What are the best carpet spot cleaners for pet stains? Which carpet cleaners do the best job of getting rid of urine and fecal stains from your carpet, as well as any messes your kids might have made? Let’s look at the best carpet spot cleaners for pet stains on the market.
Portable Spot Cleaners for All Types of Stains
1. BISSELL SpotClean Professional Portable Carpet Cleaner 3624
The Bissell SpotClean model 3624 is cheaper than the Rug Doctor portable cleaner, about thirty dollars cheaper.
It has a highly flexible hose for cleaning stains. It is designed to handle upholstery, stairs and hard to reach corners.
This carpet cleaner is lighter than the Rug Doctor Portable Spot Cleaner, even when it is full of cleaning solution and water. It is just 13 pounds. And it has a 22 foot cord, so you can carry it around the house or up the stairs to get all those trouble spots.
However, the hand tool’s vacuum head is so small that it can take several passes to pick up all the soapy water. This machine is much cheaper than the Big Green and has a fraction of the suction of that Bissell carpet cleaner; that is in part because it is smaller and partially due to its lower price. This is a good spot cleaner if you have occasional pet accidents. Don’t buy this carpet cleaner if you need to deep clean the entire living room or regularly clean the throw rugs the dogs poop or throw up on. Conversely, this spot cleaner has a decent sized waste tank and soap tank, so it won’t need as many trips to the kitchen to empty and refill to do those few spots you do need to clean.
Bissell provides a free sample of its deep cleaning formula with the carpet cleaner. Bissell’s cleaning formulas are around $18 per 48 ounces. If you want the Bissell soaps with Febreeze, you’ll pay around $22 a bottle for 48 ounces.
2. Hoover FH11300PC Spotless Portable Cleaner
This is one of the best carpet spot cleaners on the market for the average user. It can handle pet stains, not only lifting the material out of short carpet or upholstery but lets you take apart the dirty water tank after each use to thoroughly scrub it so you don’t move the bacteria from the floors to the carpet cleaner.
The self-cleaning function helps clean the hoses so you don’t have to clean those yourself.
The Hoover Spotless portable spot cleaner costs around a hundred dollars. Yet it is easy to use. You can refill the clean water tank or empty the hot water tank without having to man-handle the entire unit. And it uses the clean water very efficiently, so it doesn’t leave your carpet soaked after you’ve used the spot cleaner. Be careful not to add too much soap or it will leave soapy residue in the areas you clean until you run the spot cleaner over it again with only clean water. This spot cleaner doesn’t heat water, but you don’t have to use hot water for it to do a good job.
This carpet cleaner is light weight and compact, so it is easy to carry and simple to store.
So if you’re looking for a low cost but high performance carpet cleaner, this is the best carpet spot cleaner for the money.
3. BISSELL 1400B Multi-Purpose Portable Carpet Cleaner
7491
This spot cleaner is around $100 new. This spot cleaner is designed to pick up the sticky, semi-liquid messes that other spot cleaners don’t do well. The Bissell model 1400B is a good choice if you have to clean up after a cat that likes to mark the carpet with urine or a puppy that isn’t house trained and leaves poop piles in the corner once in a while.
The carpet cleaner is intended for the ugly messes. It cleans up the gutted mouse in the corner the cat ate and let sit to mildew. This is the best carpet spot cleaners for pet stains left by a pet with messy runs due to food allergies.
This carpet cleaner uses the standard Bissell carpet cleaner bottles. Expect to pay around $2 an ounce for the standard cleaners and almost three dollars an ounce for pet specific or Febreeze laced soaps.
Bissell has a strong reputation for reliability. Has 15 foot cord length and weighs under 10 lbs It has a 48 oz tank capacity and a 3″ wide stain cleaning tool. You have to pay extra to get the dog bathing tool.
4. Rug Doctor Portable Spot Cleaner
This spot cleaner has powerful suction in a highly maneuverable machine.
If there is clean water left in the tank, you can leave it there until you get back to the task at hand, but it cleans better with hot water.
The Rug Doctor portable spot cleaning machine is an affordable $150, and you can regularly find it on sale for even less.
The pet formula Rug Doctor recommends is $22 for a 40 ounce bottle. The pet formula works with the Rug Doctor machine, neutralizes urine odors and is non-toxic so your kids and pets can be back on the carpet or furniture as soon as it dries. This is not much more than the cost of the spray on Rug Doctor cleaner.
The two tanks are easy to remove to fill with clean water and empty. This is a necessity, since the tanks are somewhat small to do more than a few spots. You will refill the tanks a few times if you try to clean the whole room.
One of the disadvantages of the Rug Doctor spot cleaner is the tank design; you add the cleaning formula (pet specific or not) to the water and then clean the floor. If you only use half the water, you’ve essentially wasted that cleaning solution.
Another point against this machine is the relatively short hose, just five feet. If you need it to move the machine around to clean upholstery or more than a single spot.
I purchased the Bissell Spot cleaner and in less than six months of occasional use the hose broke free from the machine rendering it unusable. Unless I choose to purchase a new hose of course!