Bissell 1715-G Bagless Handheld Vacuum

I'm the owner of 5 cats (one of them aging), two dogs, and worst of all, a young teen-ager; as if that's not enough, the former owner of my house, even carpeted the kitchen. With this household, we have lots of little mishaps to remove from the carpets. I've owned and loved a full size steam cleaner for years, but was getting real tired of dragging the big thing out to clean one spot, just a few inches in diameter. I saw the Bissell Spot Lifter in a store display and thought it would be perfect, and in many ways it is. It's light weight and easy to use--my 13 year old could use it successfully after a brief show and tell session. The separate fresh fluid tank is clearly marked as to fill lines for cleaning solution and water, so there is no confusion as to how much of either to use. The pick-up on the appliance is great and I've found that I can get the spots almost dry to the touch, so I don't have to skirt around damp spots for hours after. Cleaning ability is very good, although I've found that sometimes spraying the cleaning solution, waiting 10-15 minutes, then suctioning it back up works best on more difficult spots. My only real complaint is the lack of charged time it allows (and it doesn't offer the option to use corded)--you only get about 5 minutes time per charge, before it has to be plugged back in and charged for several hours to use again. If you only have an occasional spot to clean up, this doesn't create a problem; but if you have multiple spots or a large one, plan on doing it in stages. I also had one curious incident that occurred while I was using the cleaner--I apparently tilted it backwards too far and water from the dirty water compartment poured down the front of me and even a bit into the motor compartment, although neither I or the appliance suffered permanent harm--just had a different mess to clean up.