Best Carpet Steam Cleaners In 2022

When the design team at Bissell thought up this portable cleaner, they were imagining customers to have both this and a full-size carpet cleaner. Instead of bringing out the big guns, you’d select the Bissell SpotClean ProHeat Portable Carpet Cleaner for small stains, upholstery cleaning, and awkward jobs like cleaning the stairs. To be honest, though, this impressive little machine is capable of doing the whole job. Sure, it’s going to take a while to clean a whole carpet, but it’s definitely up to the task.

It has a three-pronged approach to removing tough stains – heatwave technology, Bissell cleaning products (ideally, Bissell Professional Spot & Stain + Oxy formula), and the cleaning tool. The heatwave technology helps maintain the temperature of the water you put in (hot tap water), so it can cut through. Then, with the help of the cleaning chemicals, you rub out the stain using the Tough Stain Tool. It’s also got a 3-in-1 Stair Tool that sprays, scrubs, and suctions up dirt from the carpeted stairs.

This is Bissell’s most powerful carpet cleaning system, designed for the toughest pet stains and odors. If you’ve got a serious carpet cleaning job on your hands, you need the Bissell ProHeat 2X Revolution Max Clean Pet Pro Full-Size Carpet Cleaner. The company proudly states that this cleaner can ‘even remove skunk odor’ and anyone who’s come into contact with a skunk will know that’s a big claim.

It has a couple of different settings but the one you’ll use most often is the Max Clean mode. This combines Heatwave Technology and Dual Dirtlifter Power Brushes to remove deeply embedded dirt and stains. As you can see from the Amazon reviews, the results speak for themselves. This is professional-grade cleaning for a fraction of the price.

Hoover is one of the most famous vacuum cleaner manufacturers in the world. In the UK, people literally say ‘Hoover’ instead of a vacuum cleaner. Nowadays, the company is nearly as well known for its carpet cleaners. When it comes to carpet cleaning technology, they’re always at the forefront. They’re so good, we’ve picked four of their cleaners to be on this list.

The Hoover FH52000 is the most expensive of the bunch. In terms of cleaning power, added features, and all-round quality, it’s the only real direct competitor to the Bissell ProHeat Cleaner we looked at last.

For around half the price of the Hoover FH52000, you can pick up this carpet cleaner – the Hoover FH50700. In many ways, this is a smaller and lighter version. It basically works in the same way and still delivers impressive results, it’s just not as good for deep cleaning. We’d recommend the Hoover FH50700 for your basic carpet cleaning needs. In the Amazon Customer Reviews section, you’ll find loads of before-and-after images that prove this cleaner is worth its weight in gold, especially if you have pets.

The cleaning power is provided by the Powerspin Pet Brush Roll, which is basically a simplified version of the Flexforce™ Powerbrushes that you find in the more expensive Hoover carpet cleaners. The design is perfect for a mess made by pets because it has antimicrobial protection. Also, like the other Hoover machines, it has HeatForce technology to dry the carpet after you’ve finished cleaning.

The next product is the Hoover FH50150, a step up from the Hoover FH50700 in both cleaning power and price. This is the cheapest of Hoover’s full-sized carpet cleaners and we think it’s one of the best carpet steam cleaners on the market.

That opinion is mirrored in the customer reviews on Amazon. It has over 16,000 reviews, so there’s no shortage of opinions to dig your claws into. When a product on Amazon has this many reviews and has managed to maintain a high average rating (this product is rated 4.3 out of 5), it’s a sure sign that it’s a good product.

The Turboclean Powerbrush is Bissell’s answer to Hoover’s FH50700. It’s a compact, vacuum-cleaner-style carpet cleaner without the bells and whistles you’d expect on a more advanced carpet cleaner. The most noticeable feature missing from these budget cleaners is a handheld cleaning tool. That makes it pretty much useless for cleaning carpeted stairs or upholstery.

So, how does it stack up against more expensive carpet cleaners? Well, aside from the lack of handheld cleaners, the performance is pretty similar. It uses the same DirtLifter Powerbrush that rotates to scrub the carpet. This is backed up by the suction power, which is strong enough to lift deep down dirt. In terms of results, you won’t see much difference between this and the Bissell ProHeat 2X Revolution Carpet Cleaner – it’s just nowhere near as versatile.

Not everyone needs (or wants) a full-size carpet cleaner. If you don’t have a whole lot of space where you live, the last thing you want is another vacuum-sized appliance that you’ve got to store. That’s where the Bissell LittleGreen portable carpet and upholstery cleaner comes in. As you can probably tell from the design, it’s not suitable for cleaning your whole carpet. Instead, this spot cleaner is used for cleaning up stains, refreshing old furniture, and cleaning car interiors. It has a flat-bottom design and a handle on top, so you carry it to the spot, place it down, and start cleaning.

One of the great things about the Bissell LittleGreen is that you can leave water and solution in the tanks. That means, when something gets spilled, you can jump into action straight away. It’s pretty frustrating filling up a complicated carpet cleaner when there’s a stain drying into your carpet.

Hoover Power Scrub Elite Pet Upright Carpet Cleaner is one of the best home carpet cleaners on the market. It’s the second most expensive Hoover machine we’ve featured (the Hoover FH52000 costs around $20 more) and it’s well-reviewed by users and experts alike. When we tested this carpet cleaner, we fell in love with how easy it is to use. There are two settings – Quick Clean and Deep Clean. All you have to do is choose from one of these settings and get to work.

The Quick Clean setting is called ‘quick’ because your carpet will be bone-dry in just 45 minutes. It uses the HeatForce technology that we’ve seen in other Hoover carpet cleaners to dry up the moisture in no time at all. Granted, it only provides a surface clean, but run this over your carpet every few weeks and your home will look like a show house.