Yep, another cleaning product review… because let’s face it, everyone needs them and unless you’re Monica Gellar, you hate researching and spending money on them. This go round I’m reviewing the benefits of a Bissell portable spot cleaner vs. Hoover upright carpet cleaner. In case you missed it, I also reviewed the best pet hair vacuum and the best handheld vacuum.
Bissell Portable Spot Cleaner vs. Hoover Upright Carpet Cleaner
We have a new-to-us home, 2 cats, and a baby (and a husband). When we moved in I was adamant about cleaning the carpets that we didn’t rip out or replace. You never know what’s going on inside those fibers. Yuck! Carpet cleaning also happens often when you’re keeping up with the hairballs, baby barf, and wine spills. I’m a big fan of hardwood floors because they are easy to clean but I like carpet in the bedrooms and in the downstairs (where it’s concrete underneath) to keep it warm and cozy. Of course, those are always the places the cats and baby choose to throw up. Oh, and the area rug, always the hard to clean surfaces. Thus the need for wine and inevitably, wine spills. So with all this cleaning happening we’ve used multiple types of cleaners. I’m breaking down pros and cons of a Bissell portable spot cleaner vs. Hoover upright carpet cleaner.
Benefits of an Upright Carpet Cleaner
As I mentioned, we needed to clean the old carpet when we bought our new house. We ripped out most of the main floor carpet, except the bedrooms and replaced the entire downstairs carpet (we had 4 different colors of carpet down there between 3 rooms and hallway and they all met in 1 area – woah). So that left just the 3 upstairs bedrooms to clean. This brings me to point 1.
If you have a lot of carpet you will clean often, you’ll want an upright.
Because we only had 3 rooms to clean we borrowed my mom’s Hoover Power Scrub Deluxe Carpet Washer to clean the carpet. It did a great job and it’s a really affordable option. It was really easy to use and with the size of the brush head, it didn’t take long to clean three averaged sized rooms. We were very happy with the outcome and would definitely recommend the Hoover Power Scrub Deluxe Carpet Washer. The only issue I had with it was cleaning the machine itself, which brings me to point 2.
If you need to use it often, cleaning an upright is a bit of a pain.
There are a lot of working parts on an upright and to keep it working well for a long time you supposed to clean them after each use. If you don’t clean them after each use you can expect the longevity of the upright carpet cleaning to drop. It took me almost as long to clean the Hoover Power Scrub Deluxe Carpet Washer as it did to clean the carpet in the bedrooms. If you need to spot clean often, I wouldn’t recommend an upright carpet cleaner. If you need to do a full cleaning, often or not, I would go with an upright.
The pros and cons of an upright carpet cleaner:
Pros of the Hoover Power Scrub Deluxe Carpet Washer
- It’s an affordable upright carpet cleaner
- Easy to use
- Cleans average sized rooms quickly
- Works very well on new stains
- Works very well on dirt in high traffic areas
Cons of an Upright Carpet Cleaner
- Cleaning the upright carpet cleaner is tedious and takes a while
- It’s large and takes up more storage space
- Not ideal for cleaning small spots because of size and clean up of the machine itself
- Doesn’t completely get rid of old stains (though most, even commercial cleaners, won’t)
Benefits of a portable spot cleaner
With all the inevitable cat vomit, baby messes we know are coming, and accidental food and beverage spills, we decided to purchase a portable carpet cleaner for spots and spills. We ended up getting ours 50% off on Black Friday which was awesome. We’ve used our BISSELL Little Green ProHeat Portable Spot & Stain Cleaner enough in the last 6 months that it’s already well worth the investment. It even saved us from a massive red wine stain on our brand new taupe carpet. This brings me to point 1:
It’s fast for emergency spills.
Portable carpet cleaners are grab and go. They’re faster than their larger upright cousins which make them perfect for emergency cleanups when time is of the essence. By the time I had grabbed a nearby towel and started blotting up the spill, my husband had run to the other room to grab the BISSELL Little Green ProHeat Portable Spot & Stain Cleaner and was back ready to rock. It took about 10 minutes going over each spot multiple times but months later there’s still no trace of the red wine.
The portable carpet cleaner is easy to clean after use.
Clean up of the portable spot cleaners is a breeze. Just dump out the dirty water, rinse, and good to go for next time. They are so simple to use and maintain it makes cleaning up spots and spills super easy.
The pros and cons of a portable spot cleaner
Pros of the BISSELL Little Green ProHeat Portable Spot & Stain Cleaner
- Fast set-up in emergency situations
- Point and spray trigger targets the spot with cleaning solution
- Crevice tool gets in small, hard to reach areas
- Built-in water heater creates the perfect hot water temperature to remove stains
- Powerful suction leaves carpet stain free and nearly dry
- Easy clean-up
- Compact for easy storage
Cons of a Portable Spot Cleaner
- Only for small cleanups
- No rotating brush for high traffic areas
- Doesn’t completely get rid of old stains (though most, even commercial cleaners, won’t)
So which wins in the BISSELL portable spot cleaner vs. Hoover upright carpet cleaner debate?
Overall, in the portable spot cleaner vs. upright carpet cleaner debate, it really comes down to what your specific needs are. The main thing to think about is will you be using this to clean up messes or will you be using it to rejuvenate carpet and clean high traffic areas. I can’t speak highly enough about our BISSELL Little Green ProHeat Portable Spot & Stain Cleaner. We love the convenience while still being able to keep our carpets clean and looking like new. If we had a lot of high traffic areas that were carpeted we would probably get an upright carpet cleaner in addition to the portable spot cleaner.
Do you prefer the portable spot cleaner vs. upright carpet cleaner?
Let me know which you prefer and why in your comments below!
Until next time,
XO,
Meg
