Bissell replaced the Little Green?

L

levander

New member
Went to buy my first Little Green the other day, weirdly it was out of stock at all the stores I checked online. Did a few more searches tonight. It looks like Bissell's replaced the Little Green with the SpotBot.

reading through Amazon user reviews, people seem to be complaining a lot about the size of the dirty water tank. They say they have to empty it a lot even when cleaning one spot...

I don't know enough about electronics to know if it's important. But the Bissell web site says the motor on the Little Green uses 9 amps. But the motor on the SpotBot uses 3 amps. Does the Little Green just have a bigger motor? And so could probably work harder removing stains?

Also, the Little Green has a ProHeat version. And the SpotBot has a ProHeat version. But the Bissell web site says the SpotBot ProHeat doesn't have a heater on it. And I saw someone on Amazon complaining about the SpotBot ProHeat claiming they have some Heatwave technology, but doesn't see how the thing makes/keeps the water hot. She has to use hot tap water to fill it... So no,idea what's going on there.


Has anybody looked at Bissell's new lineup? They apparently don't agree with Steve Jobs's concept that product lineups should be fairly minimal... Here's a link to their line of portable cleaners:

Portable Carpet Cleaners | BISSELL
 
The Little Green shows up on page one of your link and the LG pro Heat is the last one on page two. The pro heat says out of stock.
 
RTexasF said:
The Little Green shows up on page one of your link and the LG pro Heat is the last one on page two. The pro heat says out of stock.
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Thats where I saw it was well. That said the LGM pro-heat is a good machine for cleaning carpets for cars or household use. The only two things that I noticed with mine. The tanks are very small so on a car you going to empty and refill the tanks a few times if not more. The hose is quite short and you have to move the unit around a lot to accommodate the job. That said it's a good unit for the weekend detailer in general
 
The little Green uses a 3 amp motor, not 9. The Spot CleanPro uses 5.7 amps. I'm not sure where you saw 9 amp for a little green?
 
EXPDetailing said:
The little Green uses a 3 amp motor, not 9. The Spot CleanPro uses 5.7 amps. I'm not sure where you saw 9 amp for a little green?
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If you use the comparison function on the Bissell web site, one of the fields it compares is "Power rating". For the Little Green ProHeat, it gets a "9 amp" in that field. But maybe this 9 isn't just the motor and includes the onboard heater?

In any event, I did more googling last night. People seem very pleased with the SpotClean Pro. And on the Bissell web site, they call it their most powerful portable spot cleaner. So that's the one I'm going with. It's retailing for $130, about the same as the Little Green ProHeat.

I vaguely remembering seeing people say the SpotClean Pro has a bigger tank. But it does not have an onboard heater. I am wondering how handy an electric kettle people use in the kitchen to boil water would become.

For whatever reason, it doesn't look like Bissell has a version of the SpotClean Pro that includes an onboard heater.

I was looking at the reviews for one of the SpotBots when I posted here mentioning there seemed a bunch of complaints. The SpotBots (vs the SpotClean) are an interesting contraption. You just put water and detergent in the SpotBot and the SpotBot over the spot, then press a button. It sounds like the SpotBot does the rest from there. It does the retreating, scrubbing, extracting, etc. itself on its own. All you do is press a button. But for my money, I think I'd rather have a more powerful machine than a more automated one... And from the reviews I read, that does seem to be the trade-off. So, I'm going with a SpotClean.
 
tropicsteve said:
amazon shows the little green is still available.
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The Little Green is still around. It's the Little Green ProHeat that's disappearing. And considering Bissell's lack of heaters on their newer models, despite any possible merit of heaters, it seems like they just weren't selling well. Or I'd guess that because Bissell seems to be de-emphasizing them.

I really wonder how much more useful a separate electric kettle would be over an integrate heater. With an integrated heater, don't you have to sit there and wait for the water to heat up? With a separate electric kettle, you could be heating up the water while you're using your portable spot cleaner. There's a whole workflow to consider though. Someone who's actually done this stuff would have a better feel than I.
 
KBzPTGT said:
did you look into the Rug Dr portable?
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Not until you said something I didn't. For anyone following along at home, here's a link to the Rug Dr Portable: https://buy.rugdoctor.com/portable-spot-cleaner/

From what I can tell about the differences: the Rug Doctor uses 10 amps whereas the SpotClean Pro uses 6 amps. So, the Rug Dr would have a bigger motor? And great suction to is something you see mentioned around the Rug Dr Portable. More suction means the machine gets your carpet drier and you don't have to wait for them to finish drying as long.

But the dirty water tank on the SpotClean Pro is 3/4 gallon. And on the Rug Dr Portable it's 38 oz, or almost 1/3 gallon. I'm think a bigger dirty water tank means less emptying and refilling the thing. And the emptying and refilling is something that really wears me out. It's like you got a good work pace going, then you gotta stop to do something stupid. And when I stop is when I get tired...

I'd personally rather just wait longer for the carpets to dry than to have to do more work while I am working. E.g., I'd rather wait longer than work harder. Because I can go do something else while I'm waiting.

The SpotClean Pro is better looking than the Rug Dr Portable, very minor point consider the nature of this device.

I hear a lot of good things about the Bissell detergents, which may very well work just as well with the Rug Dr Portable machine. I would assume they would.

The Rug Dr Portable has some motorized brush I haven't looked into yet.
 
levander- As somebody who is indeed "following along at home", I appreciate your post! I'm not in the market for (yet another) extractor, but I'm always interested in the topic.

IMO, when Rug Dr. says "spot cleaning", they do indeed mean "spot". As in, it'd be great for a small pet-mess but maybe not so great for something any larger than a floormat.

That motorized brush looks nice though, at least if it works in proper (my definition of "proper") conjunction with the extractor. Too many such units rely on "turbo" brushes (no thanks...) or don't allow for suction while the brush is rotating.

And yeah, IMO if there's any question about tanks/capacity/etc. being sufficient, then it probably won't be once you start working with it.
 
I'm thinking about this more and ai'm wondering if the bigger 10 amp motor on the Rug Dr a portable, doesn't just mean it gets a the carpets drier because of more sauce. I'm wondering if it would actually get the carpets cleaner?

If it's just more suction in getting the carpets drier, I could use the SpotClean Pro and after that go over it with my Rigid wet/dry vac. I've seen that thing suck wet carpet almost bone dry. And going over them one more time with the wet/dry vac would only take a few minutes.

But, does the bigger motor on the Rug Dr Portable get pets cleaner in some other way, besides justgetti the carpets drier.
 
levander- I'd *think* that the more power the better the performance, all other things being equal. The better the water/chemical injection, the better the suction, I can't imagine those sort of things don't have a positive effect on the overall outcome. You're not just sucking the clean water out, you're sucking dirty shampoo/water out too and that's getting the dirt out.

Gotta have a decent nozzle on it though (e.g., my usual gripe about my Century).
 
I finally got around to buying one of these. It's been here about a week. I just tried it. I'm thinking about returning the thing.

i got the Bissell SpotClean Pro because I figured it'd let me be lazier about refilling the tanks. But I barely even dug into the tank at all the small spot I tried cleaning on a mattress. That's not why I'm thinking I'm gonna return it though.

i just don't get it. All the thing is is it's a motor you can lug around that has a handle on it. The handle lets you spray cleaner, has a brush to scrub the cleaner into the spot, and then the sucks up the cleaner to get all the dirt down in there out. The only thing this thing does that you can't just do with just a spray bottle and a rag is suck the water back up. And if you have a wet/dry vac (which you can use for a lot more than just cleaning spots), the wet/dry vac can suck a hell of a lot more water than this thing can.

There was a spot on this mattress I've got and I cleaned 95%. of it with a rag and a spray bottle cleaner. Then I was thinking you know, I been meaning to get one of those little carpet cleaners they talk about on Autopia for a long time now to clean my car with. I'll go ahead and buy that thing and I bet it'll get the rest of this little spot, no problem! But it didn't even touch what I couldn't get out with the rag...

And now that I think about it, why would this machine do any better? The machine doesn't really do much.

Plus I was really disappointed that even though the water I put in the SpotClean was very warm, by the time it sprayed out the handle, it was already cold. It was weird that the water was actually a little chilly. Now it is in the middle of the night on a fairly cold night outside with the thermostat in the house turned down to 66 degrees. But it was weird how cold the water was coming out of the handle. It was actually a little chilly.

i guess if you're going to be cleaning a lot of spots... Like if you got kids, pets, and new carpet in your house, then yeah. But for the weekend car detailer, why not just use a spray bottle cleaner, a brush, and a wet/dry vac? You already got all kinds of crazy equipment thrown around if you're detailing your car anyway. Don't need one little machine that integrates it all together. And I remember seeing a trick on ScottWax's YouTube channel years ago. He used a pad on his rotary polisher to scrub the hell out of a carpet mat and get it amazingly clean. Instead of getting one of the little carpet cleaners, send that money on a rotary polisher instead? Then you can clean your carpets and polish your car.
 
levander said:
... why not just use a spray bottle cleaner, a brush, and a wet/dry vac?
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One good thing about (more potent, pro-type) extractors is that they can really *inject* the cleaning solution/rinse down into the carpet. Note that none of the consumer-level ones I've ever tried did this all that well..
 
Accumulator said:
One good thing about (more potent, pro-type) extractors is that they can really *inject* the cleaning solution/rinse down into the carpet. Note that none of the consumer-level ones I've ever tried did this all that well..
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Yeah, thanks Accumulator. That giant wall of text post I did, that's about the point of it that you quoted.

i thought about the injection thing you mention while I was testing it. While it does seem to spray a lot of water for what seems such a fine mist, it doesn't spray the mist all that hard. I was able to put my hand under the mist with no pain in my hand whatsoever. So my impression is that. Any injection is because the water is atomized into such tiny little beads, maybe it gets down more into the carpet or whatever you're cleaning.

Another note in case anybody but me and Accumulator reads this thread later. Mattresses aren't the best test bed (unintentional pun) for an extractor. The mattress absorbs the water faster than the extractor can suck it out. Whereas carpet doesn't absorb the water nearly as much...

Thanks Accumulator! I think I'm returning this thing.
 
Well, overdue update. I used the thing on my house carpets before returning the thing. Was surprised how good it worked. This carpets need replacing oretty good. The carpet is probably thirty years old. And it didn't clean them spotlessly of course but made them much nicer looking.

Also did the floor mats in my '99 Maxima. These carpets are much worse than the carpets in my house, haven't been kept up at all. But the Bissel SpotClean Pro made them look a lot nicer. And since the mats are on my cars floor, it's always pretty dark down there, and you can't see what I can see when I have them out cleaning them. Filling up the clean water tank one time was just enough to do all four of my floor mats. I did my floor mats twice, so two tanks, and each time the dirty water tank was filled with absolutely disgusting water. Looked like coffee with just a touch of milk in it to lighten it up a little.

So I take back my initial impression of this thing when I tried to clean my mattress with it. This thing is a keeper. I'm not sure exactly why, but it definitely cleans better than a rag and a spray bottle of cleaner.

Couple of tips on use: fill it up with warm, almost hot water like the manual says. Then when you go to use it, the first water that comes out is cold for some reason. Keep spraying until the cold water works it's way through, and you get some of the hot water. And then the manual says to hold the nozzle an inch to an inch and a half away from the carpet when spraying the water with the cleaning solution in it on the carpet. I thought I was doing this at first. But where the water comes out is actually back up underneath the part of the nozzle you use to suction the carpet. It seems better to me to lean the nozzle back, and get the part where the water comes out an inch to an inch and a half away from the carpet. If you're doing it right, I think your supposed to see the cleaning solution foam up a little bit when it hits the carpet.... Then wait a minute or so and just rub the nozzles brush on the carpet a couple of times, scrubbing harder didn't seem to do much, then lean the nozzle forward a little and go back over the spot to vacuum up the water...

let et me know if you've read this far? I assume I've killed 99% of readers with text at this point!
 
levander- are you/did you really still gonna return it? I mean... it's working out pretty well, isn't it? And the first time you have some "oops!" that it'd be handy for you might wish you still had it.

And yeah, a matress might not be the optimal Test Bed ;) but depending on what type it is it might still be an OK thing to use it on.

Yeah, the ability to suction out the liquid is simply BETTER than trying to blot/wick/etc. with a towel, at least IME.
 
Yeah Accumulator (apparently the only other guy on the board who is nearly as OCD myself to read this whole damn thread :2santa ). I didn't harp on it in the wall of text above, but when I said "this thing is a keeper", that's what I meant. It's staying. It just reviews of this thing are few and far between and I've been walking around for awhile feeling bad I left this one as a negative despite having changed my mind. So I came back and updated in case people come by it.

more than just being able to suction the water out, I also think it's the injecting of the cleaning solution (like you mention a few posts above) that really helps cleaning. And the brush is designed to scrub better than a rag is. Even after spraying the solution and running the brush over the spot a time or two, the spot is noticeably cleaner... So it's not just the sucking. I think what the sucking does it get that ground in dirt that you don't even know is there, but is still really gross and you're so glad you get it out when you see it in the dirty water tank....
 
levander- heh heh, yeah...this thread did sorta stick in my mind! Glad you're keepingit, IMO an extractor of *some* kind is just a household essential, let alone the detailing applications. And yes indeed, seeing what comes out of that tank can sure be convincing.

One of these days I gotta have the vacuum store come pick up my Century and fix its heater, I'm sure not getting around to taking it in myself.
 
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