BISSELL® Big Green® PET PRO Carpet Cleaner, 3288

I come from an old professional carpet cleaners family. Steam cleaning is the best way to clean carpets. So I was skeptical about the cost, quality, and would I be getting another machine which would probably fall apart in a year. I read all of the reviews and felt that that many people however, couldnt be wrong. I have owned 2 Bissells cleaners and each one spewed water out after about 1 year and the roller brush broke after 2 uses. The carpet cleaning wasnt great, it was bulky to store, the water tanks were small, cleaning chemicals by Bissell not that great with those machines. Both machines cost $300 EACH!!!. So understand that I was Leary of spending $400 for this machine. I took the Big Green for a test spin for the first time today. I picked the dirtiest walkways in my home. WOW!!!! I am impressed! My husband reloads ammunition and contently tracks filth in from the garage. After trying unsuccessfully to get him to take his shoes off I had had enough. Based on past Bissell cleaners I figured this was the last time around for a carpet cleaning machine before I called in a professional. While I found that the comments that the machine was bulky, hard to push, noisy, to name a few, this machine is nothing compared to the other machines Ive had. Try rental cleaners (Rug Doctor)and see what bulky, noisy etc. is, and you still wont get clean carpets. I found it was not hard to push at all (I have a really bad back too) and as for bulky, not at all! For the work this does and not having to continually having to fill and dump water tanks, I found that the larger tanks, which hold more, are much easier on my back. I also found that you dont waste as much cleaning products. I also liked the way the machine folds to store. Now for how it cleans. I will put this machine up against any professional job, any day. Not only did the filth from my husbands shoes come out but the carpet looked new, fresh, and best of all, clean. Smells nice too. I used Bissells products with this machine and found them to work much better and did great job. I would say that Bissell hit the bulls eye with this machine. There is a little back wash that is easily picked up with the Big Green. The backwash was onto my white floor (was only a very small amount) tile and I cant tell you how dirty the little water amount on the tile was. It certainly told me that this machine works fantastic. I touched the carpet right after cleaning to see how wet the carpet was. I was very surprised that the carpet was barely damp. while it would be best to let it completely dry, you would be able to walk on it in about 1 hour. The only problem now is that I have to do the whole carpet because the traffic areas I tested are so bright and clean that the rest looks dull. If you want a professional cleaning without the constant cost and hassle of calling a professional, this is it. Would I buy this again in years to come? Absolutely!!! Finally a product that really does what it says it will do. I highly recommend spending the money to have this quality of clean. Thanks Bissell!!!!!!!! I will try to update this review as the months go by. That way I can time test the equipment. I am a happy camper for now! We did the rest to the carpet today. OMG, I couldnt believe the filth that came out of a my supposed clean carpet with our Bissell up rights. It made me sick! There is no way you can fake that kind of dirt in the dirty water container. My carpet looks brand new. Maybe even brighter than new. The hardest part was moving the large 3 piece sectional sofa out of the way. But was very glad we did as even under there the carpet had accumulated a lot of dirt. We have a rental house that a professional had cleaned after the tenant moved. It looks awful after they were done. So I guess our Big Green goes on a trip to re-clean that house. The carpet there is the same color as our house so I expect great things from this machine. A few suggestions I have: 1. Watch the pilling in the ports of the machine. I thoroughly cleaned each one after each water dump to make sure there was no clogging. We checked the rollers underneath when we were totally finished to be sure that they were cleaned up too. Dont expect this machine to vacuum for you. Do that first and again once the carpet is thoroughly dry to get up the pilling left by the machine. Even professional cleaners leave pilling behind so dont think that the machine is not doing its job. 2. While extracting water from the carpet, if the water is still slightly grayish, go over the carpet area again as it still need a little work and fine tuning. When the water is clear is when you have gotten all of the dirt out. For the first time of use, you may have to do this as you are going to be very surprised at how much dirt was in your carpets. Get it clean this first time and the next time you use this machine, you wont have so much work to do. I do agree that this machine needs room to maneuver but for average rooms 9 x 12 or bigger it great. Doing small closets with closet door rails is not practical for this machine. You would have to use the upholstery hose for those areas. I would also recommend using Bissells Professional Cleaning Solution with the machine. Especially if your carpets are really bad. Dont be afraid to go over the really bad spots several times to get out all of the dirt. This machine extracts so much water that you dont over wet the carpet. Just extract several times more to be sure that you dont leave to much water behind. Watch the water flow over the top of the head to gauge how much water it is extracting. When you dont see much coming out of the carpet at this point, you should be able to move on to the next area. Drying time about 2-3 hours. Professionals put paper down and the carpet seems to be damp for 6 or more hours. So this is an improvement even over them. All in all, and after spending a total of $600 in machines (2) that dont do the job, this machine is well worth it. Besides you will pay at least that for a professional job, that may not even be as good, in just one cleaning.

This machine saved my carpet. It cleans far better and dries far quicker than the Rug Doctor which I tried first. We have a condo rental unit and a fully carpeted home, so for us, a good machine is worth having. We havent shampooed our carpets in several years, so they were in bad shape. Bad enough that we were planning to soon replace our great room carpet. A few weeks ago I narrowed the search down to a Rug Doctor and the Bissell Big Green. An app on my phone pointed me to Kohls for the Big Green, but all they had was the Rug Doctor, on a pretty good sale. So I thought, why not, Ill give it a try. Took it home, cleaned the great room rug pulling disgusting water up and it looked pretty good. But the carpet was very wet and took all weekend to dry. The manual said it should pick up 70-80% of the soapy water, but no way it was more than 50%. I utilized the bucket used to fill the machine to measure the dirty water coming out. By the time, it dried, the stains had wicked through from below leaving it dingy again. The matted high traffic parts were still matted. Disappointed, I returned it, and turned to Amazon for Big Green. A few short DAYS later, it shows up and I got to work. AMAZING RESULTS! The carpet is noticeably brighter (a white carpet), the matted parts are re-fluffed, and to top it off, was dry before I finished the two couches and lower half of the stairs. The water was far dirtier, darker, and sandier than what the Rug Doctor pulled up, and it had first crack. I waited several days to write a review to see if stains would re-appear. NOPE! Moving on, the couch tool didnt look like much, so I wasnt expecting a lot, but with the Bissell soap, the couch went from an oily and matted down microfiber suede, to normal dry looking fabric with the texture restored. (It is still a 10 year old couch, so some of the texture is missing from when new, but it breathed new life into these old couches. The main machine doesnt get extremely close to the wall, and we had some black lines along the baseboard from walls that breathe letting the carpet act like a filter along the baseboards turning it black. Well, using their soap, the upholstery attachment and a separate scrub brush, the carpet is white along the baseboards too. The strong suction of big green pulled the soap out nicely leaving the baseboard sections to dry quickly as well (though not dry as fast as the rest of the carpet.) In the end, we are not going to replace the carpet for a while now, and I thought it was overdue to replace. This machine, despite the steep price, already paid for itself saving this carpet. This machine is built tough. Thick plastic parts, large clips, strong motors. Having 2 removable tanks is easier than toting an open bucket to the machine like the Doctor. This is easier, fill at the sink, dump at the toilet. Folds up nicely to store, get a tote bag for the hose, and it will store nicely too. The warm air exhaust has a diffuser to hit the carpet evenly to aid drying, not just an open hose like on the Doctor. I see the upholstery attachment as something that could break with any misuse, so I would be careful with it, but this might be an excuse to pick up the brush attachment that reviews poorly with the smaller Bissells but very well when used with Big Green. Where it attaches could particularly be a weak point, pointing to the soap hose connection. On the plus side, if youve had any other smaller Bissells, those attachments might fit this too. The drawback is it didnt get the toughened design treatment the rest of this beast got. I picked up an extra belt seeing that as a wear item, like on any other vacuum. Plan on finding a medium bristle scrub brush to help along the baseboards where the machine cant reach. (If they designed it to reach there too, there would likely be a few compromises from where this thing shines and not worth the trade off) Ive heard Bissell is weak on Customer Service, so if it breaks under warranty, Ill probably just find parts on Ebay which seem readily available there. It seems built such that I doubt Ill need that help. This is a great machine! Hope this helps. Update, after 7 years it’s still running strong. I typically do a rinse after shampooing the carpet and then run the water until it stops spraying when finished. So far, no problems. Maybe the rinsing and draining is preventing some of the flow meter and other issues I see in other reviews?

I started out using this machine because I was in a pinch when our carpet vendor had to cancel. My first experience was with a rental from a local hardware company, per the recommendation of our rep. The rental had clearly been used a lot, and not well cared for. I was skeptical. However, our $5000.00 commercial machine was heavy, hard to fill, rigorous to use, exhausting to use solo, and an inconvenience for those occupying apartments. With this machine, I was able to complete the job in a fraction of the time, had no interference with other occupants, had no fatigue, and the end result was a much cleaner and sanitary carpet. I was so pleased I bought 4. I have since bought nothing but this. The upholstery attachments work well for furniture and tight spaces. The stair tool sees no loss of suction. The machine is simple to use, can be used by a single person with ease. The suction is less than more expensive machines, but the scrubbing bristles penetrate deep into the carpet and in my opinion yield a better clean. The capacity is small, but that can be seen as a benefit. This is not a machine for water extraction, but for cleaning. The machine is easy to clean, and upon first use it will be evident how much this machine really pulls out of the carpet. There is a clear channel on the top of the collection bin and you will be able to see the hair, dirt, and grime as it is extracted. There is a multi color pinwheel on the top of the machine for flow, that will let you when when water is flowing or the tank is empty. For areas with pets, it does extremely well with hair and dander. Rather than flood and suck, this machine will excel with proper chemical treatment. Pre-treat stains properly ahead of time, and mix the proper fragrance and general carpet cleaning solution for your needs with the clean water tank for optimal performance. It’s a prefect option for single households. For commercial, I recently chose to use this product over a much more expensive machine. A larger complex with indoor, carpet hallways. Roughly 2 linear miles (4 buildings, 4 floors per building) and 6 foot wide. To make it work I prefilled a 30 gallon tote with water and treatment, and one empty tote. I was then able to fill the tank when needed, as well as empty the collection tank with ease. Pretreated the stains with a backpack sprayer, and the end result was great. My legs and back are still thankful. One caveat is that it is still pretty loud.

When I first bought my home, there were some pet stains that the owners could not remove. I did not have time to clean it myself, so I hired a professional cleaning company. Needless to say, I was not impressed. So I rented the Rug Doctor and after several passes, I was able to remove the stain. I continued to rent the Rug Doctor over the years for my carpet cleanings and had been pleased. The last time I used one, I did notice the carpets were somewhat stiff. I am going to attribute this to the fact that I may have used too much cleaning solution. Then spring came around again and I wanted to clean the carpets again. I had stains from drinks, heavy traffic areas and again some pet stains. I own two lovable cats, who sometimes like to leave love spots. I went to my local grocery store to rent the Rug Doctor and they did not have any machines available. I went to several other stores and could not find one. Someone told me to try the Home Depot or Lowes. I went to Lowes and they had the Bissell instead of the Rug Doctor (RD). Never having used one and very unsure that it would perform as well as the RD, I decided to give it a try. First off, I noticed the rental rate was higher due to the deposit required. I loaded it into my car and home I went to give it a try. I am not sure if it is lighter or easier to maneuver than the RD when removing from my car. I followed the simple instructions and off I went cleaning the carpets. One of the things I noticed was the cleaning solution is applied in both the forward and backwards movements. Cleaning was pretty straight forward and exactly as I expected. First mistake I made was dumping the dirty water. I slipped and dropped the dirty water all over the floor. Quick fix, use the vacuum aspect and suck up the water. Another positive I noticed was the filling of the water. No more filling a large bucket and dumping it into a smaller fill slot. You fill the bucket, which removes and add solution, tighten the cap and place it back on the Big Green. No more water saturated lines on the carpet when I pour too fast. Place the empty container that will collect the dirty water on top, secure the latch and off you go. I have read that people are experiencing clumps of dirty hair, etc when using the Big Green. The ONLY times I notice this is when I fail to vacuum my carpets thoroughly first. I also noticed that the suction is somewhat better than my vacuum, so it is picking up cat and human hairs (that vacuum cleaners can and do miss) and depositing them on the carpet. No Problem, just pick them up. As a note I noticed this as well with the RD, so it is NOT a specific problem to the Big Green. You must vacuum before using the cleaner. The other major positive was the drying time using the Big Green. It is MUCH less than the RD. So I purchased this on 6/22/12 and opted for next day delivery. I ordered this mid-morning to mid-afternoon I believe and by 9am the next morning I had my Big Green. Less than 24 hours for shipping! I opened the box, removed a few cardboard packing materials, removed the bottle of solution from the tank, filled it with water and off I went. No more than 15 minutes total from unpacking to cleaning. No assembly required!!!! I am happy with my purchase. If you are familiar with using a RD, the Big Green is similar in size and maneuverability. This is not a small upright vacuum size. For me it seemed to maneuver easier than the RD. It removes stains, leaves your carpets feeling great and dries faster than any other cleaner I am aware of. The Bissell cleaning solutions smell nice and are not over powering. Pros: cleaning capabilities Less drying time Carpets feel soft ease of use Cons: cost, rather expensive but worth the cost for thorough deep cleanings

This is the 3rd Bissel carpet cleaner Ive owned. The first 2 were the Bissel Pro Heat. I bought a second one after the first was stolen. I loved it so, that I replaced the stolen one with the exact same thing. This review is comparing the Bissel Pro Heat to the Big Green Pro (hereafter referred to as BGP) The Pro Heat has a separate reservoir for cleaning solution so upon finishing cleaning, any solution not used could be used with the next cleaning. The BGP does not have a separate reservoir. With the BGP, the cleaning solution is added directly to the water and if you dont use all the water, the solution is wasted. The instructions for the BGP states to make passes (first with solution, second without) until the water being extracted appears clean. The Pro Heat has a clear channel where the extracted water can be easily seen. The BGP is a white plastic. Unless youre in a very well lit room, seeing if the water extracted is dirty let alone finished being extracted is difficult. The Pro Heat has a built in water heater heating the water to 180 degrees. The BGP does not. As hot as your tap water can get, is as hot of water the BGP will clean with. One gripe Ive read with other carpet cleaners is the weight of the cleaner. Stands to reason, the heavier the cleaner, the closer to the carpet the cleaner will stay hence, the more water that can be extracted. The Pro Heat Im guessing to weight about 13 pounds, stays well to the carpet, and extracts water pretty good. The BGP is more than twice as heavy weighing 29 pounds (I believe is what I read). I could use the Pro Heat for 3 hours and not feel it in my back. 10 minutes into using the BGP, I could start feeling it in my back. Because of the weight and suction, the BGP could use some assistance with self propelled rear wheels. If you have back problems or are very limited strength, the BGP probably isnt for you. The carpet here was new just over 2 years ago. I usually clean the carpet every 6 months, but for a variety of reasons, I didnt get to it like normal. Before getting the BGP, I used the Pro Heat on a Friday night and then again Saturday morning. Two weeks later, I used the Pro Heat one last time just to make sure the carpets were as clean as possible since it had been 2 years without them being cleaned. Because the carpets were new upon moving here, I wanted the best carpet cleaner. I wasnt concerned with the cleaning ability of the Pro Heat as the 3rd cleaning yielded very little unclean water. But with the new carpet and plenty of money in my pocket, decided to give the BGP a try. Howd the carpet turn out with the BGP after having cleaned the carpet 3 times with the Pro Heat and within a month of getting the BGP? Only one phrase to describe it: holy-fn-cow! I could NOT believe how dirty the water was. It looked like the carpets hadnt been cleaned in 2 years. I am sooo disappointed in how the Pro Heat cleaned. All this time I thought my carpets were getting clean when the truth of the matter is, they werent... not like how the BGP cleans them. Im convinced the BGP cleans better than any professional carpet cleaner. Professional carpet cleaners have hot water and suction, they do not have a carpet bar that scrubs the carpet. For what youll pay for a pro to come clean your carpets twice, youll have pretty much paid for the BGP. You DO NOT want any other carpet cleaner. With more than 8000 reviews and no 1, 2, or 3 star ratings from the United States, theres a reason why. The BGP EARNED the 4 and 5 star ratings that it has. Again, do NOT buy any other carpet cleaner. Save your money, pimp your spouse, your dog... the neighbors cat... whatever it takes to be able to afford this carpet cleaner. You will not be disappointed in it like I am in the Bissel Pro Heat. One thing I like about the BGP over the Pro Heat (and others like it), is the upholstery hose on the BGP is detachable and can be stored away until its needed. The Pro Heat, the upholstery hose doesnt detach and must stay on at all times. The holder for the upholstery hose on the Pro Heat is junk, and continually drops the hose. As mentioned previously, the BGP is heavy. When removing it from its shipping box, I recommend setting it on its side, cutting the bottom, and pulling all 4 flaps out, then tipping it back upright. From there, lifting the box up makes getting the BGP easy to get out of the box. With one person, youll have problems lifting the BGP out of the box while keeping the box down and in place. As to cleaning, the BGP out cleans the Pro Heat and any professional cleaner out there. For this, it gets 5 stars. As a whole, Ive given it 4 stars for reasons mentioned within: no onboard heat for water, no separate reservoir for cleaning solution, the need for low assist self propelling rear wheels, and white plastic instead of clear where the extracted water can be seen.

I was out of town my puppy got about 15 bottles of water from the kitchen (my friend watching her was at work) and opened them all over my sofa and rug. After 2 days my house smelled like mold and I thought Id have to replace both. I wish I wouldve gotten a before pic of my sofa :( Smells gone and its like new clean! Way better than all the other carpet cleaners Ive had..its industrial strength, and dries in like 30 min. The upholstery extension is b@d@$$ too. Huge tank of water so youre not constantly dumping out and filling up.

I just got this last night and tried out a small high traffic area on my floor, we bought the house in June and was thinking about replacing the carpets. after just one pass, Im not sure if they look new but they look, feel and smell clean.!!!! good -This machine weights 50 lbs or so, you might think this is bad but it is very good, you dont have to push or pull up for the machine to clean or suck up the water, in short - no extra effort on your part. -it is very easy to push and pull, the large tires in the back really help with this - my wife is able to use it, and she has back issues - filling and emptying the water is very easy - floor is very dry even after 2 passes - attachment is easy to attach and use. - pulled up lot of hair out of the carpet, did leave strings on the floor but it sucked them up just fine - chocolate stain that was dried in for 3 months cam up in 2 passes could be better (nit picking here) - the trigger for the water is only on the right side of the handle I wish it was on both - some kind of laser grid to project on the floor, if carpets are dirty its easy if they are not so dirty you may have trouble seeing where you have cleaned already - wider clean path seems to only clean between the back wheels , the right side seem to clean closer to the edge then the left side - in a high traffic area where the padding has wore down, it will miss spots so you may have to go over this area at many different angles what to watch for make sure to follow the directions for cleaning, specially for your first time on your carpets to get them nice and clean pull in trigger and push, then still holding trigger pull back on the same path, then release trigger and push on the same path again, then pull on the same path. (that 4 pass on one path 2 with trigger and 2 without) When i read this i thought it would take forever, but it does no take that long and in heavy soiled area it does work much better, also the 2 passes with no trigger are the suction and drying passes they also do some cleaning too. I tried one pass of and it did not clean as well, for light areas or touch up one pass would be fine, the machine seems to do the most cleaning when you push with the trigger pulled. so if you just need to touch up i would say push with trigger in then push without the trigger to get the best results. if you need it to dry faster make an extra push or 2 with the dry pass Im very happy with this machine thus far and will update this if i find anything else out. the above is from only about one day of use. UPDATE: MAY2013 I have used this many times, in the high traffic areas its about 1 time every 3 weeks, then rest of the time is justs catch up before company comes over to knock out the pet dander in the house we have about 2500 sq feet of carpet and i can do all of it in about 1.5-2 hours, I have found if you just hold the trigger in a push down a path then pull back the same path, its still cleans 80% of what the above does, and you can get 100% if you just move slower. this floor is still very dry as long as you finish a path with a pull pass. It take 1.5-2 hours to dry and not get wet socks and 2.5-3.5 to dry where you feel with your hand its dry. IF you want an area to dry faster i just make one pass over the carpet to suck up more water (usually do this when it run out of clean water) if you put a fan on the damp area it will dry amazing fast. good luck and happy cleaning :P

No issues

I bought this to replace my aging Rug Doctor Mighty Pro that was having performance issues due to its age (10 years old). I was hesitant because I did not have a high opinion of Bissell products because the few that I had in the past were small and cheap and did not perform very well. The Rug Doctor I had was a workhorse and I wanted something similar. The problem was the Rug Doctors pricing has gone up substantially, which caused me to look at different products. Im glad I did. I came across this product and the first thing I noticed was its appearance, which is very similar to my Rug Doctor. So I started looking into it and found a video where they did a side by side comparison with a Rug Doctor and this thing outperformed it slightly. Considering its price, I thought that was great and so I bought it. So far I have no regrets. The clean water container is smaller than the Rug Doctor (1.75 gal vs 2.5 gal) but it allows you to remove the container and fill it in the sink. This does save time from filling up one gallon containers and dumping the clean water into the Rug Doctor. Overall, the time saved by simply sitting the clean water container in the sink and letting it fill up on its own does offset the time spent filling up the clean water container more frequently due to its smaller size. As for suction, I was very impressed the first time I ran out of clean water and opened the dirty water tank to find it completely full, indicating it sucks up almost everything it injects into the carpet (this was the biggest issue I was having with my Rug Doctor as it got older). I also love the fact that it has a clean water flow indicator. This was one of the most frustrating things about the Rug Doctor because I would sometimes run out of clean water and not know it. This product has a flow spinner that lets you know when clean water is flowing. Once that stops spinning, you know youre out of water. Overall Im very happy with the product. Its had no trouble removing routine stains from pets and walking on my carpets. It allows you to go front and back while injecting the clean water and using the scrubbers (it only sucks up the water when you pull backwards, like the Rug Doctor) which is a nice added feature in case you want to have clean water injected twice before sucking it out. I havent tried the hand held spot cleaning device yet but so far everything else has worked perfectly and it only took a couple of minutes to set up once it arrived. For the price, I have no regrets whatsoever.

Yes, it is expensive, but forget buying the smaller, lesser machines. Unless, that is, you are someone who doesnt have a space for a machine this large. I have now had this thing for over four months and it has saved my carpet. I have 7 cats. Running over a great swath of cat vomit with this machine is like taking an eraser to a chalk board. Sweep sweep sweep and it is gone. I no longer cringe when my senior cat, Toby, has a problem. Because I know the solution is just sitting there in my closet. I had a room upstairs filled with over 50 birds (I was breeding canaries), and a tortoise in a house. I got out of breeding birds and found a better place for the tortoise, and then I found myself staring in horror at the carpet under the two aviaries and the tortoise house. I had several inches of accumulated bird dander and seed dirt under the aviaries. The tortoise had dumped her water repeatedly and the red substrate I had as her bedding got wet and soaked into the carpet under her house to the point it was literally black. I tried my smaller Bissell and it really did very little. I saw this machine and hated the price. But I bought it anyway. It is literally on my top five purchases EVER in my life. It took 10 repeated shampoos to get that carpet in that room looking like new. Which it does, by the way. I cant even believe it--even the black carpet under the tortoise house looks new. You cant buy into those pictures that show a filthy floor and a path of perfect cleanness behind the machine like its done this with one swipe. It takes repeated shampoos. I used over an entire bottle of cleaner to get that room to the point that the water in the tank was finally clean. Anyway--if you are chewing your nails at the price, dont. Better to get a machine that does the job at the start, then get lesser machines that kinda sorta do the job, until you one day throw up your hands and go for the big one. You save money in the end to not buy the smaller machines. Unless, as I said, you dont have the space. Or maybe you live alone and you arent very strong. This thing is rather heavy. But I find when I want to take it upstairs, its easier to remove the two tanks first. Also, Bissells anti-urine odor product that goes with this machine is very effective. My Toby liked to pee on my carpet in one spot until I found premium cat litter to get him back to using his box. My entire condo smelled like pee after the first shampoo as this machine drew up all the nasty stuff from the carpet pad under the carpet in that area. After the second shampoo I wasnt smelling urine anymore. At all. And now when I walk into my condo I no longer smell that disgusting smell. So do I recommend this machine and the products that go with it. Hell, yes! Best investment I have made since I bought my home.