Discover the best carpet cleaning machines in 2020 from Bissell, Hoover, and Rug Doctor, with detailed reviews of each model. We also have a buying guide for you to figure out the most suitable model for you to add to your home appliances.
For this review, we focused on upright carpet cleaners because overall, they are more convenient than canister style carpet cleaning machines and shampooers. This style operates almost exactly like a vacuum cleaner.
Related: Best Spot Cleaning Machines for Stains and Pet Messes
Best Carpet Cleaner Reviews 2020
Before we get to our featured carpet cleaning machines, let’s first take a quick peek at how they compare in terms of cost. Since Amazon is a good indicator of average retail price (plus they often have great sales), we used their current prices for our comparison.
When we put together this list, the carpet cleaners were in order from high to low. However, because prices often change, especially if there is a discount or promotion running, this may vary from day to day.
Best upright carpet cleaner reviews 2020
Each year, Hoover and Bissell update a lot of the technologies on their carpet shampooers and cleaners. Rug Doctor also released the Rug Doctor FlexClean All-in-One Floor Cleaner which cleans both carpets and floors (although it is not a popular as the products we have featured).
Therefore, top-rated carpet cleaners models like the Hoover Powerscrub Deluxe, Bissell Proheat 2X 1548, Bissell PowerLifter 1622, Hoover Steamvac, etc., become outdated. While these are all great carpet cleaning machines, and may come with a bargain price if you can find them, finding replacement parts can become more difficult as years go by.
To find the best carpet cleaners
in 2020, you need to not only check for the best-selling models in but also investigating improvements in older models to get the best value from your money. What follows are our favorite upright carpet cleaning machines, but we do want to give a shout out to one more. The Bissell JetScrub Pet Upright Carpet Cleaner is another great choice. We’ll be reviewing it soon, but it’s definitely one to put on your list for consideration.
Let’s take a look at our top picks, shall we?
Hoover PowerDash Pet Carpet Cleaner FH50700
The Hoover® PowerDash™ Pet Compact Carpet Cleaner is our top recommendation if you are in search of a budget carpet cleaner. This upright cleaner is one of Hoover’s relatively newer models, and perfect for cleaning pet hair and other kinds of dirt.
The special benefit of this upright unit is that it is very compact but efficient to tackle pet hair, carpet stains, and messes. The unit is just under 13 lbs, which is very lightweight compared to a standard upright cleaner (18.5 lbs generally). It has a dual water tank capacity that can hold 0.5 gallons of water.
The PowerDash is suitable for cleaning daily spillages and pet accidents. It features Hoover’s PowerSpin Pet Brush Roll delivers powerful cleaning with antimicrobial protection It uses a strong motor of 7 amps to generate suction.
The cleaning path is 10-inch width which is suitable for small to medium areas. You should notice that this model does not have a hose extension, meaning you can’t clean sofa, upholstery with Hoover PowerDash model.
At the price tag of about $130 retail when we last checked, this upright unit deserves your consideration if you are looking for a floor carpet cleaner with amazing performance — without having to spend a lot of money.
Recommendations for Hoover PowerDash
This unit is the right option for your home appliances if:
- You are on a low budget
- You are dealing with stains and daily mess
- You only need to clean carpets and rugs
- Your apartment size is small or medium
- You do not need fancy features
For more information, we have a review of the Hoover FH50700 PowerDash carpet cleaner.
Hoover Smartwash Automatic Carpet Cleaner FH52000
The Hoover Smartwash Automatic Carpet Cleaner applies sensors and automatic technologies to make it a smarter carpet washer. These upright carpet cleaners are an extraordinary model that stands out from the rest on the market. It is highly rated by many thousand users in 2020, claiming this model is the best investment for their home so far.
You just only need to fill the water, the detergent, then push forward for cleaning and pull backward for washing. The sensors will do all the jobs to identify the dirt, mix the detergent with optimal ratio, clean the carpet, and dry it automatically.
The Hoover FH52000 Smartwash carpet cleaning machine uses a strong motor of 10 amps rating; it generates powerful suction to lift excessive water and lets your carpet dry faster. The cleaning path is 12-in width, which is suitable for big apartments. Besides, it has a low profile to navigate under furniture and a trigger-less handle to save your labor when using for a long time.
To clean the upholstery surface, you can use the extension hose with its pet tool. The unit is backed by Hoover for 5 years, indicating its durability and quality guarantee are far better than former units.
Last but not least, although this flagship is a high-end unit, its price is still very affordable which is less than Bissell high-end model (Bissell Proheat 2X series), and sometimes you may grab the best deal with more than 50 bucks off.
Recommendations for Hoover Smartwash
This unit is the right option for your home if:
- You need a simple, easy-to-use, and efficient unit
- You are worried about maintenance, troubleshooting
- You need to clean both floor carpets and above surfaces
- You have high-pile carpets that others failed to clean in the past
Not sure yet? We have a full review of the Hoover Smartwash carpet cleaner.
BISSELL Turboclean Powerbrush Pet 2085
The Bissell TurboClean™ PowerBrush Pet Carpet Cleaner offers similar value as Hoover PowerDash model. It is ultra-lightweight (under 12 lbs) and very compact. This upright carpet cleaner satisfies thousands of consumers thanks to its low-price attraction (around 100 dollars) and efficient performance.
You can conveniently bring this unit around your home for tackling pet stains and daily spillages. It uses 0.5 gallons water tank capacity and a 4-row brushing roller to agitate, remove the dirt and stains.
The benefit of BISSELL Turboclean Powerbrush, 2085 is that it has edge sweep bristles to clean the corners, edges, and Bissell will donate 10 dollars to Bissell Pet Foundation when buying this product.
On the downside, this unit has a weaker motor (3.4 amps) compared to Hoover PowerDash, which can indirectly imply its suction power will lesser than the Hoover rival model.
Recommendations for BISSELL Turboclean Powerbrush
This unit is the right option for your home if:
- You are under a budget
- You are dealing with stains and daily mess
- You only need to clean floor carpets and rugs
- You do not mind much about carpet drying time
- You do not need fancy features
Want more details? Read our full review of the Bissell TurboClean Carpet Cleaner.
Hoover Power Scrub Elite Pet Upright Carpet Cleaner FH50251PC
This full-size upright carpet cleaner is the updated version of the Hoover Power Scrub Deluxe Carpet Washer. With the Hoover® Power Scrub Elite Carpet Cleaner version, you can use this carpet cleaner daily to remove stains, spillages and let your carpet dries in less than 45 minutes.
On the other hands, you can deep clean old carpets, heavily soiled carpets with a deep cleaning mode. It is a handy cleaning machine for busy persons and pet owners.
Besides the 2 mode cleaning benefits, Hoover Power Scrub Elite Pet FH50251PC has a bigger water tank (1.25 gallons) to hold more water, a big cleaning path (12 inches), a standard weight (18.5 lbs), and a wash and rinse selector for you to clean the chemical residue after washing your carpets.
The key difference between Hoover FH50251PC Power Scrub Elite Pet versus the Hoover Smartwash is that this model has 2 cleaning modes so that you can customize depending on your needs. To clean the upholstery surface using the upholstery cleaning tool, there is an 8’ hose and 2-in-1 pet tool attachment for removing stains and pet messes.
Hoover Smartwash is automatic and simple to use. However, it does not have a fast cleaning mode so the carpet drying time is longer with this model.
Recommendations for Hoover Power Scrub Elite Pet
This unit is the right option for your home if
- You need to dry your carpet faster
- You need to use the machine daily
- You need a cheaper upright carpet cleaner with high satisfaction
- You are dealing with carpets, rugs, stairs, upholstery cleaning jobs
Need more details? Read our full review of the Hoover Power Scrub Elite Carpet Cleaner.
BISSELL ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet Pro Carpet Cleaner 1986
The Bissell ProHeat 2X® Revolution® Pet Pro Carpet Cleaner stands out of dozens of upright carpet cleaners with amazing cleaning performance. This unit is recently re-engineered to boost the carpet drying time to less than 30 minutes. As of this writing, the Bissell proheat 2x revolution is the only full-size upright carpet shampooer that has such a feature.
Bissell Proheat 2X Revolution Pet carpet cleaner is a high-end series designed for pet owners to remove the toughest pet stains. Carpet cleaning machines in the Proheat 2X series have been recommended by many thousand users as some of the best carpet shampooers. Over the years Bissell has developed many models, including the basic ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet (model 1548) and the ProHeat 2X® Revolution® Pet Deluxe (model 2007).
With the release of the Bissell Proheat 2X 1986 carpet cleaner, this series has been reengineered to make the fast cleaning mode more efficient to boost up the carpet drying time up to only 30 minutes. If you are interested in seeing the differences, we’ve done comparisons between the models.
On deep cleaning mode (Max mode), the ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet Pro gives professional-grade cleaning results. It uses a strong motor and 2 12-row brushing rollers to loosen, remove the soils, embedded dirt, and pet stains and odors. The nozzle also has a small Clean-Shot pre-treater to add the concentrated detergent solution to the worst stains.
Other ergonomic values of Bissell Proheat 2X 1986 are removable nozzle to help you clean the brush easily, heatwave technology to keep the water warm during cleaning, low profile to access hard-to-reach furniture, 2 attachments with great designs (3’ tough stain tool, 2-in-1 pet tool with dirt-trapping basket) and 3-year warranty.
Bissell Proheat 2X 1986 and Hoover Powerscrub Elite FH50251PC are very similar in design. Both models have 2 cleaning modes, fast drying time, capable of cleaning floor carpets and upholstery.
The Bissell ProHeat 2X Revolution Max Clean Pet Pro Full-Size Carpet Cleaner has the heatwave feature, better attachments, faster carpet drying time (30 minutes vs. 45 minutes). The customer service of Bissell is very appreciated. Its retail price is about $300 dollars and sometimes you can get the better price during sale events (Black Friday 2020, Cyber Monday 2020 and holiday sales, for example).
Hoover Powerscrub Elite FH50251PC has wash/rinse selector, bigger water tank, lighter weight (18.5 lbs vs 19.5 lbs). Its price is cheaper and there are a lot of good deals for the whole year. However, according to some consumers, Hoover customer service is not as good as Bissell.
Recommendations for Bissell Proheat 2X 1986
This unit is the right option for your home if:
- You need a professional grade cleaning result
- You need the fastest carpet drying time
- You need great customer supports
- You have to clean carpet, rug, upholstery, stair and pet messes
Want more info? Check out our full review for the Bissell Proheat 2X 1986 Carpet Cleaner.
Bissell Big Green Professional Carpet Cleaner Machine 86T3
We highly recommend you to consider Bissell Big Green Professional Carpet Cleaner Machine as a long-term investment. This commercial-grade machine is a bit expensive but it is very durable and it has fewer defects during operation compared to other models.
Compared to other models on our list, the Bissell Big Green Deep Cleaning Machine costs a lot more, but you may find a great deal deals on Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday or during the holidays. If you only need to use this heavy duty carpet cleaning machine once in a while, it can also be rented.
There are some unique features of Bissell Big Green such as clean thick carpets, high pile carpets; super large water tank (3.75 Gallons per each tank), deep cleaning performance.
A similar model to Bissell Big Green is the Rug Doctor Mighty Pro X3 Commercial Carpet Cleaner. the Rug Doctor is the next best thing to a professional cleaning solutions. The key difference between the two is the brush cleaning mechanism. Bissell Big Green uses a rotating brush unit while Rug Doctor Mighty carpet cleaner uses the oscillating brush to gently remove the dirt.
As a result, Rug Doctor Mighty carpet cleaner is more suitable for delicate carpets. The Rug Doctor Mighty carpet cleaner price is expensive too (more than the Big Green Machine, which is why its our recommendation.
You can read a detailed comparison of Bissell Big Green vs Rug Doctor.
Recommendations for the Big Green Carpet Cleaning Machine
This unit is a good fit if:
- You have an office space or business with carpeted floors
- You want to start a cleaning service
- You want to invest long term in a professional quality deep cleaning machine
For more information about the Big Green Carpet Cleaning Machine, read our full review.
How to Choose the Best Carpet Cleaners – The Ultimate Buying Guide
Here are a few tips to find a carpet cleaning machine.
What is a good carpet cleaner?
A carpet cleaner, or carpet washer, is an electric tool for cleaning carpet, rug, stains on upholstery surfaces. There are two types of home
carpet cleaners: an upright carpet cleaner and a portable cleaner (also called spot cleaner).
A good carpet cleaner can be identified based on several parameters such as a strong motor, an active brush roller design to loosen the dirt and stains, a strong suction power to suck water after cleaning, durable and solid construction to last for years. It should also be able to spotlessly clean most dirt, including pet hair and hard-to-remove stains.
Depending on your home design and your cleaning needs, a half-size upright carpet cleaner like the Bissell Power Clean Turbobrush 2085 or the Hoover PowerDash FH50700 is just enough to wash your carpets. You may need to invest a bit more for a higher-end deep cleaning machine like the Bissell Proheat 2X 1986 to tackle pet stains and messes.
Since carpet cleaner models are not evolved frequently as vacuum cleaner models, you can consider on customer reviews and ratings on Amazon to find a good model with a low price.
Check for the top-rated carpet cleaners on the markets
As we have listed above, there are a lot of best sellers from Bissell and Hoover brands. They are well-constructed carpet cleaners designed to satisfy different consumers. Some are newly developed units; some are the updated version. The key features they all have in common are the great performance, high satisfaction, affordable price.
If you need a carpet cleaner for general use, you should stick to an upright carpet cleaner with an extension hose. This design helps you to clean both floor carpets and upholstery. You can check some models like the Hoover Powerscrub Elite or the Bissell Proheat 2X 1986, as they are designed with full features and have outstanding performance
If you need a carpet cleaner for the floor carpet only, you can cut down the price to under 150 dollars (last we checked). There are two models in this price range — Bissell Turbobrush and Hoover PowerDash — that deserve your attention. They are ultra-lightweight, compact to store, efficient and cheap.
If you only need to clean sofa, stains, upholstery, or car, you can check the Bissell Spotclean Professional 3624 (read our review) or Hoover Spotless FH11300PC (read our review).
If you are pet owners, we highly recommend you to choose Bissell Proheat 2X 1986 as it has a pre-treater to shoot more detergent to remove the pet messes and odors without interrupting your cleaning process. You can also use an enzymatic cleaner solution, like Nature’s Miracle to ultimately remove the urine out of your fabrics.
Related: Best Carpet Cleaning Solutions for Pet Owners
Need to Do A LOT of Carpet Cleaning? Check for alternatives
Apart from these best-rated models, there are some cases you have to consider other options. For example, if you are constantly dealing with soiled carpets, you have to clean a hotel, a restaurant, office, etc, then you might choose a professional-grade carpet cleaner.
The best recommendation if you need to do heavy duty carpet cleaning is the Bissell Big Green 86T3 carpet cleaner. This unit has been a great choice for workmanship and durability for over a decade. You should notice that, during Black Friday 2020, the price of the Bissell Big Green Machine tends to drop down significantly. It is a great time to grab the deal.
Besides, sometimes you need a cleaning machine that not only can wash the carpet but also clean the spillage, food junks, pet messes on bare floors, laminate, hardwood floors as well as on carpets. In this case, none of our featured models can meet such cleaning requirements. At this time, the Rug Doctor Flexclean machine is a good match.
How to clean your carpet better
To clean the carpet, normally you have to follow this process: vacuum, washing with the detergent mix, rinsing with water, let air dry the carpet. Sometimes you have to use an additional cleaning solution to break down urine odor, vomit, old stains.
If there are urine smells, you should use cool water to clean the carpet. This will reduce the smell evaporation. If you do not have bad urine smells, simply try warm water to get rid of old stains faster.
How to Use a Carpet Cleaner
Best Carpet Cleaners FAQS: Frequently Asked Questions
The market is filled with a wide range of the best carpet cleaners that are designed for different floor surfaces. There are various types of carpet cleaners depending on the preferred carpet cleaning methods such as steam cleaning, dry powder cleaning. We have a comprehensive review of the best carpet cleaners. Check it out!
The first step is always to read the instructions in the manual so as to understand the detergents to use among other things. To start cleaning a carpet, you need to remove any movable furniture and other items to ensure the floor is even. Proceed to vacuum the carpet and ensure that any loose dirt or fluff is picked up.
To properly maintain the carpet cleaner, always ensure that the nozzle is clean. Most carpet cleaner models come with a detachable nozzle that can be cleaned using regular tap water. With the nozzle detached, proceed to remove any lint stuck on the machine. Proceed to clean the brushes as well.
Carpet cleaning machines for sale
Well, we’ve come to the end of this article and have provided you with our top picks for carpet cleaning machines from some of the best brands. However, if you want to compare carpet cleaning options, here’s a quick look at today’s prices and sales of the best carpet cleaners.