BISSELL SpotBot Hands-Free Compact Deep Carpet Cleaner, 1200B

What a great machine! We have two small dogs and even though they are very good, they periodically have an accident. I used to have to try and treat them as best I could and leave them until I got out my Hoover Steam Vac, which was usually days or weeks later. The SpotBot is the answer. I am able to set it one the spot, let it clean it while I'm doing something else, and come back later. It does a great job on all my stains including ones that have been ground in or sitting for a long time and even some my Steam Vac couldn't get out. I'm not sure if its the machine, the chemicals, or the fact that it gets to spend three or six minutes (depending on cycle) on one spot, but it does a great job. I've just been using the regular Bissell chemical that came with the machine and it gotten everything out pretty well that I haven't even tried the Oxy Cleaner that also comes with it. I find their regular chemical does not get all the smell out of some pet stains, so I still have to pour a little of our regular animal stain pretreater directly on the stain before running the machine on pet stains. Bissell makes an animal stain formula, but I have not tried it yet. I agree with some of the other reviews about having little six inch circles where you have run the machine, but any circles I've had all go away when I clean the entire area with my Steam Vac. In fact I found the last time I was planning to do an entire room with the Steam Vac, I went around with the SpotBot first to get some of the really dirty spots out and it did a great job. The only other thing I would change is the end of cycle beeping, which beeps every 5-10 seconds until someone cancels it or unplugs the machine. One morning I ran the SpotBot on a spot and went to take a shower and had to listen to the thing beep incessantly until I could get to the machine. The storage tray (like everyone else has said) is shown in the manual, but not included witht the unit. I called Bissell to ask about it and they sent me one. Its a good thing to have because the unit will sometimes drip after its been used and the tray will catch the drips. Its been a great buy and I would recommend it to anyone who has pets or kids. UPDATE - Literaly the day after writing this review my unit quit working. The unit would run, but the brush head would not spin. I'd only had it for a little over a week and Amazon was great, promptly sending out a new unit second day shipment. I still like the unit so I left my original review. SECOND UPDATE - I received my second unit and it quit working after three uses. Unfortunately, Amazon will not send me another replacement because "the problem with this item is more widespread than we originally thought" and they are currently no longer offering the item for sale directly from Amazon, only other vendors. I'm very happy with Amazon's customer service and will continue to buy things from here. Its unfortunate that the SpotBots I've gotten have had problems because I really like the unit when it worked. I've left my original review up, but I wish I could drop a star or two for the reliability problems I've had witht he units.

There's no denying that this is a useful little tool--that's why it got more than 1 star. However... First, you don't need to buy much of the cleaning solution. For most jobs, just use water--much cheaper, and 90% of the time that works fine. The big complaint though is that it just isn't built to last. After 3 years of occasional use, it started jamming and making a god-awful racket. I took it apart to clean it, hoping there was just a big bit of fluff caught in the gears. Nope...it turns out that some of the plastic ball bearings are worn flat. Further, it was missing some, which caused those bearings to receive extra wear. After some quick online research, I found out that they shipped them *all* like this. I'm annoyed. I feel like Bissell is taking advantage of us by making cheap crap. For a few more cents per unit, they could have made them last many years longer--but they decided to cut corners instead. I'll think twice before buying *anything* from Bissell again. If this is their design philosophy, they don't deserve your hard-earned money.

We have had this SpotBot for about two years. It is used primarily for pet stains (cats) and typically does an excellent job. During the last three months, the gears have started slipping, making load grinding noises, and preventing the brushes from rotating. We have still used the manual brush successfully. Research has proved that the gears are not adjustable, and replacement parts are not available. I doubt that it is worth the time and expense to track down a Bissell repair center and have it fixed. One customer said he was told it wasn't repairable. Because, for two years, it worked well and saved much effort, I will buy another one. But, if I knew of another brand available, I would probably go with that.

I bought a Spotbot a little over two years ago. It suddenly stopped spraying cleaning solution. I don't know what happened, but I needed to buy another spot cleaner. I pondered whether to buy a Little Green Machine instead to save a few dollars. Looking back, Spotbot has been a timesaver for me. It's lightweight and more portable than my full size machine. In fact, it cleans better than my full size machines (I've owned several), because it concentrates the cleaning in one small spot for up to six minutes. CLEANING I fill it with cleaning solution and water, set it down, press a button and leave until it's done. I can choose between surface stain cleaning (3 minutes) and set in stain cleaning (6 minutes). I have found that surface stain cleaning is all I really need, even for set in urine stains. When it's done, I use the hand tool and the manual mode to suck up more cleaning solution (a tip I picked up from earlier reviews) to make the area extra dry and keep the crop circles from being too obvious -- those round clean areas can really stand out. Every few months, I run the full size carpet cleaner over the carpet to make the crop circles disappear. In addition to urine stains, I've cleaned up blood, diarrhea and red vomit (my daughter drank fruit punch). My husband didn't think for a second it would get out the fruit punch vomit, but it did. My only gripe is the dirty water collection tank is impossible to clean. I just dump it out and rinse, but I cannot get inside to scrub it. PROS: + gets many hard to clean stains out with ease + two modes: surface stain and set in stain cleaning + more lightweight and portable than the full size machines + hand tool for manual cleaning CONS: - broke after only two years - cleans so well, it leaves clean circles all over the carpet (see above for ways around this) - too difficult to clean collection tank SUMMARY When I thought about it, Spotbot has been so wonderful, I went back and bought another one. My new one is just as great as my old one. Even better, the crop circle is drier than ever. I think they've improved that part. It used to be sopping wet, but I still run the hand tool over it to make it extra dry. __________________ UPDATE: My new unit is doing something that my old unit never did. It leaks. This is recent, something that did not happen when I got it four months ago. It is not coming from the solution nor the collection tank, because I remove the solution tank and empty the collection tank whenever I store the unit. After each use, I look at the brush and see it sopping wet, solution dripping out of it from somewhere. Whatever solution is left in the machine after I remove the tanks drains out and I always have a small puddle on my floor, which is annoying. The unit is under warranty, but I have to take it to a repair shop. If any other issues arise, I will come back to update again.

My wife and I bought the Bissell SpotBot over a year ago and has it ever lived up to its name! If you have ever wondered whether or not it's worth the money, then read this review and judge for yourselves. However, I'm certain that you won't go wrong. We have a little boy who likes to make messes. However, most of the time, his messes are in a small area and doesn't require the use of the SteamVac. It would be like using a backhoe to dig a hole for a tree. Not the right tool for the job. We use the SpotBot at least 2-3 times per month. Not only do we have a small child, but we also have a small dog who likes to dig in the dirt and then run across the carpet immediately upon entering the house. Also, I admit that I can be messy at times as well. Can I help it that I like a lot of ketchup on my hot dogs? When I was first researching the SpotBot I read reviews that it worked great, but left rings in your carpet. I agree with that statement. The SpotBot is meant to clean a circular area. So if you have many spots that are in differing places on your carpet, then when all have been cleaned, it will look like some alien has just made "crop circles" in your front room. There is an easy solution, and that is to clean your carpets regularly. That way, the only circles you will see won't be because one spot is cleaner than the rest of the carpet, but because the brushes have made a circular pattern in your carpet. These circles can be easily taken out by either rubbing them out with your hand, or using a vacuum once that area has dried. Features: There are 3 main settings on the SpotBot. They are rather self explanatory, Surface Stain, Set-In Stain, and Manual (Hose). The Surface Stain option doesn't use as much cleaning solution and only runs for about 5 minutes or so. You can watch the brushes move in a circular pattern, and hear the suction as it engages. This option should be used for recent stains, like when my son ate too much candy and it came back up... Well you get the idea. The Set-In Stain option uses much more cleaning solution and runs for about 7 minutes. This should be used on spots that have been there for a while, like when the dog went number one in the corner of our closet, and we didn't find it until much later. The Manual Hose option is probably my favorite for a few reasons. First of all, you can control how much solution is used on a particular spot. The spray covers a good sized area and saturates the spot quickly. The hose extends about 5 feet and is very flexible. The attachment is fairly small which is good for cleaning hard to get at areas, like under the passenger's seat in my car. I found a year old baby bottle under there recently, which had leaked and made the car smell like "pus and feet" as my wife put it. The smell started just recently as the weather has begun to warm up. After a few passes with the SpotBot and its hose, the smell is gone and so is the stain. The attachment also has brushes so you can scrub the spot out. The suction strength is great, and leaves the spot damp, but not wet. Observations: From what I've seen and experienced over the past year, I am sold on the effectiveness of the SpotBot. It does what it is designed to do, and that is get out spots. It has taken out spots from makeup (which my son thought would be fun to draw on the carpet), to candle wax (don't ask), to fruit drinks and much more. The solution tank is rather small, and you will have to refill it a number of times depending on the amount and size of spots you are attacking. Also, the SpotBot is not quiet by any means. You will not be able to hear the TV if it is running anywhere nearby. Conclusion: The SpotBot is a miracle worker. So long to the days of getting on your hands and knees scrubbing out spots. This is one of the best cleaning tools to have come about for quite some time. In the end, I must state that every home should have one of these, because as the saying goes, "Spots Happen!"

This does do what it is supposed to do, cleaning a small circle of carpet after a spill (or a dog accident). But when it's done it sits there and beeps - forever. You have to unplug it or hit a button to make it stop beeping. They designed a pretty great product, but then made it as annoying as possible. Take away two stars for the beeps. Then Bissell is very insistent that you only use their cleaners. And the way they have them measured wastes huge amounts of product - following their measurement you have approximately 1 part water, 2 parts oxy cleaner, and 1 part detergent. I use about a quarter cup of Woolite for carpets instead, and it works even better than with all their stuff. So for unabashedly trying to sell you more product than you could possibly need, knock off the other two stars. The vacuum on this is also handy, BTW. Spray the spot cleaner (I like Woolite for this, too), let it sit for five minutes, then vacuum with this gadget instead of blotting. But Bissell made it hard to switch between the vacuum and built in cleaner, you inevitably get your hands wet - yech...

I don't often give out a Five Star rating. But this Little Green HydroSteamer deserves 6 stars. I have carpeted stairs - several flights. This thing is fantastic to use to clean them. It is light (even with a full tank of water), easy to use, and most importantly, an excellent cleaner. The HydroSteam is great. Two tanks ARE GREAT. Trust me, when you see the dirty water in the tank, you will want to be sure you have a "clean" and a "dirty" tank. Turn it on, wait about 10 seconds to heat up and off you go. It also works great in "quick dry" mode which simply avoids the excessive steam. Maybe use this for upholstery? The thing works great with or without the steam. Sure you can get an upright with attachments but then you have to lug the upright and the hose all over the place. A much tougher job. With this little guy, it makes it so quick and easy that you WANT to use it.

Like many other reveiwers, I was initially quite enthusiastic about the Spot Bot--seemed to do the job as advertised, and was great for the quick clean-up. However, I've only used this about a dozen times and today is just stopped--mid cycle. Sigh. There is no power to the machine, and the power light does not come on. I did the trouble-shooting tips (checked the breaker, tried another outlet, examined the hose and cord), but with no luck. I suspect it's the circuit board (like some other reviewers have mentioned) and thus not repairable. That's too bad, because a machine should last more than a dozen times. Just to echo what others have said, I also called the customer service call center. No luck, no help, just a long wait on hold. Very disappointed with the reliability of this machine and the lack of customer service.