Removing caked-on dirt from carpets can be an arduous task if you’re short of the right cleaning equipment. By using the best portable carpet cleaning machines, you get a convenient way of deep-cleaning carpets, upholsteries, and above-floor areas.
The Bissell Spot Clean Pro 3624 is a sleek and compact carpet cleaning machine that lets you scrub tough dirt without struggling. If this portable spot cleaner doesn’t match your cleaning requirements, don’t worry at all.
Our portable carpet cleaner reviews represent the 10 best portable carpet cleaners of 2021. These models allow you to clean carpets and upholsteries with little-to-no exertion.
Table of Contents
Best Portable Carpet Cleaners – Comparison
IMAGE | NAME | FEATURES | PRICE |
|---|---|---|---|
  | - Tank Capacity : - Includes a 6" Stair Tool - Formulas Included : | ||
  | - Compact Convenience - SELF-CLEANING TECHNOLOGY - CONVENIENT DEEP CLEAN | ||
  | - Dual Action Pet Tool - Carpet friendly wheels - TWICE THE SUCTION | ||
  | - Hands Free Spot and Stain Removal - DeepReach Technology - Formulas Included : Pet Stain & Odor, Pet Oxy Boost | ||
  | - Clean Multiple Surfaces - Tough Stain Tool - Spot & Stain formula |
10 Best Portable Carpet & Upholstery Cleaners - Reviews
1. Bissell 3624 SpotClean Professional Portable Carpet Cleaner
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Having passed our thresholds and graced a lot of spot carpet cleaner reviews, Bissell 3624 is overall the best portable carpet cleaner in the market today. At 13.2lbs, this device is relatively lightweight and portable enough to ease your mobility around the home.
The unit’s motor has a 5.7 amps power rating, generating powerful suction for robust scrubbing action. It removes tough stains and spots from carpeted stairs, upholstery, and more.
It also has a large-capacity ¾ gallon (96 ounces) tank, so you can clean a large area without adding water and cleaning solution recurrently in one session. This drastically simplifies your cleaning process.
The 22-ft power cord and 5-ft long hose provide a great reach. Accordingly, you’ll be able to focus on carpet cleaning without re-plugging the machine.
The hose also tackles stains and spots in hard-to-reach places, and you have no reason to worry about a specific stain not being removed. By combining high suction power with water and cleaning formula, it can tackle all sorts of dirt laced around your home.
A handy 6-inch stair attachment is meant for cleaning stairs, larger furniture and hard-to-reach spots. The tough stain tool is effective in eliminating dried-in stain. The unit includes the professional-grade trial-size BISSELL cleaning formula, which gives carpets a spotless look.
With its portable design, putting the attachments on it and filling the tank with the cleaning formula is simple. If properly maintained, it can stay in good shape for longer, giving you the best value for money.
What We Loved
What Could Be Better
2. Hoover Spotless Portable Carpet & Upholstery Spot Cleaner, FH11300PC
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The best portable spot cleaner by Hoover is the Spotless FH11300PC Carpet & Upholstery Spot Cleaner. It’s got multiple tools for different purposes, hence deserves to be the best multipurpose spot cleaner.
The FH11300PC can clean carpets, stairs, pet hair, upholstery, and other areas without fuss. At just 9 pounds, it qualifies to be one of the lightest carpet cleaners available today.
Its dual-tank technology separates clean water from dirty water. For this reason, you no longer have to drag dirty water on your carpeted floors while cleaning.
A 3.5-amp motor yields great suction power for lifting and eliminating stains from carpets and related surfaces. It also uses hygienic deep cleaning tools to extract dirt and stain from virtually any surface.
As it employs the spraying and scrubbing action, it automatically generates a high-performance stain solution for cleaning carpeted floors, upholsteries, and car interiors. This is also the best small carpet cleaner for pet hair.
The machine’s hose uses the patented self-clean technology to loosen pet hair and remove it effectively. The cleaner also uses the antimicrobial multipurpose tool which protects against mold, mildew, and bacteria as you extract spots and stains.
Its compact stature adds to the ease of storage. It’s only 15 inches tall and lets you store it anywhere without being concerned about space.
Being compact, lightweight and easy to store, the FH11300PC spotless portable carpet & upholstery spot cleaner is a remarkable addition to your carpet cleaning arsenal.
What We Loved
What Could Be Better
3. Rug Doctor Pet Portable Spot Cleaner
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The Rug Doctor 93390 is a versatile and powerful unit for cleaning up after pets and other stains on carpets, rugs, and upholstery. You can as well use it to wipe out stains from your automobile interior. This allows you to handle car detailing for a fraction of the money you’d have spent on other items in the same category.
This pet portable spot cleaner consists of a Handheld Dual-Action Pet Tool whose rubberized bristles make pet hair cleanup a snap. The bristles agitate and extract pet hair, tough stains, and odors caused by everyday pet accidents, such as urine and vomit.
For quick and easy mobility, the machine has carpet-friendly wheels that let you roll smoothly from one spot to another around your home, office, or vehicle. Additionally, there’s a retractable handle that’s easy to adjust and tackle accidents from all sorts of pets – be it a cat, dog, hamster, or bunny.
With 2X more suction power than other leading spot cleaning machines, this spot remover can eliminate set-in stains and tough odors faster than the competition. It’s engineered to scour and eradicate embedded stains and odors from carpets, rugs, upholstery, pet beds, furniture, auto interiors, etc.
There are removable tanks that are easy to fill up and discard when done. You’ll be able to detach the tank and empty it, dramatically reducing the risk of messing up the cleaned carpet with dirty water or chemical cleaning solutions.
For best results, pair this pet portable spot cleaner with Rug Doctor’s specialized, bio-based Pure Power Pet Stain & Odor spot cleaning formulas. This combination uses pro-enzymatic action to destroy stains and odors resulting from pet vomit, urine, feces, drool, and more.
What We Loved
What Could Be Better
4. Bissell 33N8 SpotBot Pet handsfree Spot and Stain Cleaner
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Bissell is widely known for manufacturing some of the best spot carpet cleaners on the market. No wonder the Bissell SpotBot 33N8 has managed to impress us.
This model has pretty much everything you need in a portable carpet cleaner. And it comes pre-programmed with different cleaning modes for various messes.
The cleaner is one of the few portable carpet cleaning machines whose automated setup enables you to choose a mode, and the cleaner does the rest for you. Ideal for pet guardians, the unit removes pet stains effortlessly.
The SpotBot cleaner uses the deep reach technology to remove deep down pet messes from the bottom up. This function delivers water and cleaning formula into carpet fibers, and then gently scrubs to eliminate permanent pet stains.
Its unique spiral brushing action completes over 400 cleaning cycles per minute, ensuring thorough removal of stubborn stains. The Bissell 33N8 executes Handsfree stain and spot removal on carpets and area rugs, with the simple push of a button.
With two preset cleaning cycles, it can automatically spray, brush and suction pet messes and set-in stains in quick action. The tool flaunts a compact design that guarantees convenient handling and storage.
There’s on-board hose and tough-stain tool for cleaning hard-to-reach places on stairs, upholstery, and auto interiors.
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What Could Be Better
5. Bissell Multi-Purpose Portable Carpet and Upholstery Cleaner, 1400B
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Bissell’s 1400B Multi-Purpose Cleaner weighs barely 9.6 pounds. Hence, it’s downright light and easy to transport anywhere around your home. Ostensibly, it’s one of the lightest and smallest models in Bissell’s lineup of portable cleaning machines.
Despite being a tiny little machine, it delivers powerful suction that gets rid of spills and stains deep within the carpet fibers, and effectively dries it in time. The machine combines the powerful suction of 3 amps with strong spray action to take on tough spots and stains.
The machine uses little water to get the cleanup task done right, working great on accidental spills like beverage slicks and pet poops. This multi-purpose portable carpet cleaner is built using 50% recycled plastic, making it the best multipurpose vacuum for those who fancy units with an eco-friendly design.
The vacuum offers a large 48-oz capacity water tank as well as 19-ft cleaning reach, helping you clean a large area without refilling or changing outlets regularly. The 15-ft long cord eliminates the need to constantly re-plug the vacuum in different positions.
The Bissell 1400B comes equipped with a 3-inch tough stain tool and the trial-size spot & stain formula for loosening and eliminating set-in stains on carpets, stairs, auto interiors, area rugs, etc.
Combined with the powerful suction, it can lift and remove deep-down dirt, stains, and spots quickly and effectively. More importantly, this unit has a small and compact design for easy storage in cabinets.
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What Could Be Better
6. Hoover Power Scrub Deluxe Carpet Cleaner
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Hoover’s Power Scrub Deluxe FH50150 appeals to many homeowners with its performance and affordability. It’s a corded upright carpet cleaner for banishing stubborn dirt, grime, and stains in households with carpeted floors.
This machine has a SpinScrub system with multiple brushes that rotate in a constant 360-degree motion. These counter rotating brushes scrub and remove the toughest dirt and pet stains from a wider area of your carpet.
A Dual-V-Nozzle on the machine ensures there’s always adequate suction power to clean up tough stains. This nozzle is designed to clean surfaces evenly with equal suction, which means the suction power never runs out in the middle of the job.
The FH50150 boasts a dual-task system comprising a 1-gallon tank for clean water and a 1-gallon tank for dirty water. Both tanks allow you to get the job done without stopping midway, and they’re designed with an ergonomic handle for convenient filling and emptying without causing a messy spill.
The unit’s Wash/Rinse selector takes the guesswork out of deep cleaning and rinsing your carpets and fabrics. The wash setting cleans your carpets with the solution, while the rinse setting removes the soap residue from your carpets.
What’s more, this Hoover carpet cleaner uses forced heated air to dry your carpets faster than other carpet cleaners. That means you’ll be able to step back on your carpet in a jiffy.
What We Loved
What Could Be Better
7. Bissell 2117A SpotBot Pet Portable Deep Cleaner
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This handsfree carpet cleaner is exclusively designed to meet the cleaning needs of pet owners. It comes with two hands-free cleaning modes – the quick clean mode for fresh pet stains, and the deep-clean mode for old or stubborn pet stains. Bissell’s 2117A cleaner gives you the right level of cleaning all the time.
The Bissell 2117A comes with preset cleaning cycles that you can select and let the machine do the cleaning on your behalf. Once you push the button, it’ll automatically spray, brush, and suction your carpets to permanently get rid of both surface and set-in pet stains.
You’ll also benefit from its dual-tank system consisting of 30.6oz clean water tank and 29.2oz dirty water tank. At no point do clean and dirty water get mixed up, allowing you to banish messes while maintaining clean hands.
This powerful cleaning technology can abolish virtually any stain from your carpet with its unique spiral brushing. The brushes make up to 400 revolutions per minute for in-depth scrubbing of persistent pet stains and other caked-on messes.
Weighing in at barely 12 lbs, the 2117A is easy to lift and hold without breaking a sweat. Its compact footprint also allows it to get into hard-to-reach places where a full-size carpet cleaner can’t, blasting away deep-down spots and stains on the go.
Most importantly, the unit combines a 3-inch tough stain tool with Bissell’s trial-size Pet Oxy Boost Formula for removing stains and smells. It permanently eliminates tough pet stains and skunk odors like vomit, urine, and blood.
What We Loved
What Could Be Better
8. BISSELL SpotClean Pet Pro Portable Carpet Cleaner, 2458
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BISSELL 2458 SpotClean Portable Carpet Cleaner brings you powerful suction in a compact and lightweight footprint. Standing at only 13 pounds, this small-but-mighty portable carpet cleaner is convenient to transport from place to place.
Its small silhouette also makes it easy to clean hard-to-reach areas where a full-sized unit cannot reach. This cleaner gets you the Pro results by combining powerful suction, professional pet cleaning solution, and brushing action to remove stubborn pet stains with absolute simplicity.
This makes it the best portable carpet cleaner for pet stains. Its self-contained stain trapper tool keeps pet messes and liquids inside the tool, and out of the machine.
For extra reach, it features 22-ft long power cord and 5-ft long hose, allowing you to reach difficult spaces without switching power outlets.
It also has a large capacity tank that holds ¾ gallons at a go, making it possible to move farther between refills. With this portable cleaning system, you can go up and down the stairs and remove caked-in dirt and stains easily, without having to empty and refill the solution.
The unit is standard with BISSELL professional-grade cleaning formula that gives carpets a deep-down clean. You can clean multiple surfaces with this, including carpeted stairs, area rugs, auto interiors, upholstery, etc.
More importantly, the purchase includes a trial-size professional pet urine eliminator plus oxy for removing pet urine and accompanying odors.
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What Could Be Better
9. BISSELL Pet Stain Eraser 2003T
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The BISSELL 2003T Cordless Pet Stain Eraser weighs in at just under 4.6 pounds, it’s extremely lightweight, portable and easy to move anywhere around the house.
It can clean all sorts of messes caused by pets and pet owners, such as pet urine, grape juice, coffee, cola, etc. It makes use of spray, scrub and suction to remove stains from a variety of surfaces, without having to get intimate with the mess.
What makes it stand out is the fact that it gives you the cordless freedom of a lithium-powered handheld cleaner, allowing you to lift away spills and spots from carpet and upholstery, without clumsy power cords.
This unit features a 7.2-Volts lithium-ion battery, which gets you 15 minutes of continuous runtime. The battery takes less than 4 hours to fully charge, ensuring you are always ready to grab and go.
The cleaner also uses the stationary spot and stain brush to get rid of pet stains and spills from those places that are tough to reach. Also, there’s a professional trial spot & stain with oxy formula for instantly removing permanent stains and messes from various surfaces.
This cleaning formula is always ready to use as it requires no mixing with water. The machine has a slot where you can store the formula conveniently, so it is ready when the need arises. Above all, the 2003T is easy to clean and maintain.
What We Loved
What Could Be Better
10. Bissell ProHeat 2X Lift Off Pet 15651 Carpet Cleaner
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Bissell’s Pro-Heat 2X Lift-Off Pet Carpet Cleaner is a 2-in-1 unit that you can use as an upright vacuum cleaner or as a portable spot cleaner depending on your needs. If you decide to use it as a full-size upright vacuum cleaner, you’ll be able to gently push it across your carpet and remove the dirt, dust, and stains with utmost simplicity.
And if you choose to use it as a portable carpet cleaner, all you’ll need to do is lift the pod and turn the machine into a spot cleaner. Being able to convert the machine into a smaller, more precise unit makes it convenient to clean up the stairs without dragging the entire upright vacuum with you.
The ProHeat 2X Lift-off Carpet Cleaner is ideal for cleaning low-pile carpets, area rugs, upholstery, vehicle interiors, and car seats. The device uses Dual DirtLifter PowerBrushes with ten rows of thick bristles that loosen and pull out embedded dirt, dust, and pet stains. It also uses powerful suction to get rid of deep-down stains from carpets.
Along with the swiveling head, the brushes lend 12 inches of cleaning path for accessing hard-to-reach spots, including under furniture. You can also use a mix of water and Bissell Pro Max Clean + Protect Antibacterial formula to remove more ground-in stains and odors effectively.
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How to Shop for the Best Portable Carpet Cleaner
Shopping for the best portable carpet cleaner is no mean feat. To ease your shopping process, we’ve put together some factors to consider before actualizing the purchase. Check out for the following key aspects to avoid investing in an item blindly:
- Portability
Portability is all about the weight and size of a carpet cleaner, both of which can significantly contribute to ease of use. A lighter and smaller unit is easy to move around and store in a narrow space.
A model whose weight is 13lbs or less is a life-saving solution for people who experience challenges hauling a heavy cleaning appliance. If you fancy a slightly heavier product, choose one with wheels and ergonomic handles to help you drag the unit without breaking a sweat.
- Suction Power
Suction power can make or break your carpet cleaning results. The best carpet spot cleaner machine with strong suction power is capable of sucking up all the dirt, stain, and pet hair from your carpeted floors.
Units with weak suction power may leave stains on your carpets, or even make them too soggy and attractive to molds. To avoid a situation like this, choose the right equipment whose power is sufficient to remove as much stains and water as possible.
- Power Cord & Hose Length
If you’re going to clean a larger area, choose the best spot cleaner with a long power cord and hose. An extended power cord and hose can help you clean a wider surface without constantly swapping outlets, ultimately saving you a lot of time.
You will be able to reach all nooks and crannies of your room without having to shift the power outlets even an inch. It also makes it a lot easier to navigate all sorts of obstacles scattered on your path.
- Tank Capacity
The size of the tank determines the number of refills you’ll make before finishing the carpet cleanup task. If you intend to do heavy cleaning, go for the best spot cleaner with a bigger tank for holding water and cleaning solution.
A machine with a larger tank capacity helps you tackle in-depth cleaning without making frequent refilling trips, allowing you to complete the task on time. However, if you are only planning to spot clean occasionally, a small tank size will do just fine.
Pro Tip : Make sure the tanks are easy to refill and not prone to leaking.
- Cleaning Path
Simply put, the cleaning path implies to the maximum area an attachment head or brush can cover at once. The industry standard cleaning path for most portable carpet cleaning machines is 3 inches, facilitating access to most areas around furniture. To make the cleaning path wider and the job quicker, choose the best portable rug cleaners with attachments or accessories for furniture or stairs.
If you need to clean the car seats and furniture, you might want to use a more focused or smaller tool to get into those hard-to-reach nooks and crannies. Additionally, if you wish to clean the stairs, make sure the machine has a stair tool for cleaning stairs. All of these tools amplify the cleaning path in order to save you lots of time while cleaning.
- Pet Capabilities
The best portable vacuums are a boon for people who own pets. They perform much better than regular vacuums when it comes to cleaning up potty training accidents alongside other messes which pets leave behind – particularly dogs. Although most portable carpet cleaners can clean up pet messes, some models are specially engineered for cleaning homes with pets.
Therefore, if you own a pet, search for a portable carpet cleaner that includes the word “pet” somewhere on the label. Whether it is a quick cleanup on sofa or a thorough wipe of pet hair, models designed for cleaning pet messes can do the trick. They even have the capacity to tackle the most stubborn stains with ease.
- Storage-friendly
A carpet cleaner that is not storage-friendly tends to occupy a lot of space in the room. Consequently, it pays to choose a portable carpet cleaner that is smaller and easy to store. Most of these machines are smaller and more compact, yet do not sacrifice the power to clean an entire room.
Also, most of them come with a cord wrap for ease of unwinding the cord for effortless storage. Lucky for you, a boat-load of products on our review are downright easy to store even in the smallest storage spaces.
Final Verdict
Needless to say, the best portable carpet cleaner provides a sure-fire approach of keeping your carpets in pristine condition. Throughout our independent testing Bissell Spot Clean Pro 3624 impressed us with its incredible suction power, unrivaled portability, and a pint-sized silhouette that facilitates easy storage.
This ingenious equipment can help you scour and blast away tough stains and spots from carpets, upholsteries, area rugs, automobile interiors, and more. The Bissell Spot Clean Pro 3624 combines high suction power with cleaning formula and water to handle all kinds of messes at home, not forgetting those left behind by your four-legged allies!