I had an older Bissel, I used it a couple of times and didn't like it. I cleaned out my garage recently and it went out! There's nothing I coulod recommend, sorry.

Fubugirl, I always spray all my worst areas/spots with some Folex (Love that stuff, always use it in between carpet shampoos for removing spots--sometimes I spray the spot and it disappears before I can even wipe it with a damp cloth!)about 5 to 10 minutes before I start using my carpet cleaner.

If the carpet is badly soiled like in high traffic areas, you may want to move on, then come back over it again before you finish.

And always use really HOT water in your machine and go SLOW too--need to give the brushes time to really agitate the cleaning product on the carpet fibers.

Hope this helps.

Luvs

Fubugirl it may be the cleaner and not necessarily the machine itslef. I have a Hoover and use ZEP carpet cleaner in mine and it works GREAT. Used the stuff that came with it (Hoover cleaner) not even close to getting my carpets as clean as the ZEP cleaner did. You can get it at Home Depot.

These are not miracle machines. You must pretreat bad stains before you go over it with your Bissell. Even the better carpet cleaning guys will pretreat the stains.

What you can do is take some of the carpet cleaning solution and mix some in a bottle and apply to the stain. Work it in with your fingers and let it sit for a few minutes before running the Bissell over it. Using a spot and stain remover can create more suds in the recovery tank, but it is not a really big problem if you keep a watchful eye on it.

Follow the directions in the manual and do not rush the job.

I have used Zep, but that is not the only brand that works. I have used many different brands. No name "professional" brands seem to work well, because you are not paying for the name. You are instead paying for the chemicals inside. Bissell works well, but they tend to be on the more expensive side.