Review: Bissell SpotBot Pet Compact Carpet Stain Cleaner

When I started my day, I didn't have any intentions of buying a carpet cleaner. But by the end of the day I was the owner of a brand new Bissell SpotBot Pet compact carpet cleaner. What would cause me to run out and impulsively spend $129.99 on a pet stain carpet cleaner? I'm glad you asked...

That morning I found my cat stuck to my office carpet. She had been sleeping and her collar had somehow wrapped around a loop in the Berber carpet. Since she couldn't leave the area, she ended up urinating and pooping on my office carpet. I freed her from the carpet and immediately set out to clean up the mess. I tried all of my usual cleaning tricks, but the odor lingered. I scrubbed and scrubbed but the awful urine smell seemed to be getting worse.

I am pretty used to cleaning up pet accidents since I have two senior cats, but on this particular day I was frantic. I was scheduled to teach thirteen piano lessons that day - two of the students were brand new to my studio. What would those students and their parents think when they walked into a room which reeked of cat pee?

My mind was racing and then I remembered seeing the Bissell SpotBot Pet carpet cleaner in the Target ad. It claimed to remove pet stains and pet odors for good. That's exactly what I needed so I ran out and bought one.

The Bissell SpotBot Pet carpet cleaner is a portable compact deep carpet cleaner that let's you walk away while it does the cleaning for you. You set it on the stain, select the setting for either set-in stains, which lasts about six minutes long, or surface stains which runs about three minutes long. The SpotBot automatically sprays the cleaning solution onto the spot, then brushes the carpet with its spiral brush and suctions up the dirty water into the collection tank.

There is also a manual setting which allows you to clean upholstery, car interiors, stairs or larger areas by using the vacuum flex hose and stain brush with a spray trigger.

My husband wasn't pleased with my purchase. He felt that if I was going to buy a carpet cleaner I should have spent just a little more money and gotten a full-sized carpet steam cleaner. But I have tried those full size carpet cleaners before and found them to be too heavy and cumbersome to use on a daily basis. We also don't have the space to store a big upright carpet cleaner.

I love the compact, portable size of the SpotBot. It's easy to carry and easy to store. And because of its size, I use it much more often than I would a full-size carpet cleaner.

The SpotBot has two tanks, a clean solution tank and a dirty collection tank. I found these tanks easy to fill with solution and easy to empty out the dirty water. I recommend buying the 128 ounce size of Bissell Pet Odor and Soil Removal Formula at Wal-Mart since you will go through a lot of solution if you use the SpotBot often.

I found the SpotBot worked well on stairs. It has a very long cord which allowed me to plug it in at the top of the stairs and reach all the way to the bottom step. The compact size fit perfectly on the step. I was able to start it and walk away.

I have had success removing new and set-in stains around my house. There was only one stain which I had to do twice. The second time I pre-treated that stain with Bissell OxyGen2 and the stain came right out.

There are a couple negative things about the SpotBot. The SpotBot puts a lot of water down on the eight inch cleaning area during the cleaning cycle. Therefore I highly recommend using the manual suction brush to suck up the excess water after running a cleaning cycle. Otherwise you will be left with wet crop circles throughout your house.

Speaking of crop circles, if your carpet is especially dirty you may end up with one eight-inch circle of clean carpet which looks kind of funny too.

At the end of the cleaning cycle, the SpotBot will beep at you, and continue to beep at you until you hit stop. I found this very annoying. One beep would be enough for me.

When you switch from the hands-free cleaning cycle to the manual hose setting, you will often have water leak from the hose as you disconnect it. It's a minor problem, but annoying if you get water on your clothes or your floor.

Even though the directions say you can store the SpotBot with cleaning solution in it, I have found that it often leaks. One time I had a puddle of water/solution on my wood floor because I didn't expect that it would leak days after I had last used it. I'm not sure if I did something wrong, if mine has a defect, or if it happens to all SpotBots.

Don't buy the SpotBot if you hope to do large areas. I tried to clean the entryway into my office and found it very time consuming to have to keep moving the 8-inch circle to another spot. I also didn't feel the manual setting worked well for large areas since the sprayer was so unfocused. I didn't feel like I was able to get the carpet as deep cleaned as I did with the automatic settings.

I am really sensitive to fragrances. Even though the formula has a pleasant scent, I found it to be quite strong for two to three days after using the SpotBot. My students even asked about the fragrance when they were here for their piano lesson. But of course it's a way better smell than the smell the SpotBot just got rid of!

Even though there are some negatives, I love my SpotBot Pet carpet cleaner. With two senior cats I never know when I will have unexpected pet accidents. Plus there are always those set-in pet accidents that I often don't discover until days later. I feel I made a good choice in purchasing the Bissell SpotBot Pet. It's handy, easy to use and leaves my carpet looking and smelling clean.