BISSELL® Big Green® PET PRO Carpet Cleaner, 3288

If you want a clean, non-blotchy, carpet use the pretreat everywhere. They dont include the pretreat. Where I didnt pretreat initially, I ended up going back.

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!

I would buy this product all over again. It is excellent on my carpets. I use it all the time with two large older dogs. Even the foot traffic makes the carpet dirty. PROS: ~This machine seems to put less water into the carpet than other machines Ive rented. ~The suction takes more water out of the carpet so the carpet dries faster ---even when I run over the same area time and time again to clean up a doggie accident. ~The machine works better than other carpet cleaners Ive rented/borrowed from family. I went over stains that Id previously cleaned with a rented Rug Doctor and it didnt get rid of them completely as they were old, but theyre quite noticeably better. ~The moving handle makes this comfortable for people of different heights to operate this. Other machines Ive used arent very comfortable. ~Filling the tank with water/solution is a lot less mess than other machines Ive used as the fill tank is removable. Machines Ive previously used you have to fill a bucket and then pour it into the machine and the suction fittings always got in the way which meant spilling (and solution is expensive!) ~The spinning dial makes it easy to see when youre out of water as it stops spinning. Yes, the sound the machine makes changes also, but if youre listening to music, or in the zone cleaning you may not notice that. The dial frequently catches my eye when it runs out as it is a spinning circle cut into quarters that are black/white/black/white. ~The clear tanks make it easy to see about how much of the cleaning solution tank youve used and how close to full the dirty tank is. ~I use my machine at least twice a week for spot cleaning. I clean my entire house, rotating rooms over a couple of days about every 3 weeks. The carpets do not appear to have any damage or wear from the machine. ~Dog hair is easy to remove from the bottom of the machine after using, and its easy to get out of the two parts to the dirty tank. Some of it also clumps on the floor when doing the cleaning so its easy to pick up while going. (Yes, I vacuum before, but even my Dyson doesnt get it all. We have large dogs who shed a lot year round.) ~The handle folding down makes it easy to store under shelves or hanging clothing in a garage/closet. ~It came assembled, well packed, and with a small bottle of original solution. Ready to go after removing a few cardboard inserts! Cons: ~Weight of machine is higher than that of the machines Ive rented in the past. HOWEVER, the tanks can be removed to transport it and its manageable. ~The dirty water tank can be a mess to empty. If you dont wait a few minutes for the water to settle when you lift it off it will drip dirty, water on you or your carpet/floor If you dont tilt it just right when dumping it, youll again have a bit of a mess on the bathroom floor and possibly yourself.. (I think Rug Doctors tanks from the machines Ive rented are easier to empty with less mess and theyre not in two pieces. The top piece here also drips when you remove it to dump the other tank, which means having to sit it in the tub or on the floor.) After cleaning the carpet I always clean the bathroom floor and tub as the dirty water gets on them. ~The dirty water tank, if not set just right, will not collect water. Once youve used the machine a few times its pretty easy to tell when you have it on right, but twice I emptied an entire tank without realizing it wasnt sucking up the water. (The dirty water tank handle when left up blocks part of my view at my height and I cant see if its sucking up the water.) This machine is well worth the price. I checked a LOT of sites and stores where it was available (including the Bissell site). Other than a no longer active Black Friday sale it was cheapest to purchase here on Amazon. I was very hesitant to spend this much money on a carpet shampooer. Its a LOT of money, but having used it a lot (two large elderly dogs create a lot of messes, not to mention foot traffic from humans and dogs alike.) I promise it is well worth the money. I would buy it even if it was $100 more knowing what I know now. I use it with the 2x Pet Stain & Odor Formula. Other people have said it was odorous or blue in color. It is clear and it does not smell at all. The only smell I ever have is when I go over a fresh urine/vomit spot and it only lasts a few seconds when you first go over it, and when you empty the dirty water tank. This cleaning solution works excellent. I have a small bottle of original formula that came with the machine, but I purchased the pet formula when I got the machine so I have not used it and compared. Id rather stick with what I know works. (The cleaning solution I found for the best price on Bissells site. Buy 1 solution get a second for 20% off, they frequently have % off codes which also give free shipping, and you get a 10% discount with a members points account, which is free. The discounts stack. I got 2 60oz bottles for $32 and some change today after tax and free shipping. Last time I bought them I had a slightly lower discount and paid $34.)

After owning a little green and having that ultimately break after 7 solid years of pet and kid ownership, I was looking for a replacement. We already had a traditional upright cleaner, but the hose/commercial cleaner combo caught my eye on the Big Green. We wanted a little more HP than the little green could offer from the hose. I also knew that to get the best you have to spend the best and laid out 4 large for the Biggen. Machine comes fully assembled which a rarity these days. Out of the box and onto cleaning in about 5 min. Construction: This thing is built like a tank. Thick, HDPE, and ABS plastic in most places with very little pieces of the cheap crack prone plastics used in the lower models. Thick, heavy cord with plenty of length. Solid no frills handle. A single switch! ON/OFF. Any questions? Tanks are of superior quality com paired to the standard uprights you find in department stores. I know because 1 went tumbling down an entire flight of stairs full of solution with zero breakage. Tanks lift right out of the machine with no latches to mess around with. There is not a single piece you touch that feels like the bean counters were looking over an engineers shoulders on this one. Vacuumm is of commercial grade and will rival most shop vacs. Lights dim when you turn it on, indicating the power within. Design: Commercial, and heavy. I can totally see this machine being rented or used by professionals, and it shows as soon as you start using it. Locating the pivot for the handle at the wheel axle was genius compared to the horrible Rug Doctor design that tips constantly. This machine cut my time by 2/3rds over our old upright. The water tanks are easily twice as large and allow you to clean MULTIPLE rooms before attending to the tanks. Our old upright would have to be changed about 2-3 times per room. Hose attachment works great with about 3-4 times the suction of the Little Green. The hose brush is also about 2X as wide which makes cleaning stairs and your auto go much faster. It also accepts Bissels standard brushes so you could swap out a narrow one for tight spaces if desired. No provisions for hose storage. I am neutral on this. It would be nice, but we had this on our old upright and removed it. I can see why they didnt put them on this. Hoses can be a pain while cleaning carpets because they tend to fall off. With the commercial theme of this vacuum, professionals would not mess with such a large hose falling off. Another nice feature is the flow wheel that spins when water sprays. This gives you instant feedback if the vac is spraying or not. No spinny, no water. This would help diagnose a pump failure if one ever happened. Cleaned carpets dry in about 1-2 hours depending on pile length. They used to take about 6 hours to dry. Negatives: Clean water tank runs out about twice as fast as the dirty tank. I dont know why Bissel engineers can never get the golden ratio right with these things. From my experience, you always need a much larger capacity water tank than dirty because of how much water is retained in the carpets. While this machine certainly leaves the carpets dryer than our old machine, it is not even a close call on what will run out first. I tried rolling the machine down my stairs like a dolly. The handle locks in upright position so I didnt think twice about it. WHAT A MISTAKE! The upright handle lock gave way sending the dirty tank full of dirty water tumbling down my stairs. Luckily I have the machine to clean it up and the tank didnt damage anything. I then see a handle on the front of the machine for lifting. This machine is fairly heavy and I am a grown man, but having to carry this machine full of water anywhere is not fun. The handle lock should be able hold the weight of the machine and tanks for a machine costing 4 large. Not a major flaw, but I cant see a single women operating this machine if she had to navigate a flight of stairs. This is a mans machine, or a womens machine in a rancher. Hose is about 4 stairs too short on length to cover an entire flight without having to carry the machine to the other end. Conclusion: This is a solid machine that instantly proves its worth in how much time it saves you cleaning your carpets. Yes, it is worth the price when you can clean 1200 ft^2 of carpeting in 2 hours. That used to take me all day. Minor quibbles as stated above, but shes got it where it counts. Great suction, wide cleaning path, easy to operate, cleans better than anything Ive used before, and saves you time. If you value having clean carpets dont waste your money on lessor products. They are too much of a pain to use which causes you to use them less. This machine is so easy and fast that you wont dread cleaning them.

This was my first carpet and upholstery cleaner purchase. We have mostly tile flooring in our home with carpet in the bedrooms, so I never considered getting a carpet cleaner when we moved in. However, when I started dog sitting for people, I had to reconsider my decision. My home smelled like dogs no matter how often I cleaned and I was tired of it, so I began my search for a good quality carpet/upholstery cleaner. I almost purchase a Hoover steamvac but I was really concerned about the durability of that product. I honestly didnt think it would last very long with frequent use. When I read all the amazing reviews for the BISSELL Big Green I contemplated it for a while before actually making the purchase. I really didnt want to spend so much money but it looked incredibly durable and I wanted something that would last for a good while and work as advertised. Let me say, this product did not disappoint! Ive used big green for a large area rug in my living room, my couches, the carpet in my bedroom, and the upholstery and carpeting in my husbands car. Every time, I was amazed with how much water, dirt and sediment the big green pulled up. What it did for my husbands car (with the hand tool) was especially impressive. We are taking an 8hr road trip with our son and I didnt want to be confined to a filthy car for such a long period of time, so I took it upon myself to give it a deep clean. We have owned this car for 2yrs and have never had it cleaned other than removing the trash and vacuuming it out. The people that owned it before us didnt bother getting cleaned before selling it, so when we purchased it there was also some staining and tons of dog fur. Now most of the dog fur had been long gone before I used the big green, so please keep that in mind. I cleaned all of the seats, top to bottom and then made my way to the carpeting, cleaning underneath the seats to the best of my ability. I probably went over the seats about 3 times before deciding that I was finished for the day. Now, when I went to dump out the water, it was black and there was lots of mud/dirt and rocks at the bottom of the dirty water container. There were even some small clumps of dog fur floating around in there. The interior of the car doesnt look brand new by any means (I will probably need to get a professional detailing service for that) but I am no longer disgusted at the thought of a long road trip in it. It actually smells pretty clean now and looks presentable. So, here are some things I love about the big green: It is an incredibly simple machine. Without the hose attachment, there are only 5 parts including the portion containing the motor. There are two bins, one for dirty water and one for clean, a clear dome shaped lid with a handle to cover the dirty water container, a small plastic, square filter type thing that you dont really need to bother with and then of course, the body, which contains the motor and scrub brushes at the bottom. Literally, all you need to do is add your water and cleaner, stack the bins on top of the body, plug in and turn on and you are ready to clean your carpets. The hose/hand tool attachment is also very easy to use and adds two extra parts. Not too many things to get broken here. The plastic is also very durable (as Ive mentioned before) and seems like itll last for several years. The suction is very strong and easily pulls up embedded dirt and small rocks from your carpet. Even while using the hose and hand tool, it didnt seem like any of the suction was lost. And of course, b/c of the great suction, dry time is minimal. Id say a couple of hrs for carpeting and upholstery, although when I used this to clean my couches, I gave them until overnight before I sat on them. It took the car about 4hrs to dry completely. Regardless of how long the dry time is, this isnt going to leave anything soaking wet. It will be only slightly damp once the water is sucked up. There are a few small things I didnt like about the machine. It is very difficult to maneuver (which was expected). When cleaning carpets, it does tend to spit out clumps of all the stuff it just sucked up. You know its working when you see these gross clumps but they are still annoying to pick up, unless you have someone going behind you to do it. I wish the hand tool had spinning bristles, although Ive heard that you can purchase one for a reasonable price. The last thing I didnt like was that this seemed to be a little too aggressive for my large living room area rug. Its a wool rug and it just seems like there are a lot of extra fibers getting sucked up by the machine, although the spinning bristles fluff my rug back up nicely. I may need to switch to using the hand tool on the rug though, in order to help prolong the life of it. All in all, this is a great product and well worth the money that was spent on it. It is expensive but I do believe that, in most cases, you get what you pay for. You wont regret buying this carpet/upholstery cleaner!

This machine is amazing, the answer to my clean carpet dreams! We have 3 German Shepherds and a Carolina dog in an almost 4,000 sq ft home where the entire upstairs is carpeted. I’m pretty OCD about cleanliness and every since we built this home 2 years ago I’ve been in a constant battle with all this carpet. I’ve been using the Bissell Pro Heat Revolution but was in desperate need for something with more cleaning power. After reading reviews, I decided to make the investment…and I am so thrilled that I did!! Yes this machine is big and heavy, but its a fair trade off for what you get in return. No more going over stains or puppy urine spots 4 and 5 times, this bad boy does the job the first time around. I still pre-treat tougher stains but I haven’t had one yet that this shampooer hasn’t worked on. Best investment I’ve made in a long time!!!

I should start this review by saying that my carpet is original to my house, which is 26 years old. I have had the carpets professionally cleaned and I have done them myself many times. I have owned several carpet cleaners in the past and really hesitated spending this much money for another. I have to say it is worth every penny! Seriously, it got out things I thought would never come out. My son had spilled Dr. Pepper behind a metal file cabinet in his bedroom, and of course didnt bother to mention it to me. It had set in for about six month by the time I found it, and the file cabinet had rusted on the soda. Not cool! So while I held out little hope, I pre-treated the stain with the cleaner that came with the machine (mixed with water) in a spray bottle. I let it sit around 10 minutes while I did other parts of the carpet. When I went over that area, almost all the stain came up, including the rust. I did go back and use the pre-treat again several times and each time more of the stain came up. There is a very faint rust stain that did not come out but you really have to be looking for it to see it. I found this machine to actually be more quiet than others I have used, which is not to say it isnt loud, because it is. But compared to other machines, even my husband commented that it was not as loud as the last one we owned. It cleans way, way better than other models I have tried and I didnt spend half my time running to the sink to empty and refill the tanks. I was blown away by the amount of water/solution that was sucked out of the carpet. Most other machines, even the professionals, leave the carpet so wet. Last time I had my Berber carpets cleaned it took 4 days to dry! With this machine it was mostly dried in 3 hours. I did have one spot that took till the next morning, but it was the area I went over several times. It was easy to operate and cleans on both forward and backward stroke. I also used this on my sofa, chairs, and an area rug with similar results. The hose is long enough to clean up the stairs, and the electric cord is long enough to not have to move it, at least in my house, very often. The Cons- It is heavy, which I guess is why it works so well but if you have stairs, you will probably have to carry it up in pieces like I did (machine, tanks separately). It did drip a little when I was carrying it to be emptied, which I hate, but every other machine I have owned has done the same...........Grrrrrrr! I dont like the water flow indicator. This little disk spins on the tank to show you the water flow. If you arent paying attention (I get into the zone when I clean and did this several times), you will be moving the machine around but no water/solution is being released. The way the tanks fit together make it a little difficult to tell when they are locked together. I was releasing solution into the carpet and nothing was coming back up. Had to turn the machine off, take the tank off and put it back on and fiddle with it to Lock it down. All of that said, I will and already have recommended this machine very very highly. Its really all about the clean!! The cons I listed are all small things that are more bothersome than real problems. I am please with my purchase and love that my carpet looks almost new again. Good for another 26 years??

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.

I wanted to get a real professional carpet cleaner. I seem to go through those cheaper $200 and $300 ones every year or 2. They do not seem to hold up. In searching I really htought I wanted a rug doctor since I have rented them several times and if hat many people use them and they still work great , that has to say something. I was reluctant to get this over the rug doctor that I know works well. I ended up getting the Bissel due to the arm folding down for storage. Works really good. I am not disappointment at all and the arm going down for storage is incredibly helpful! I would definitely recommend this carpet cleaner

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