (Dyson or Kirby). Still as happy with it as the day I bought it!

I am amazed (and disgusted) with what came out of my carpet. I have been buying cheap ones from Walmart for years and they do not hold a candle to the amazing job this carpet shampooer did. Worth every penny.

We have lived in our home for 8 years. We have 2 young boys and have had several pets in our home over the years (1 senior who passed, 1 senior who’s still with us, 1 puppy who is now a 6yr old large golden, my husbands new Boston puppy, my parents dog who loved to pee in the hallway who has since passed, and 2 kittens we found outside one of which who uses the litter box and everywhere else too). My dad also lived with us for 7 years and was a mechanic and tracked grease and dirt in from the garage. I have a Bissell pro heat that always left the carpets soaking wet but seemed to do a good job until the stains reappeared weeks later with a vengeance. I received this shampooer yesterday and got to work. I was disappointed while the carpets where still a little damp thinking there was no hope if this didn’t work, but after they dried I was amazed at the difference. The carpets weren’t soaking wet and didn’t take long to dry with a large fan. They look even better in person than in the photos. And smell so much better. I was embarrassed to have people come in the house and see the hallway before. I went over the carpets a second time and honestly the only complaint I have is that is doesn’t get all the way up against the wall so you can see the clear line of where the carpet has been cleaned and where the shampooer can’t reach. I’m currently working on the living room carpets, then will tackle the bedrooms. I gotta say I love this shampooer and I am so glad I bit the bullet and got it. Hopefully we’ll give these carpets a few more years while we get the puppy and kitten fully potty trained and save up for new carpets.

We finally bought the Big Green Machine after renting the PetSmart version several times. All in all, this is a nice, easy to use carpet cleaner and I recommend it. More Detail: Unboxing: The cleaner is practically assembled when it arrives in its sturdy box. If you have trouble lifting heavy objects, it might be best to cut the bottom off the box and lift the box off, rather than trying to lift the machine out of the box. The accessory hose is in the box in the space between the cleaner and the box. Packed inside the waste bin is a sample of soap that you must remove. There are also a couple of other pieces of shipping material that need to be removed. I also found that the drain plug for the clean water reservoir was loose, so I tightened that up. The unit arrived in great shape with no visible damage to the packaging or the unit itself. This is basically the same unit as the commercial version, from what I can tell. I cant speak to the motors themselves, but it sounds the same as the rental version. The only things different are that the directions for use are not stamped directly on the machine, and there is no rental motor counter, which records the number of hours on the machine. Otherwise, quality, fit, and finish is almost identical to what Ive seen from the PetSmart rentals. Setup for use: Setup is fairly straight forward and easy. The bottom reservoir is for warm water and the cleaning solution. The cap is large and easy to put on and remove. That unit nestles down in the bottom, with a nozzle that allows the liquid to be drawn out for spraying. On top of that goes the dirty water receptacle, followed by the clear lid, which locks in place. You can see the dirty water as it is sucked up via the clear lid. The cord is heavy duty and long enough for all the uses I have. The only thing it cant do is reach from one end of our upstair hallway to the other, but it runs the full length of the house, so it is a long hallway! Use and Cleaning: The unit is relatively easy to move around. The large rear wheels make it an easy roll from place to place when you tip it back onto the wheels. The low center of gravity from the handles connection point at the bottom of the unit keeps it steady and even as you push and pull it across the carpet. It is a bit heavy to pick up via deadlift, but my relatively small wife can pick it up if she does it carefully. Shes not going far with it, mind you, but she was able to load and unload it from our SUV when we rented these. It has a nice grab handle on the front and the rear. The cleaner does a good job of getting the carpets clean and removing most of the moisture from the carpet. Our drying times have been relatively quick, which is good. You really dont want soggy carpets. I am giving four stars, however, because our particular unit seems not to spray well on the forward motion, or at least not as consistently as the rental versions did. It is spraying the cleaning solution, but one pass does not seem to wet the carpet enough. I found myself doing a pass up and back with the trigger depressed, and then two additional passes to remove the liquid. Drying time was still good. But, because it doesnt seem as effective with one pass only, Im holding a star back. It may be something that will improve with us, or it may just be this unit. It still cleans well. This unit needs a little help with heavy stains, as you would expect. We pretreat spots with Resolve carpet cleaner and a little light scrubbing. Then, going over the spots with Big Green it does a great job removing the stains. I make extra passes over high traffic areas or tough stains and it does make a huge difference. Ive mostly used the carpet cleaning system that came with my Kirby in recent years, but this is a superior clean than that one. Depending on the pile of your carpet and the amount of pet hair in your home, you will notice clumps of fibers/hair under the unit and in the waste area. At times clumps will become large enough that they will fall off the machine during use. Its not a big problem, and not unique to this cleaner. If you have a carpet or pets that shed, you can stop and clean it off periodically during use. Cleanup: As with all cleaners, cleaning the unit is essential to its performance. This one is easy to clean. The dirty water receptacle has a large opening and is easy to dump (I dump into the toilet) and rinse The clear lid takes a little work at the sink to get al the crevices cleaned out. Any leftover cleaning solution can be drained easily by unscrewing the plug on the bottom. Wipe down the outside and bottom of the unit, being sure to get clumps of carpet fiber and hair from the roller area, and youre all done. The handle folds down to save space vertically, should you need it. Complaints: As to complaints about drips; yes, when you stop cleaning and park the unit, there will be some dirty water spots I dont think its a leak, per se, but rather the liquid that get caught up in the roller assembly when everything is spinning and working. When it stops it drips. I keep an old towel handy and back the machine up onto the towel when I stop using it - problem solved. Overall: We purchased this for ourself because we had been so pleased with the rentals. It does a good job cleaning our carpets and controlling the odors from three dogs who sometimes have accidents. It really does leave the carpets cleaner and reduces odors, and were very pleased. Had I not had a slightly different experience with the rentals units, I might have rated it 5 stars. After a few more uses I will update my review as needed.

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

I was total blown away about how well this shampooer cleans. We are in our early 80s and I was a little worried if I bit off more then I could chew. But then if so Id just call one of the grand kids for help but it was easy to run and did a great job I would recommend this shampooer to anyone

Eve though the tip of the hose was broke off and couldn’t be used this carpet cleaner is the bomb. I ordered a new hose but haven’t had the chance to use it yet. With 3 dogs and 2 cats there are going to be messes. This godsend of a carpet cleaner has absolutely no problem sucking it all up to leave behind a carpet that looks almost brand new.

I come from an old professional carpet cleaners family. Steam cleaning is the best way to clean carpets. So I was skeptical about the cost, quality, and would I be getting another machine which would probably fall apart in a year. I read all of the reviews and felt that that many people however, couldnt be wrong. I have owned 2 Bissells cleaners and each one spewed water out after about 1 year and the roller brush broke after 2 uses. The carpet cleaning wasnt great, it was bulky to store, the water tanks were small, cleaning chemicals by Bissell not that great with those machines. Both machines cost $300 EACH!!!. So understand that I was Leary of spending $400 for this machine. I took the Big Green for a test spin for the first time today. I picked the dirtiest walkways in my home. WOW!!!! I am impressed! My husband reloads ammunition and contently tracks filth in from the garage. After trying unsuccessfully to get him to take his shoes off I had had enough. Based on past Bissell cleaners I figured this was the last time around for a carpet cleaning machine before I called in a professional. While I found that the comments that the machine was bulky, hard to push, noisy, to name a few, this machine is nothing compared to the other machines Ive had. Try rental cleaners (Rug Doctor)and see what bulky, noisy etc. is, and you still wont get clean carpets. I found it was not hard to push at all (I have a really bad back too) and as for bulky, not at all! For the work this does and not having to continually having to fill and dump water tanks, I found that the larger tanks, which hold more, are much easier on my back. I also found that you dont waste as much cleaning products. I also liked the way the machine folds to store. Now for how it cleans. I will put this machine up against any professional job, any day. Not only did the filth from my husbands shoes come out but the carpet looked new, fresh, and best of all, clean. Smells nice too. I used Bissells products with this machine and found them to work much better and did great job. I would say that Bissell hit the bulls eye with this machine. There is a little back wash that is easily picked up with the Big Green. The backwash was onto my white floor (was only a very small amount) tile and I cant tell you how dirty the little water amount on the tile was. It certainly told me that this machine works fantastic. I touched the carpet right after cleaning to see how wet the carpet was. I was very surprised that the carpet was barely damp. while it would be best to let it completely dry, you would be able to walk on it in about 1 hour. The only problem now is that I have to do the whole carpet because the traffic areas I tested are so bright and clean that the rest looks dull. If you want a professional cleaning without the constant cost and hassle of calling a professional, this is it. Would I buy this again in years to come? Absolutely!!! Finally a product that really does what it says it will do. I highly recommend spending the money to have this quality of clean. Thanks Bissell!!!!!!!! I will try to update this review as the months go by. That way I can time test the equipment. I am a happy camper for now! We did the rest to the carpet today. OMG, I couldnt believe the filth that came out of a my supposed clean carpet with our Bissell up rights. It made me sick! There is no way you can fake that kind of dirt in the dirty water container. My carpet looks brand new. Maybe even brighter than new. The hardest part was moving the large 3 piece sectional sofa out of the way. But was very glad we did as even under there the carpet had accumulated a lot of dirt. We have a rental house that a professional had cleaned after the tenant moved. It looks awful after they were done. So I guess our Big Green goes on a trip to re-clean that house. The carpet there is the same color as our house so I expect great things from this machine. A few suggestions I have: 1. Watch the pilling in the ports of the machine. I thoroughly cleaned each one after each water dump to make sure there was no clogging. We checked the rollers underneath when we were totally finished to be sure that they were cleaned up too. Dont expect this machine to vacuum for you. Do that first and again once the carpet is thoroughly dry to get up the pilling left by the machine. Even professional cleaners leave pilling behind so dont think that the machine is not doing its job. 2. While extracting water from the carpet, if the water is still slightly grayish, go over the carpet area again as it still need a little work and fine tuning. When the water is clear is when you have gotten all of the dirt out. For the first time of use, you may have to do this as you are going to be very surprised at how much dirt was in your carpets. Get it clean this first time and the next time you use this machine, you wont have so much work to do. I do agree that this machine needs room to maneuver but for average rooms 9 x 12 or bigger it great. Doing small closets with closet door rails is not practical for this machine. You would have to use the upholstery hose for those areas. I would also recommend using Bissells Professional Cleaning Solution with the machine. Especially if your carpets are really bad. Dont be afraid to go over the really bad spots several times to get out all of the dirt. This machine extracts so much water that you dont over wet the carpet. Just extract several times more to be sure that you dont leave to much water behind. Watch the water flow over the top of the head to gauge how much water it is extracting. When you dont see much coming out of the carpet at this point, you should be able to move on to the next area. Drying time about 2-3 hours. Professionals put paper down and the carpet seems to be damp for 6 or more hours. So this is an improvement even over them. All in all, and after spending a total of $600 in machines (2) that dont do the job, this machine is well worth it. Besides you will pay at least that for a professional job, that may not even be as good, in just one cleaning.

When we moved into our apartment five years ago, the carpet was brand new. However, between several cats missing the litter box and leaving hairball presents, and a husband who is so accident prone he practically needs a sippy cup, it had gotten so bad that walking around inside made the soles of my feet disgustingly black. I bought a Bissell Spot Bot several years ago to try to curb the problem, but, as the name suggests, its not enough to care for larger areas. Every weekend I would debate renting out a Rug Doctor machine, but at this point the whole apartment needs refreshed and I didnt want to hassle with renting and returning a machine every weekend for the next two months. Instead, I invested into this behemoth, and (at least so far) Im very glad I did. Its very easy to use, easy to clean out, and easy to refill again. It also came with 4 sample bottles of their Professional cleaning formula. One tank full of water uses less than one of those small sample bottles, so your first 4-5 tanks are basically free. The tank is large enough that I can make several soaking, deep-cleaning sweeps over about half of a 10x10 room. A casual refresh of the carpet probably wouldnt even use a full tank. I can clean and refill the machine in about ten minutes, so getting an entire room done doesnt take long at all. Longest part of the whole process has actually been moving furniture around! Photos show one room before and after cleaning, including a section with sticky soda spots, and a section that had a dark gray patch of dirty foot traffic. The suction is great. Making a few suction-only sweeps over a freshly cleaned area leaves the carpet dry enough that its totally air-dried after just a couple of hours. After the carpet has dried, Ill do a quick run over it with the vacuum to fluff up the fibers, and the carpet feels brand new again. It is a relatively heavy machine, and because of the length of the handle its not very useful for right spaces. If youre older or have back/shoulder issues it can be very difficult to use the machine. If youre a couch potato like I am, prepare yourself for a decent workout. It also dont clean flush into corners, so be prepared to get on your hands and knees with the house attachment to scrub at the 1-2 margin along the walls, if those are in need of being cleaned. Be careful not to overspray with the hose onto latex paint, as the cleaner will cause it to bubble and peel. If you have pet urine stains I highly recommend pre-existing treating with Natures Miracle, especially if its soaked through to the foam layer. Between what well save on our security deposit, and what we would have spent in renting a machine, this purchase has already paid for itself about three times over. Ive read some concerning things about the longevity of this machine. After six tanks over three sessions its still like new. Ive bought Bissell products for decades because theyve been sturdy, reliable, and performed well, and its it hope that this machine will do the same, but only time will tell.