Best Small Carpet Shampooer
The best carpet shampooer in this size is a spot cleaner rather than a small upright: a portable machine built for isolated stains, pet accidents, stairs, upholstery, rugs and car interiors, and not for whole rooms of carpet. Buy the machine you can carry to the stain: the best handheld carpet cleaners are the ones built for that job.
A good small carpet shampoo machine carries 12.7 kPa of internal suction, 54.0 inches of water lift at the hose, a 48.8 oz clean tank, a 4.8 ft hose and a 14.4 ft cord. Two brush attachments and 9.6 oz of cleaning solution come in the box, and it weighs 9.6 lb. Those are the class averages, and they're the yardstick to hold a machine against.
Best Small Carpet Shampooer for Pets
The BISSELL Little Green is the small carpet shampooer to get for a pet household. It holds 48 oz of clean water and weighs 9.65 lb, with a 15 ft cord, a 4 ft hose, a 3 amp draw and a carry handle, which puts it among the best handheld carpet cleaners for pets.
The machine removes pet urine stains and odors when the tank holds PET PRO OXY Spot and Stain Urine Eliminator. A 3 in Tough Stain Tool, a Spraying Crevice Tool and a HydroRinse self-cleaning hose tool ship with it, and it takes on stairs, carpet and auto interiors.
It sits on 4.4 stars from 1,372 ratings.
If you have pets and wall-to-wall carpet
Deep clean the carpets every 6 to 12 months, and more often in high traffic rooms or a house with pets and children. That whole-room job belongs to the BISSELL ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet Pro, and the Little Green is for the accidents in between.
Best Portable Carpet Cleaner with Heat
The BISSELL Little Green HydroSteam is the portable to buy if you want heat, and it makes real steam rather than warm water: a flow-through heater with a temperature sensor turns the water and the cleaning solution into steam inside the machine. That splits BISSELL's portables into two families, and the fork decides which BISSELL carpet cleaners heat the water. HydroSteam adds steam to the cleaning solution, and ProHeat uses HeatWave Technology to hold the water temperature through the job, the way a thermos holds heat.
Fill the tank with hot tap water and never boiling water.
If the stain is oily or sticky
SteamWash is the mode built for it. Steam refreshes upholstery, grout and tile, and Wash takes spills and pet accidents.
The clean tank holds 64 oz and the dirty tank 51 oz on a 13 lb body, and it carries a 15 ft cord, a 4.8 ft hose, a 5 in Tough Stain Tool and a Multi-Surface Tool for auto and garage jobs.
SteamWash cleans oily stains up to 50 percent better. Get the HydroSteam for the steam.
Portable Carpet Cleaner with Rotating Brush
The portables here ship brush attachments, and the machine with a 12 row dual DirtLifter PowerBrush and an 11 in cleaning path is the BISSELL ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet Pro, a portable carpet cleaner with rotating brush. It holds a gallon of clean water and weighs 17.5 lb, with a 25 ft cord, a 10 ft hose and a 6.8 amp draw, and it carries a 5 year warranty. It sits on 4.6 stars from 4,649 ratings.
BISSELL states MAX Clean Mode out cleans the leading rental machine, measured on ASTM F2828 against the Rug Doctor Mighty Pro X3 with BISSELL PET PRO OXY Urine Eliminator formula.
A portable carpet cleaner with rotating brush rental is the other way to get a machine that scrubs the carpet for you. Rug Doctor's Mighty Pro and Wide Track uprights rent on 24 hour or 48 hour terms. Buy the BISSELL ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet Pro for its 12 row dual DirtLifter PowerBrush. Rent a Rug Doctor upright only if you can live with a vibrating brush rather than a rotating brush roll. The upholstery and stair tool add-on puts a 12 ft hose and a 4 in wide tool on the same machine for stairs, sofas, upholstered chairs, area rugs and auto interiors, and some locations carry a Pro Portable Spot Cleaner for smaller jobs. Deposit terms vary by rental location, but expect a refundable deposit up front, plus cleaning and late fees if the machine goes back dirty or late.
Portable Carpet Cleaner with Best Suction
The portable carpet cleaner with best suction is the Shark StainStriker HairPro.
Shark states the machine's suction is the strongest among consumer spot cleaners based on ASTM F558 with its strongest suction tool, and lists the PX251 at 8.51 lb, a 12 ft cord, a 4.5 ft hose, 450 W at 3.3 amps and a three year limited warranty.
It measures 13.1 kPa of internal suction against a 12.7 kPa class average. Stain reduction comes in at 165 against a 145 average, the best score in this class. That's why we'd take it for suction.
For pets, the portable carpet cleaner with best suction is the same machine, and the reason sits in the tool kit: the HairPro extractor funnels collected hair into an internal hair cage and keeps it out of the suction path. Four brush attachments come in the box against the class's usual two.
Its two tank system keeps Deep Clean Pet formula and apart until the trigger mixes them into an oxy boosted spray. It sits on 4.5 stars across more than 6,000 ratings, with about 5 percent one star reviews against 7 percent for the class.
Best Spot Carpet Cleaner for Pet Stains
The Hoover CleanSlate Pet is the spot cleaner to buy for pet stains, and the difference is where the agitation comes from: you, rather than a motor. Its 2-in-1 tool carries a bristle insert for carpet, rugs, sofas and upholstery and a rubber nub insert for high pile carpet and pet messes, so you can lean on a stain and go easy on a soft pile.
The cleaning path is 7 in, matching the 7 in WidePath tool, and the tanks hold 40 oz clean and 23 oz dirty on a 15 ft cord and a 4.5 ft hose. A TightSpot tool and a hose rinse tool ship alongside, and upholstery, stairs and cars are the places to take it.
The pre-mixed OXY formula permanently removes tough colored stains from mud, wine, pasta sauce and coffee. The formula handles the stain; you supply the scrubbing.
Questions
What brand of carpet shampooer is best?
BISSELL is the brand to start with for a small carpet shampooer, and it takes three of the five picks on this page. Its portables split into two families: HydroSteam adds steam to the cleaning solution, and ProHeat uses HeatWave Technology to hold the water temperature through the job. The brand also builds the Little Green, the pick for pet households, and the ProHeat 2X Revolution Pet Pro, the upright with the highest average rating on this page. Rug Doctor uprights rent on 24 hour or 48 hour terms.
What is the difference between a carpet shampooer and a carpet cleaner?
There is no mechanical difference in this class, because every machine described here is a hot water extraction machine whatever the sign calls it. What separates the picks is size and shape rather than the label. A small carpet shampooer in this size is usually a portable spot cleaner built for isolated stains, pet accidents, stairs, upholstery, rugs and car interiors, while an upright carries a spinning brush roll over a wide cleaning path for whole rooms. A rental upright is another route to a machine that scrubs the carpet for you.
What is a good small carpet shampoo machine?
A good small carpet shampoo machine is a portable spot cleaner with roughly 12.7 kPa of internal suction, 54.0 inches of water lift at the hose, a 48.8 oz clean tank, a 4.8 ft hose and a 14.4 ft cord. Those figures are the class averages, so they are the yardstick to hold a machine against. The box usually carries two brush attachments and 9.6 oz of cleaning solution, and the machine weighs about 9.6 lb. Machines in this size handle isolated stains, pet accidents, stairs, upholstery, rugs and car interiors rather than whole rooms.