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Post by yearning4order on Jul 1, 2009 2:18:05 GMT -5
Hi All,
Well DJ when I saw that Bissel SpotBot in your photos, I have to confess I got very interested in the product and read a bunch of reviews about it. For the most part there are more positive reviews than negative--however the negative ones mostly seem to be from the last 6-9 months and detail shoddy construction as the chief problem.
Can folks provide any information about their personal experiences? My birthday is this Friday and my mother is willing to buy me this cleaning tool for my much spotted with animal stains carpet!
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Post by bigtimetroubles on Jul 1, 2009 4:27:13 GMT -5
I do not know what a spot bot is but I have a little green machine by bissel and I love it. I have cleaned the seats in my car when things were needed from spills or accidents like diarreah....if the spot bot is anything like the little green machine it is fine for using. I did have problems with mine leaking when it is cleaning by spitting the spewing foamy stuff out thru the area where it is going into the container....that is just a problem that continues to be a problem....another problem I add knowing about is that the sticky stuff going out the sprayer when you spray before vacuuming it out it clogs up things when it sits for months in closet on floor....so I usually go with super hot water at the beginning before getting to adding any detergents to the water and spray spray spray until it starts to flow....it does wonders with that hot water....once it is flowing it is time to add the detergents and start removing the dirt from whatever you need clean....hope this info is helpful...it is not the spot bot I guess but a little green machine might be very similar to the spot bot.....hugs bigtimetroubles  |
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Post by 60isolderthanithot on Jul 1, 2009 9:16:16 GMT -5
I became obsessed with cleaning my car seats at one point after running into a box filled to the top with car cleaning gear! The absolute truth: no one single car upholstery cleaner got those seats clean but using three or four of them right on top of one another did. The cloth looked new, it was shocking. Something about using all the products together must have made them gang up on stains. Even old soda stains disappeared.
It worked so well, I am thinking of testing it out on a hallway carpet. Are you sure you need another appliance?
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keriamon
New Member
Joined: June 2009
Posts: 61
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Post by keriamon on Jul 1, 2009 13:20:47 GMT -5
Here's a thought. If you get this cleaning product, it will take up space in your house. Also, it's pretty useless if you put it up and never use it (alas, this happened to my Roomba!).
A better idea might be to RENT a steam cleaner. With a limited amount of time to use it, you'll have to buckle down and use it, and then it will go back to the store from whence it came. Could your mom rent you one, buy the cleaner and help you use it for your b-day present?
Once you've steamed your carpets, they won't need it again for quite some time, hence why renting one is usually a better option. I recommend Blue Magic--a carpet cleaner I found at Wal-Mart--to apply to stains going forward, as they happen. That stuff WORKS. We're talking a fairly old grease stain out of light-beige carpet.
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Post by DJ on Jul 1, 2009 22:01:02 GMT -5
sorry, you asked about the spotbot in another thread and i neglected to respond.. my views-
if you don't use it it's a big expensive doorstop piece of trash clutter.
if you do use it and don't expect miracles it is awesome-
i had to clean my carpets first with a full size carpet cleaner.
i then used it to tackle -spots- it is not not not meant as a replacement for a full sized carpet cleaner and will not do that job.
the little green machine will have more versatility as a small portable carpet cleaner for things such as car upholstery.
if your whole carpet is tashed using the spotbot on an 8inch radius area is most likely NOT the best plan..
what i absolutely love it for is hitting a -spot- with very little effort on my part.
an accident happens. i pick up a bit. put spotty on the spot, pat it on the head, hit the deepclean button and walk away. awhile later it beeps incessantly til i go clean it up. no more kneeling with rags and cleaners. no more hauling out large carpet shampooer to get tiny spot, no more creating third degree squalor because i dont want to do the first two things.
once after i got it i did NOT use it promptly. i ended up resorting to pulling out the full size carpet shampooer. something i would like to continue using on a regular basis but no more daily battling with it due to many pets. i shampooed the carpet thoroughly all over and am back in love with 'spotty'
it's not magic but i am very happy with it. you need to be honest with yourself about what to expect from it and yourself though, like everything else.
if you are worried about construction and durability you might look at purchasing it at costco and keeping the reciept. you can always use clear packing tape to tape the whole receipt in a paper envelope to the machine if you're prone to losing things... i've done this for people prone to losing paperwork.. odd but effective. if it is done in an envelope it doesn't matter if the envelope tears when you remove it, the receipt will be whole.
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edited-
the little green machine i previously had was awesome. it wasn't an automatic carpet cleaner, but a small portable awesome little device. it broke not through poor manufacturing but uhm. very bad usage on my part. the breakage there being all my fault.
i have a full size bissell carpet shampooer that has an upholstery attachment and while it is a huge hassle i CAN drag it outside and get car upholstery.. as well as hit mattresses and upholstered furniture, something i greatly preferred doing with the little green machine but-
when the little green machine broke the obvious choice in our home with the pets was the spot bot, which i'm glad for. it does NOT have upholstery attachments and what it does it does well but you can ONLY plonk it onto a piece of carpet and shampoo that small flat surface with it. it does not do changes in elevation, there are no attachments and so on..
sorry wanted to clear up the differences between them.. couldn't justify having -3- carpet shampooing devices in our small home but did really like all 3. we are just better off with a full size and the spotbot
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Post by yearning4order on Jul 2, 2009 0:09:45 GMT -5
Thanks for the feedback for those who have used spot bot and the green machine.
Yes, I have enough spots to deal with that this makes sense. Not expecting miracles, but an inspection is coming at some time in the future. While the landlord will likely spring for shampooing the carpets, she will flip at the current level of spots. Some of these pre-date my arrival here, but the house has also sustained some damage here and there, so if I can leverage de-spotting the carpet and some other upgrades I may not have to pay fees.
From what I have read it's important to do basic things like clean up chunks, on a dry spot, vacuum up any existing hair and dirt, otherwise it just clogs the machine and can break it. That makes sense to me.
I have spent hundreds of dollars on carpet cleaning solutions, many hours attempting to manually clean stains and it's beyond ridiculous at this point. Everyone has their things they hoarde, you can trust me when I say I do not hoarde appliances. In fact, I tend to be so much so the opposite that I have to be pushed to get them and use them. Examples, I don't own a microwave, or a toaster oven, aside from a coffee maker, cuisineart, crock pot and 1940s toaster, there are no other kitchen gadgets. No ice maker on the fridge, no special water filters at the sink, no electric can opener, you catch my drift hopefully. (The coffee maker was a gift from my mother, I was using a French press previously.)
The only other cleaning gadgets I own, aside from a vacuum, clothes washer & dryer is...um nothing. I don't even own a stereo, just a little portable radio/cd player!
I'll read more about the green machine and the spot bot. I am totally disinterested in my car uphostlery, but the carpets in the house need some spot help.
I'll explore the idea to rent a steam cleaner only if my landlord doesn't do the right thing and pick up the carpet shampooing herself (which by all rights she should since normal wear and tear is typically not the responsibility of the tenant). Where do people rent steam cleaners? The other issue with that is timing it to coincide with when my daughter has another week at her dad's AND we have warm weather to hasten drying time. Otherwise it will just create mold and I have horrible allergies & asthma. This house has so far been mold free which is a blessing for me.
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Post by DJ on Jul 2, 2009 0:18:41 GMT -5
you can rent a carpet cleaner at most any grocery store, safeway, top food, whatevers:>
you do NOT want to saturate carpets when you shampoo them. it is better to do a few passes tops and repeat the carpet shampooing later.. running fans over the carpet helps it dry rapidly.. doing those things i've never had a problem with mold from my frequent carpet shampooing and we have similar climates... wouldn't worry too much:>
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Post by howardsgirlfriend on Jul 2, 2009 1:12:19 GMT -5
I LOVE my spot bot. It's easy to use, and removes dried feces without scrubbing. We recently had nearly all of our carpet removed, so I don't use it much now, but I'd buy it again in an instant.
I also used it to pre-treat large stains, prior to using my big shampooer.
One caveat: don't use as much shampoo as the directions say--1/2 teaspoon is quite enough.
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Post by stressedbythemess on Jul 2, 2009 11:13:38 GMT -5
I have one but i've been very unimpressed personally. It's very noisy in my opinion. I never hardly use it. (tempted to get rid of it)
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Post by yearning4order on Jul 5, 2009 23:25:30 GMT -5
Fired up the Bissel SpotBot and I love it love love it!
Thank you for the suggestion to use less cleanser--I have to confess I had some really awful spots and used the deep clean mode so ate up a bunch of cleanser, but where I could I was more economy minded with the cleanser.
The noise level didn't seem bad to me, but then I think the CuisineArt is louder.
The difference with the spots I treated is simply huge. This is getting me very inspired to shampoo the carpets later this summer, but I'll be honest--one way or another I am quite certain I would have had a lot of stain treatment ahead of me.
What I like about this is that I can turn on the SpotBot and WALK AWAY and clean something else while it runs. You have no idea what freedom it is, after so much time wasted trying to clean things manually that simply won't clean up.
I was able to plow through a bunch of dishes today, as a result!
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