This Viral Carpet Cleaner Has Been All Over TikTok But Does It Work? – Yahoo Lifestyle

Photo credit: Katie Pittman

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Some products show up everywhere: subway ads, Instagram, celeb endorsements. With this series, we're testing such products to conclude one thing: Does it live up to the hype?

Bissell's Little Green Portable Carpet Cleaner, a portable carpet and upholstery cleaner that uses suction and a cleaning solution to remove set-in stains.

Unlike other carpet cleaners, the Little Green Machine can easily be stowed away in a closet or on a shelf. In NYC, storage space is precious, so having something that's small enough to put in my closet yet strong enough to tackle puppy stains and daily spills is pretty incredible.

Plus, it rings in at under $200, making it pretty affordable for the cleaning power it advertises. Some other full-sized cleaners cost upward of $400, which I wasn't willing to shell out for something I'd only use when I really needed it.

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Some may call me obsessive or extra because of my cleaning habits, but I prefer to call myself tidy and neat. So when I saw Bissell's Little Green Portable Carpet Cleaner blowing up on TikTok, I knew I had to try it for myself.

I watched in awe as this little machine sucked out years-old coffee stains from car seats, dried up pet messes from carpets, and even spruced up dingy looking furniture upholstery like magic. While I don't often spill or stain things, accidents happen, and sometimes a rag and some OxyClean spray just don't cut it although before I got the Little Green into my own hands, I had to make it work when my boyfriend spilled mole sauce on my white rug, but I digress.

As nice as it would be to have a full-size carpet cleaner in my apartment, it just isnt feasible. I dont have the space to store it, and I wouldnt use it often enough to warrant paying the price for it. Ive thought about renting carpet cleaners from hardware stores, but then I have the joy of lugging it home on the subway. It also doesnt help when you need to work on a stain sooner rather than later. Sometimes, it can take days to reserve and bring home one of the larger machines. The Little Green was the perfect solution for my small apartment and (hopefully) small messes, and it costs under $200.

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Photo credit: Bissell

My original plan was to test this on the interior of my boyfriend's car, which has light upholstery and also has seen the wrath of three dogs worth of grime in the back seats. However, I got so excited that I ended up trying it in my apartment before he could make the drive to Brooklyn.

The Little Green is a little larger than a hand vacuum and weighs about 10 pounds, but it's easy to tote around your house or apartment for smaller stains. It has two reservoirs that connect to the actual machine, one for the clean water and solution mix, and another that collects the dirty water the machine sucks out of whatever you're cleaning.

The machine is like a little wet vac, except it actually sprays liquid and sucks it back up. To spray the liquid, you use the nozzle attachment at the end of the hose. It has a trigger on it that, when pressed, sprays cleaning solution. Then, you run the nozzle over the wet area you sprayed, and it suctions out the dirty liquid and deposits it into the dirty tank.

I decided to try to clean an ottoman I've had with me since my freshman year of college one that's been a side table, step stool, ottoman, plant stand, and more. I'd never properly cleaned it other than vacuuming it, but I figured it would be pretty clean. There weren't any stains on it, but I knew that could be deceiving

Using the hose, I sprayed on the cleaning solution, gave the top of an ottoman a slight scrub with the attached brush on the nozzle, and began vacuuming up the (now soiled) solution. Let me tell you: That ottoman must have seen spills that I had long forgotten. I watched in amazement as brown water flowed into the dirty tank.

I did two passes on the top of the ottoman to ensure I got everything out, and I was shocked by how dirty it really was. I was also surprised by how well the suction worked on the machine; the fabric was slightly damp, but not soaked like it would be with other heavy duty cleaners. It dried quickly, too.

I kept going around my apartment, cleaning my entryway rug, kitchen runner, and even spots on my duvet cover on my bed (sometimes I can't be bothered to put it in the wash if there's only a small puppy paw print on it). The Little Green tackled each stain and smear with ease.

Using it was pretty intuitive, too. Plug the machine in, turn it on, and do your thing. I didn't feel like I had to go hunting for instructions, and the tanks have fill lines on both sides, so there's no guessing when you need to fill up the clean side or empty the dirty side.

Photo credit: Katie Pittman

Like I said, I live with a puppy, and she didn't seem bothered by the noise the machine made, either. It's not louder than your average hand vacuum, which is nice when you are cleaning a larger area that takes longer to do.

As much as I love this Little Green machine, it isn't perfect. While using it, I found that little bits of lint and hair would get stuck in the nozzle, which you can't take apart to clean. I can detach the nozzle from the hose to rinse the connection out, but I can't reach the crevices near the nozzle at all. I fear that it'll only continue to gather muck there, which could affect future performance. But, until that actually happens, I'll keep brainstorming about how to clean it out.

The machine comes with a trial-sized bottle of cleaning solution, so you do have to buy another when you use it all up. Depending on what kind of solution you get (there are pet, spot-cleaning, and Oxy formulas), a bottle can cost you about $13). While that's not awful, it can add up if you're using the machine often. I've only used a couple of teaspoons of solution per tank of water, and I still have a good bit of the trial bottle left after two full tank refills.

The affordable price point and compact size of Bissell's Little Green carpet cleaner gives it two thumbs up in my book. I'll definitely continue to use it to clean up spills, puppy accidents, and mysterious stains that pop up around the house. Next up: finally cleaning my boyfriend's auto upholstery.

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This Viral Carpet Cleaner Has Been All Over TikTok But Does It Work? - Yahoo Lifestyle