Love my Bot!

I have 2 older cats (can't always find the litter box) and a puppy who isn't quite use to "going" outside yet, as well as 3 kids (3, 6 & 8). So you can imagine what my carpets look like! I would steam clean with a full upright at least once a month, but that gets to be a pain because you have to plan ahead when no one will be walking on the carpet for a day and it takes hours to clean the whole place. Then I heard about SpotBot! I knew it was my dream come true.

Out of the Box
This handy little machine was ready to go right out of the box, no assembly required. The only thing I needed to do was add water and solution to one reservoir. The instructions are very well written and easy to follow and the reservoir is clearly marked telling you how much water to put in and how much solution. If you want to add OxyGen it even tells you how much to put in of that.

The buttons to operate the machine are nice a large and clearly marked and the led lights let you know just what the machine is doing as it's doing it.

First Use
After filling the water/solution I set my Bot down over my first stain on our stairs. This is actually the main reason I wanted the SpotBot, was because it is nearly impossible to clean stains from stairs with a full-size steam cleaner - the hand tools never do a good job. Anyways, I set the SpotBot directly over the stain and my 3 year old excitedly pushed the "Set-in Stain" button. He was amazed at the brushes, as was I. We sat there and watched in awe the machine do it's magic. After approximately 5-6 minutes the machine beeped and the "Finish" light lit up. My 3 year old pushed the "Stop" button (he was so proud of himself.) We also tried the "Surface Stain" cycle and that took about 1/2 the time as the "Set-in Stain" and gave excellent results.

The Results
I lifted up the machine and low & behold the stain was gone! I was happier than a cat in a catnip field! So I moved my SpotBot to the next stain and started the process again (with the help of my 3 year old of course!) As I sat and watched the process again, I noticed that the 1st spot was a little more "damp" than I cared for so after the second spot was done, I took the detachable hand wand and sucked up the excess liquid - I was a little surprised at how much more water I was able to suck up (a little disappointed actually). With cats, dogs and kids, I don't like having wet spots sitting around on the carpet to attract more dirt, so, now after every spot cleaning, I take a few extra minutes to suck up the excess water with the hand device. This might not bother other people; it's just one of my pet peeves.
Speaking of the hand tool, I love it! It had a ton of suction which is usually lacking in full-size machines. It makes quick clean-up of spots effortless.

Final Thoughts
This machine is unbelievable. I love that I can set it down, turn it on and walk away. It lets me know when it's done and I go turn it off. Other than having to suck up the excess water with the hand tool, I would say everyone who has carpet should invest in one of these. The only other drawback that I see is that the water/solution reservoir is a little on the small side. You can only get 2-4 spots cleaned before you have to refill it. And, as another person wrote - you do have a clean circle compared the rest of the carpet, but I figure if I use it enough, the whole carpet will be cleaned without me having to pull out the full-size machine.