Our top choice is Bissell's Big Green Pet Pro carpet cleaner because it brightens white carpets remarkably and eliminates pet odor after just two months of use. In addition, it has two large water tanks, so you can clean carpets from wall to wall without having to constantly stop to fill or empty the tanks. Attaching the hose to go from carpet cleaning to upholstery is easy and, at just 16.5 pounds, this model is lighter than many other full-size cleaners. You'll need a good upright or canister vacuum to suck up loose debris before using a carpet cleaner.
One option would be to hire a professional carpet cleaner, but that can be costly, especially if you have a lot of carpeted areas in your home. To narrow down your options, before you start shopping, you might consider what to look for in a carpet cleaner. Whether your carpet has persistent dirt, muddy paw prints, or red wine spills, a good carpet cleaner can help. We evaluated carpet cleaning machines to see how well they clean pre-soiled and soiled white carpet test panels that meet industry standards.
Like the Tineco combination vacuum mops that we tested in the Good Housekeeping cleaning laboratory, this carpet cleaner works with one application and automatically adjusts the suction and flow of water depending on the amount of dirt and dirt it detects is accumulating. Although you can rent heavy-duty carpet cleaners or hire a cleaning service, having a carpet cleaner ends up being more affordable in the long run, assuming you use it at least a handful of times, and it's definitely more convenient to have one on hand. To better understand if it's worth buying your own carpet cleaner, you could consider how often you plan to clean your carpets and then compare the cost of buying one to the cost of renting one or hiring a carpet cleaning service. Even if you have a normal-sized carpet cleaner, sometimes it's more than you need or want to fill just for an occasional spot on the carpet or couch.
Professional cleaners use stronger and more powerful equipment than what you can buy or rent, in addition to pre-treating stains and can refresh and reapply the stain repellent treatment that your carpet probably came with when it was new.
