Bissell PowerClean Carpet Cleaner review: can this cleaning gadget save my carpets?
WITH three boys under six and a house full of cream carpets, it’s no surprise I was eager to review the Bissell PowerClean Carpet Cleaner.
But could it really rescue our worn-down carpets? We put it to the test to find out if it’s as good as it claims.
A lightweight, space-saving device that can breathe new life into our old carpets and not take up too much storage space at the same time sounds like a dream come true.
But is it all it’s cracked up to be? After cleaning the entire house with it a few times, we reveal all…
Pros
- Lightweight
- Compact
- Competitively priced
- Effective at lifting stains
- Easy to clean
Cons
- Clean water tank could be bigger
- Doesn’t work on hard floors
Bissell PowerClean Carpet Cleaner: summary
- Bissell PowerClean Carpet Cleaner, £149.99 from Bissell – buy here
The Bissell PowerClean is lightweight, competitively priced and an excellent carpet cleaner.
It’s easy to use and does the job of refreshing carpets really well – it lifts up old stains and brightens up carpets brilliantly.
While it could do with a bigger clean water tank to make it go for longer, its compact size actually make it great for storing in small spaces.
What you need to know
With over 140 years in the cleaning business, Bissell know a thing or two about getting your carpets gleaming.
The brand has a fair few carpet cleaners in its repertoire and the PowerClean is the newest and one of the best value in the range.
It’s also one of the company’s most compact and lightweight models, weighing just 5.6kg, which is notably smaller than other carpet cleaners in the market, which can weigh upwards of 9kg.
Plus with 600 watts of power behind it, it’s twice as powerful as Bissell’s lightest carpet cleaner, and it certainly offers an impressive level of oomph when working on your carpets.
It has four rows of power brushes to give carpets a deep clean and its two tanks keep dirty and clean water separate.
It costs £149.99, which is a competitive price for carpet cleaners of this type and its better than average cleaning power defies its great value price tag.
First impressions
Our first impression of the Bissell PowerClean Carpet Cleaner were good – it’s modern and fairly sleek in style – and in comparison to the cumbersome machines you can hire from the supermarket, it’s practically a supermodel.
When unboxing, there are a number of parts to fit together and the instructions were picture-based with no written instructions to tell you what to do.
Despite this, it was really straightforward to build – a few clicks into place here and there and voila, it was ready to go around five minutes later.
It comes with a small container of cleaning solution, which is diluted into water and popped onto the front of the device. Again, a simple process that didn’t take too much to work out.
How did it work?
Once plugged in, with the tank full of fresh water and cleaning solution, the carpet cleaner was ready to roll.
You push a large red on/off button to turn it on and the cleaner is away.
The Bissell PowerClean can do both a wet and a dry clean and, for a wet clean, you simple press a grey button on the handlebar as you move it across your floor to release the water as you go.
As a carpet cleaning novice, we found the usability of the machine not exactly intuitive as we weren’t sure what the grey wet button was for at first, but that’s probably due to a lack of experience, and there are a number of instructional videos available if you get stuck.
We tried dry cleaning the carpets, which didn’t have a huge impact – instead, we found the best to brighten up carpets was the wet setting, which was really effective for lifting stains and marks.
How was the performance?
In a word: impressive. Its 600 watt motor and four cleaning brushes really came into their own when going over our ancient cream carpets.
Old make-up stains that wouldn’t budge for the hoover lifted really well, without leaving a trace behind.
General grime, hair and dirt also came up – it picked up more than anticipated and the dirty water tank quickly turned a surprising shade of brown. We knew the carpets were dirty, but not that dirty surely?
It took around 20 minutes to clean our entire bedroom and by that time the clean water tank needed filling again. It was slightly disappointing it couldn’t stretch a bit longer, although the Bissell PowerClean prides itself on its compact design and admittedly this would be compromised with a much bigger tank.
Its tank size is 2.36 litres, which is respectable – Bissell’s other, more expensive lightweight cleaner, the Hydrowave, has a capacity of 1.7 litres, while much bigger models have an upper limit of around 4 litres.
The carpets themselves were left noticeably refreshed and brighter. Even where there were no stains, the carpets were lighter in colour than when they started.
They were also left smelling nice – a fresh, spring-like scent that wasn’t overpowering and gave us the overall feel that they’d had a good cleaning.
How long did it take carpets to dry?
After using it around the whole house, the carpets were more damp than wet and a lot less saturated than we anticipated.
Within half an hour they were noticeably dryer and it took around two hours for a completely bone dry feel.
Is it easy to clean?
It was really simple to take apart – Bissell seem to have considered the cleaning of each element of the machine and they popped off for cleaning quickly and easily.
It’s amazing just how much dirt can get wrapped up in the machine’s parts after a short time using it, so we’d recommend cleaning it after each use to get the best results.
Bissell PowerClean Carpet Cleaner: the verdict
The Bissell PowerClean Carpet Cleaner is a fantastic, great value buy that will give your carpets a whole new lease of life without stretching your bank balance.
Its compact, lightweight, easy to use and most importantly of all, does the job as a carpet cleaner excellently.
- Bissell PowerClean Carpet Cleaner, £149.99 from Bissell – buy here
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