A home swathed in carpets needs more than just a weekly run-through . At least once a season, give your home the deep clean it needs by using a carpet cleaner to get out embedded dirt, fresh messes, and .
Virtually any household can benefit from having a carpet-cleaning machine at the ready to refresh carpets, rugs, and , and you'll never have to settle for renting a tank-sized carpet cleaner again when you have one of your very own.
The Best Carpet Cleaner Machines
- Best Overall:
- Most Versatile:
- Most Portable:
- Best for Apartments:
- Best Set-And-Forget Function:
What to Consider
Generally, carpet cleaners work by moistening the area with water and cleaning solution, scrubbing it into the material with their internal brush system, and then sucking it all up. This leaves carpets and upholstery significantly cleaner, but not bone-dry. You'll want to avoid the washed area for a few hours (or overnight) to ensure that it dries completely. Once you've finished using the machine, make sure to empty its internal tanks and clean any brush heads or attachments used in order to prevent grimy buildup.
When starting your search for the best carpet cleaner for your home, there are a few essential basics to keep in mind:
- Size: One of the most important features to consider is the carpet cleaner's size. If you have a large home with lots of carpeting, getting an upright model is a smart move — assuming that you have the closet space to store a vacuum-sized device! Small apartments are probably better off with a portable spot-cleaner that's roughly a foot tall unless your place has lots of carpeting and messy pets that rule the roost.
- Weight: If you have multiple levels in your home and a lot of carpeting to clean, keep an eye on this spec. Most upright carpet-cleaning machines are equipped with wheels, but not all portable cleaners have this feature. In this guide, we've listed the weight of all of our chosen picks when empty, but keep in mind that they'll be heavier when filled with water.
- Attachments: Devices that come with special features like heating technology, hose attachments, and crevice-cleaning brushes may also be a factor in your decision. The more attachments, the more versatile a device is, though you'll need to make sure all parts are cleaned and stored properly after use.
These five top-rated carpet cleaners might work in similar ways, but they all offer their own unique benefits.
Can't see the vacuums below? Click here to view them.
Best Overall
ProHeat 2X Revolution Max Clean Pet Pro Carpet Cleaner
amazon.com
$232.94
Key Specs
- Weight: 17.5 pounds
- Water Tank Capacity: 128 ounces
This upright carpet cleaner from Bissell is a lifesaver for homes with carpeting on multiple floors. Its brush-roll cover and dual water chambers are easy to remove and clean, and the ergonomic handle allows for effortless maneuvering.
Users with or without pets sing this machine's praises, calling out the light, sleek build, easy-to-use directions, and thorough clean that it provides. It shampoos and sucks up grime in one fell swoop, leaving carpets looking like new.
This carpet cleaner comes with a detachable 8-foot hose and two interchangeable cleaning heads that can vacuum dry debris or treat stains with the included antibacterial solution. Reviewers do point out that when using these attachments to clean upholstery, the upright cleaner's main brush head continues to spin. So, make sure you're mindful of this, and always keep the device away from anything that could snag.
More:
Most Versatile
Power Scrub Deluxe Carpet Cleaner Machine
amazon.com
Key Specs
- Weight: 18.5 pounds
- Water Tank Capacity: 128 ounces
It might not be the lightest or sleekest carpet cleaner, but Hoover's Power Scrub Deluxe Carpet Cleaner Machine is more than equipped for any carpet cleaning task. Its internal SpinScrub brush system helps ensure constant brush contact with the rug, coupled with extremely powerful suction for the deepest wash possible.
Plus, it comes with an 8-foot hose and three different crevice-cleaning tools to spot-clean your sofas, car seats, and stairs. We only wish that this upright carpet cleaner had built-in storage for the hose and tools, though it does come with a mesh bag for storing these attachments.
Most Portable
Little Green Portable Carpet Cleaner
amazon.com
$123.59
Key Specs
- Weight: 9.65 pounds
- Water Tank Capacity: 48 ounces
Bissell's Little Green cleaning machine is a small, 17-inch-wide, go-anywhere device. It makes it easy to shampoo and remove stains from carpeted stairs, car seat upholstery, and . It's a good product to get if your home does not have wall-to-wall carpeting, as its cleaning nozzle is a small, handheld device, and the machine doesn't have wheels.
When the Bissell Little Green Portable Carpet Cleaner, she loved its quiet operation, lightweight build, and how simple it was to pick up and use. “Plug the machine in, turn it on, and do your thing. I didn’t feel like I had to go hunting for instructions, and the tanks have fill lines on both sides, so there’s no guessing when you need to fill up the clean side or empty the dirty side,” she says.
This carpet cleaner's one drawback is that its nozzle is tough to clean without any included tools, so debris can potentially get stuck and affect the device's performance.
BEST SET-AND-FORGET FUNCTION
Bissell SpotBot Pet Portable Carpet Cleaner
amazon.com
Accidents happen! Luckily, the Bissell SpotBot Pet Portable Carpet Cleaner takes care of it in a jiffy. What sets this unit apart from the Little Green is that instead of just using its 5-foot-long suction hose to manually clean, you can simply place the machine's scrubber tool on top of a stain, and it will scrub and suck up the gunk for you.
Our editor Brandon Carte, who's a longtime dog owner, for roughly a year to clean up every type of mess you can imagine from his pets.
He does note that the machine is quite loud when it’s running on auto mode, and it doesn’t suck up the moisture quite as effectively as other models, leaving his carpets pretty damp hours later. Still, he says, “Speaking as someone who has cleaned up more pet fluids than I can count, I would much rather have the Bissell SpotBot than clean the messes by hand.”
Best for Apartments
Pet Portable Spot Cleaner
amazon.com
Key Specs
- Weight: 18.76 pounds
- Water Tank Capacity: 64 ounces
Accidents happen! Luckily, this spot-cleaning machine from Rug Doctor takes care of it in a jiffy. To use, just fill its clean-water tank with hot water and carpet cleaning solution. Then, use the silicone-tipped brush head to work the soap into the stain. The nozzle then vacuums up the moisture into its dirty-water chamber, which you can dump out when you're done.
The unit's compact size is a major plus, as it can be wheeled around as you need it. While it's branded toward — and its included solution is formulated to lift pet stains — users say that it effectively lifts years-old food stains, too. One caveat to note is that this small carpet cleaner is on the weighty side, at over 18 pounds when empty.
