A carpet cleaner is a pump, a brush and a vacuum bolted to two water tanks. It sprays a cleaning solution into the fibers, scrubs, and sucks the dirty water back out. Every machine here does exactly that. What separates them is how much water they carry, how far they reach, how much they weigh once that water is on board, and what the word "heat" on the box actually means.
This comparison lines up 20 brand-name carpet and upholstery cleaners from BISSELL, Hoover, Shark, Rug Doctor, Vacmaster and Dirt Devil, each with a long, well-rated sales record. Twelve are portable spot cleaners, the shoebox-sized machines with a hose that live under the sink. Eight are upright deep cleaners that you push across a whole room. The full carpet cleaner sheet sorts all 20 on the six specs that differ: type, clean-water tank, weight, cord length, hose length and heat.
Portable or upright: decide by the mess, not the house
The first column is the one that matters most, because the two types do different jobs.
A portable spot cleaner is for a stain, not a floor. Think dog accidents, a wine spill, a stair tread, a car seat or a sofa cushion. You carry it to the mess, spray and suck through a palm-sized tool on the end of a 4 to 6 foot hose. Consumer Reports' carpet cleaner ratings draw the same line: portables are for spot cleaning rugs, stairs, upholstery and car interiors, while full-size machines with wide motorized brushes are for large areas and dirt worked deep into the pile.
An upright cleans a room the way a vacuum does: in overlapping passes, with a powered brush roll doing the scrubbing. Seven of the eight here also carry a hose and a hand tool for stairs and upholstery, so an upright can stand in for a portable in a pinch. The reverse isn't true. Doing a 12-by-15 living room with a palm-sized tool takes an afternoon.
Slopsheets says: If your problem is a pet, a toddler or a red-wine habit, buy a portable. If your problem is that the whole carpet looks gray, buy an upright. If it's both, an upright with a hose covers both jobs. A portable doesn't.
Clean-water tank: from one stain to one room
Tanks run from 16 ounces on the BISSELL Little Green Mini to 224 ounces (1.75 gallons) on the BISSELL Big Green Professional. That's a 14-fold spread, and it decides how often you walk to the sink.
Among the portables, most sit between 40 and 64 ounces. The outliers are the Mini and the Dirt Devil FD13000 (19 ounces), which are built for one spill at a time, and the BISSELL SpotClean Pet Pro, whose 96-ounce tank is the reason people buy it for whole couches and staircases. Six of the eight uprights carry a gallon or more. The Hoover PowerDash Pet (64 ounces) and the compact BISSELL TurboClean PET 3948 (80 ounces) carry less, which is how they stay small. In Reviewed's testing, the PowerDash's small tanks meant frequent refills, with no warning when one ran dry.
Two things the tank number doesn't tell you. First, it's the clean-water tank only, and the dirty tank is often a bit smaller, so check both if you hate emptying. Second, the cleaning formula mixes into that water, so a bigger tank also burns more formula per fill.
Don't overpay for: a giant tank on a spot cleaner. A 96-ounce portable is great for an entire sofa and wasted on one coffee stain. If you mostly treat single accidents, a 40 to 50 ounce machine refills fast and weighs less.
Weight: the number on the box is the empty weight
The lightest machine here is the Little Green Mini at 7 pounds, and the heaviest is the Big Green Professional at 42. Portables run 7 to 15 pounds, uprights 12.5 to 42. Every one of those figures is the machine with empty tanks, and nobody cleans carpet with empty tanks.
Do the same math for the rest of the field. A one-gallon upright gains about 8.3 pounds when full, which takes the BISSELL ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet Pro Plus from 17.5 to roughly 26 pounds. A 48-ounce Little Green gains about 3 pounds. That matters most on stairs and in cars, where you're carrying the machine rather than rolling it. Testers notice it too: Bob Vila's pet-stain testing praised the Little Green HydroSteam's cleaning and still flagged its 13-pound heft, and called the 15-pound Rug Doctor Pet Portable heavy and front-heavy.
The catch: The Big Green Professional is the strongest cleaner here and also the one you least want to carry up a flight of stairs. Vacuum Wars measured the strongest floor-head suction of any BISSELL it tested.
Cord and hose: reach decides whether you can do the stairs
Cords run from 12 feet (the Little Green Mini and Shark StainStriker) to 25 feet (the ProHeat 2X Revolution, Revolution HydroSteam and Big Green). Uprights all sit at 20 to 25 feet, because they roam a whole room. Portables vary more, and that's where it bites: with a 12-foot cord you'll be changing outlets halfway up a staircase or across a sectional.
Hose length is the stairs-and-car spec. Portable hoses run 4 to 6 feet, and the longest belongs to the budget Vacmaster 400 SCB301, at 6 feet by Vacmaster's spec. Vacuum Wars' spot cleaner rankings also single out the Shark StainStriker's hose management as best in class, which makes up for a hose that's only 4.3 feet long. On uprights, the Big Green's 9-foot hose is the longest. One machine has no hose at all: the Hoover PowerDash Pet is floors-only, with no hose and no upholstery tool, which is why the table lists its hose as zero.
Pay up only if: you have carpeted stairs or clean your car. Then an upright with an 8-foot hose, or a portable with a 5-foot-plus hose, saves real effort. If it's flat rooms only, a hose-less upright like the PowerDash is fine.
Heat: three different features share one word
This is the column where box copy misleads people most, because "heat" means three unrelated things depending on the brand.
- Heated drying (Hoover's HeatForce, on the PowerScrub Deluxe, SmartWash+ and PowerDash Pet) blows warm air onto the carpet behind the brush so it dries faster. It doesn't heat the cleaning water at all.
- Keeps water warm (BISSELL's HeatWave, on the ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet Pro Plus) uses the motor's waste heat to hold hot tap water at temperature. BISSELL's own spec sheet says the 3588F has no built-in heater. You fill it hot, and it slows the cooling.
- Steam + hot water (BISSELL's HydroSteam, on the Little Green HydroSteam portable and the Revolution HydroSteam Pet upright) actually generates heat, for a steam pretreat and warmer wash water.
The other 14 machines have no heat at all, and you fill them with warm tap water.
Steam blasts out stains that ordinary cleaners leave behind.
Steam helped on old, dried-in pet stains in Vacuum Wars' upright test, but fresh stains came out no better than with the cheaper ProHeat. On the portable HydroSteam, testers found the steam made little difference.
Vacuum Wars' Revolution HydroSteam review found steam pretreat clearly useful on set-in stains, matched its suction to the ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet Pro, and noted it is heavier and puts down more water, so drying can take longer. If you're chasing a years-old stain in a rental, steam earns its keep. For this week's spill, the ProHeat does the same job for less weight and money.
How the lab results line up
Independent testing of carpet cleaners is thinner than for vacuums, but a few results are consistent across sources.
Among portables, the Shark StainStriker sits near the top of Vacuum Wars' spot-cleaner rankings, and Consumer Reports rated it very good for cleaning and excellent for dryness. Consumer Reports gave the same cleaning and dryness marks to two much cheaper machines, the Vacmaster 400 SCB301 and the Dirt Devil FD13000. The original Little Green 1400B rated good for cleaning and excellent for dryness, though only fair for noise, and Bob Vila's portable testing named it best overall while warning that its tanks can spill if it tips. The Rug Doctor Pet Portable posted the highest suction Vacuum Wars measured among spot cleaners. It also earned Consumer Reports' poor rating for noise and Bob Vila's complaints about a drippy sprayer.
Among uprights, Vacuum Wars' carpet cleaner rankings make the ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet Pro Plus its best-value pick, citing its pretreat spray, Express and Deep Clean modes and an 8-foot hose with tools. It calls the TurboClean Pet XL a budget machine that's better than expected: it lands near the category average on stains and still comes with a hose, though its weaker motor gives below-average suction. Reviewed picked the Big Green Professional as its best overall because one pass is usually enough, and liked the SmartWash+ for its push-to-wash, pull-to-dry simplicity while finding it loud and bulky.
What the box won't tell you: the cleaning formula is part of the machine. BISSELL's manuals warn that non-BISSELL solutions may harm the machine and may void the guarantee, and Shark's StainStriker runs on Shark's own paired formulas. Price the refills before you pick a brand.
If your carpet has a warranty, read it first
Many carpet warranties require proof of regular hot-water extraction cleaning. Shaw's carpet care page says a typical household should clean every 12 to 18 months. It accepts a professional service or a do-it-yourself system, but only with equipment certified under the Carpet and Rug Institute's Seal of Approval program. Shaw also warns that machines without enough extraction power can leave carpet wet enough to cause wrinkling or backing damage. So before relying on a home machine for warranty maintenance, check your carpet maker's terms and ask whether your model qualifies.
Common questions
Should I buy a carpet cleaner or rent one? If you clean more than once a year, or have pets, owning one makes more sense than repeat rentals, and it's there the night of the next accident. For a single deep clean before moving out, a rental or a pro is the sensible call.
Can I use homemade cleaning solution? Check the manual first. BISSELL's manuals warn that non-BISSELL formulas may harm the machine and may void the guarantee, and some specifically warn against oils like lemon, pine and eucalyptus. Plain warm water is the safe fallback for a rinse pass.
How long does carpet take to dry? It depends on how much water the machine leaves behind. Consumer Reports rates drying separately, and several portables here scored excellent on it. Hoover's heated-drying uprights speed it up. Whatever the machine, finish with a few dry passes, trigger released, to pull up extra water.
What we'd actually buy
For most homes with carpet and pets, the BISSELL ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet Pro Plus is the pick. It's Vacuum Wars' best-value upright, it carries a full gallon, and its 8-foot hose and tools handle stairs and upholstery too. For years-old pet stains, the Revolution HydroSteam Pet adds a steam pretreat that helps on old stains, at the cost of extra weight and price.
If you only need a spot cleaner, the Shark StainStriker is among the best stain removers in independent testing, with a hose that manages itself. Budget for Shark's formulas. The Vacmaster 400 SCB301 earned Consumer Reports' very good cleaning and excellent dryness marks for much less money, with the longest hose of any portable here.
For a big house where the whole carpet needs a reset, the BISSELL Big Green Professional is the closest thing to a rental machine you can own. Just don't plan on carrying it upstairs full.
Sources / further reading
- Vacuum Wars, Best Carpet Spot Cleaners 2026, hands-on rankings with measured stain reduction, tank, cord and hose figures.
- Vacuum Wars, The Best Carpet Cleaners of 2026, full-size upright rankings.
- Vacuum Wars, Bissell Revolution HydroSteam Pet review, steam pretreat against the ProHeat on fresh and set-in stains.
- Vacuum Wars, Bissell Big Green Professional review, suction and build of the rental-style upright.
- Vacuum Wars, Bissell TurboClean Pet XL review, a budget upright tested against the category average.
- Consumer Reports, Best Portable Carpet Cleaners of 2026, lab ratings for cleaning, dryness, noise and convenience.
- Consumer Reports, Carpet Cleaner Ratings, how full-size and portable machines are tested.
- Reviewed, The Best Carpet Cleaners, hands-on picks including the Big Green, SmartWash+ and PowerDash Pet.
- Bob Vila, The Best Carpet Cleaners for Pets, Put to the Test, pet-stain testing of portables including the HydroSteam, CleanSlate and Rug Doctor.
- Bob Vila, Testing the Best Portable Carpet Cleaners, portable picks led by the Little Green 1400B.
- Shaw Floors, Carpet Cleaning, warranty cleaning intervals and the CRI Seal of Approval requirement.