Bissell 7901 Upright Wet/Dry Vacuum

Ever wish that these companies that make these products would think about the consumer first before they think about making money. They only have one thing in mind and that is taking your money. Well, while this product is very nice and looks like it will do the job properly you have to look at how cheaply it is made. The whole thing is practically made up of plastic. These parts usually do not last very long. The concept of heating the water is an excellent one, but you would think that this machine would do a much better job of heating it up. This machine only increases the current water temperature by 25 degrees, this is not suppose 180 degrees. This also uses 12 amps to run it.

If you clean your carpet before you start the process of steam cleaning I guess this machine would last a lifetime. I did try it both ways and what I mean by that is I did not vacuum very well the first time and the machine clogged up a lot. When I used it the second time I swept the carpet before I started steam cleaning it. I did notice that if you use this on a brand new carpet it works a lot better. But, as you all know we do not usually have brand new carpeting in our houses at all times.

When I used this on the brand new carpet (less than a year old) it did a fairly good job. I do think that if the water that it put out was a little hotter that might help the problem. When a carpet is older the pores in the carpet are open and are susceptible to using more water. For some unknown reason the suction needs a lot to be desired. This also should addressed by the company. I think that they don't try it out on very old carpeting when they are doing a pretrial situation.

I bought mine from K-Mart for approximately $140.00 and that was about one year ago. I have tried putting this through the paces before writing this review. When you get this product there will be some assembly that is required. The best thing about this is the fact that you should only need a phillips screwdriver to assemble the whole thing.

With this new cleaning system you should not only be able to clean carpeting, but you can clean bare floors, upholstery, and stairs, just about anything you think you can. It is important that you check the tag on upholstery before cleaning. If the letter "W" or "WS" is there you can use this system. If there is a "X" or "S" this means that it has the SCOTCH GUARD on it and it needs to be dry cleaned.

This system does come with a SCOTCH GUARD applicator this way you can apply your own protector product. They do not recommend this for velvet, silk velvet, leather, or cotton upholstery. They sell quite of different selection to choose from. Eight ounces will cover 200 square feet of carpeting. Just try and watch they way you do the room so that you leave a pathway out of the room so that you don't have to step on what you have just sprayed.

You can get several accessories for your unit which might now come in the original carton. The applicator should come with it, and the Scotchgard protector, turbo brush, 4" upholstery brush, a tough stain brush, pretreat wand, a bare floor attachment, a spraying crevice tool.

You do not have to run the heat all the time, they have switches to turn the heat on and off when you need it. When the water is up to temp there is a light to tell you when it is ready. Plus this have a spot where you fill the mix and store it on the machine and it will provide the best quality of mixing the solution. This is supposed to take all of the guessing out of the job. They also have a tank in a tank system so the dirty water is separate from the clean. They also have what they call a dirt lifter power brush. This should give you a better cleaning performance when cleaning the carpet. It is supposed to lift the carpet a little while it rotates. When the water in either tank is all gone the machine will not apply solution or water. There is a nice flow indicator that spins when the trigger is depressed. This also will stop spinning when the bottle is empty. Very important is the fact that when you are ready to clean upholstery that you turn the dial on the machine to tools otherwise it will not do the job as specified. If you have a high traffic area you might want to treat it with a pre-soak to help in the cleaning. Just remember that no machine is a miracle worker.

Proper maintenance is very important when it comes to this machine. After every use you will need to clean all of the attachments with hot clean water. If you do not they will become sticky and will clog up the next time that you want to use them. Another thing that I usually do is to wipe the outside of the cord off with a damp cloth. Because if you don't this also will start to turn black with all of the dirt that sticks to it. Basically you need to just about clean and take it all apart so that it does not become susceptible to clogging.

I have been using this for over one year and I have tried to take real good care of it. I have not had to use any of the warranty. There is only a one year full warranty. They will either repair or replace with new or remanufactured parts and if the repair is not able to fix the problem they will refund or replace it free of charge. Whichever you prefer. That's not to bad but, usually nothing goes wrong in the first year.