Keeping my Carpets Spotless

In the summer of 2003, Mike and I decided to get a puppy. And like all puppies, Mazzy had multiple accidents all throughout the house. While we tried spot cleaning the messes when we caught them, it didn't take long before our cream colored carpeting was showing dark spots. So we were in the market for a carpet shampooer. After reading Epinions and Consumer Reports, we were pretty sure we wanted a Bissell. We then found the Bissell ProHeat Pro-Tech Deep Cleaner at BJ's Warehouse for about $170. We thought we were getting a good deal since we saw a similar Bissell with less features for only $10 less at Best Buy.

So once we get home, we decide to try it out. We move everything out of the way and try to turn the Bissell on...only it won't start; we got a defective one. So we ran back over to BJs and exchanged it for a new one. And this one has been working like a charm for the past 3.5 years.

The Bissell ProHeat Pro-Tech Deep Cleaner is a 12 amp cleaner which means it has lots of power to suck up those unsightly stains. It includes a long attachment hose, a stain brush, a ScotchGuard applicator and powerized 'Turbobrush' (which is a small handheld brush which can spray the cleaning solution and then suck up the dirt.) The box also came with two bottles of cleaning solution, one spray bottle of a spot pretreatment and three containers of ScotchGuard Spray. The cord is very long so we are able to clean both our entire downstairs without needing to reposition the plug.

Usage
First, you need to vacuum your carpet to remove any loose dirt. Then you want to fill the cleaning solution container with cleaning solution and select whether you want the normal amount of solution applied or if it's a high traffic area and you want extra solution applied. You'll also want to fill the bladder with clean hot water. The bladder contains a section for clean water and a section for the dirty water. It is approximately the size of a basketball (although shaped differently) which makes it convenient to add clean water and empty dirty water. (I find that I need one clean bladder per room that I clean.) At this point, you want to switch on the cleaner and the built-in heater and give it two minutes to warm up. The heater is supposed to raise the water temperature by 25 degrees which helps improve it's cleaning ability. After it's ready, you just use the deep cleaner similar to how you would use a regular vacuum. I typically make one pass while spraying the cleaner (the trigger is within the cleaner's handle) and then make another 3 or 4 passes to suck up the dirt. (There is a spray indicator on the vacuum which spins to show that it is applying the cleaner/water mixture. If you notice that it isn't spinning, it means that you are either out of cleaner or water.) I then continue doing this until my entire room is clean.

So now that my carpets are clean, I need to clean the Bissell Cleaner. I'll empty the bladder (containing the dirty water) and the cleaning solution container and rinse them out. I'll also rinse out the spray indicator mechanism and any accessories that I have used. Then I'll need to turn the Bissell over and clean out the brush. (Even though I vacuumed beforehand, hair and other dirt still gets caught up in the brush.) The cleanup process probably takes me about 5-7 minutes. I then let everything sit out and dry before storing it back with the deep cleaner.

Since Mazzy is no longer a puppy, I no longer need to use the Bissell ProHeat Pro-Tech Deep Cleaner quite as much; but I still use it about twice a year. I had no problems during that time and I'm completely satisfied with my purchase. My upstairs plush carpeting never appears dirty but after deep cleaning, it looks new. And downstairs, all the stains disappear on my cream-colored Berber carpeting after using the Bissell.