Big Green® PET PRO Carpet Cleaner with 8 Row XL DirtLifter PowerBrush, 9-inch Long Reach Hose, 2 Upholstery Tools, Includes Pet Pro Oxy Urine Eliminator Formula

If a picture is worth a thousand words, I have posted two pictures of the very first short pass on our home's carpet using this new machine. This is at the top of the stairway in the upstairs hallway. She placed the machine and then pulled the handle releasing the cleaning solution and water and pulled the machine backwards ONE TIME. She did not go back over the spot. Look at the results. Strange thing is, you don't really notice how dirty the carpet is until you use a GREAT MACHINE like this one.........These carpets were cleaned with the Rug Doctor Mighty Pro X3 just two months ago. My wife vacuums our entire house EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. In fact, she has a machine on each floor to avoid having to carry the vacuum up and down three floors. We have Simplicity Pro Upright Vacuums (an $800 plus per machine vacuum) and a Shark Upright, and they are very good vacuum cleaners. We have 3 large canine kids all who reside in the house, where they belong. Of course, most of the carpeting in our home is an off white berber style carpet. We have tried everything over the years from professional carpet cleanings to various rental carpet cleaners and we have owned a number of machines ourselves. Recently, our neighbors allowed us to borrow their new Rug Doctor Mighty Pro X3 to clean our carpets. It worked well and I decided it was time to buy our own machine (again). The Rug Doctor we borrowed from the neighbors worked better than the upright Hoover Pet Machine and another similar upright "vacuum cleaner" looking carpet cleaners we have owned. Usually, the biggest flaw in these upright machines which are styled like vacuum cleaners are that they don't extract the water and cleaning solution well (weak suction) which leaves the carpets wet. Also, they have small water holding tanks for both clean water and extracted water. Small tanks mean a lot of filling and emptying of those small tanks. Every minute spent filling or emptying dirty water tanks is a minute NOT spent cleaning the carpets. You can spend more time emptying and filling those small tanks than you actually spend cleaning the carpets. It's critical that you don't overuse ANY of the carpet cleaning solutions when cleaning the carpet. It's a common mistake people make when cleaning their own carpets. Some people equate more soap with cleaner carpets and in reality, just the opposite is actually true. When you use too much soap, the machines don't rinse the carpet well and it doesn't extract the solution OR the water from the carpet. The carpets will actually get dirty faster when they have excess dried cleaning solutions on them. Also, carpets which remain wet longer because the water and solution are not extracted properly will mean more dirt will stick to the carpets and running a vacuum cleaner over damp carpet gums up the vacuum cleaner and reduces the vacuum cleaners dirt lifting ability, not just when the carpets are wet, but afterwards as well. Typical residential Vacuum cleaners (not the Shop vacuum types of machines) are NOT designed to extract moisture from any surface. Getting your vacuum cleaner wet underneath from using it on damp carpets will cause the brushes to gum and the belts to slip and eventually it will wreck the machine. Wet / damp carpets are not only a nuisance, they are destructive to vacuum cleaners. Just ask any vacuum cleaner repair person and they will confirm just how destructive it is to use any residential vacuum cleaner on damp carpets. Ideally, when you begin the project of cleaning your carpets, you want to spend as much of your time actually cleaning the carpets and not shuffling clean and dirty water back and forth. This is where the Bissell Big Green Deep Cleaning machine really separates itself from the competition. Not only are the clean and dirty water tanks larger than virtually every other machine we have either owned, borrowed or rented, the Bissell Big Green Deep Cleaning Machine also has a much better cleaning bar to scrub the carpets. But one of the greatest distinctions between our new Bissell Big Green Deep Cleaning Machine and the Rug Doctor which we had borrowed from our generous neighbors, is the Bissell is far superior at lifting the water and cleaning solution out of the carpet when you are extracting the water and solution. I would say it is at least TWICE as good as the Rug Doctor machine at actually extracting water and cleaning solution from your newly cleaned carpets. Having owned about half a dozen different machines over the years, I wasn't too excited about spending $400 plus shipping on another carpet cleaner. I have cleaned and repaired our previous machines numerous times and it's really disappointing how many of the machines are really made. The Bissell Big Green Deep Cleaning Machine has a 5 year Residential Warranty on the machine, which is excellent. The machine is well made and another SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE between this machine and the Rug Doctor Blue machine is the actual handle height when you use the machine. My wife and I are both taller than average, she is 5'10" and I am 6'4". I personally found the handle on the Rug Doctor machine at a terrible height for me to use. The Rug Doctor machine handle requires me (and my wife) to stoop over to operate the machine, which becomes a problem very quickly. Not the case with the Bissell Big Green Machine. Near as I can tell, the handle operating position on the Bissell Big Green Deep Cleaning Machine is about 5" taller than the Rug Doctor machine. This makes a HUGE DIFFERENCE when using the machine. Big advantage to the Bissell Big Green Deep Cleaning Machine. The water and solution extraction of the Bissell Big Green Deep Cleaning Machine has to be at least DOUBLE that of the Rug Doctor Machine we had borrowed from our neighbors and theirs is a new machine with very little use. How can you tell how much water the machine is extracting? Simple, if you put two gallons of clean water in and when you extract it, you only get 3 quarts of dirty water, the rest of the water is remaining in the carpet, along with some which will evaporate during the process. The point is to get out as much of the water and cleaning solution that you have put into the carpets. The Bissell Big Green Deep Cleaning Machine clearly is superior to the rug Doctor in extracting cleaning water and solution out of the carpets. By far, the best machine we have ever used to clean carpets. The carpets were even dryer than when we have paid someone $800 or more to clean our carpets. When my wife cleaned the carpets with the Rug Doctor machine, we actually used those floor drying blower machines for 2 or 3 days after the carpet cleaning to help dry the carpet.Truth is, we are so used to having damp carpet after cleaning that we own two of those clam shell styled floor dryers which the carpet cleaning pro's use. With the Bissell Big Green Deep Cleaning Machine, there is no need for the floor drying blowers as the carpet was dry to both the touch, but more importantly, it passed the "SOCK TEST" after 24 hours. Walk on the carpets in your socks and see if they get wet. After a day, our carpets passed the "Sock Test" where it took nearly three full days with the rug Doctor machine. The two machines are similar in appearance and in style. But that is where the similarities end. The rug Doctor is a good machine. The Bissell Big Green Deep Cleaning Machine is a GREAT MACHINE, especially for the price. I asked my wife to honestly give me any negative about the Bissell machine she could think of after having spent two days cleaning several rooms of carpet and hallways and staircases. We discussed the two machines and their use. In the end, the ONLY negative comment about the Bissell Big Green Deep Cleaning Machine is that we didn't purchase it sooner. Hands down, The Bissell Big Green Deep Cleaning Machine is the best carpet cleaning machine we have ever used, owned, rented or paid others to clean our carpets. Having a direct comparison to the comparable Rug Doctor machine was very handy. I would give the Rug Doctor Mighty Pro X3 a 7 out of 10, where as I would give the Bissell Big Green Deep Cleaning Machine a 9.9 out of 10. Why a 9.9 and not a perfect score? I don;t want the Bissell engineers to stop their pursuit of perfection in residential carpet cleaning machines, but with this machine, they are much closer to perfect than any other machine we have ever used.

I've owned this machine almost 3 full days. We have shampooed our living room and have started on our bedroom and dining room carpet. I really am super grossed out of how bad a carpet can get when you are a neat freak and you clean and vacuum regularly. Shampooing on the other hand will now happen more often since purchasing our own shampooer. So far I say the machine is tops! However with longevity of the machine I can't say. Let me first tell you proof is in the photos and I really am ashamed to share them however it's the reality of carpet owners all over the world. Carpets get gross even when you are a clean housekeeper it just happens and even though no one wants that to be their carpet it is. Okay it's recommended for this machine use by bissell and myself for good reason. Buy the Bissel Stain Pretreat in the spray bottle before you begin. I also bought the oxy boost by Bissell that is safe for all shampooers says on the bottle. Make sure to only use Bissell products in this machine. Vacuum the carpet with a clean vacuum make sure the filters are clean and take your time vacuuming. We shampooed our living room with the provided Bissell professional deep cleaning 2x ultra solution. I used a Bissell pet and spot treatment on the areas that were high traffic. After the shampooing I was super bummed. It didn't impress me at all. I thought our carpet is either ruined or this machine isn't good. And I was in the 1 star rated peoples experience category. So I called bissell and wasn't a fan of the man's statements or advice he said the pet and spot treatment is the same as the pretreat and to use it. Also said I need to shampoo the carpet a minimum of 3 times letting it nearly dry or completely dry between shampooing which I agree with that part because it's been a few years since shampooing. (steam cleaning by a professional) by the way steam cleaning isn't deep cleaning. I said the pet and spot cleaner is the same thing? He said it was. I said so bissell is bottling the same thing labeling it different to scam people to buy more products. Then he changed his wording and said it's a different formulation but just use what you have. Anyways I had written bissell also but hadn't heard back yet so I used my gut and went and got the pretreat before saying this machine wasn't good. I also got the oxy boost. I sprayed the pretreat over the whole carpet lightly and heavier on the high traffic area and shampooed for the 2nd time. At that point I felt the carpet was cleaner than with the professional steam cleaning. However I shampooed a 3rd and final time and it feels and looks amazing. We are very pleased and it smells great! This cleaned spots that the professional couldn't budge. We stopped at three cleanings. So when doing the dining room I have only done it one time and that's with the pretreat the deep cleaning solution and the oxy boost. We had an area we never realized was as bad as it was until the furniture was removed and I'm grossed by this room. It's a pass through we have used it to sit in maybe 5 times in 4 years. Literally it's not used. This room was worse than our living room which we always use. My photo is from only 1 cleaning with this solution. This proves that the products used was the answer. I am still shampooing it 2 more times before I'm done. If we are removing all the furniture then we are going to make sure we do it good. The machine goes together well and is heavy but easy to use. I'm a weak person and it gives me a little workout. I'm sweating by the time I complete a room but it is a professional style machine. It needs to be heavy to do heavy work. My husband said it isn't heavy to him but he's stronger than me. He said feels like pushing a vacuum to him. Haha! Is it worth the money? In my opinion as of now yes as long as it holds up longevity wise. If our house was empty the cleaning would be done within a day or 2 but with furniture needing moved from room to room and energy wise this is going to take a few more days for the whole house. So with 3 days that's $90 plus tax worth if rented. Plus after all the gross stuff this picks up in a home that I know isn't a filthy home. I don't want other people's germs brought into my home when cleaning the carpet. So far it's worth it and I know what filth it's sucked up. We also cleaned our throw rugs and clearly can tell it did a great job. They look strange to us cause it cleaned them to look like new different rugs. Our home is around 1400 sq ft I believe? We have 3 bedrooms, living room and dining room. I would say 3-4 bottles of 22oz pretreat would do our whole house and rugs with the high traffic areas that we have. Tips make sure to use the right products and treat the carpet as directed and take your time. If you haven't shampooed in a few years shampoo let it dry repeat until the water improves averaging 1 time per year or year and a half of time not shampooed. 3 or 4 years 3 or 4 shampoos. Use hot water don't boil or microwave Pretreat (I rubbed the pretreat in with my hands on bad areas) let sit at least 5 minutes We sprayed the water moving forward we sucked going back. We stopped and moved slower across bad areas and we sucked over the wet carpet 2 more times getting as much water out of we could per each shampooing. It also shortens dry time and gives a better clean in my opinion. Let dry at least 2-3 hours with fans on them before repeating We washed each part of the machine very well each day after use. Be sure to clean around the brushed area of gunk from the carpet that collects there that will surprise you how much collects. Let completely dry before putting furniture on the carpets. Wood stain can run and metal can rust on carpet. Be patient. It's a huge job and if you don't do it often you need to give it fair time to take care of the job. Remember carpet wears just like clothes do. They may be clean but may not look new that isn't the machines fault. After shampooing and carpet is dry use your vacuum and go back over it all to lift any pieces that the deep cleaner lifts and leaves behind. Sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor and the super soft fluffy clean carpet. The photo with the bay window lamp and fan is before and after 3 shampooing The water was 2nd shampooing The photo collage without the fan or lamp is the dining room before and after only 1 treatment 2 more is being done before stopping.

The most important adjetive for this machine is, AMAZING! First, I'd like to recommend anyone researching this or any product... Read reviews. The good and the bad! Then, look for the trends in those reviews and from there, determine for YOU what is important versus what is not important. A handful of bad reviews that involve complaining about things that have nothing to do with the product specifically (i.e. packaging, delivery, etc) or a small percentage of reviews that have minor "breaks" or other minor problems versus the hundreds or better yet, thousands of great reviews on the same product, those "bad" reviews may need to be taken lightly. Unless, of course, those things are important to you. Do consider this. It doesn't matter how a product is made (assembly line or hand made), there will ALWAYS be faults. No matter the company or how good the product is overall. Obviously, the fewer problems the better but if you are seeing hundreds or thousands of good reviews to a few dozen or so negative, then that would be a reasonable percentage of errors with any good to great product. I know some people will have multiple bad experiences with the same product where others have no issues. There are a multitude of reasons that could happen but look for the overall, not just that one review. That said, I recommend and do this myself, but when looking for trends, if the bad reviews are all because something breaks but maybe its a different piece each time, then there may be an obvious trend. I would possibly take that into consideration. It may not make my decision for me, but the trend of what users say about the product is what I'm looking for and it's paid off for me quite well. Bottom line of what I'm trying to say is, don't just look at one or two reviews and don't just look at the good or the bad, but rather review as best as you are comfortable with on both ends of the spectrum and decide what trends you find and how those trends impact your decisions. For me, reading actual buyers/users reviews are better in almost all circumstances then any lab testing or any company that does product reviewing. With that, I have started my research with company reviews, but in the end, WE'RE the end user! It is our perspective and experience that matters most. I'd rather gain real world end user perspective then read an article that may or may not be paid for to make a statement one way or the other. On to my review. I have to say this first. When I was researching and reading reviews, my first thought, when I decided I was gonna make this purchase, was "I hope my money doesn't go to waste, but if I get even one great cleaning, that is better than I could pay any over priced "professional" with a oversized "vaccum" in their van, that doesn't even lift out the dirt but just wets the floor and kinda cleans. Then IT'S WORTH IT." I mean not to offended any professional out there but simple soaping the floor and suctioning it up isn't cleaning. That's multiple experiences and eventually, history doesn't lie. Now, I did follow the recommendation of at least one reviewer in this review group that doubled up on the solution, and it worked. I'm not recommending that for you. Just telling you my experience and what worked for me. Now I know you saw the pictures and probably felt ill just looking at that floor. Obviously, we thought so too. It's disgusting and thus we purchased the Big Green Machine. We can compare this unit to the many other ways we've tried to keep carpet clean in companies paid and products purchased and nothing else has come close to this. We have SEVERAL pets to which I won't mention how many but I will say I don't have enough fingers to count them all. We love our fur babies and other pets. We also like having a clean floor and clean house. The floor is the biggest battle in our household. Nothing is more off putting then walking into someone's house and it wreaks of animal urine. But when it's your own home and everytime you come home it smells. YUCK! Multiply that smell by 5 and and that is what anyone else coming into your home smells. We've been there. We were just there. We didn't want to host anything because of the floors. But now, I can very happily and more than confidently say that we've found our cure. This machine is just straight up, Amazing. I've never had a "professional" even come close to cleaning carpets as well as this BIG Green does. If I could find a professional to do this it would almost absolutely cost more than this machine, but I can get multiple uses out of this, as long as well cared for. You can see it for yourself in my posted pics. That dirty floor there is several months of pet stains because the moment we moved into this house my first dog discovered the location of the previous tenant's dog's "place" within less than 5 minutes being in this home. We even waited outside with our dogs before going in to this house for the first time, while they all "did their business" and still she started this disgusting trend. So let's chalk it up to this. More than a handful of household free roaming pets and 11, that's right, ELEVEN months of this. So here's what we did. Machine arrived as quoted at time of purchase. That very next available day off, Saturday, I carefully went through the included manual and honestly, this machine looks like it could or should be difficult, but it truly isn't. Very easy to unpack, assemble, dis-assemble, and re-assemble again. That's important as you will have to empty this unit and refill with clean solution every one gallon. VERY easy to push/pull. Don't leave solution in tank or in machine. Keep all parts clean and dry when in storage. That's how I've best kept any product that uses liquids with electrical devices. Never store liquids in the machine or attachments when not in use. Unfortunately sometimes that means tossing any leftover portions unless you wish to find another way to store the liquid. Diluted solution is not recommended to be put back in with concentrate as number one, it likely won't fit, and number two, you'll ruin the concentration level of the original solvent. Next, I went to work on the floor. Now, I do have to say many people and these products suggest to pretreat. I did NOT pretreat. I wanted to see how this product (with double amount solution) would actually hold up. I started with a small space (4' x 4' landing) and immediately could see the difference. Then when I started the first trip down the hallway, my wife suggested to take before and after photos. That's what you find above. My process with doing this was to make a forward pass (I divided the hallway into 3 sections. Moving side to side the up. Closest, middle, furthest). While moving forward, I moved the machine steady at about 1 inch a second or slower. I know that seems slow but look at it. It works well. Then on the backwards pass/pull, I moved at the same pace where the carpet was heavily soiled, but where it wasn't pet stained I went about 3 inches per second. This may sound slow but consider that you have to let the solution get into the carpet and let the machine do its job. No product can do that if you rush through it. And dont force it. Let it do it job. You just steer it and place solution accordingly. On the forward pass, I held the trigger to spray the entire distance, then on the backwards pull I only held the trigger where stains resided. The suction is at the very front of the unit and collects everything on the backwards pull. Where heavy solution was applied, another slow pass, without pulling the trigger, will gather up about 95% of the moisture. That said I did make 2-3 passes forward and back with applying solution where the stains were prominent. Which was a strong majority of the hallway. The first pass really did the job better then great but considering the nature of the stains, I wanted to be more than thorough. This hallway measures about 4' wide by 23' long and took about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. But, boy was it worth the time, money, and effort. The bedroom is my young daughters who struggles still with door knobs and thus her room is open for her, by which the pets in the house took full advantage. Still not good but they did keep most of there spotting to the hall way. Her room was just as, if not more important than the hallway to get cleaned for her benefit and sanitary health. Once I was done with the cleaning process, I emptied the dirty and clean water tanks and rinsed thoroughly. Then I put about 1/2 gallon of plain water (No solution) in the fresh water tank and ran that over the clean floor by spraying the water just as if I were cleaning the floor. I didn't use the full half gallon. I ran enough water through until I felt the solution was pretty well cleaned out. Probably a total of 1-2 minutes of total trigger squeeze. This was to allow fresh water to run through the machine to clear out the solvents in the lines that carry the solution from the clean tank to the sprayer nozzle. I can't confirm this was or was not long enough. Just going on experience to avoid damage of the unit while in storage. Once that was all done. The carpet was completely dry by the time we went to bed. So probably 4 hours or less. It's been 2 days since I did this and spots have NOT magically returned. This is a major win. I will try to update this post after a total 1 week has passed to see if it still holds. If so, I'd call this an absolute winner, where other products have completed the job or professionals have left and within two days spots have returned. That has not yet occurred in this case. Also, to resolve the pet issue, we placed a very solid metal baby gate to block the dogs from going back upstairs without us, during the day, until it's all our bed time. We work from home, so the dogs hang with us throughout the day. They sleep. We work. They have always and continue to go out at least 8 or more times daily or whenever they sit at the door and whine. Love 'em, but now we can live easier without "never disappearing" pet stains. We've been renting in this house for almost a year and in our previous home we sold, we had hard floor, for a reason, and will do the same when we buy again in the next 6 months or less. Clean floor + landlord = No loss. Happy research hunting and good luck with your floors.

This is my (2nd) attempt to replace my 30+ yr Bissel Original Big Green Clean Machine (remember those infomercials holding 12lb bowling ball?). Couldn't find replacement parts as some (plastic) parts were disintegrating (binder breakdown). This is the most aggressive Carpet Shampooer I have ever used/owned/repaired! It's like owning your own quality commercial/rental unit. The Power Brush is a real game-changer!! It's no joke. It'll test old/weak seams, use caution! The rental units (Rug Dr.) only have stationary or vibrating brush/bar. The problem with ALL upright, vacuum cleaner-type models is that they use small-diameter hoses on the inside that quickly clog, even if only water is used, it's just a matter of time! Also small tanks. This unit is a beast! It weighs almost 50 lbs empty and water is 8lbs a gallon! Not recommended for elderly users. Two-story homeowners w/o elevators will want to disassemble the unit to take upstairs, if just for the sheer bulkiness of the unit. Nice big water tanks (same size) with carrying handles. Easy to fill/empty & clean. Nice long hose for Detail attachment & long quality (3-prong) Power Cord. Cool little twirling-gauge to show when water is flowing/out. A linear approach in usage is warranted (think lawnmower) and ends near walls will require Detail tool. Manufacturer recommends a 4-pass approach (there/back w/ trigger, there/back w/o trigger) which is 2X older recommendations. Schedule extra time for project. Spectacular results!! Machine does all the work, just keep pushing it around until satisfied. Weight of machine & front edge actually scraps the top of carpet, while wide rotating brush and powerful motor agitate & pull out years of soap residue & dirt! May create hair/lent residue during initial usage which require additional passes. Recommend only using warm/hot water, no soap! Pre-treat (spray) w/ Folex after pre-vacuuming. Start on edge of carpet and work inward, do not start in middle (racing stripe). Perfectionists & purists be warned, it can wreck ya! You can just keep at it until there's no more carpet left! At this writing (11/23) this was the lowest price ($387) commercial grade cleaner on the market. Prior to posting review I went to compare the higher priced Bissell models/offers and found only minor differences with button location & cleaner bundles. I hope it lasts as long as the Original (30+yrs)! Highly recommend!! Enjoy your clean carpets!! ~B

This was my first carpet and upholstery cleaner purchase. We have mostly tile flooring in our home with carpet in the bedrooms, so I never considered getting a carpet cleaner when we moved in. However, when I started dog sitting for people, I had to reconsider my decision. My home smelled like dogs no matter how often I cleaned and I was tired of it, so I began my search for a good quality carpet/upholstery cleaner. I almost purchase a Hoover steamvac but I was really concerned about the durability of that product. I honestly didn't think it would last very long with frequent use. When I read all the amazing reviews for the BISSELL Big Green I contemplated it for a while before actually making the purchase. I really didn't want to spend so much money but it looked incredibly durable and I wanted something that would last for a good while and work as advertised. Let me say, this product did not disappoint! I've used big green for a large area rug in my living room, my couches, the carpet in my bedroom, and the upholstery and carpeting in my husbands car. Every time, I was amazed with how much water, dirt and sediment the big green pulled up. What it did for my husband's car (with the hand tool) was especially impressive. We are taking an 8hr road trip with our son and I didn't want to be confined to a filthy car for such a long period of time, so I took it upon myself to give it a deep clean. We have owned this car for 2yrs and have never had it cleaned other than removing the trash and vacuuming it out. The people that owned it before us didn't bother getting cleaned before selling it, so when we purchased it there was also some staining and tons of dog fur. Now most of the dog fur had been long gone before I used the big green, so please keep that in mind. I cleaned all of the seats, top to bottom and then made my way to the carpeting, cleaning underneath the seats to the best of my ability. I probably went over the seats about 3 times before deciding that I was finished for the day. Now, when I went to dump out the water, it was black and there was lots of mud/dirt and rocks at the bottom of the dirty water container. There were even some small clumps of dog fur floating around in there. The interior of the car doesn't look brand new by any means (I will probably need to get a professional detailing service for that) but I am no longer disgusted at the thought of a long road trip in it. It actually smells pretty clean now and looks presentable. So, here are some things I love about the big green: It is an incredibly simple machine. Without the hose attachment, there are only 5 parts including the portion containing the motor. There are two bins, one for dirty water and one for clean, a clear dome shaped lid with a handle to cover the dirty water container, a small plastic, square filter type thing that you don't really need to bother with and then of course, the body, which contains the motor and scrub brushes at the bottom. Literally, all you need to do is add your water and cleaner, stack the bins on top of the body, plug in and turn on and you are ready to clean your carpets. The hose/hand tool attachment is also very easy to use and adds two extra parts. Not too many things to get broken here. The plastic is also very durable (as I've mentioned before) and seems like it'll last for several years. The suction is very strong and easily pulls up embedded dirt and small rocks from your carpet. Even while using the hose and hand tool, it didn't seem like any of the suction was lost. And of course, b/c of the great suction, dry time is minimal. I'd say a couple of hrs for carpeting and upholstery, although when I used this to clean my couches, I gave them until overnight before I sat on them. It took the car about 4hrs to dry completely. Regardless of how long the dry time is, this isn't going to leave anything soaking wet. It will be only slightly damp once the water is sucked up. There are a few small things I didn't like about the machine. It is very difficult to maneuver (which was expected). When cleaning carpets, it does tend to spit out clumps of all the stuff it just sucked up. You know it's working when you see these gross clumps but they are still annoying to pick up, unless you have someone going behind you to do it. I wish the hand tool had spinning bristles, although I've heard that you can purchase one for a reasonable price. The last thing I didn't like was that this seemed to be a little too aggressive for my large living room area rug. It's a wool rug and it just seems like there are a lot of extra fibers getting sucked up by the machine, although the spinning bristles fluff my rug back up nicely. I may need to switch to using the hand tool on the rug though, in order to help prolong the life of it. All in all, this is a great product and well worth the money that was spent on it. It is expensive but I do believe that, in most cases, you get what you pay for. You won't regret buying this carpet/upholstery cleaner!

We finally bought the Big Green Machine after renting the PetSmart version several times. All in all, this is a nice, easy to use carpet cleaner and I recommend it. More Detail: Unboxing: The cleaner is practically assembled when it arrives in its sturdy box. If you have trouble lifting heavy objects, it might be best to cut the bottom off the box and lift the box off, rather than trying to lift the machine out of the box. The accessory hose is in the box in the space between the cleaner and the box. Packed inside the waste bin is a sample of soap that you must remove. There are also a couple of other pieces of shipping material that need to be removed. I also found that the drain plug for the clean water reservoir was loose, so I tightened that up. The unit arrived in great shape with no visible damage to the packaging or the unit itself. This is basically the same unit as the commercial version, from what I can tell. I can't speak to the motors themselves, but it sounds the same as the rental version. The only things different are that the directions for use are not stamped directly on the machine, and there is no rental motor counter, which records the number of hours on the machine. Otherwise, quality, fit, and finish is almost identical to what I've seen from the PetSmart rentals. Setup for use: Setup is fairly straight forward and easy. The bottom reservoir is for warm water and the cleaning solution. The cap is large and easy to put on and remove. That unit nestles down in the bottom, with a nozzle that allows the liquid to be drawn out for spraying. On top of that goes the dirty water receptacle, followed by the clear lid, which locks in place. You can see the dirty water as it is sucked up via the clear lid. The cord is heavy duty and long enough for all the uses I have. The only thing it can't do is reach from one end of our upstair hallway to the other, but it runs the full length of the house, so it is a long hallway! Use and Cleaning: The unit is relatively easy to move around. The large rear wheels make it an easy roll from place to place when you tip it back onto the wheels. The low center of gravity from the handle's connection point at the bottom of the unit keeps it steady and even as you push and pull it across the carpet. It is a bit heavy to pick up via deadlift, but my relatively small wife can pick it up if she does it carefully. She's not going far with it, mind you, but she was able to load and unload it from our SUV when we rented these. It has a nice grab handle on the front and the rear. The cleaner does a good job of getting the carpets clean and removing most of the moisture from the carpet. Our drying times have been relatively quick, which is good. You really don't want soggy carpets. I am giving four stars, however, because our particular unit seems not to spray well on the forward motion, or at least not as consistently as the rental versions did. It is spraying the cleaning solution, but one pass does not seem to wet the carpet enough. I found myself doing a pass up and back with the trigger depressed, and then two additional passes to remove the liquid. Drying time was still good. But, because it doesn't seem as effective with one pass only, I'm holding a star back. It may be something that will improve with us, or it may just be this unit. It still cleans well. This unit needs a little help with heavy stains, as you would expect. We pretreat spots with Resolve carpet cleaner and a little light scrubbing. Then, going over the spots with Big Green it does a great job removing the stains. I make extra passes over high traffic areas or tough stains and it does make a huge difference. I've mostly used the carpet cleaning system that came with my Kirby in recent years, but this is a superior clean than that one. Depending on the pile of your carpet and the amount of pet hair in your home, you will notice clumps of fibers/hair under the unit and in the waste area. At times clumps will become large enough that they will fall off the machine during use. It's not a big problem, and not unique to this cleaner. If you have a carpet or pets that "shed", you can stop and clean it off periodically during use. Cleanup: As with all cleaners, cleaning the unit is essential to its performance. This one is easy to clean. The dirty water receptacle has a large opening and is easy to dump (I dump into the toilet) and rinse The clear lid takes a little work at the sink to get al the crevices cleaned out. Any leftover cleaning solution can be drained easily by unscrewing the plug on the bottom. Wipe down the outside and bottom of the unit, being sure to get clumps of carpet fiber and hair from the roller area, and you're all done. The handle folds down to save space vertically, should you need it. Complaints: As to complaints about drips; yes, when you stop cleaning and "park" the unit, there will be some dirty water spots I don't think it's a leak, per se, but rather the liquid that get caught up in the roller assembly when everything is spinning and working. When it stops it drips. I keep an old towel handy and back the machine up onto the towel when I stop using it - problem solved. Overall: We purchased this for ourself because we had been so pleased with the rentals. It does a good job cleaning our carpets and controlling the odors from three dogs who sometimes have accidents. It really does leave the carpets cleaner and reduces odors, and we're very pleased. Had I not had a slightly different experience with the rentals units, I might have rated it 5 stars. After a few more uses I will update my review as needed.

Okay. Just ordered this in a few days ago. We are moving and needed our carpets cleaned. I didn't want to hire it professionally done because we're going to have to do it again after everything is moved out. After reading tons of reviews in various shampooers and watching "death match" carpet shampooer videos on YouTube, I decided on the Big Green. I finally got to use it today. Unboxing was easy as it was all put together and use was simple if you've ever used one of the red machines you rent at the store. I decided to start with my movie room. Let me just say that our couch is a sectional and it all kind of links together, so taking it apart and putting back together is a nightmare. Needless, to say I haven't moved it out since they out it in teo years ago. I will vacuum under it beat I can but that is about it. I took it apart today and let's say it was awful. Not quite an episode of "Hoarders" but with four kids and two dogs it was a lot worse than I thought it would be. After picking up the jewelry, candy, wrappers, hair clips, hair bands (about 1000), pencils (no wonder we can never find a pencil in our house), and some spare change ($1.57 yeah baby!), I was ready to go. What I was left with were some stains that had literally been ground in. Stuff that I was convinced would never come up. I have read this thing was nice, but nowhere in the instruction manual did it ever mention turning water into wine or any other miracle, because that is what it was going to take to make this carpet look good again. I considered for a moment boxing the machine up and using the money to get new carpet, but I thought, "What the heck. Let's give it a try." I started by spraying on a pre treatment on the stains in the carpet. Let it sit for a little bit while I looked for a "miracle" setting on the machine. After spending 10 minutes and not finding one, I decided "what the heck" and went for it. The result? Well the first 3-4 passes not too impressive. I didn't see much happening. Ground in stains - 1, Big Green - 0. But don't despair folks. My story isn't over yet. I watched enough videos in this thing to know that some really bad stains may take more than a few passes. So here we went again. This time Icouldnt believe my eyes. The stains were staring to fade. But they weren't completely up yet. Ground in stains -1, Big Green -1. This is a close race folks. I decided to give it another few sprays with the pre treatment and use a brush to work it in. I let it sit, went over it again and BAM! THE STAINS ARE GONE!!! I can't believe how good the carpet looks and how clean it got. This thing is amazing! Like the other reviews said, this is heavy (not real heavy. I mean it's not like you're trying to lift the earth here...). Probably not the machine if you want to do spot touch ups. However if you want to do it yourself and want to get professional results (and hate paying $100-200 every few months to have it done professionally), I can't recommend it enough. Worth every penny. Now if you will excuse me, I have more carpet to shampoo and am going to check the dirty water tank just in case it turned the water into wine...

This carpet cleaner actually pulls pet hair and dirt out of the carpet, not just surface clean. I was shocked at how much hair and debris came up that my vacuum had been missing. It gets deep into the fibers, removes stains well, and leaves the carpet looking refreshed instead of flattened. Assembly was easy, it feels solid, and it dries faster than expected. If you have pets or high-traffic carpets, this is absolutely worth buying. It performs like a professional rental cleaner without the hassle. It is a little loud so be prepared for that.