The Best Carpet Cleaners in CR Tests Can Easily Tackle Tough Stains on Carpet and Upholstery

The top-rated carpet cleaners in our ratings, like the Bissell model pictured, can remove tough stains, but some are better suited for certain spaces.

By Haniya Rae, Molly Bradley

Whether your carpet has accumulated stubborn dirt, muddy paw prints or red wine spills, a good carpet cleaner or carpet cleaner can help. The best carpet cleaners in Consumer Reports’ tests are the full-size models, which are designed to give entire carpets a thorough clean. If you’re looking for something smaller and more useful, we’re also testing smaller, portable carpet cleaners which are mostly meant for spot cleaning but can’t match the cleaning power of the full size models.

The the best performing carpet cleaning products tested in our labs have a wide range of settings and options, from different brush attachments to different hose lengths. They also do a better job of cleaning and drying the carpet and are easier to use.

Although you can rent heavy duty carpet cleaners or hire a cleaning service, owning a carpet cleaner it’s a better financial deal in the long run, assuming you use it at least a few times, and it’s definitely more convenient to have one on hand.

To narrow down your options before you start shopping, you should start with our guide what to look for in a carpet cleaner to determine the most appropriate style for your home’s unique needs. You can also consult us Carpet cleaner buying guide for an overview of popular features along with tips for using your carpet cleaner.

The best carpet cleaners

The five carpet cleaners below all have large tanks, movable brushes and a long hose. CR members can also view our entire carpet cleaning ratings from over 30 products.

How CR tests carpet cleaners

We put each carpet cleaner through a battery of cleaning tests in our lab – each model’s test takes three days. Our engineers furrow large samples of off-white nylon carpet with red georgia clay. We then run a cleaner over the carpet for four wet cycles and four dry cycles, simulating how you would clean a particularly dirty spot on a well-traveled carpet. Then we repeat the test on two more samples. A reliable carpet cleaner will remove built-in dirt and grime without leaving behind a water trail and a damp carpet.

We also rate carpet cleaners based on ease of use and how loud they are – some are so loud we recommend wearing ear protection. In our full ratingsmembers can access the results of all our tests and additional information about each model, including hose length, the amount of carpet it cleans with each tank, and its weight when full and empty.

Is buying a carpet cleaner worth the money?

To get a better idea of ​​whether it’s worth buying your own carpet cleaner, you might want to think about how often you plan to clean your carpets, then compare the cost of buying one to the cost of renting one or hiring a carpet cleaning service. Although the initial cost of purchasing a carpet cleaner may be higher than renting or one-time service—our carpet cleaning recommendations range in price from about $100 to just over $500—it ends up being more economical to own a cleaned carpets after a period of time. few uses.

How to choose a carpet cleaner

First, take stock of the layout of your home and the areas you will be cleaning. If you live in a one-story house, for example, you may not need a model with a particularly long hose. “On the other hand, if you have carpeted stairs, you want a carpet cleaner with a long hose so you can climb the steps,” says Larry Ciufo, who oversees Consumer Reports’ carpet cleaning tests. “You don’t want to put the cleaner on high and pull the hose; the car could jump on top of you.” Another option, Ciufo says, is to get one portable carpet cleaner for the ladder.

Carpet cleaners can also clean more than carpets: many models can clean upholstery and things like pet beds and rugs. Several models also include more than one type of brush or attachment, with different brushes designed to help with different types of messes, from embedded dirt to liquid stains and spills.

You should also consider the tank setup of a carpet cleaner. Some have a tank with two chambers, one for fresh cleaning solution and the other for dirty water. But our testers found that carpet cleaners with two separate tanks—one for cleaning solution and one for dirty water—are more convenient to use. Some carpet cleaners also have dispensers that add cleaning agent to the clean water so you don’t have to measure out a full tank of solution each time.

The weight of a carpet cleaner matters too. Single carpet cleaners with empty tanks weigh between 10 and 20 kilograms; filling the tanks can bring the total weight to over 20 pounds. Make sure you can comfortably move and operate a carpet cleaner when the tanks are full.

Also remember that a carpet cleaner cannot go it alone. You need a good one vertical or canister vacuum cleaner to vacuum up loose debris before using a carpet cleaner. This ensures that you don’t drench the carpet with excess dust or dirt, creating a bigger mess.

Finally, don’t select a carpet cleaner based on brand alone. In our tests, we found big differences between models of the same brand. While Bissell’s models occupy several places at the top of our rankings, for example, one of its models is also in one of the lowest places.

The worst carpet cleaners

While their names might look similar to those at the top of our rating chart, these cars land at the bottom.

• While Hoover Turbo Scrub FH50138 leaves carpets fairly dry, has poor cleaning performance, leaving more residue than many of the other carpet cleaners in our reviews. It’s also among the loudest we test. However, it has some convenient features, such as separate tanks for clean and dirty water, a hose that is over 8 feet long, a carrying handle, and brush attachments. But the bells and whistles don’t make up for poor performance in our tests.

• Two Bissell models top the list of carpet cleaners CR tests, but the brand also makes one of the lowest-rated models in our ratings. The Bissell ProHeat Essential 1887 it offers average cleaning performance, but subpar drying and awkward tank setup (it doesn’t have separate solution and dirty water tanks) hold it back. It has a slightly longer hose, but is slightly heavier (20 pounds when empty) than Bissell’s other options, despite its significantly smaller coverage area of ​​32 square feet. You can get better performance from this brand at a lower cost.

• Another carpet cleaner with “pet” in the name that can’t compete with other models of the same brand is Hoover SmartWash Pet Complete FH53000PC. This model struggles with both cleaning and drying. But it has a carrying handle, separate tanks for clean and dirty water, and a long hose (29 feet).

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