A little over a year ago I had no money to spend on gadgets and rather grubby looking carpets. I was feeling very hard done by and wanted to do something about the carpets. Buying new ones was out of the question, but we had had a very wet winter and also shortly before that aquired an extra dog, so where one dog bringing muddy paws inside every time she went round the garden I could cope with two was one too many. Apart from the look of the carpets our house was begining to smell a little like a kennels. Now I know I could wash the dog's feet, brush them til they gleamed daily, and used carpet freshening powder each time I vacuumed but even that didn't solve the problem of the grubbiness that I already had.
I did what I usually do when feeling down, I browsed the internet, looked on the Lxdirect site, and then talked a lot about why I really needed one of these. After a couple of days I decided that I couldn't live without one and ordered it on my account. I know I could have got a similar model cheaper, or waited for the sales in the shops, but once I decide I need something I have to buy it there and then.
Delivery was quite quick, I have had a look and now they are selling them for £194.54 and offer a three week delivery. I added the url for the lxdirect page that the Bissell carpet cleaner is on but it was such a long one that it made the page go funny and the advert on the side blocked some of the rest of the review. A big thank you to SugarNSpice for letting me know that. I have got rid of the url but it can be found on Bissell's own site, just type the name into a search engine and it will come up or on any one of the sites for large electrical stores.
First thing one morning on my day off, I opened it, I always have trouble opening large boxes so a sharp knife was involved with this task. I got it out and proceeded to put it together. There is a large piece of paper inside the box with picture instructions of how to do this. I followed them pretty much to the letter until it came to two large screws to hold the hose and toolholder onto the body of the machine. I didn't have a screwdriver so used a round ended knife for this job, it didn't work very well and sometime later these screws fell out and I haven't a clue where they are now but it hasn't fallen to bits yet!
I had a look at the instructions, which told me to locate the water holder. This has a sort of soft inner bladder and a hard outer shaped plastic box. Both of these are opaque so you can see how much water you put inside and when emptying you can see how much and how dirty the water is.
Then you fill the shampoo container and put it in place, fill the inner bladder with tap hot water and fix the lid on. This is a bit fiddly at first because the handle is what holds the lid on, so upright and you can lift it but flat and the lid falls off easily.
Put that in place, plug it in and turn it on. There is a button at the back to switch the machine on.
A light on the front tells you it is heating the water to the correct temperature, I think you should leave it running for a few minutes before starting your shampooing, but as out tap water is pretty hot I never bother waiting, I am an impatient soul.
On the back of the handle there is a lever which you press to start the water and shampoo mix spraying onto the carpet. You just have to hold the lever on and push it across the carpet, backwards and forwards while it sprays the carpet with hot sudsy water and the underneath brush brushes the carpet dislodging the dirt. Once you have washed a patch you can let go of the lever and use it just like an ordinary upright vaccuum cleaner and it sucks up the dirty water leaving the carpet damp but not soaking wet.
Once the inner bladder of clean warm water is empty and the outer container is full of warm dirty water it stops working and you need to empty the dirty water out and start afresh with clean water. The way you know it is full is because on top of the base of the machine there is a screw top which is clear and inside this there is a red float that twirls round and round. When this float stops twirling it means that it is no longer spraying out water and shampoo and needs emptying.
So, I cleaned my carpets, looked in wonder at the colours that they were, they really had got very dull and grubby looking. I took the machine round to my mums one morning and shampooed all of the carpets in her small bungalow and then my son's partner asked if she could borrow it to clean hers. I was happy for her to do so but had run out of the Bissell shampoo. She had some of another make left over in her cupboard and used this instead.
Now, the paperwork says to only use Bissell or it would invalidate the guarrentee. They also state that any other make could cause damage but we thought they would all be similar and it would work just as well. We actually thought that as a bottle of the Bissell shampoo is over a fiver then it was a sales thing and they wanted out money instead of us getting a cheaper make.
How wrong were we. The next time I used the Bissell it didn't work at all well and I couldn't understand why, very quickly the spinning float didn't spin and the shampooer didn't shampoo. I took it apart and found that the clean water from the inner bladder had leaked into the outer container indicating to the float that it was full. I emptied this and saw a sort of melted hole in the inner bladder. Now, I am not one hundred per cent sure that the other make of shampoo did this but I guessed that was probably what happened.
I was very upset, I hadn't had it long and it was quite a bit of money, it wasn't completely paid for and now it was broke. I looked on the Bissell site and found a place where you can order spare parts so for not too much money I ordered a new water container. That came free of post in a couple of days so top marks for Bissell's after sales service. I didn't call out their maintenance engineer purely because I knew we had violated the guarrentee by using the other shampoo and didn't want a huge bill.
The details, I have copied below from the website these details and am happy to say they are truthful ones with little sales pitch involved, what they say is what they do.
deep cleaner £194.54 Model: "1698J". ProHeat plus power wash. Deep cleans ground-in dirt and grooms carpets. Ideal for pet hairs. 1400 watts. Compact, easy-to-use and to empty tank-in-tank. Heated solution deep cleaner for carpets, stains and upholstery. Ready tools switch instantly converts to tools and carpet pre-treat. Carpet shampoo. 30ft power cord. 8ft long reach hose. Weight 10.8kg. 2-year guarantee. (This is not a vacuum). Dark-blue. BISSELL helpline: 0870 225 0109.
It is quite large and I don't have huge amounts of storage space, but it fits behind my vaccuum cleaner. It is quite heavy at over 10Kg. and I wouldn't want to carry it far although have loaded it into my car to take to mums when I did hers, it is heavier than the average upright vaccuum.
It is a bit temperamental, sometimes it will clean and brush and suck until the inner bladder is empty and the outer container is full of dirty water and sometimes it will give up before the inner one is half empty necessitating emptying it before it should be needed. Most of the time though it is fine.
It is quite noisy but no noisier than most upright cleaners.
These are many. It really does clean deep down, this morning I did the carpets in our bungalow, this job only took just over an hour, so quite quick too. First I vaccuumed and the carpets looked clean with no loose bits of dirt and no visible dog hairs or fluff. Once I have cleaned the carpets with the Bissell I have two large handfulls of fluff that this machine had picked up and once the carpets are completely dry I will vaccuum again and know from past experience what I get in my vaccuum cleaner will be very fine dust which is the last bit of dirt left. My house smells nice and slightly lemony fresh, and I am happy for my grandchildren to get down on their hands and knees and play knowing that the carpets are as clean and hygienic as I can make them.
Best of all is the doggy smell I got this morning when I sat on the floor is gone for now and I can do this job every so often to keep it away.
That is about all I can think of, my carpets are dry and it is time to run the vaccuum over it and go out.
Handheld - Water Capacity:-1 - Max Boiler Wattage:1500 - Steam Pressure in Bars:-1 - without Vacuum Function - without Steam Iron Function - without Variable Steam Regulation
This is a great review, let me see the resto of them.....
RICHADA 21.07.2005 00:00
"E"xceptionally useful, no dogs but just what we need nonetheless! R.
derek-j-a 13.05.2005 17:41
Thanks for an excellent review! We were only talking the other day about getting one of these.. We saw another upright make that was cheaper, but then realised it used cold water only. So the extra price is definitely worth if for the Bissell. We saw one five minutes after we bought our DVD recorder, but of course couldn't afford it then... The fact that you have to use their own shampoo isn't too much of a problem - but if friends want to borrow it, they will have to buy their own... Thanks for helping make up my mind... Derek
Bissell Fibre Cleansing For Deep Cleaning Machines 946ml Specially designed to deep ... more
clean and revitalise carpets and upholstery. Helps maximise the performance of full size deep cleaning machines (and all other 3 in 1 machines). Penetrates deep in to the fibres breaks down dirt, stains and odours without foaming. Deodorises refreshes fibres with light, clean scent. Protects against resoiling repels dirt and stains so fibres stay cleaner longer. Dries quickly leaves fibres fresh and soft. Safely cleans stain resistant carpet, upholstery, and water-safe fabrics. Concentrated deep cleans approx. 600sq ft of carpet (2/3 avge size rooms) depending on personal cleaning method. Contains NO phosphorus or artificial dyes.
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GENUINE BISSELL CARPET&UPHOLSTERY FOAM CLEANER STAIN SPRAY WITH BRUSH HEAD&DEEP FIBRE ... more
CLEANSING FORMULA CARPET/UPHOLSTERY SHAMPOO - DUAL CLEANING KIT **BISSELL CARPET&UPHOLSTERY STAIN FOAM CLEANER SPRAY WITH FABRIC SAFE BRUSH HEAD For Carpets&Upholstery** 340 grm - 12 fl oz Spray Can-Aerosol SPRAY FOAM CLEANER With Special FABRIC-SAFE BRUSH DEEP CLEANS&REVITALISES CARPET&UPHOLSTERY - REMOVES DEEP DOWN DIRT&STAINS ALL ORDERS PLACED BEFORE 3PM ARE DISPATCHED THE SAME DAY IN PURPOSE MADE PACKAGING TO ENSURE PRODUCT ARRIVES UNDAMAGED
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Mar 19th, 2005
(Mar 25th, 2005)
exceptional by (9%):
very helpful by (90%):
helpful by (1%):
