With all the reviews we’ve done on Bissell products over many years we have not published anything on one of their top-of-the-line carpet cleaners.
We are remedying this today.
High time to see how clean our carpets can really be with a carpet washer! And if you have a pet (other than a goldfish) in the house you know you want, no, need one of these machines.
So, come along and you might be surprised how easy it is to do a real professional job on your carpets and rugs with this ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet unit from Bissell.
BIG, Bold and Beautiful
We always start out our reviews with a quick summary of the looks and features of the product.
Yes, this machine is big. And big is very functional: you can do large areas of carpet with less effort. Bissell’s bigness doesn’t mean it is hard to manoeuvre. On the contrary. At around 12kg with a filled clean water tank it’s well balanced.
This Bissell is also bold in its presence with colours like purple and green with here and there an accent of red and yellow. For some reason this unusual colour scheme works…
Dare we even say this Bissell is beautiful? Insofar as a utilitarian household appliance can be beautiful, I would say yes. They designed it well and built it well.
It’s easy to use, simple to maintain.
The ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet is accessorised to the hilt. Tools for every mess and muss. And for doing the stairs and upholstery.
Like a 2-in-1 Pet Upholstery Tool, a 3-in-1 Stair Tool plus a Tough Stain Tool.
All these are used with the 3m Hose and will fit in the Accessory Bag
More on these things later.
To make sure you can use the Revolution Pet straightaway, it comes with a few small bottles of Antibacterial Formula, Professional Formula and Oxy Boost.
There are plenty of Bissell 2X Cleaning Formulas available, including the Wash & Protect types that have Scotchgard Protector in the formula. The 2X refers to the fact that it is 2X concentrated.
But before you can plug it in some minor assembly is required. With good instructions and the use of a Philips screwdriver (which every household should have), you’ll be ready in a few minutes.
Testing
All our testing was done with vacuuming the rugs and carpets first. That means they are supposed to be “clean”. Visually they may be but wait till you see what the ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet can still extract!
We tested out some smaller rugs first to see how the Revolution operates rather than going gangbusters on expensive carpet and before we’ve checked out the manufacturer’s tags on the floor coverings.
When you switch it on be prepared for a fairly noisy experience as the two rollers turn at a surprisingly high speed!
Both my wife and I resorted to wearing some Jabra headphones to minimise the noise. It’s comparable to the high noise levels of a VAX vac/washer.
Rugs are perhaps the hardest floor coverings to start with: edges can fray and if they are thin you need a second person to prevent the rug from being scrunched up by the rollers.
We did 5 rugs in the first test. All of them came out beautifully fresh and clean.
We had the machine on Express Clean Mode as Deep Cleaning is not recommended for rugs. Drying time is about half an hour.
It’s interesting that the manual specifies that the recommended cleaning pace for the Express Mode is 30.5cm per second…
That sounds very precise! And impossible to stick to. Best is to eye off a 1 metre section and count off 3 seconds whilst going over it and you’re in the ballpark.
For these quick jobs you don’t fill the water tank to its normal full capacity level but the lower level as indicated and then add the formula to the other level just above that. It’s about a 10 to 1 ratio of warm water to formula and you can cover a whole carpeted lounge with that.
For dog mess or if you have others spills you can use the CleanShot feature which is activated by a foot pedal. With a good aim you can saturate the offending area and use the machine as per usual.
Carpets
This is where the ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet really shines.
There were some persistent spots on one carpet and I had to use the CleanShot feature on a couple of these for an extra dose of liquid. The other spots just came out with a couple of passes of the machine with the spray trigger engaged, followed by 2 passes vacuuming up the excess moisture and some fluff and dirt. Resulting in carpets that look clean and fresh and smell fresh as well.
Sometimes certain carpets will produce more fluff than others which you’ll have to pick up even though most will be vacuumed up.
The real dirty work is in cleaning the machine and emptying the Dirty Water Tank. My, that’s gratifyingly black! You can see that vacuuming alone won’t ever make your carpets clean but this Revolution certainly does that job for you!
Using the Hose and Tools
The ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet is a versatile machine. It’s not just floor coverings that are done expertly but also stairs and upholstery.
Plus a tool for getting rid of the mess young puppies might make in your lounge.
All of these tools require the use of the hose which clips into the foot of the unit.
It all looks simple enough for a jaded tech journalist… But here the instructions let me down as I tried to get the hose to deliver the spray. I read and re-read the manual on this section and finally came across a few hints on the Troubleshooting page. It’s a common problem and it has to do with “priming the pump” – or in this case: the hose. A 2 minute Bissell video explains it well and it would have been helpful if the manual had some clear pictures of where to insert a ballpoint pen into a hole to get the flow going…
Anyways, we got it all going and did the upholstery of half a dozen dining table chairs.
This is definitely an outside job as priming the machine and the overspray can cause some puddles.
Here we encountered the only gripe we have on the Revolution: the roller brushes which are not used when the hose is attached, still are spinning around at that phenomenal speed while the machine is stationary!
That means you should not have it on a carpet or on a wooden floor where it can do damage being stationary. I put it on a rubber mat on the verandah.
My question to the design team: why can’t the rollers be switched off?
A variable speed with an Off setting would be even better. It certainly minimises the noise and the wear and tear on the rollers…
Conclusion
We will continue to use the Revolution over the next few months and update our review with some longer term experiences.
For now, our findings are very positive and we can recommend the Bissell ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet very highly!
We thank the team at Bissell for providing us with the opportunity to test this product but their generosity also extends to our readers because they’d like to offer you a very nifty SteamShot cleaner absolutely free (this unit costs around $105 and we’ll be doing a review of the SteamShot shortly as well).
All you need to do to claim the bonus SteamShot is to enter code DIGITALREVIEWS at checkout when purchasing online at www.bissellshop.com.au or use the link below where you’ll find the redemption form for valid retailer in-store purchases (valid until February 29, 2020)
Click here for REDEMPTION Form.
Have a look at the product page here for more info.
As mentioned before the RRP is $629 with a two year warranty.
You can also find it at your local retailer and the bonus SteamShot will also apply there. Just fill in the Redemption form and Bissell will mail it to you.
Join the Magic Carpet Revolution!
