That’s what you could end up with if you invest in one of these and use it on a regular basis.
One of the features I liked best about investing in a brand new property was the fact that I could also buy brand new carpets, where man nor beast had ever walked before. Previously when buying my houses, I had had to rely on the quality and choice of the previous owner and a good steam clean courtesy of my dad and the local rental outlet whilst I was at work.
However, after two years of teenage feet, numerous hidden spills, a few early puppy accidents and mucky paws I had had enough; the entrance to my living room was looking like the local nursery floor when it hadn’t been cleaned for a week.
My trusty old Daewoo hoover kept the bits at bay, but nothing could shift the stains and the musty look the carpet had developed around the doorway. I asked around, no-one I knew had a steam or wet and dry hoover, looked like I was at the mercy of my local Comet store again.
Perusal of the store found Dysons in every shape and size, bagless and bagged cleaners, wet and dry VAX machines, where the hell was I supposed to start?
Then to the rescue came my maiden in shining armour in the shape of a Comet sales assistant, extolling the virtues of the Bissell machines, assuring me there was nothing better on the market, and that it coped admirably with the Ribena stains of her two under 5’s, with two models in the shop, one priced at £169, the other at £238.99, I bet it did.
But the young lady was sooooo convincing, Martin rolling his eyes at the prospect of me investing extortionate sums of money in something that might not work, and me erring towards the pricier machine because it apparently also worked on ceramic and lino floors, I was convinced.
It was at this point I realised there was no credit on my Timecard owing to their ridiculous process of frontloading non-existent interest, however, luckily for me, Comet are ditching Timecard from October and moving over to G E Capital, so it was time to open a new account, all this does is give some breathing space of about 6 – 8 weeks, as at 29.4%APR, not being able to pay by the due date means you really shouldn’t be using it.
SO WHAT DID I GET FOR MY MONEY? A beast is the simplest way to put it with three free bottles of cleaner, two for the carpet, one for ceramic floors, and a bottle of Scotchguard protector.
It quickly became apparent in the shop that this beast is not light (it actually weighs around 10Kg/22lbs), I opened the box to discover that the top half of it, and all the accessories had to be self assembled. Knowing Martin’s track record of handling plastic, I decided to give it a go myself, what they don’t warn you of in either the shop or on the box, is that you require a PhD in applied engineering to work it all out, for that price surely it should be ‘plug and go’?
Basically, the Pro-Heat, Protech cleaner is a ‘deep’ floor cleaner, with a pipe attachment that offers a variety of different attachments including a number of different shaped brushes, a turbo brush and a skirting board style cleaning attachment that allow you to work on any stubborn stains before you use the actual floor cleaner.
There is a computer scanner on the front of the machine that offers two interfaces, ‘Too Fast’ and ‘Best Cleaning’, and very simply relates to how fast you are actually moving the machine across the carpet (this is only relevant to floor cleaning).
The machine has the facility to Scotchguard carpets, and a built in heater that keeps the water at a constant 25C whilst plugged in. If you leave the machine standing for two minutes you will find the area of the carpet underneath it has turned lovely and warm. You can also use it to clean upholstery, curtains and most non-carpeted floors with the exception of wood – although the book does recommend that you check your manufacturer details for synthetics to ensure they are not dry clean only. In addition, there are large typewritten warnings in the handbook advising that Berger carpets should not be deep cleaned.
SO HOW DOES IT WORK? Once you have pieced the machine together, you will discover it has what is called a ‘tank in tank’. Clean, warm tap water is placed into the inner bag and then replaced in the machine. The cleaning fluid is placed into a small dispenser bottle that sits on the other side of the machine (this bottle can and does leak, so be very careful about making sure the lid is on securely, and that when the machine is not being used, that the tank is empty, if leaving the machine for short periods of time, ensure that the fluid can’t leak out on to anything easily damaged or tarnished).
Once you have filled up all the necessary compartments (the machine will not work correctly unless fluid is present in both). Then, seek out your stains, and scrub them after setting the dials to pre-treat/tools and heavy duty. There is a spray button on the arm of the hose which will spray out a carefully measured dose of water and carpet cleaner; when not spraying, the hose will adopt a suction action.
Once you have worked on the stains, give it a couple of minutes to work, switch the dials over to floor cleaning and normal treatment and hoover your floor. There is a button on the handle of the machine to again allow you to dispense a combination of water and cleaning fluid, once you stop squirting, the machine will again adopt a suction action, and you should keep moving back and fore over the affected area until there is no fluid being visibly drawn up into the machine through the glass screen on the front. The dirty water is drawn back into the outer rim of the ‘tank in tank’, with the expandable inner tank bag reducing in volume and size to accommodate it.
The book advises you to perform a final clean after this process, repeating the above procedure, but with the dial set to dispense water on its own, this apparently allows you to take advantage of the machines and the chemicals full cleaning properties.
SO DOES IT WORK
As with anything involving chemicals, it is always advisable to perform a ‘patch’ test on an inconspicuous area first to ensure it doesn’t bleach / stain / ruin your carpet beyond repair, so it was firstly tested out on my rugs which were remaining off-cuts from the original carpet that had been bound and supposedly used as carpet protectors, but were actually in better condition than the carpet I was targeting, and bearing in mind that anyone venturing into my living room with shoes on was threatened with severe pain, I didn’t expect them to be too bad..
I followed the process to letter in the booklet provided, and was stunned to discover that the water was, to say the least, gruesome. In addition, there were piles of warm wet hair accumulating at various places on the rug, it was quite scary.
A quick check at 7am in the morning, established that the rugs were dry, still in one piece and looking pretty pucker, I just had time before going to a friends funeral to tackle the stains in the doorway. You are advised in the book to plan your ‘escape’ route before starting work, however, in this instance the problem was the escape route and therefore I had no option but to walk barefoot across the treated area, even when followed up with a clean water treatment, my feet felt quite sticky, I still had time to spare before getting ready and opted to try out the ceramic cleaner. This requires an additional piece to be fitted to the base of the cleaner, and this is not a straightforward process. You should also ensure you are using the correct cleaning fluid, else you will find yourself with a floor resembling the local skating rink.
Despite months of bleach mopping, my tiles came up cleaner than I have ever seen them, and the floor dries just as quickly as a mop and bucket, just in time for Hally to come in with her mucky paws.
THE RESULT? When I returned from the funeral, the stains were gone, and the carpet was looking as good as the day it was laid, and is now really nice underfoot – a result. This particular carpet has quite a deep pile, and it took around 10 hours to dry fully, and also requires a brush over to make it fit in with the rest of the room, but thankfully there was no discolouration.
Once you have finished the process, you will need to remove any muck from the screens and brushes, and also empty the dirty water tank and clean it out to remove any surplus muck that has found its way through the filter system, if you have pets, expect this to be a fair bit, particularly if using the machine for the first time.
ADVANTAGES • If you are prepared to put the work in, it will produce superb results on your carpets • It is cheaper than a Kirby, or at least the ones I have seen demonstrated • It cleans stains AND deep cleans • It cleans ceramic floors and upholstery • The computerised interface tells you when you are hitting optimum cleaning levels • Quite a pleasant, fresh and not too strong smell once cleanedDISADVANTAGES • It is heavy and cumbersome, and definitely not suitable for those with limited mobility or bad hearts • It is very noisy • I found it quite stressful to assemble • At £238.99 it was not the cheapest product on the market (we actually discovered that its real price was £279 and it had been incorrectly marked up, but Comet honoured the price tag) • It does not double up as a standard vacuum cleaner • The cleaning fluid tank can leak • A thick piled carpet can take around 10 hours to dry • Computerised interfaces have a habit of going wrong • You can only use Bissell cleaning fluids, £6.59 for a bottle of fibre cleaner, £5.97 for a bottle of ceramic cleaner (otherwise Bissell advise your warranty will be invalidated - how they know is anyones guess) • It is messy and fiddly to clean up
DO I REGRET IT? I must admit I do begrudge paying this amount for a cleaner, and would far rather have spent the money on an XDA, a new TFT screen or some additional software, but needs must, and looking at my lounge carpet now, it is cheaper than replacing it when I know that in two years time I would be in the same boat again – the kitchen rug got ‘done’ this evening, and it is off to Tasha’s room over the weekend, the subject of far too many teenage makeovers and facemasks.
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