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.