Customer Reviews

BISSELL 7950 Proheat Self-Propelled Upright Deep Cleaner

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

I have had a self propelled vacuum, lawnmower, and snowblower for years, and I love them all. Finally someone has had the good sense to make a self propelled carpet cleaner, so I had to get one. In the past I have used bulky rental machines that were hard for me to push around and load in and out of my car, but not any more.

This machine works exactly as described. It is self propelled in both forward and reverse, so pushing it around my plush carpet is a breeze. The self propelled feature is what sold me on this machine, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it has a heater to heat the solution too. I use the attached hose to clean stairs and upholstery by simply flipping a switch. All the included tools store neatly on the back of the machine. The cord is very long, so there was no having to unplug and replug when in the middle of cleaning. The water tank is easy to fill and empty, and there is a separate tank for the cleaning detergent that is automatically mixed with the water based on the setting you choose. OK, I suppose that is enough information. I don't usually write reviews this long, but I am so satisfied and excited about this machine that I felt obligated to tell everyone!

This powerful machine really sucks up dirt and the pile of your carpet, restoring it to a newer appearance. It also removes imbedded pet hair. The heated water and self-propelled features, along with the easy to fill small water container ( I used the bathroom sink) make it easy to use. It's also very quiet, didn't even scare my new kittens and old dog. This is the best carpet cleaner I've owned, and I've had several.

this is fantastic.. it made my rugs look brand new with no effort.. it's self propelled design is wonderful.. i've been using a professional rug cleaning service for years and i'm amazed at the way this machine made my rugs look so much better than they ever did.. buy this!! you won't be sorry
rose mary

When it is advertised "Deep Cleaning", it is meant, exactly
that! What a cleaner, I vacumn our carpets with a Fantom WindTunnel and it really cleans also. I vacumned as usual
then I used the Bissell "Clean Machine" Model 7950 above, you talk about turning clear tap water into gray, soupy-type, should-empty-it-right-away water, This Did It ! It is effortless to use, carpets dry quickly. An exceptional buy.

I purchased the machine, set it up according to instructions (there's 6 screws and a couple of tanks you have to plop in), and started using it. Setup was pretty easy, and most of the use was pretty intuitive. Some things I noticed:

You should fill it with the hottest water you can get out of the tap, and then wait a couple of minutes. The manual says to do this, and it does make a difference. It does make one a little impatient, however, because you have to fill the tank frequently.

If you're like me and have dogs and don't have the good sense to take your shoes off when you go in the house, you're going to have a lot of dirt you can't see! I literally went over one section of carpet 5 times and STILL pulled up dirty water. I finally gave up for another day.

The self-propelled thing really works well. It makes you slow down so you can do a good job. I would probably be too impatient and blaze all over the house thinking I had actually done something if left to my own devices. It also makes things effortless though it is not exactly the most maneuverable thing in the world. A Corvette it ain't; more like a school bus.

Overall, I think the machine does an outstanding job of doing what it is supposed to do. Now, that is not to say it is a professional piece of equipment. No one could, or would even try, to make money cleaning carpets with this thing. It is far too slow, and you would spend all day at a really dirty house (like mine) and there would go your profit. BUT, for an average homeowner who probably could muster up the patience to do a good job every 3-6 months or so, it's pretty darn good.

Pros:
Really does a good job cleaning, and really does a good job of balling up the pet hair everywhere so you can throw it in the trash. It didn't seem to clog for me.

Self-propelled means easy movement everywhere, at the right speed to do what you're supposed to do.

Tanks generally sealed well and I didn't experience any significant leakage. It was pretty easy to stop the machine, lift the bucket by the handle, empty the nasty gray-brown water, and refill with steaming hot water. Overall well-designed, I think, especially when reading other reviews about how tanks on other machines leak everywhere. I don't actually see how the tanks could leak on this one, except for the soap tank, but you would have to really try to drip a lot everywhere.

Flow indicator tells you immediately when the water tank or the soap tank is empty so you don't waste your time thinking you're getting something accomplished when you're not (a common problem for me).

Haven't used the attachments yet, but looks like they'll come in handy. I wonder if I could use the brush on the dog? I would have to turn the heater off and use lukewarm water, I'm sure. Maybe they'll actually LIKE it?

The power cord is reasonably long.

Really neat to be able to control the ratio of water to soap. Watch out if you really want to deep clean, because you'll drink soap like crazy if you switch it all the way over to full strength! Pretty cool to be able to water rinse a ton, though.

Cons:

The tool attachment area on the back is not really intuitive and pretty flimsy. The turbo brush kept falling off, so I just ditched it and put it in the box.

I got about 5, maybe 10 minutes of cleaning before I had to empty the tank. Seems like if you hold the trigger down, you're going to get about 5 minutes out total before one or the other tank goes dry. Now that doesn't sound like a lot, but you could probably get about half, maybe 3/4 of a bedroom size out of that. Maybe you could get more in one pass if you didn't have to go over things five times because you won't take off your shoes and track in dirt. This really isn't a big con - but it's the reason why it's going to take a long time to properly clean the carpets in my house. See, you have to wait 2 minutes for the water to heat up every time you switch the tank. That's also why you entrepreneurs out there should think about buying something else to make money!

Another reviewer mentioned this, but if you want to do a good job, you better move stuff out of the way. Also, the edges near the walls and such probably don't get cleaned as much as one would like.

It's pretty loud, especially over bare floors!

I tried it on linoleum. I think a mop is easier and just as good. It's kind of a production for the job you mean to do. It drops a lot of water on the floor too.

It goes through soap pretty quick, especially if you have the dial turned all the way up.

I can see that some of the parts are not exactly what you would call "professional strength".

Most of the cons I listed above are pretty picky. I gave the machine 5 stars because so far, it's done what it said it would do very well indeed. I doubt you could engineer it better so that the time between tank changes would be longer without making it into something really bulky. I do think the parts could be of higher quality, but it didn't break on the first or the second day I used it. It has taken me a long time to clean my carpets, but hey, they ARE pretty dirty.

As far as the quality issue goes, and I do think that's the most serious con I've listed, I would make sure you buy from a place that offers an extended warranty and keep all your paperwork. I paid more than the lowest price (Amazon's price is about $10 less than what I paid), and paid extra for a service plan that gives 4 years of coverage. I don't need the thing that often, so if it breaks and needs to be fixed, I can wait on it. I don't know that I'd buy it expecting it to last 10 years or whatever. Depending on usage, I'm betting maybe 5 years if you're lucky - but that's $60 a year plus soap to have clean carpets!

**I have a couple of other points to make on this machine after having some experience.**

1. Don't try to use this machine on GFCI outlets. I popped them ALL! I don't think it's a fire hazard, because the circuit breakers never popped. But if I had a GFCI outlet, it would pop after less than 2 minutes. Make sure it's a regular outlet...and if the power goes out and the circuit breaker didn't go, then you've got a GFCI outlet...somewhere on the circuit.

2. Don't go over carpet again and again and again and again and again. You probably can do three passes safely. What do I mean by "safely"? Well, if you wet stuff more than a few times, that water seeps down into the backing and beyond. And you'll wake up to clean carpets that smell like mildew. Thankfully, my carpets have dried to the point that the mildew smell is gone. After looking at the solutions for mildew on the 'net - which pretty much boil down to REMOVING THE CARPET AND ALLOWING IT TO DRY WHICH TAKES A CARPET PROFESSIONAL, I feel very lucky. The tone of my review would change drastically if I now had permanently mildewy carpets. Don't do what I did - just go over it two or three times, and wait a few days/weeks/months before doing it again. Make sure the last rinse is a water only rinse.

3. The manual says to "plan your day" accordingly. Well, what they mean is "Make sure you can not touch the carpet afterwards, but still live in the house with open windows, because the carpet will need to dry. If you try to dry the carpet with closed windows because it's 50 degrees outside and leaving them open would freeze everyone and you'll be sorry you tried that because your house will be humid and you'll get the mildew smell." Basically I would be pretty sure you don't mind either leaving the house or wearing a lot of heavy clothes if it's cold outside or cleaning on a mild day because you really do need to provide a way for water to escape. After all, a house with closed windows is just a box, and water doesn't escape well from a box with no holes.

4. I now wish the water tank was bigger. BUT, the machine would not be as compact as it is. I do understand why the professionals drive up in a van; they need a big or ever-changing tank. You get about 5-10 minutes, which goes fast!

We cleaned our carpets for the first time since moving in and this thing worked miracles with all of our dirty places. The only experience I've had with using carpet cleaners was with the little handheld dirt devil unit (skip that one!). Overall, the machine is easy to use and maintain. The heated water unit is amazing and I don't know how others survive without it. Our carpets look fluffy and brand new again! The handheld attachment works great for stairs and cars, cleaning almost as well as the whole unit.

One word of warning: be careful with the cleaning settings...if you choose "heavy traffic" the machine eats soap like crazy! You could use two 64 oz. bottles for just two rooms if you're not careful!

Since all our carpets are less than 3 years old, when we cleaned them the carpets made tons of fuzzballs that got sucked up into the machine. There doesn't seem to be anyway to pry them out until they dry and either fall out or get sucked in.

We were greatly pleased because it took twice a long to move the furniture as it did to use this carpet cleaner. We did a 900sq. ft area in 2 hours and wasn't worn out pulling and dragging the cleaner. You don't have to worry about it catching edges of carpet where you go from carpet to vinyl flooring either. The scotchgard feature is easy to use and the chemicals go a long way, which will save you money. We have a woodburner and when finished, we were pleased on how refreshed and clean the carpet looked in this well used and high traffic area. Provo Bissell!

This is a totally unreliable product. I saw the Amazon reviews before I ordered and figured the people having problems just weren't following the instructions on how to change the switch to Water for storage. BIG MISTAKE. I followed the instructions to the letter. The first 7950 Proheat I had literally blew up the second time I used it. I'm talking fire and smoke. I had to return it to Bissell (try finding a box the size of a steamcleaner) and they sent me a replacement. The replacement stopped working the first time I used it...within 15 minutes. Now they want me to take it somewhere to be serviced. This thing is out of commission more than it works. Plus, the upholstery tool is terrible. I had a Hoover for 4.5 years and never had any trouble with it. This product S@*$s! I got attracted to the idea of "Proheat" but have wasted $280. DON'T IGNORE THE NEGATIVE REVIEWS LIKE I DID...YOU WILL WASTE YOUR MONEY. Unless you like spending all your time shipping this thing back and forth and taking it "for service" when it's straight out of the box.

In a house of 1 toddler, 2 labs and 3 cats dirty carpets are par for the course. After spending a fortune on professional carpet cleaning that looked worse a week after the carpet was cleaned, we finally broke down and bought a home cleaner. I researched what was out there and settled on the Bissell Proheat hoping it would do a pretty good job. What a wonderful surprise this machine is. It did an excellent job, better than the professional.

It took my husband about 2 hours to get our family room clean (it's a modest size) and the carpet has not looked this good since we moved it. The Bissell took out tons of dirty, taking up spots that I didn't think would come out let alone without a pre-treater. The Bissell heats the water, which was one of the selling points to me. The water got to about 180 degress and it really cleaned. He used the cleaner with the first pass, then went over it with hot water the second. It was amazing the dirt that came out of the carpet. The self-propelled feature went alittle fast, but you can turn it off. It was easy to push and pull without it. The carpets were dry in no time, certainly quicker than the professionals, we were walking on it within an hour of cleaning. We will not be using the professional again.

I know there were complaints about leaks, but not this one. It seems water tight. It was easy to put together and easy to use, all it takes is some common sense and reading the directions. You will need more cleaner than what it comes with, but other than that it was great right out of the box. I can't reccommend this machine more. We are thrilled with how clean our carpet looks, we can't wait to use it on our sofa and chair.

The pros: Wow! This guy can clean. I had a Hoover steam vac for 4 years, and I saw the difference immediately.

The cons: Trouble trouble trouble. I got the vac & the hose was bent. No prob. A trip to the shop. Then on 3rd use the suction stopped working and water sprayed constantly on my rugs. Another trip to the shop. Problem solved for 1/2 room, then it started up again. Back to the shop. Problem fixed. I was able to steam vac 2 rooms, then the motor started running and smelling and no water would come out at all. I called Bissell. Got a free vac. (Thanks Bissell!) The new vac's Power Drive was broke. I steam vaced one room, then the suction stopped working. Sigh. I'm going to try to get my money back.

In summary - a good design but they need to spend more time listening to their quality assurance department (if they have one).