Customer Reviews

Bissell 1697M Powersteamer Pro Upright Carpet Cleaner

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

This is the second Bissell Product we have owned that has broken beyond repair a short time after warranty was up. The green plastic case broke where the screws attach it to the frame. Bissell won't make it good. This machine saw moderate use in a 2500 sq ft home with three carpeted bedrooms and the remainder tile floor.

The machine did a fair job of cleaning but left dog hair in little tuffs on the carpet for later pickup. We found that the automatic concentrate dispenser was using twice as much concentrate as the formula on the bottle recommended. We finally just shut this feature off and mixed the concentrate in the clean water holder as other carpet cleaners do.

On the second or third use one of the two belts broke so I stocked up. Now have a bunch of belts.

The squeege attachment constantly came off when doing bare floors. We have a lot of tile floor and this feature was one reason we bought this unit. Big nuisance

This machine worked great, for about 10 minutes. Then, I smelled something burning and the motor blew up. It won't turn on at all now. The rotating brush seemed to really struggle on my thick carpet. The cleaning power though for that first 10 minutes, was exceptional. It did leave large lint balls all over the floor so you'll have to follow up with a vac after the carpet is dry. I'm not sure whether to exchange it for a new one (maybe I just got a lemon) or to forget Bissell all together.

I purchased this product about 2 years ago and was quite impressed in the beginning as it did a pretty good job when it was new. Now, I have USED this product as I have two cats, a dog, and two little boys who like to spill. I have never burned a belt; however, the suction ability of this product seemed to get worse the more it was used. It also left my carpet 'crunchy' after using the soap on 'high traffic' or 'half-traffic' so I just used water for the last year. And the integrity of this product is not good as my lever to release product to my carpet would 'stick' so water would continue to spray into my carpet when I released it. I am now in the process of disassembling it to put into the garbage easier and going to get a Hoover.

I just took mine out of the box, and back in the box it will go. From the first time I turned it on, it leaks, in fact, spewing water and cleaning solution from the hose attachment. After hitting the button a few times, I did get it to stop spewing water/solution but it still dripped all over the floor. Additionally, it isn't picking up too much water out of the carpeting as compared to my last steam cleaner. NOT A GOOD PRODUCT!

This machine worked twice before it stopped spraying water and solution from the machine. I went online and read some reviews and found that it is famous for soap clogging the lines. I got rid of this piece of junk and bought the Hoover steam cleaner off HSN and LOVE it! It works great and even has a blow dryer underneath which dries the carpet fast. Save your money and DO NOT BUY THIS PIECE OF JUNK!

All I can say is PLEASE do yourself a favor and spend your money on any other unit but this. TOTAL JUNK! Plastic says ABS on stampings but it can't be... Real ABS is used in football helmets and is tough stuff, this is thin, cheap and cracks easily. Mine came apart after two uses, the top and base seperating where screwed together because the unit is assembled by screwing into thin built-in plastic 'nuts' which can't handle the vibration and torque of the motor (a wimpy 7 amp toy) moving the handle and stepping on the handle release.
The roller brush is cheap and does a poor job of cleaning, creating balls of wet fibers and such which it ejects out the sides and constructed so that fibers, hair and dirt can enter the machine where the belt comes through. Speaking of belts, what's up with that? Hoover and others make cleaners that don't need belts and even if it were ok which this is not there is still much to be desired in engneering with this unit. Belts mean poor design and breakage just when you don't expect it and it also means a sneaky way to generate more revenue for the MFR.
The unit leaks, has poor seals, most of which have sticky tape on one side to attach them to the plastic which of course can't stay sticky long as it's constantly wet with carpet solution, requires a screwdriver to disassemble parts for cleaning after use (clear front vacuum cover) has poor suction, mixes 2x the solution rate recommended on the bottle, has hollow wheels which pick up dirt and water on their edges and track it all over, drips solution even when you are not pressing the trigger, has the most awfull design for spray tips you could imagine (think stream into a wall with no atomizer or O2 mix) wimpy pressure, no heating of the water, poor filtration, designed so the motor can get wet as the air intake is UNDER the machine exposed to the wet carpet.... I could go on and on.

Truth is, I trashed mine after taking it apart to see if it was worth repairing and just went out and bought the Hoover Steam Vac V2 with clean rinse. IMHO the best unit under $500 available.

The new Bissel units look impressive and have better brush rollers but still lack 8-way impact needed to really clean carpet fibers. Oh, they also claim "2x better cleaning than any other leading brand" which is a lie, Consumer reports rates Hoover #1 (and a CR best buy) and Shop Vac #2... Bissel gets low marks in all but ONE area... Price!

First of all, don't be fooled by the name. There is no power or steam involved in cleaning with this product. The water is only as hot as the tap water you put in. This is a carpet shampoo machine, not a steam-cleaner.

The tank-in-tank model does a good job of catching what the machine sucks up without blowing foam out of the air exhaust, but other than that this thing is pretty leaky. The detergent reservoir leaks more every time I use it and so I have to work quickly and empty the detergent container when I'm done or I'll have a puddle of detergent on my floor.

The suction is not particularly impressive. Only a narrow band of carpet is hit at any one time so doing anything more than a spot treatment or a small area of non-staining dirt takes a lot of slow passes and really long time. Forget about doing a large stained area or an entire room unless you've got a few hours and a few bottles of detergent.

Also keep in mind it is not a vacuum cleaner. You have to vacuum up hair and loose dirt before you start or you get soggy dust-bunnies chucked off to the side.

The mechanized brushes on this unit aren't any better than what's on a vacuum cleaner so if you've really got a tough stain, you're better off spending a minute or two with one of those broom-stick brushes with plastic bristles and a little bit of carpet detergent and water. Once you've scrubbed up a good lather, just use the Bissell to suck up the sudsy water and rinse it a bit.

In hindsight, I wish I'd just spent my money on a wet-dry shop-vac. It would have better water-extraction ability and be able to handle both dirt and stains. Still, when my brother's washing-machine flooded his living room carpet, making vacuum-cleaner-type passes with this thing was probably less annoying than fiddling with the wand on a shop-vac.

This carpet cleaner worked great the first few times I used it to clean our carpets. Pretty soon the soap and water didn't mix together and the machine was just spraying water on my floor. The machine still doesn't work. I called Bissell and the representative directed me to look at a couple items on the machine to make sure they were working right. He told me he would call me back to see if after checking these items out, my machine was working better. The items he directed me to look at were fine and no one ever called back. I feel like I am out a bunch of cash and stuck with a defective product. After reading other reviews I believe that I don't just have a defective product, but a poorly manufactured product. SAVE YOUR MONEY!

It worked REALLY well for about the 1rst 2 months. I use it a lot, I have 3 dogs & a baby. It does not suck up like it used to, and that is the whole point!!!! It leaves the floor wet, and I can't keep everyone off of it for 2 days to dry. This is my second one, too, and it is doing the exact same thing.

I have just thrown away my second and last Bissell Carpet Cleaner. This machine is so poorly designed and cheaply made that it is a poor value. I used the second machine for exactly 5 months before it would no longer pull the water from the cleaned carpet. I had taken the first machine to the authorized repair service location that was 60 miles round trip from my home. I paid almost $100.00 for repair work that extending the life of the machine for 3 months. I will not be purchasing another Bissell product