Carpet Cleaner Battle! (2023)

One of the questions we get asked most on social media is, “What kind of carpet cleaner should I get?”. And we GET IT. Carpet cleaners can be quite pricey. 

Well, ask and ye shall receive. We bought 5 of the top rated machines currently on the market and put them to the TEST to see which ones worked best. One of our team members was replacing their carpets and gave us permission to destroy them beforehand. Challenge accepted.

When you buy through our links, we may earn a small commission. 

Here’s what we got:

A. Bissell® ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet Pro (USA) (Canada)
B. Hoover® Power Scrub Deluxe Pet Carpet & Upholstery Deep Cleaner (Canada)
C. Hoover® PowerScrub XL Pet – Carpet and Upholstery Cleaner (USA) (Canada)
D. Bissell® ProHeat 2X Revolution (USA) (Canada)
E. Hoover® SmartWash Pet Expert Automatic Upright Carpet Deep Cleaner (USA) (Canada)

The Test: Set-in Stains:

First up, we tested them on the set-in dirt and pet stains in the 20+ year old carpets. The Hoover® SmartWash did an amazing job at getting the carpet looking almost new again. The runners-up here did varying jobs at cleaning the ground in dirt. Some left lines from the gaps in the brushes while others left a nice clean section.

The Test: Fresh Stains:

Our next experiment was to test each machine against fresh stains. We used: red wine, tomato sauce, foundation, and permanent marker.

We might have been a little ambitious with the permanent marker. 💀 None of the machines were able to erase that stain, but there were clear winners in this round too. 

Our Review:

Without further ado, here’s our breakdown of these 5 machines:

And the Winners Are:

Our clear winner was the Hoover® SmartWash Pet Expert Automatic Upright Carpet Deep Cleaner (USA) (Canada). You’ll see why when you watch the video below. In close second was the newer Bissell®, the Bissell® ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet Pro Upright Carpet & Upholstery Deep Cleaner (USA) (Canada). 

All of these machines came with a teeny tiny little test bottle of cleaning solution, so you are gonna want to buy a bigger bottle. We suggest you get the brand that is formulated for your machine. Here’s some of our favorites:

Bissell® 

• Pro 4X Solution (USA) (Canada)
• Pet Pro Solution (USA) (Canada)

Hoover® 

• Renewal Deep Clean Solution (USA) (Canada)
• Pet formula (USA) (Canada)

To see these machines in action, have a look at our YouTube video:

You might have noticed that we couldn’t get the permanent marker out. To see how, watch this:

For a list of our favorite products, click here. 

– Becky @GoCleanCo