Shark EX201 CarpetXpert Upright Carpet, Area Rug & Upholstery Cleaner with StainStriker, Built-in Spot & Stain Cleaner, Perfect for Pets, Deep Cleaning & Tough Stain Removal, Carpet Shampooer, Teal

I would like to inform you that the item I ordered was defective. As soon as I turned it on for the first time, it started producing smoke and a strong burning smell came from the wires. This was very dangerous and unacceptable. This is the worst quality product I have ever received, and I am concerned about safety. I would like to return the item and receive a full refund as soon as possible. Please arrange the return collection and confirm the refund process. Thank you.

Color me impressed. My business switched office space and the existing berber carpet needed a good cleaning. Keep in mind that this wasn't a home with children or pets -- just an office with a low volume of visitors and residual dirt tracked in from the gravel lot after people made it past 2 welcome mats. My past experience with consumer "steam cleaners" wasn't great - they spit out a lot of water, did a half-hearted job at cleaning and really couldn't compare at all with a professional steam clean. But 2 things convinced me to buy this -- 1) I've had great experience with a Shark handheld that has done the best of any vacuum I've owned over the years and 2) the cost of this unit was equal to a single pro carpet cleaning session. Figured worse case we'd have a carpet cleaner on hand and we had some upholstery that needed to be tackled anyway (past experience with hiring pros to steam clean upholstered furniture felt like we paid a premium for 5 min effort per chair and they looked about the same before / after) Wow. This "carpet xpert" does a great job, easily rivaling a professional steam clean, at least in the application we used. Cleaner arrived almost fully assembled. Took a brief moment to snap on handle and push in hose. Pre- vacuumed as instructed before firing it up. (cleaner is not designed to pick up hair, crumbs, paper shards, etc. so you'll need to make sure they're appropriately vacuumed up with a clear surface to start). Operation was pretty intuitive (I did glance at instructions) with the exception of the hand held unit (the "stain striker" hand held piece has 2 buttons - not at all clear which was for spraying and which for drying. But the main unit has a very simple push forward to spray, pull back to extract/dry. The "deep clean" choice on the machine is a bit gimmicky since there is no "standard clean" option, just "deep clean" but okay, I won't dock for that. The unit does hesitate to power off - my machine takes a full second or two after the power off button is depressed before it actually turns off. So much of a delay that I actually tried at first to depress the power button more than once with the effect that I kept turning it back on before it turned off. For now I'm assuming that's not a genuine issue but I'll repost if it becomes a problem. Haven't used it on upholstery yet, but did a great job tackling the berber carpet. The water came out... disgusting. Which is exactly what one wants from a carpet cleaning machine. Oh, unit warned about water temp not exceeding 140. I didn't much follow warnings about water temperature because I'm not really sure what 140 degree water feels like exactly or how much below this maximum is intended. I know boiling is ... well 212 degrees F and 100 F is bath water. And most water heaters max at 140. But the warnings intent or preferred operational temp wasn't clear. Should the water used be... as hot as can come out of the tap? mildly warmer than bathwater? much warmer than bathwater just not hot enough to burn you? And what exactly happens above the 140 degree cut off? Does the unit melt? or is it just a warning so that people don't burn themselves? I decided to go a notch below the max temp out of the faucet to get nice hot water, hot enough to work the dirt loose but not so hot that I'd get burnt if it spilled on me and that seemed to work.

Just do it! (Mid-pile carpet, stairs, car seats, upholstery.... is there anything it doesnt do and do WELL for that matter.) Step 1 order, also order replacement Shark soap and Shark oxidizer, receive shipment & open box Step 2 READ ALL THE DIRECTIONS THOROUGHLY. I get that this part sucks and borders an anxiety attack for some of us. Just do it! You will be glad you did. Follow one step at a time. Step 3 VACUUM whatever you are cleaning first with your vacuum cleaner. Step 4 Start it up, follow the directions and give it a go. *Try it out on a less important spot first, to get a feel for how long to spray/dry/etc. (The longer you sit over an area the wetter it gets but it really does dry reasonably fast.) Step 5 use a fan to circulate air and run the heater or A/C let dry for a few hours. VIOLA! All clean! Praise Jesus! P.S. Just as the instructions state... some users prefer to perform a "rinse" cycle after a cleaning. From what I experienced, if you have a heavily soiled area you might clean that area, then use the "dry" setting, and let the area completely, until fully dry. Then perform another cleaning cycle or rinse, followed by a "dry" cycle again, once again allowing it to fully dry. This will help prevent over saturation of the carpet or padding below, or too deep below the upholstery surface of the item you're cleaning while still achieving a fully clean rug/carpet/chair/auto seats/etc. If you really need to get it wet and get in there, I found if I went over that section using the hose attachment to suck up the majority of the liquid and then came back with the "dry" setting to suck up the remaining liquid that worked pretty great too! The hand-held spot treater does a great job and will not overly wet an area if you spray with a fast sweeping motion over the area, repeating to reach the desired saturation. Follow the instructions and take your time sucking up the liquid. Does a great job! ** Only drawback... the pet attachment must remain FLAT or nearly flat, or it will not work right. So if you need to scrub pet-"ick"/human-"ick", then first use the regular hose attachment to spray that area. Then TURN OFFFFF the carpet cleaner and use the scrubber on the standard hose attachment on the spot you are treating. After giving it a good scrub, remove the standard hose attachment. Then attach the pet hose attachment. Now, turn on the vacuum and spray/suck up the liquid until clean. Also, keep an eye on the "FULL" line on the pet resevoir to make sure the pet-"ick" doesn't end up getting in your vacuum hose making it stink. After you are done, follow the instructions and take nearly every part off. It is SUPER EASY & STRAIGHT FORWARD! You can clean nearly every part with some warm dish soap in the TUB/BUCKET/SINK/DRIVEWAY/ETC. with a scrub brush/sponge/rag/running water/hose. It seems really complicated the first time you run it, but after that first use & cleaning you will find it is SUPER SIMPLE to use & clean.

I have the Shark brand Vacuum which did help influence my purchase for this carpet cleaner. I have three cats & a family (it can get messy). I've used this thing for five straight days. For one bedroom. This room really needed it, quality carpet but neglected, pet abused, and a nearby bathroom remodel (drywall dust anyone?). So we couldn't really spring for the costs of new carpet at this time. I've re-read the instructions to verify I didn't miss anything. The steam cleaner does get the dirt up, the used water tank looked like mud water. Every. Single. Tank. I had no idea how much dirt this carpet was holding. I had to go over the walkway areas several times. I spread this out over the week so it could dry between. The complaints online focus on the fresh water tank being relatively small, yes it is. I needed two fills for single day on one room (partial area), it's not a big room. Not a big deal. What is kind of annoying is the "undercarriage" or what is better visualized as the brush roll area (similar to your upright vacuum). Pushing carpet cleaner forward, it puts down the water with cleaner, pull back, it sucks up the water/dirt from the carpet. There is a "dry only" mode where it continues to pull up more dirt/water. The brush-roll spins the entire time, good for loosening things up. So all this action kicks up dirt - think about the wheel wells in your car. So this brush roll area becomes just filthy. Since this is carpet "cleaning" and not dirt-redepositing day- you gotta clean out this brush roll area, as you clean, as often as you refill that clean water tank or even more often. The directions don't really mention this wheel well housing - they mention the brush roll, the cover, the other parts (all easily unclipped and rinsed, those parts are clear plastic parts so things are easy to see) the brush roll housing gets filthy and you gotta wipe this out, really well. So unclip the top suction thing (clear plastic/rinse) open brushroll area, pull out brush roll (simple left-hand knobby thing) clean that, cut any long hairs off and then remember to try to wipe out the housing which is dark plastic (difficult to see dirt, just wipe it and be disgusted). I was running through half roll of paper towels. You could probably put this cleaner outside and gently rinse that housing area & then wipe. Then put all back together and start your next clean tank. It's better if you can tag team this: one person do the back/forth of the carpet cleaning, then when it's time to break it down & refill tank, pass this off to someone while you go get a frosty beverage, you come back to freshly cleaned carpet cleaner with new tank of water, you're all refreshed and ready for round two. So.. brush roll housing gets filthy, that needs regular cleaning during your carpet cleaning adventures. Second thing I wasn't crazy about but not sure there's any solution to it: Wet Dust Bunnies. Yes, yes, I did exactly as the manual stated and I vacuumed beforehand (Shark vacuum too). Apparently dust bunnies are forever. So, as you are suctioning up this dirt and dust and micro everything, the dust all reconvenes around this wetness, so the brushroll, and/or the wheels of the cleaner, kick out these wet dust bunnies back out onto the carpet as you are carpet cleaning (picture the dust layer you clean off ceiling fans, but in wet clumps). This room has short, berber carpet. It was pre-vacuumed. I supposed you can say that the carpet cleaner works soooo good, as to suck up enough dust/etc to create wet dust/hair clumps that then get flung back out once they reach a certain size/density? My carpet is very light colored so this was easy to see & pick up when it happened and possibly a sign that the brush roll housing was getting filthy? Idk. The manual/directions continually reminds you that this is a carpet "cleaner", not a vacuum. (Yes, again, I vacuumed every area I cleaned). So keep this in mind. Ya gotta pause to clean the cleaner, multiple times for one room (frequency could be filth dependent) and you gotta catch those wet dust bunnies. But yes, I would recommend this machine, my carpet looks almost new (it really is old so I can't boast "new" but that's not any fault of this cleaner as the carpet, impressively, looks better than I thought it could). I used a lot more of the Cleaner solution than the stain treatment (stain treatment sprays out from the hose attachment only for hand scrubbing, & although I used quite a bit, I didn't spray out an entire bottles worth) I did use more than one bottle of the carpet cleaner, so buy accordingly. The directions are easy, breaking down the machine is easy, cleaning is easy (except brush roll housing area, that's the least easy to clean & never mentioned in the manual). Once you read the directions and use it and put it away, I don't think you'd need the directions again, it's intuitive design so it's easy to remember. Pics above are Day zero (before clean) Day 1, and Final (bright spots are sunlight, not a bleached area). I'm happy with the results.

Tengo dos niñas pequeñas, se imaginarán como estaba la alfombra, es mi 1ra vez usada y quedé encantado. Me llegó en excelente condiciones a México. Lo único malo es que siento que gasta mucho producto (casi una botella que ya viene incluida) por alfombra. Ahora tengo que ver dónde conseguir más producto.

UPDATE: I called Shark on 7-1-2026. The warranty department determined that the pump was faulty and though Amazon isn't a dealer according to the representative, since it has Shark's name on it they will help me. They sent the replacement parts and I received them today on 7-4-2026. I certainly won't buy another one from here but the Manufacturer was absolutely amazing! UPDATE: I bought this one on 11-26-2023 I've used it maybe 10 -12 times since I purchased it. I have 2 rooms with carpet and the rest is hard surface flooring. Last time I used it I cleaned it up as I always do and let it dry before reassembling it. I got it out today 7-1-2026 and the pump will not pump water. Not through the head nor the upholstery hose. I've checked for clogged filters and nozzles and all the other things that can be done but I can tell by the sound that the pump is not working at all. It was an effective machine while it was working but it sure didn't last very long. So, my Bissell proheat x2 gave up and stopped working so I went to the store and bought a new one just like the old one I had. Took me 2 days to clean one room because I couldn't take the noise. That thing screamed! It did a good job cleaning but I couldn't take the noise. I returned it to the store and ordered this Shark Xpert Ex201 and was I surprised at the difference! Wow, it takes be a fraction of the time the other brand was taking, it pulled A LOT MORE out of the carpet and seemed to actually truly clean like new. So much easier to use, does a much better job and extremely easy to completely clean the entire machine afterwards. It did only come with a little pamphlet instead of a book but it was plenty to put it together in a couple of minutes. I did go online and watched a video on the use of the machine and learned a lot about it's functions and capabilities. Seems to be a great product and I think it's quality machine that should last a long time.