Others say...

"Great but..."
This is a geat little machine, but it is noiser than I thought it would be (hence 4 stars). It does do a great job and the best feature it the hands-free walk away auto cleaning. I just set it on the cat hairball/upchuck spot, hit the button for auto and leave.

"Couldn't live without it!"
I'm not one to go online and give ratings, but I do read them. So, it is without hesitation that I recommend the spot bot especially if you have a pet that pees, poops, throws up etc on your carpet. It is also good for all kinds of stains...especially if you use the wand manually. Also, to keep the tube and cannister clean, I recommend cleaning it with baking soda and water. I put hot water into the sink and add a couple of tablespoons of baking soda to a gallon and run it through the hose. It not only cleans the hose, but the tank as well. I only wish the waste tank had a better way to clean it as I did not discover the soda idea till today. I've had my spot bot for 3 years or so with no problems other than keeping it clean. thanks, Teresa, Fargo, ND

"Built-in elbow grease"
We have 2 dogs and a cat. All of them are getting older and accidents happen. This machine takes the stress out. It is easy to use and store.

"Works well, nice and compact"
While the SpotBot will not take the place of a full-size carpet cleaner, it is a wonderful tool for the small messes, especially pet-related ones. By the time you get the full size cleaner out and ready, you could have been done with the SpotBot.

I was a bit concerned about ordering a remanufactured one, but it looks brand new. Came with a full size bottle of the Oxy cleaner (not the trial size) plus a trial size of the general cleaner.

One thing to keep in mind is that the motor on this is only 3 amp (vs 10 to 12 for a full size cleaner) so it does not have a super strong suction. It's effective, but the carpet will be left damp when you're done. You can minimize this by using the hand wand after the main brush is done to get more liquid out, or use a towel to blot up the excess moisture. It does not leave the carpet soaking wet, but it will be damp when done.

I find it best to put the cleaning solution directly on the stain/mess, and use just clean water in the water dispensing container. Seems to work better and uses less cleaning solution.

Haven't tried it out in the car yet, but this should be perfect for cleaning up messes there as well.

As with any carpet cleaner, be sure to test a small section first to see how the carpet reacts to the cleaning solution. Several of the reviews point to issues that are not the fault of the machine, but rather how the carpet itself reacts to certain cleaning solutions.

The only difficulty I've had is in cleaning the waste water container. Hard to flush it out -- a access hole on the side would be nice, provided it could be made water tight. It's workable as-is, but cleaning the container takes more time than it should.

I'll give it 5 stars, but 4.5 would be a more accurate rating.


"I feel as if I got a maid."
We have 3 and 1-year-old girls, a cat and a small puppy. Bissell 1200R...ah, what a convenience. There were good and bad reviews at Amazon.com, but here's my review.
Our 1200R came very clean with unopened OxyGen2 and nearly full little green formulas. The main brush was "like new" and hose brush looked brand-new. The plug was pushed inward but was easily fixed by fingers. The operation was very easy; make solution, plug in and push one of the 3 buttons (surface stain, set-in stain, or hose). As an experiment, I put way less formula and OxyGen2 than directed and pushed the surface-stain button on the set-in red popsicle stain and red sticky jelly stain. Oh my goodness, both came out very clean.
Some reviews said the noise was loud, but it is less than the piano and a lot less than our full-size carpet cleaner. Notice that I felt so pampered being able to play the piano while cleaning the carpet ;)
The hose sucks water fast; you can see how much water it is sucking through the view window at the head of the hose. I was also amazed by how simple the collection tank was made. My full-size cleaner has a super complicated big tank, so it is a pain to get it out and to clean the sponge filter and narrow corners. Bissell cleaned out like nothing.
We wouldn't pay more so we shouldn't whine but we do wish that it had a child-lock system. The operation is so easy that our 1-year-old pushes "pause" and "stop" during operation. She also restarts the cycle after it is clean if we don't pull out the plug in time. Manual "suction only" would have been nice, then I wouldn't have to get on my knees sucking the water with the hose.
This happened to us once so we'll share. One time, it was plugged in but the automatic cycle wouldn't start. We figured out that we had to detach the hose head and re-attach the hose to the machine so that the automatic cycle could use the hose.
Over all, I still feel "pampered." It is small enough to take anywhere in the house and cleans the stains as if I have a maid. I would recommend this as 5-star.