BISSELL® Big Green® PET PRO Carpet Cleaner, 3288

Finally , after a long while, I used the Big Green Machine yesterday. I was impressed, really pulled the dirt out. I used it again today just on the high traffic areas and it pulled even more dirt out.

Ive had this machine for two weeks now and have really mixed feelings about it. It works well, with some quirks and some flaws. For quirks, it cleans really well, much like rental machines, but it leaves stripes. If you work from right to left, itll leave a 1 stripe. From left to right, itll leave about a 1 1/2 stripe. This is because the sprayer and vacuum area is wider than the brush bar by those amounts right and left. If your carpets are dirty and light colored, its really noticeable. You can go back over the areas, but the stripes will remain with each pass, but lighter until the carpet is so clean from repeated passes that its not noticeable. The beater should have been the same width as the sprayer and vacuum. Oh, and I found Zip Premium Carpet Shampoo. Its about half the price and worked better for me than the best Bissel stuff. For design flaws, I first want to say that unlike the home model cleaners made of clear plastics that harden and shatter with age, this machine is built to last. If you buy it with a credit card offering warranty extension, you get 5 years from Bissel and 2 more years. Its built to last to that level of service. Materials are good with service panels held with stainless screws allowing easy access for cleaning and repair. After every couple tanks, you do need to pick clear the bottom of carpet fiber debris as you would any machine. It doesnt require any disassembly, but you should also use some type of hooked tool to clean out the entrance to the vacuum to clear out debris clogs. No big deal. But for me, after cleaning 3 rooms, the machine started to squeal. I followed the manual and first checked the beater brush belt. There was some black, belt dust debris. The cogged belt pulleys were not aligned and the output shaft of the brush motor was making noise when rotated by hand. I corrected this by fully seating the cogged wheel bearing in its housing to properly align the belt and removed the motor to lubricate the shaft bearing which was making the noise. This should not have been required and really is beyond the scope of a typical buyer. The machine is very easy to work on, but you shouldnt be expected to do this type of service after a few hours. I like the machine, but am concerned that my fix is temporary and that damage may have already been done.. Ill probably return it in exchange for another. Despite the quirks, I like it and just hope that the motor problem was not a common occurrence. Edit: The motor noise came back so I called Bissel about getting a replacement motor. They said Id have to send in the entire machine for warranty repair. Since its still eligible for return to Amazon, Ill just do that and buy another instead.

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’d previously owned a Hoover carpet cleaner. The handle lock broke in the first couple months and it would spill nasty water whenever it was in use. It also just did a piss poor job. When I bought it, the reviews were positive. So, I was really skeptical when it came time to replace that crappy Hoover. From the very first seconds of use, I knew that this Bissell was money well spent. My carpets and rugs haven’t been this clean since they were new. I have two pre-teen kids and a black lab that make for some pretty gross messes at times. Now, muddy paws? no problem? Spilled juice? No problem! Kids didn’t let the dog outside in time? No problem. The only downsides are that I wish the spray button was a switch, and that the unit is pretty heavy. So pushing and pulling this thing around while having to keep your thumb on the button makes for a hand cramping experience after a few hours. But, the results are clearly worth it. This thing pulls out all the dirt and dog hair from the carpet. I went three passes with my Dyson before running the carpet cleaner and the Bissell pulled masses of hair up from deep in the pile. The pile beaters on this thing are impressive and make my vacuum’s look worthless. About that dog hair. No matter how much I ran into, the Bissell didn’t clog up and quit like my outgoing Hoover. Great unit, built stoutly, worth every penny.

This is our third different carpet shampooer in the last three decades.. at least thats how I remember it. One was a Hoover with the five round spinning brushes which we lost in a house fire, and I cant remember the other It heated the water but got tossed because it eventually leaked. I will add that I worked for Electrolux one summer for some spare change when I was teaching so I have been around some pretty nice equipment and know how to clean carpeting. We have a new home now with some very nice, upgraded carpeting. We needed a new shampooer because we live on ten rural, burned-over acres with a lot of dirt and dust when it is dry and a good amount of mud when it is wet. We also have a rambunctious German Shepherd. With a sort of beach-sand, tan color deep, dense carpeting I want to keep clean I needed something that could do the job. I spent a good amount of time shopping and when I finally came near the end it came down to a choice between the Bissell Big Green and the Rug Doctor. I chose the Bissell. The pre-sale factors were the numerous reviews of the Bissell stated that it got the carpet really dry, it was easy to use, it was smaller, and came with the accessory hose, and cost less. I got a chance to shampoo the entry way at our front door. There is a vinyl area just inside the door, and beyond that is a carpeted area about 12 feet long and 6 feet wide. Following the mixing directions I made about half of a tank of cleaner and followed the directions for use. Hold the spray button while walking forward and then back, then release the button and make a similar pass to pick up the cleaner. I did much the same for three small area rugs made from scraps of the same carpeting. One of those sits in the kitchen at my espresso bar and gets stained with coffee grounds, dripped coffee, and more. Also the carpet inside the utility room with a door to our attached garage. That one acts are a door mat from when I come in, sometimes with muddy shoes from working on our property, often with hand tools or when running our tractor and chipping burned brush and trees.. You can imagine what that one looked like. The results: I could not be more pleased. After just 8 months living in our new home it was astounding how much dirt Big Green pulled up. I made an extra pass or two to pull up as much of the cleaner as possible, and just after a couple of hours the carpet felt humid when I ran my hand over it, and in around four hours was dry. I vacuumed the carpet I shampooed this morning and you could close your eyes and walk on it and feel how much fluffier it is compared to the area I did not clean with Big Green. SUCTION: good suction efficiently applied to carpet is the key to an efficient shampooer. You can use a garden sprayer and a floor broom to loosen the dirt, but without a way to get that moisture and dirt up it is a waste of time. Big Green has an efficient brush roll that is easy to clean and by removing a few easy-to-access screws makes changing belts easy as well. And did I mention excellent suction! Even the hose and hand tool did a very good job on an old muddy footprint my dog left some time ago. With the other shampooers I would have to shampoo, then pick up that liquid, then put clean water to rinse the carpeting and it would still come up dirty, and then sty wet for a long time, sometimes being heavily humid still the next day. I had rented the Rug Doctor in the past and am so glad I got the Big Green. For a home owner, it surpasses the Rug Doctor in so many ways. It stores easily in a closet, the tanks are easy to fill and clean and attach simply and quickly to the base unit, the handle release can be operated by your foot, and the folding handle makes storing easy. Although it weighs around 50 pounds, it is not difficult to move and the weight keeps the business end on the carpet where it belongs. Have you really read this far? Just go buy the thing and enjoy your clean carpets!

Work great Like described Good price

I always rent the rug doctor to clean my carpets but figured i would just buy one so went Amazon.com to purchase a rug doctor but then i saw this bissel it had better reviews so thought i would give it a try. Well it had better reviews for a reason it cleans carpets better and destroys rug doctor on the length of time your carpet drys. I was renting a used machine so that might have a little something to do with it.

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.

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.

Yes, it is expensive, but forget buying the smaller, lesser machines. Unless, that is, you are someone who doesnt have a space for a machine this large. I have now had this thing for over four months and it has saved my carpet. I have 7 cats. Running over a great swath of cat vomit with this machine is like taking an eraser to a chalk board. Sweep sweep sweep and it is gone. I no longer cringe when my senior cat, Toby, has a problem. Because I know the solution is just sitting there in my closet. I had a room upstairs filled with over 50 birds (I was breeding canaries), and a tortoise in a house. I got out of breeding birds and found a better place for the tortoise, and then I found myself staring in horror at the carpet under the two aviaries and the tortoise house. I had several inches of accumulated bird dander and seed dirt under the aviaries. The tortoise had dumped her water repeatedly and the red substrate I had as her bedding got wet and soaked into the carpet under her house to the point it was literally black. I tried my smaller Bissell and it really did very little. I saw this machine and hated the price. But I bought it anyway. It is literally on my top five purchases EVER in my life. It took 10 repeated shampoos to get that carpet in that room looking like new. Which it does, by the way. I cant even believe it--even the black carpet under the tortoise house looks new. You cant buy into those pictures that show a filthy floor and a path of perfect cleanness behind the machine like its done this with one swipe. It takes repeated shampoos. I used over an entire bottle of cleaner to get that room to the point that the water in the tank was finally clean. Anyway--if you are chewing your nails at the price, dont. Better to get a machine that does the job at the start, then get lesser machines that kinda sorta do the job, until you one day throw up your hands and go for the big one. You save money in the end to not buy the smaller machines. Unless, as I said, you dont have the space. Or maybe you live alone and you arent very strong. This thing is rather heavy. But I find when I want to take it upstairs, its easier to remove the two tanks first. Also, Bissells anti-urine odor product that goes with this machine is very effective. My Toby liked to pee on my carpet in one spot until I found premium cat litter to get him back to using his box. My entire condo smelled like pee after the first shampoo as this machine drew up all the nasty stuff from the carpet pad under the carpet in that area. After the second shampoo I wasnt smelling urine anymore. At all. And now when I walk into my condo I no longer smell that disgusting smell. So do I recommend this machine and the products that go with it. Hell, yes! Best investment I have made since I bought my home.