My entire house is carpeted (with the exception of the kitchen and bathrooms.) The carpet in my living room, hallway, and upstairs bedrooms is off white. and it’s the original carpet, so it’s about 35 years old. It has been with as many years of homeowners with cats. between the original owners and me, my rugs have dealt with a overall of seven cats so far. nobody who walks into my house believes me that the carpet is that old.
I vacuum weekly, and for the first 20+ years that I’ve resided in this house, I’ve had my rugs professionally cleaned. but for the last few years, I discontinued the professional cleanings. between Buckley’s heart disease, and Amber getting older, I didn’t want to tension them out by having to lock them into a bathroom for the time it would take to get the whole house cleaned. When Allegra and Ruby joined me, I believed that the time was right to have the carpet cleaned professionally again, but Allegra hates being locked up so much that she actually starts trying to dig her method out from under the door. And Ruby is terrified of the noise of the vacuum cleaner.
My solution: get a heavy steam carpet cleaner, and do it myself. That way, I wouldn’t have to lock the women up. They could deal with “the monster” in a method that feels good to them. For Ruby, that implies the extremely top of the greatest cat tree in the house; for Allegra, it implies following “the monster” at a risk-free distance, and occasionally attacking the cord. having my own machine would also allow me to clean one space at a time, reducing tension on the women for prolonged periods of time.
I was thrilled when Bissell agreed to send me their DeepClean Lift-Off Deluxe Pet Upright Deep Cleaner for review.
The DeepClean Lift-Off Deluxe Pet Upright Deep Cleaner is a full size heavy steam cleaner with a removable portable area cleaner that easily detaches from the main machine and can be brought away for cleaning hard-to-reach areas, stairs and furniture. I already own Bissel’s bit green portable deep cleaner, which works fabulously well, so I was thrilled about trying the full size machine.
The cleaner is available in two pieces. According to the directions, all you need to do is attach the handle to the bottom part of the machine with four screws. seems easy enough. Unfortunately, the angle of the screws and corresponding holes is so uncomfortable that it takes quite a bit of effort to put it together. I’m pretty challenged when it concerns anything that needs assembly, so at first I chalked my difficulties as much as my ineptitude, and brought in a more skilled pal to help, but even she found it hard to put together.
But once the machine was assembled, it was fantastic, and extremely easy to use. just fill the water storage tank with hot water and cleaning solution, and you’re ready to go. because I don’t utilize any chemical cleaners around my house, I did not utilize any of the Bissell cleaning services that came with the machine, but utilized a mixture of water and white vinegar instead (I utilize a ratio of about 2 cups per gallon, but you don’t have to be exact with this.)
The machine has terrific suction, and took up some older spots even without pre-treating. If I had selected to pre-treat, I would have used a service like Fizzion. I cleaned my Reiki room, my office, and one set of stairs to test the cleaner, and the results were quite nice. I desire I could give you dramatic before and after photos, but I guess my rugs just weren’t that dirty to begin with. You can see Ruby inspecting the newly cleaned carpet in my office in the photo above. The women weren’t as well thrilled with the wet carpets, but they didn’t seem traumatized by the noise from the machine (and I did give tension Stopper to both of them before I started). drying time was impressive: after about five hours, everything was dry. The machine’s suction does a terrific job taking up the wetness without a lot of effort: just run the machine over the cleaned area in reverse.
I like everything (except the assembly) about this machine. The water storage tank lasts long enough to clean an entire bedroom without refilling. The dirty water storage tank is much larger than the water tank, and I didn’t have to empty it up until I was done cleaning. I like that the machine is really two cleaners in one. I utilized the portable cleaner on my stairs, and it was easy to maneuver and did a terrific job. I like the extra long cord, so you don’t have to constantly interrupt cleaning to find different plugs. The machine is easy to clean. I was certainly delighted with the results – my carpet looks the exact same method it utilized to look when I had it professionally cleaned.
On a scale from 1 to 5 stars, I give this machine a solid 4. If if wasn’t for the uncomfortable assembly, I’d give it the full 5 stars.
You can purchase the DeepClean Lift-Off Deluxe Pet Upright Deep Cleaner from Amazon, or dnull