Bissell Fabric and Upholstery Cleaner with Fabric Safe Brush

I have lived with house rabbits for years and if you've ever had the pleasure of spending time with a lupine, you know that they poop when they want and where they want. I love when my eleven year old rabbit sits on the couch with me, but his stains smell and are hard to get out. Over the years I have tried everything to remove the smell and color of pet stains from of my couch and nothing has worked, that is, until I found the Bissell Fabric and Upholstery Cleaner with its fabric safe brush.

I was drawn to the package based on two factors: it's cost and it's brush. At under $5, the Bissell Fabric and Upholstery Cleaner was about $3 less than the competitors and it was the only product in the box store that I was in that came with a brush. The fabric-safe brush was attached to the bottle and the packaging promised that it would remove the deep down dirt, stains, and odors that were lurking in my couch.

When I got home I followed the instructions almost to a t. I didn't follow the "before you clean" suggestion that warned me to test an area that wasn't visible before I cleaned my couch to see if the product's color was affected. I was confident that it wasn't going to be affected and I soldiered on.

But I'll say this about the Bissell warning - it came with an extra portion that I had never seen. I was told that if my upholstery was affected by the product that I should avoid Bissell products coded "WS" or "W."

I prepped my couch as instructed:

· First I removed the cushions and cleaned both sides of any wet spots.

· Then I vacuumed my couch with a hand held vacuum.

· I shook the cleaning product well and removed the tab that was protecting the trigger button.

· Then I placed the fabric brush on to the first couch cushion and pressed the trigger button to apply a small amount of foam.

· I spread the foam with the brush both evenly and vigorously in an overlapping circular motion, making sure that I was covering a small area thoroughly before I moved on.

· When I had finished cleaning one side of a cushion, I removed the excess dirt with a damp cloth.

I applied this same process to all of my couch cushions and to the arms and back of the couch. When the entire couch was dry, I used my hand held vacuum cleaner to suck up the dirt, as instructed. My couch looked clean when it was done, but I wasn't happy with the smell. Instead of eliminating the odor like the product promised, I was left with a couch that smelled like flowery pee.

There is only one thing to do when this happens - grab the baking soda. Baking soda is a great, natural way to suck smells out of fabric. I sprinkled a liberal amount on the couch and walked away for an hour or so. When I came back the baking soda had turned a sickly yellow and I quickly vacuumed the absorbed dirt away. When I was done I was left with a clean and sweet smelling couch, and what more could a girl ask for?

I'll end my review with just one con. Let's call it a shout out to the folks at Bissell, or a product performance suggestion. I loved the fabric brush, really, I did, but the darn thing fell off at least ten times while I was cleaning my couch. Sure, it snapped back on with no problem, but it was a pain to stop what I was doing and go through the motions. So Bissell, use some glue and get it stuck. I'll even pay an extra fifty cents to help cover the cost.