Worked fine for a while

I have two dogs, one of whom is punishing me for something and continually pees on the carpet in the office, so I purchased this steam cleaner from Walmart for $68. It was easy to assemble and worked well throughout the first few tanks of water, but then quit working altogether.

It is fairly simple to operate. The solution tank slides onto the back of the unit. I found that the cap on the solution tank was a bit hard to remove since the handle for the cap is recessed into the tank. If the cap is tight, it is somewhat difficult to turn. The fill lines on the tank are very visible and easy to read.

The cleaner has a fairly long cord, and should extend across most average size rooms. I only have carpets in my bedrooms, so I didn't have to move the cord, but if you have a GreatRoom, you'll probably have to move the cord at least once.

Once the unit is filled, you simply pull the trigger and pull the until back toward you. It did seem to pick up quite a bit of dirt, as the tank water was disgustingly dirty. However, there are no power brushes, just one small bar that agitate along your carpet as it is being pushed.

Emptying the dirty water took some getting used to, as you actually have to lay the handle back in order to get the dirty water tank off the unit. With the handle in the upright position, the tank will not release from the unit. To empty the tank you have to shake it a bit to release all the water because the empty chamber is located in the top corner of the tank. Any hair or other material gets caught in the path on the way to the tank because it is very narrow, so make sure you vacuum as well as possible before using this machine.

The problem with the unit is the solution tank. It says to fill it with hot tap water, so that's what I did. After a few tanks of water, it stopped spraying any solution onto the carpet. I looked down and noticed that the solution tank was no longer sitting flush against the back of the cleaner. Yes, it had actually BENT! I called Bissell, and they told me that I had used water that was TOO hot, and it must have melted the plastic. Well excuse me for actually having HOT water in my hot water heater! The explanation did make sense, but it really made me think about the quality of plastic used by Bissell if the tank can melt from some hot tap water.

I took the unit back to Walmart and am looking for another steam cleaner. All their other units were Bissell as well, and I didn't want to run the risk of my tap water destroying another Bissell product.

I suggest that if you buy this unit you check to see how hot your tap water is, otherwise you risk melting their high tech plastic solution tank!