Bissell 3624 Spot Clean Professional Portable Carpet Cleaner - Corded , Black

I purchased my Spotclean on Amazon over a year ago (6/2013). It has worked almost flawlessly for my intended purpose. I use it to clean my carpeted stairs, stained carpet areas, upholstered chairs, and even my car interior rugs. I also just used my Spotclean to 'clean' up the mess left behind by my decrepit Bissell Proheat 2X steam cleaner. It had left awful dirt streaks everywhere. With the help of my 3 year old, we used the Spotclean to clean up the dirt streaks.The SpotClean is relatively easy to use and requires a little less effort to pull out, assemble and clean up than my Bissell Proheat 2X (which is being replaced). The suction on the hand tool is excellent. However, it DOES require a bit of hand force to extract the water. I don't mind because I want the area to dry quicker. Also, you will have to use your hand to scrub the carpet a bit if your stain is stubborn. I think some people may have unrealistic expectations concerning these machines. A hand tool does require your 'hand'. So, I consider these efforts minimal to achieve my desired results.The SpotClean has cleaned approximately 90% of the stains I have attempted to clean. I have a husband, 3 teenagers, a 3 year old, and a Cairn Terrier. So, I consider this a small feat. I have NOT used it to clean blood, wine, or ink. I really need to get a new upright steam cleaner because I can always tell where I've used my SpotClean because the area is lighter than the surrounding carpet. This is because the SpotClean did its job.The SpotClean is compact and easy to move around. It is compact enough to sit on standard stairs without toppling over. It has a bit of weight when the chambers are filled but not enough to cause fatigue by my standards. I am a 5'3 woman, and I don't lift weights. Some mentioned the desire for a longer hose and a retractable and/or longer cord. However, I think the hose length is adequate since you can easily move the SpotClean from Point A to Point B. If it is too long, then it is unmanageable to re-coil, then you would have another set of complaints from people. Also, if the cord length was longer, it would take more time than I care to spend to wrap it up. A retract feature would be one more thing to break and then we would really complain. Regarding the noise, it is louder than I would prefer but it may be just as loud as a standard vacuum cleaner. It does not bother me enough to do sound comparisons since I am just cleaning spots.I think the SpotClean cleans a decent area on one fill up. I admit, I do more 'area' cleaning than spot cleaning sometimes. Once you have taken the time to pull it out and assemble, you want to clean ALL the spots you see. If you are doing a full set of stairs, it will definitely require 2 fill ups. I pour the dirty water down the toilet instead of my laundry sink. I recommend rinsing the hand tool and the water chambers when you finish a job. I try to let the chambers dry overnight before re-assembling to put away. However, I have left the water chamber with the cleaning solution and water between uses without any problems. You will also need to spot check for lint build up on the red filter that is covered by the water chamber. You can wipe off the lint easily. These are all just precautionary steps to reduce 'yuck' build-up and musty smells. Remember that carpet cleaning is a dirty job. No matter how convenient the machine is, we still have to clean the filth collected from our handy little devices.My last recommendation is to use the recommended Bissell cleaning solution. It smells wonderful!!!! A little is all you need. Do not use more than recommended. As a matter of fact, I use a little less because I do not want excess shampoo in my carpet.

We used to have a Bissell SpotBot, and used it frequently, due to two young children constantly making messes. However, after the first few uses, we stopped using the automated feature of the SpotBot, because it uses a TON of shampoo, and cleaning up spills and stains with the hand tool took a fraction of the time anyway.The SpotClean Pro has a more compact footprint than the SpotBot, which is nice for storage. It also has more suction, which seems to do a better job of sucking all of the solution out of the carpet or upholstery, so everything dries faster. This also means that it should suck more of the stains out.I also much prefer the hose storage of the SpotClean Pro, compared to the SpotBot, which required wrapping the hose around the base of the unit, which inevitably caused tangles with the cord while trying to put it away.One of my favorite features though is the ability to thoroughly clean the recovery tank. The recovery tank on the SpotBot got NASTY...and there is no way to clean it out, because the only way to get to the inside is through the dump hole in the bottom. On the SpotClean Pro, the whole lid comes off, and there aren't really any nooks or crannies for gunk to hide in. Also, both the solution storage tank and the recovery tanks are MUCH larger than on the SpotBot, so you can get more cleaned with fewer trips to the bathroom to dump and refill.I do have a couple complaints about this unit though...it's rather heavy to lug around, and it's so loud that I have started wearing ear plugs while cleaning spots to prevent hearing damage. If you can get beyond that though, it gets an A+ for performance.General comment on carpet shampooing: Carpet shampoo attracts dirt, which causes stains. Use half of the manufacturer's recommended concentration of shampoo and you should notice less recurring stains, with little or no loss of cleaning power. Better yet, do a rinse step after shampooing to remove the shampoo from the carpet.