My cats hate to see this great upright carpet cleaner coming

is an editor covering deals and gaming hardware. He joined in 2018, and after a two-year stint at Polygon, he rejoined The Verge in May 2025.

For a while, I swore by Bissell’s Little Green carpet cleaner. I liked the sub-$100 price, the fact that it was small enough to fit on a closet shelf, and that it does a good job of cleaning up little messes. However, after you clean enough spots around the place, eventually the entire carpet needs a cleaning because the cleaned spots appear in stark contrast. It looks bad!

For a job that big, I upgraded (after doing a lot of research) to Bissell’s ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet Pro Plus. It’s a great upright machine with more power, though I wish I had waited, having paid $279.99 about a month ago. You can currently get one for $209.99 during October Prime Day at Amazon and Bissell (discount reflects at checkout).

$210

Bissell’s Little Green is handy, but doesn’t cut it for big jobs. If you have pets and a lot of carpet to clean, this is one of the most powerful upright carpet cleaners in its price range.

While the Little Green leaves the scrubbing up to you (it handles the sucking), the ProHeat 2X has plenty of deep-cleaning brushes, large reservoirs for dirty water and for cleaning fluid, plus an accessory port that lets you connect a brush-equipped hose for spot cleaning, essentially duplicating every feature I liked of the smaller model.

You’ll need to pony up for some cleaning solution after a handful of large-scale cleaning efforts, and it’s about $23 for a big bottle. I’ve found that you don’t need to use as much of the solution per gallon of water as Bissell notes on the bottle.

Unfortunately, one of my cats threw up at various places around our apartment last night (why can’t cats just do it all in one place?), so I’ll be using this carpet cleaner today. Wish me luck.

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