As a pet owner and someone who enjoys hosting friends and family, I know firsthand how quickly carpets can become stained and dirty. From muddy paw prints to spilled red wine, it often feels like my carpets are in a constant battle against messes. I used to dread the thought of deep cleaning them, relying on spot treatments that barely scratched the surface of the grime. After countless hours spent scrubbing and trying out various cleaning products, I finally decided it was time to invest in a carpet cleaning machine. The right machine made all the difference! In this article, I’ll share my journey and review the best carpet cleaning machines that helped me restore my carpets to their former glory. If you’re struggling with stubborn stains and dirt, I hope my insights will guide you in finding the perfect solution for your home.
Best Carpet Cleaner Machines in UK
BISSELL ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet Pro Carpet Cleaner
The Bissell ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet Pro has received a multitude of rave reviews, and after using it in my home for three days, I can see why. With my carpet facing an onslaught of various stains—from dirt and chocolate to the less-than-pleasant red fox urine—I put this machine to the test in my 300-square-foot family room and on some tricky stains throughout the house. Bissell claims this model delivers professional cleaning results, and I was eager to see if it lived up to that promise.
The intuitive design allowed me to start cleaning almost immediately after assembly. With three cleaning settings—express, deep, and max—I found the max setting to be particularly powerful, spraying the most cleaning solution and offering robust suction. The machine’s Heatwave Technology keeps the water warm throughout the cleaning process, which I appreciated. The 25-foot cord and 8-foot hose gave me ample reach for larger areas without having to unplug constantly.
One downside was the weight balance, which tilted toward the front, making it somewhat awkward to carry. I also had to empty the dirty tank five times during my cleaning, but that process was quick and straightforward. Despite these minor drawbacks, the results were impressive. The dingy carpet was revitalized, dark spots disappeared, and even the high-traffic areas looked significantly better after just a few passes.
I also tried the Bissell on my dog’s favorite sleeping spot, which had developed a noticeable dirt line. Remarkably, one cleaning pass eliminated that line entirely. The easy-to-use features, clearly labeled buttons, and simple cleaning process made my experience enjoyable.
Overall, if you’re a pet owner or someone who frequently deals with stains, the Bissell ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet Pro is a solid investment. With a six-year warranty and the ability to provide professional-quality results, it stands out as one of the best carpet cleaning machines on the market. If you’re looking for a reliable way to keep your carpets looking their best, this model is definitely worth considering.
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Vax Platinum Smartwash Carpet Cleaner
The Vax Platinum SmartWash is a game-changer for home carpet cleaning. Its “motion sense” technology eliminates the need for a trigger—you simply push forward to wash and pull back to dry. This smart, hands-free operation ensures carpets dry faster, and the “dry only” feature is a great bonus.
The brush bars with flexible bristles do an excellent job lifting stubborn dirt and stains. I noticed an immediate improvement, especially around skirting boards and under doors where dust had built up. The SpinScrub hand tool and 2.5m hose were particularly helpful for cleaning stairs, and I plan to use them on the sofa next.
The Auto Mix feature makes adding cleaning solution hassle-free, ensuring the right balance every time. After cleaning, my carpet felt a bit damp, but a quick pass in dry-only mode quickly fixed that. It’s also handy for drying up puddles from bathtime escapes!
Compared to rental cleaners, the Vax Platinum SmartWash is far more practical, lightweight, and effective. It delivers impressive, professional-grade results at home and outperforms many leading rentals. Highly recommended!
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Shark CarpetXpert Deep Clean Carpet Cleaner
I’m thoroughly impressed with the Shark CarpetXpert Deep Clean Carpet Cleaner. It’s easy to use, has a sleek design, and keeps things tidy with clearly marked spots for the hose and cords. While it’s a bit bulkier than a typical vacuum, its upright storage makes it convenient to tuck away.
What stands out the most is the deep clean mode. As you push it forward, the machine disperses water, and when you pull it back, it vacuums it all up. Seeing how much dirt and grime it lifts—even after regular vacuuming—is oddly satisfying! It’s been a game-changer for freshening up our carpets and rugs, leaving them looking and smelling much cleaner.
The built-in stain remover tool is a lifesaver for spot cleaning, and the fast drying time means our carpets are ready to use shortly after cleaning. Though it has a smaller tank and only works with Shark’s shampoo, the results are worth it. Overall, the Shark CarpetXpert is a powerful, effective tool that makes deep cleaning carpets easy and satisfying.
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Rug Doctor Deep Carpet Cleaner
The Rug Doctor Deep Carpet Cleaner may look like a hefty machine, but it’s surprisingly easy to use. Straight out of the box, it’s ready to go—just fill the tank with warm water and detergent, click it into place, and you’re set. Its large wheels glide smoothly over carpets, making cleaning feel like a breeze.
What really impressed me is its versatility. While it’s designed for carpets, it works great on stairs, upholstery, mattresses, and even car interiors. The dual cross-action brushes do a fantastic job of deep cleaning, lifting dirt and stains from every angle. For high-traffic areas or stubborn stains, the super boost function delivers extra power to tackle tough spots.
Drying time was a concern for me, but the Rug Doctor’s powerful suction significantly reduces moisture, and the carpets dried within a few hours. Even Violet’s long-pile rug was dry in about a day. The collapsible handle makes it easy to store, and the additional Rug Doctor cleaning products, like the Spot & Stain Remover and Urine Eliminator, really sealed the deal for me. A must-have for any busy household!
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Henry W3791 George Wet and Dry Vacuum
The Henry George Wet and Dry Vacuum offers exceptional versatility, making it a great choice for anyone needing a multi-functional cleaning machine. With its 3-in-1 functionality, it handles everything from carpet cleaning to wet-vacuuming hard floors, unblocking sinks, and even regular dry vacuuming. The stainless-steel fittings and durable accessories showcase a level of quality far beyond most household cleaners.
Where George shines is in spot cleaning and tackling small areas, thanks to its immense suction power. It leaves surfaces remarkably dry, which is a big plus for wet-vacuuming tasks. However, its lack of rotating brush bars makes it less effective on deeper carpets, especially when dealing with dried-on dirt. Pet hair and stain removal are good, but cleaning large rooms can be time-consuming and physically demanding.
The vacuum’s generous nine-litre dirty water tank and six-litre clean water tank allow for longer cleaning sessions without frequent emptying. Although it’s on the heavier side at 11.2kg, George is ideal for car detailing and small area cleaning. Overall, it’s a fantastic tool for versatile tasks, though not the best choice for deep-pile carpets.
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What to look for when buying carpet cleaner
When searching for a carpet cleaning machine, it is important to take into account your specific requirements. If you have pets, you should seek for cleaners that offer hot cleaning for sterilisation and detachable brushes that are simple to detach in order to remove knotted hair from your pet’s fur. Here are some of the factors to consider before buying your best carpet cleaner machine.
Budget
How much you could spend for a carpet cleaner is the most important factor that will determine what type of carpet cleaner you are going to have. The carpet cleaner price will be about £80 up to £400 for a residential carpet cleaning machine. The more money you can spend, the better (often) the machine will be and the more modern function the machine will have. Let’s say, most of people will spend about £150- £200 for a carpet cleaner. This is the range that you can find a lot of useful, regular model that will provide efficient carpet cleaning results.
Cleaning surfaces
Except for the carpet cleaning, will you perform other types of cleaning such as stair cleaning, upholstery, auto interior, pet mess cleaning, human fluids cleaning, tile cleaning or you just only need a carpet cleaner to treat the accident spillages? If you are on the second option, a portable carpet cleaning machine will be the design you should looking after.
Depending on the cleaning surfaces, you can choose a portable carpet cleaner for spot, stains and accidental spillage cleaning task, pet mess cleaning task. But if you are about to treat multi-surfaces, you should better to choose an “all in one” carpet cleaner such as regular upright carpet cleaner, light weight carpet cleaner.
Besides, suppliers also have some models for specific needs, such as if you want to achieve a professional carpet cleaning methods, you should choose a carpet cleaning machine with deep cleaning features like heavy-traffic upright carpet cleaner, or a commercial carpet cleaner. For example, Bissell Big Green and Rug Doctor standard carpet cleaner will be a perfect machine for these purposes.
If you have kids or pets
If you do not have any pet or any kid, you do not need to look after this section. However, if you are pet lovers or you have some children in your house, you better to choose a carpet cleaner which have pet mess cleaning function. Why? Not all of the carpet cleaner can be used for pet mess cleaning, especially the pet hair. The pet hair is the thing that will stick into the machine and reduce the motor suction ability, thus preventing the carpet cleaner to work effectively. Therefore, with pet owner, you should check for the carpet cleaner which is featured as “pet owner model”.
The pet owner carpet cleaner will be designed a bit different in the machine’s dirt collector. Sometimes, it will have a basket to collect the hair, sometimes it does not but it is optimized for working to remove pet hair. The Bissell ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet Full-Size,1548 Carpet Cleaner (full review here) is one of the best carpet cleaner for pet owner that thousands of users have appraised in recent years.
If you have some children in your house, obviously you want your carpet to be a fresh, clean play ground for them to stay in. Then, you should choose a carpet cleaner which have “wash and rinse” function. This type of carpet cleaner will allow you to rinse of the chemical residues after washing the carpet. Removing the chemicals will ensure you kids will have better health. Hoover does have two upright carpet cleaners with wash and rinse function, the Hoover Power Scrub Deluxe for regular cleaning tasks and the Hoover MaxExtract 77 Multi-Surface Pro for high traffic cleaning task, different surface cleaning task and faster carpet drying time ability.
If you are looking for a carpet cleaner that will provide faster cleaning time
You should check the carpet drying time of each carpet cleaner. Although it will be a very subjective criteria, but generally it will show you how long you will need to wait before entering your house, staying on the carpet again. Some old carpet cleaner require up to 8 hours to let the carpet to dry completely, but some new carpet cleaner will reduce this value to only a few 1-2 hours (obviously this value is depending on the carpet type.
The 1 hour drying time stays true for an uncut pile carpet. Saxony and Berber carpet will require a longer time because of the carpet structure). The carpet cleaning machine that will provide such fast drying time is equipped with a powerful motor and a heated drying technology. Some carpet cleaners are reported to have such fast drying time include Hoover MaxExtract, Bissell Deep Clean Deluxe. These models are using the powerful motor for a better water extraction activity together with forced heated air to dry the carpet faster. (Also, you need to be aware that, Bissell always uses a less powerful motor than Hoover, but the machine design will allow a great water extraction that could be parallel to each other.)
If you are thinking of a carpet cleaner to treat high traffic area
Obviously, a regular upright carpet cleaner can clean high traffic area but it will require you more effort to put into the cleaning task. If you are about to clean the walking carpet, the hotels, the offices, the airport and such high traffic zone, I recommend you to choose a commercial carpet cleaner. The price of those commercial carpet cleaners is not so high recently (around £200-£400) but it is a worthy investment to save your time and effort. With a single pass, the high traffic area can be cleaned thoroughly, whereas with the regular carpet cleaner, you will need to do maybe 2-3 cleaning strokes on the same area to achieve a desirable cleaning level.
If you are able to handle the heavy machine, you can go to Rug Doctor Mighty 3x, Bissell Big Green Commercial. These monsters are reported to be the best commercial carpet cleaning machine with outstanding performances and long lasting, durable working time. If you need a lighter commercial carpet cleaner, you can go to Hoover MaxExtract 77 Multi-Surface Pro. The Hoover Max Extract Multi-surface is a lightweight commercial carpet cleaner but still can handle heavy traffic area easily.
Design
Design factors to consider when choosing a machine are weight and size. The best carpet cleaners have lightweight designs making them easy to use. If the cleaner’s primary use is to clean pet accidents and spills, a lighter machine will be optimal, since you will be using it more often.
If you live in a household that does not require frequent emergency cleaning, you will want a powerful machine for cleaning entire rooms. Look for a large-capacity water tank and a long power cord. That way you can wash the floors in your entire home without stopping to refill the tank, you will likely need to live with a heavier machine, since a larger water reservoir will be needed. Keep in mind that lighter machines usually have fewer extras, so there is often a tradeoff for weight and features.
Durability
Each type of carpet cleaner will have a different design and some of them are more durable to others. Some carpet cleaners are reported to have machine defects such as leaking, breaking hose…that will cause a lot of trouble during repairing or replacing from supplier’s services. Therefore, I highly recommend you to choose the model which has a long selling time than the new model. Why? Although the old models do not have such new modern features like heatwave technology (a technology to maintain the water and hot temperature during cleaning for cleaning optimization), pressurized spraying (a technology that will pressurize the water before spraying, which is believed to clean the carpet easier) and blah blah, those old carpet cleaners are tracked by thousands of buyer over years, or decades.
They give the customer a confidence in using them rather than new models. Besides, if you are thinking of a carpet cleaner as a long term investment, should you check on the carpet cleaner’s warranty condition. Some models are warranted 1 year, some are 5 years. Mostly, a carpet cleaner from Bissell and Rug Doctor will have a longer warranty time span than Hoover, and whatever brand you choose, at least you should target the 2-year warranted carpet cleaner. Thinking of this, as if it is a measure to protect you from junky, cheap carpet that maybe used for some times only.
At this point, you may have some concepts to narrow down how to choose a carpet cleaner that will fit with your needs. Here is a recap,
- First, check the budget. A typical carpet cleaner will cost around £100-£200. Commercial carpet cleaner and modern carpet cleaner models are beyond this range.
- Second, check the cleaning surface. A portable carpet cleaner will be better to do spot cleaning. An upright carpet cleaner will be better to do area cleaning. An “all-in-one” or “2-in-1” model can do both type of cleaning with considerable cleaning results.
- Third, pets and kids in home, you should check for “pet model” and “wash and rinse” carpet cleaner because they are more fit to your cleaning demands.
- Fourth, carpet drying time is about 1 hour to 8 hours. Old models may need longer drying time. New model can boost up to only 1 hour of carpet drying time. However, still this value will depend on the carpet type and cleaning conditions.
- Fifth, a commercial carpet cleaner will be more suitable for high traffic zone. Make sure you can handle heavy machine if you want to choose them.
- Sixth, machine durability is very important. You should better choose the model with fewer defects reported by buyers than a modern model which can cause more troubles.
These above ideas will basically help you to find out the types of carpet cleaner that will fit your cleaning demands. You can check the top listing carpet cleaner review to see and compare yourself. However, if you are more serious on other hacking tips, such as how to choose a carpet cleaner by other functional factors, you can check the next ideas below.
Choosing a carpet cleaner with machine functionalities
How to choose a carpet cleaner by considering other machine factors, such as ease of use level, noise level, weight level, and modern technologies will be revealed here.
If you are notice, a carpet cleaner nowadays offers more features than it was in the past decades. The machine’s design now are optimized to reach a deep cleaning level, and let the users to enjoy cleaning tasks as a relaxing methods. A modern carpet cleaner with a lot of new features can involve two issues. On the one hand, the modern carpet cleaner will free you from manual cleaning task by incorporating new types of bush head on the machine system, or can be “Handfree”- cleaning on its own.
On the other hand, theses modern carpet cleaner will cost you more money than the old versions about £50 generally. If you are thinking £50 can buy a profound cleaning experience, you should check the below factors to get the best power of such £50.
Ease of use level
Most of regular carpet cleaners are designed into separate components and parts. Some canister carpet cleaners are designed as a full assembled unit, because they are very light weight, and compact. However, with upright carpet cleaner, they are coming with separate parts that need basic installation before using. If you are not getting used with screw and driver, there are some fully assembled upright carpet cleaner that can work immediately after un-boxing.
Most of others upright carpet cleaners just requires a few setting steps before working and you should stay away from carpet cleaners that need a considerate installation steps to save you from headache by mechanical details. Luckily, nowadays the carpet cleaner designed are optimized that can run smoothly and do not need a lot of installation steps as decades ago.
Ease of use level is also depending on a lot of factors, but the most important one is the water tank design. We will discuss the water tank design in a more detail way than here, but generally you should choose the dual water tank design and stay away from the single water tank. Why? The dual water tank design will separate the clean water tank (place where you store fresh, clean tepid water) from the dirty water tank (the water recovered from the carpet, thus they are so-called “recovery water tank”).
The single water tank is actually a water tank that has a bladder, which use to separate the dirty things from water. The dual water tank will let you to clean the dirty water tank alone when it is full, without accidental spillage as the single water tank. Imagine when you clean the single water tank and the dirt, pet hairs, cotton fibers and other nasty things stick on the bladder that could not be rinsed under the tap water, you have to use bare hand to remove them out. Therefore, to save your hand from these smelly clusters always go with dual water tank.
Noise level of the carpet cleaners when operating
Due to the design, some of the carpet cleaner will create discordant sound than others. Why? Because of the brush design, the motor design and some other details, the carpet cleaner will run with a considerate level of noise. Obviously, we want a deep cleaning machine but the lesser the noise created by a machine, a more pleasant feeling we will have. With portable carpet cleaner, most of them do their best with lower noise level (because the motor power is also small so they do not create much noise).
With upright carpet cleaner, some models tend to create more noise, especially the carpet cleaner with complex brush head design. However, the noise level is a very subjective opinion because it will depend on your personal health, ear threshold and room design. To some users, they experienced a very unpleasant noise of their carpet cleaner, but to others they feel ok with the same model. To judge the noise level of a carpet cleaner, you could go to YouTube.com to check for the model performance in reality by other users. By this way, you can judge if you are OK with a model or not.
A weighty carpet cleaner vs. lightweight carpet cleaner
When talking about the weight of a carpet cleaner, we can ignore the portable carpet cleaner design, because all of them are lightweight (13 lbs generally when emptying) that we can handle without any difficulties. The upright carpet cleaner will have a very fluctuating weight range. Some are only about 19 lbs when emptying but some are up to 34 lbs. Does a carpet cleaner with a lighter weight will be better? The answer is perhaps but not always.
Because in general condition, a lighter weight carpet cleaner will allow us to maneuvering easier, to move from floor to floor without a lot of labor, to wash the carpet with lesser pushing force from hands. But on another sides, it is observed that many lighter weight carpet cleaner can’t treat the heavy traffic area better than its counterparts, and tend to have some unexpected defects such as water tank breaking down.
It is understandable because a lighter weight machine requires the producers to make the plastic parts thinner and therefore when we exert a force on the top of the machine, it may happen that the machine’s components will be broken sometimes. Also, an extreme lightweight will mostly associate with a less powerful motor and a smaller cleaning path width.
This means, you have to spend more times to clean a big room or a tough stain on your carpet. Therefore, it is recommended that, you should choose a carpet cleaner with a good weight to ensure the machine is stable when working, a bigger footprint to save cleaning time. A typical weight can be found around 19+ lbs will be the best value for the machine weight, and a 11+ inches cleaning path width will ensure you clean the area carpet easier a 6 inches one.
Mdern technologies of a carpet cleaner
A carpet cleaner with modern technologies will allow you to be free from many hand cleaning tasks. One features I really love when talking about modern technologies of a carpet cleaner is the ability to work automatically of some carpet cleaners. You just need to put the carpet cleaner on the stains, and it will do cleaning task it own, then the machine will alarm you to come back once it have done the task. Interesting?
Unluckily, only a few models that have such “automatic cleaning” feature. Bissell Spotbot Pet Deep Cleaner 33N8A is the one you can trust, this robot will be a very friendly, handy guy to save your time from any accidental spillages, spot and stains cleaning from your carpet.
A second technology that many new carpet cleaners have applied in recent years is heated drying. Depending on the brands, it can be called by different patented names, but it has the same purpose is to make our carpet dry faster. A combination of a powerful motor for water extraction with the heated drying technology will ensure to remove 80-90 percent of the water residue out of the carpet, making your carpet to dry faster than normal. This is especially a desire feature of those who need to work on the carpet instantly after cleaning, such as beauty salons, offices and hotels.
It is a missing if we do not mention of the two –motor-carpet cleaner. Weird? Actually almost all of the residential carpet cleaners on the market only use one motor in the machine’s core, although their power can be varied. Only Bissell BigGreen Commercial BG10 Deep Cleaning 2 Motor Extracter Machine is the model I have seen so far that uses 2 separate motors, one for dirt extraction and one for the water extraction. The use of 2 motors although can’t be translated directly into 2-fold stronger than other rivals, but it will ensure the dirt are extraction and the recovered water extraction process are optimized to reach a “real deep cleaning” level of a carpet cleaner.
Fourth, the hybrid of a canister carpet cleaner and an upright carpet cleaner that has become a very interesting featured carpet cleaner,the “2-in-1” and only Bissell has such design. In a clearer view, the machine has two main parts, a portable carpet cleaner with fully assembled components is placed on an upright carpet cleaner. When you push a button, you can lift up the portable part to move around the home.
Once you come back and place the portable part back, it will become a full size carpet cleaner with considerate cleaning performance. Many buyers choose this type of combo design because of its lovely design and the convenience when storage. The machine itself give a powerful spot cleaning performance, but about the area cleaning performance is just above average a bit, especially the carpet drying time is longer than other modern designs (typically 4-6 hours for a uncut pile carpet).
Last but not least, a multi-surface cleaning carpet cleaner is also a very worthy item to invest. The multi surface cleaning features allows you to treat the rug, carpet, hardwood, tile and grout, auto interior and leather surfaces by using only the same machine. This type of machine will save you thousand bucks to invest on different cleaning equipment, and to save place for storage. A multi-surface carpet cleaner is adorable by big apartment owners, house owners a lot.
There are certain types of carpet cleaners that can be used for such different surfaces, such as Hoover MaxExtract 77 Multi-Surface Pro that will satisfy every cleaning level that you need. This model can also clean the surface with 3 speeds level, allowing for differentiating the carpet types in particular.
These are top features of a carpet cleaner that will change your cleaning style. Apart from that, there are also a bunch of small features that you could consider, such as water tank size, cord and hose length, wheels installment, detergent mixing chamber and so on. As these factors are contributing to the carpet cleaner variations, they are not so very important and appealing than the above features when you need to decide which features you need in a cleaning machine, you just only need to consider these rules
Water tank size
universal water tank size of a carpet cleaner is about 0.75 gallon -1.25 gallon. The smaller water tank, the more frequent you need to change, replace the water for big area cleaning. The bigger water tank, on the other hand, will definitely save your effort in water replacement, but will make the machine heavier during working and will use a lot of detergent. Therefore, you should aim for the carpet cleaner with water tank size of approximately 1 Gallon or above this value.
Rug Doctor, mostly uses bigger water tank size in their carpet cleaner machine (which is 3.75 Gallon for each tank). Therefore, this cleaning tool is more suitable for big area cleaning, thick carpet cleaning, and heavy traffic area cleaning. Hoover and Bissell, use the water tank size of 0.5 Gallon up to 1.25 Gallon depending on the design. If you require a lighter weight of a carpet cleaner during operation, you should better go with Hoover or Bissell products.
Cord length and hose length
The longer cord and hose length will allow you a better maneuverability. In case you are not having trouble with plugging and unplugging the machine when cleaning big room, you do not actually need to care for the cord length because most of the design will have a cord wire from 8 ft. up to 20 ft that will fit with most situations.
Wheel installment under the carpet cleaner, or a retractable hand-held handle will be beneficial if you need to move around from room to another room. If your carpet cleaner has these features, they will reduce your working labor but generally it is ok if the machine does not have these installments.
Detergent mixing chamber
is actually a small bucket to store the cleaning formulas, from which is pumped into the water tank to create a cleansing solution. Sometimes, you will find this handy, but in most cases you can measure your own by using a cup or the water tank volume indicator.
To recap, when caring about the features of a modern carpet cleaner, there are some important features that may appeal you like automatic cleaning, multi-surface cleaning, “2-in-1” design… The component’s physical parameters will play a lesser importance in the machine total performance.
Conclusion
Carpet cleaners are not only simple to operate but are also getting less expensive. If you have a lot of foot traffic in your home, purchasing a cleaner can be a great investment. Use the criteria above to choose the best carpet cleaner for your situation. Fortunately, there are many different designs to choose from, so you can find one to fit your specific needs.
