Reviews Of The Big Clean Green Machine Seem Promising, But Be Wary Of This

With a nearly perfect rating on the Bissell website, the Big Green Machine carpet cleaner seems too good to be true. Over 1,600 reviewers rated the carpet cleaner a perfect five stars, raving about how easy it is to use and how efficient it is at removing pet-related stains. Some expert customers, though, are pointing out the machine's possible big flaws, naming the machine's lack of rinse cycle and additional rinse water chamber as major issues of the product in their low-star reviews.

Reviewers were unimpressed that, for the price, the Big Green Machine only has one chamber in which cleaning solution and water both mix and funnel through, and no additional water chamber for a rinse cycle. Without this function, the reviewers say that using the Big Green Machine actually adds more manual labor for you, the user, in both the short and long run. If that function is important to you, this may not make it worth the price.

Since washing your upholstery and carpets is one of the best deodorizing hacks for a fresh-smelling room, consumers look to the Big Green Machine to help them achieve carpet cleanliness. For its $411.99 price tag, you'd hope that it has all the bells and whistles to achieve that deep clean. As it turns out though, you may be required to apply a bit more elbow grease.

Here's how the machine works: water and cleaning solution are stored together in one chamber, while dirty water is stored in another. The cleaning solution dispenses from the clean chamber, and once the carpet is sufficiently soaped, you switch the machine's function to suction the solution into the dirty water chamber. A dry and clean carpet is left behind — easy, right? Evidently, without an extra rinse cycle, that cleaning mixture may still be in your carpet, even after sucking it up.

One way to ensure there's no cleansing residue is to pass over your carpet on a rinse cycle, where clean water is dispensed from an additional chamber. However, the Big Green Machine lacks that additional feature; users must dump the solution out of the singular clean chamber and then refill it with water for a DIY rinse. You'll likely have to run the machine over the carpet several times — a note that five-star reviews also point out is necessary. That's added work, and possible waste, for an expensive machine that should do it all.

Though there are some low reviews for the added steps and dubious cleanliness (evidently, leaving behind cleaning solvent residue makes carpets prone to dirt and stickiness), other users are unbothered by the added steps to manually rinse their carpets. Instead, they assign a full five stars for the machine's ability to handle heavy-duty dirt, even from pets, and find emptying the water chambers to be quite easy. Evidently, the additional labor isn't very laborious to some users!

Bissell also offers a solution for the lack of a rinse cycle to improve critiques of the additional cleaning steps. Their PRO MAX Clean + Protect Formula fights against new stains, seemingly, and assuages fears that dirt is attracted to residue solvents. You might be able to get away with a no-rinse routine, lessening user labor.

If the extra rinse step still scares you away from the Big Green Machine, perhaps look into a combined appliance like a vacuum mop, which has a different function than other cleaning tools. Or, maybe purchase a dupe of the Big Green Machine's little sister, the Little Green Machine might suffice for your carpet needs. However, if you're not deterred by function or the price tag, and you're willing to experiment with different stain-tech solutions, then it's a "great investment and you won't regret" says reviewer Meaghan. The over-$400 price tag may hurt at first, but many users are sure they'll have it for years to come.