Bissell 14005 Little Green verses Hoover F5411 Steamvac Jr.

I've used both of these mini shampooers and was not entirely satisfied with either, but I preferred the Bissell's Little Green over Hoover's Steamvac Jr. and here's why:

I first had the Little Green for about five years. It was a great little vac with only minor problems. The fill and empty containers are removable from the unit for convenient filling and emptying. There is a cord winder built onto the unit, the hose wraps conveniently around the unit and locks into place, and the shape and size are convenient for most applications including stairs and storage.

The problems I had with the Little Green:
- It would occasionally leak a bit. The water seemed to be coming from where the hose connects to the base. It was a small drip leak that was easily solved by emptying the clean water tank after each use. We used ours so frequently that I sometimes left clean water in the tank during storage to avoid wasting cleaning solution.
- My biggest problem with the Little Green was the inability to completely clean the dirty water tank. I had four cats when I first bought the Little Green and eventually had four kids. The Little Green made it through a number of illnesses with us above and beyond pet accidents. The dirty water tank became filthy and unsanitary and was not designed to be dismantled for thorough cleaning. Eventually, the smell became too great and I had to dispose of the tank. I decided it was time to try a new spot shampooer - one that had a cleanable tank.

That's when I decided to try the Hoover Steamvac Jr. Both the Little Green and the Hoover spray and suck reasonably well for a small machine. As far as actual cleaning quality, the two are comparable. However, I found the Hoover to be bulky and a pain and its only redeeming quality, in my opinion, was that I am able to thoroughly clean the dirty water tank.

The problems I had with the Hoover F5411 Steamvac Jr.:
- The tanks are the base of the unit and are not removable. In order to fill the clean water tank, you have to either maneuver the entire unit under the faucet and aim at a one inch hole in the portion of the unit that houses the motor, or you have to dismantle the machine and still maneuver the largest part of it under your faucet or use a bucket.
- The tanks are a single bucket-style unit separated by a divider. They are not individual parts. When you dump the dirty water, if you have the unit fully assembled, the clean water will slosh around. If you dismantle the machine to empty it, you will also be emptying the clean water tank.
- The top portion that houses the motor also has a filter that sits down in the dirty water tank, so if you dismantle the machine to fill or empty it, you are forced to place the motor housing with hose and cord in a tub or sink or get your floor dirty and wet.
- The machine is round. It doesn't fit well on stairs nor is it a convenient shape to store.
- There is no cord storage on this unit and no convenient way to store the cord or keep it out of your way when you are filling, emptying, or storing. You can wrap it around the base of the handle, but it usually does not stay in place if you empty the tank and tends to get in the way of using the handle to carry the machine.
- The Steamvac Jr. does have a spot to store the hose, but I find it an inconvenient and cumbersome position.

I'm currently saving my pennies to buy another Little Green. The little Hoover just makes me more angry than satisfied and I've taken to simply letting stains set in instead of hassle with the obnoxious machine.

I would recommend avoiding the Proheat Little Green. It seems the parts are not designed to work well with the heat and tend to break down. Hot tap water in the standard Little Green works well and this is coming from a germaphobe whose hands are raw from overwashing. If it's clean enough for me, it's probably more than clean enough for you. If you're looking for a spot shampooer, the Little Green is your best bet.

I've owned a cleaning business for 26 years, and this machine is great. There are a few secrets to success with it:

To clean it and keep it from smelling, flush it after using. Suck hot clean water through the hose. If your unit is really dirty, suck a mild bleach solution and let it sit. ALSO, remove the rubber gasket at the bottom of the waste tank and clean it... this can be a major source of odor. It's very easy to do, but not mentioned in the instructions.

Use just clean water in the solution tank, and put the cleaner in a spray bottle. (The less soap the better. Use the scrubber on the nozzle and allow a few minutes of dwell time). Think of your machine as the rinse cycle in a clothes washing machine. Rinse the dirt and soap out, leaving a minumum of residue. A seperate bottle also allows more precise application of cleaner. And it extends tank refills, so you won't have to wait for the spray pump to reprime as much.

Durablility? I've used mine several times a week for almost a year now, what with business, dogs, and small children. No sign of wear whatever.

This is a brilliant design. Don't let the reviews that don't know how to work with it dissuade you. It is one of the finest, best engineered consumer appliances ever made. Get the least expensive model, as the Turbo Brush and heater don't work well and are not needed.

Drawbacks? Okay, it doesn't have the suction power of a commercial machine. If you want that, pay three hundred dollars more and lug an extra thirty pounds around the house.

I bought the Little Green the day after we adopted a puppy. Although it does a sufficient job suctioning accidents out of carpeting, I would not recommend it.

Positives:
--Good at absorbing spills or other liquids from carpeting
--Compact and easy to store

Negatives:
--Dirty water pools in the bottom of the unit under the tank that collects the dirty water.
--The unit then leaks the dirty water out the bottom while using it.
--It is extremely difficult to clean.
--The dirty water never seems to be fully emptied even after taking the entire unit and dumping it upside down.
--It smells horrible! Even emptying it immediately after every use has not prevented it from smelling awful while using the machine. I think this is because the dirty water is never fully emptied. Hot, soapy water suctioned up after a clean up has not helped to remove the lingering smell.

While this little machine cleans well but it is poorly design from a maintenance and easy of cleaning prospective. The catch tank is feed from the bottom through a 2 inch pipe that is split into two functions, return water and air return. The machine can never get all of the water up the 6 inches of feed pipe so it leaks out the bottom into the area under the catch tank (This area is nearly impossible to clean)! The dirty water feed should have been near the top of the tank and the air return should not be in the tank at all.

The tank does not lend itself to cleaning either. The return pipe has so many nooks and crannies that dirt builds up quickly, even with immediate rinsing and only after a half a dozen quick uses, and there is only a 1 inch hole in the top available to clean it. Another fault the catch tank is actually about 12 inches high but you can only use the bottom 6 due to the placement of return water outlet. All in all, the designers never used or had to clean this little green monster, neither should you! Don't buy this.

This little guy is just perfect to spot clean or clean out your car. The turbo brush was too big to use on the interior but worked well on the trunk area, even the small attachment did great. I thought my car was pretty clean, but this cleaner sure proved that wrong.
Bissell supports their products with accessories that can be ordered through them and the cleaning solutions are easy to find in stores and are easy to add to the tank, just follow the directions or the "fill to here" lines on the tank, simple.
Clean up is easy and rinsing out the containers are simple. The hose is permanently attached and the cleaner tube is inside the hose, so you're not going to snag it while working.

We had a new puppy and needed some serious spot cleaning back up. I had used other Bissell machines in the past (you know, other puppies). This little machine does a great job of getting spots up and out. I sometimes use it in conjunction with spray on cleaners. However, this machine is difficult to keep clean. It has two chambers - one for fresh soapy water and one for dirty water. The dirty water chamber has a complicated flow system (it's the one on the right in the picture shown). Gunk gets trapped on the edges and tops of the dirty chamber and it doesn't rinse out easily. There's no way to take the bottom off and clean the inside of the machine. This means that you always have gunk in your machine - sometimes smelly gunk. My other complaint is that the nozzle for the spray wand is miniscule and when it clogs water isn't directed in a spray, it pools in a puddle. This model is the best I have found, but I think Bissell should make some improvements to the design. Oh yes, one more thing... I find that I can't unwind the hose without unplugging and winding the power cord. This means you're stuck juggling a dirty hose while winding the power cord.

I owned an original Green Machine (all green) when they were first introduced. It worked well (but didn't have enough suction power) until it refused to squirt solution. I needed a small nylon internal piece to fix it. Bissell wouldn't sell it to me. I ended up dumping the unit, and bought the next model (with two side-by side tanks) as a replacement. The tanks leaked, and Bissell (to their credit) sent a replacement. It still had problems, so they sent one of their "newest design" units, which is the current model advertised here for sale with tanks on each end.

I've used it for about four years to clean up after an incontinent dog. The unit still doesn't have enough suction (in my opinion), but has done the job. After about two years of use I replaced the collection tank in an attempt to get rid of the smell. As others have pointed out here, the design of the tank is flawed. It's sealed so you cannot easily clean all the nooks and crannies on the inside, and several areas like to collect material that will eventually turn to mold and stink. The tank can only hold a limited amount of dirty water due to its design. Also, the unit will occasionally refuse to squirt solution, although it's fixable (see hints below).

The collection tank has begun to leak into the main unit when cleaning, which puts some of the dirty water/solution back onto the floor or carpet you're cleaning. The cause: a black gasket that attaches to the main unit and separates the air return from the collection hose. The collection tank sits on top of this gasket when it's inserted into the unit. The gasket has come loose and no longer makes a good seal. Once again Bissell refuses to sell the part, although anyone with moderate skill can replace it without disassembling the unit. I intend to get some rubber gasket material and make my own.

Here are several tips for using the product:

1) When using the unit, flush the collection hose with hot water immediately after you're through. I run hot tap water in my sink, then turn the unit on and suck up water from the stream. This will help keep the collection path/tank clean and avoid a quicker buildup of smelly residue.

2) If you've been lazy (like me) and didn't rinse the unit every time, fill a bucket with hot water and Pine Sol cleaner (see label for mixing instructions). Suck up water from the bucket until the collection tank is almost full (won't take long!), then turn the unit off, dump the tank, and repeat until the bucket's empty. You can also refill the bucket and submerge the solution tank, then let it sit and soak a while. Pull the tank out of the bucket, cover each end with your hands to seal the entrance and exit holes, and vigorously shake it. This will distribute the solution around and may dislodge some of the smelly residue. Rinse the tank with clean water until you no longer get foamy water out of it. This will help disinfect the tank, and as a benefit will put out a clean odor when you're using the unit, at least for a while.

3) When you're finished using the unit, turn it off and hold the spray head straight up so the hose goes toward the floor. Press the spray trigger. If you look at the bottom of the spray head, you'll see the cleaning solution drain out of the head and go back into the hose. If you don't do this and start waving the head around, it will dribble cleaning solution over your floor. This is another design flaw.

4) When the unit refuses to squirt solution, don't bang the spray head on the floor in frustration (like I did). You'll break the spray head and the brush will refuse to stay in the head. Instead, follow the instructions in (3) above to drain the spray head then remove it from the unit. Take the spray head off, then run a Q-Tip inside of the spray channel and clean it out. The tiny exit hole gets clogged with foreigh material easily and this cleaning usually removes it. Test it by (carefully!) blowing through the large end of the supply tube. If you can blow easily through the tube your solution will now squirt again.

THE BOTTOM LINE: When this unit dies I will try to replace it with another company's product; unfortunately Bissell seems to be the only company making something like this.

I bought the Little Green because I have three cats, a husband, and a first home with off-white carpet. So far, this machine has cleaned up several wet messes -- soda, hairball incidents, mud, and grease -- and one incredibly dried on mess. A cat was ill while we were away, and she had hidden the mess by moving some clothes over it. When I found it, the carpet was caked with gook. I let the solution in the cleaner soak and then just used the brush over and over in the same direction. The machine lifted the mess off of ther carpet and cleaned deep into the fibers -- you would never know anything happened by looking at it!

This version does not stay hot, but in my experience, that doesn't affect it's performance. I found it at a brick-and-mortar store for a fraction of the cost listed here, and much cheaper than the pro-heat model.

I bought this thing to clean the interior of my car. I paid $70 for it including the turbo brush at a large retail chain, and it's the best $70 I ever spent on my car. The water that went into the dirty tank was black! I didn't even know my car interior was that filthy! This machine is very simple to operate and obviously very portable. Best carpet/upholstry cleaner I've ever used. It's also very handy when my puppy or my drinking buddies have an accident on the rug.

I bought a bissell spot remover thingy at Sam's Club once, I tried it and immediately returned it. It was about the size of a breadbox. Well, this is just SLIGHTLY bigger, and WAY better. Let me put it this way, my kids spilled 1/2 gallon (yes, half a gallon) of Sherwin Williams Cashmere flat enamel on my new carpet. (latex paint) I was MORTIFIED! My neighbor, who, blessedly, happened to be there at the time, said, "Do you have a steam cleaner?" I replied, "No, just a foam shampooer, not an extractor." He ran next door, and handed me his "Little Green". I was so freaked about the stain, I just dug in and started sucking with this little thing, with no regard to what paint would do to it. (Nice neighbor I AM??!) Anyway, it got out EVERY BIT. I had to empty the tank a few times, but come on! It was HALF A GALLON OF PAINT~! Anyway, the paint DID stain the inside of the brush head and the dirty tank, but it didn't slow it down a bit. As a courtesy, I traded the affected pieces with parts from a new unit, and have already used it 3 times in the last month. Praise God for this little wonder. (And the neighbor!!)BUY IT, QUICK! BET YOU'LL USE IT BEFORE YOU CAN PREDICT NEEDING IT!