Tub style carpet machines

[fan-of-fans]

I might have posted on this but seeing a Bissell Big Green canister carpet machine at a thrift store yesterday rekindled it.

Does anyone like these style cleaners? As a kid I never actually saw them in person but they were some of my favorite vacuums in the Sears and JCPenney catalogs.

Rare today but seemed popular in the 80s and 90s. Montgomery Ward, Kenmore, Bissell, Singer and VAX offered these style cleaners in the US during that time. By the late 90s-2000s seems the upright style cleaners, especially Hoover Steamvac and Bissell were all the rage, and the canister cleaners, other than from Bissell, nearly disappeared from the market here. I see the older Bissell ones fairly often in thrift shops or garage sales still.

Not sure what I liked so much about these canister cleaners, but I think it was the ability to use as both a carpet/upholstery cleaner or as a wet/dry vacuum.

I finally acquired a Kenmore machine a couple of years ago, and was so happy to finally have one after all these years. I still plan to acquire the Spraymate head and other cleaning attachments for it.

What I really like about the Sears version is the optional dry power nozzle, which makes this a rare wet/dry vacuum that could be outfitted with a power nozzle for dry vacuuming or the wet nozzle for carpet scrubbing.

The airflow with this type of machine, like a shop vac, is superb and with the dry pickup power nozzle is a great setup for dry vacuuming carpets, IMO.

 

[huskyvacs]

I found out I need one to shampoo my basement carpet. Low pile carpet plus an unevenly poured concrete foundation leads to upright shampooers getting stuck or not even bonding to the carpet at all and skipping right over it on the dips.

I really love the aesthetic appeal and design of the Bissell SC shampooer, but man oh man are they expensive on eBay. They must be rare.

 

[kirbyklekter]

Kinda pricey when new too!

I checked my trusty dusty 1992 Best Merch catalog where the Bissell SC Deep Cleaning Carpet Machine had a MSR of 399.00 but 289.94 was the price at Best. High pressure formula pump and the system is self contained. No line to the hot water tap, you bring the water to it! I do better with the self contained. The models with the hose to the tap are too finicky. These canister type cleaners are easier to use on stair carpet and cleaning the rugs in the car. Rougher on your back using these in a whole room. Upright shampooers are easier I think. No doubt that Bissell SC is better for your basement floor, plus you can scrub those uneven areas easier than uprights.

I rescued a couple Big Green Carpet Machines years ago.They and the other Bissell canister cleaners work great out of the box, but after not too long they have problems delivering consistently hot water to the cleaning head. When your using the wands and head to clean carpet, it's not easy to see that your now spraying cold water. The valve that's enclosed where the hose screws on to your faucet starts acting up, and one minute you've got hot, next cold. You have to drag an empty bucket along to spray the head or hand held attachment into said bucket until you can feel the hot coming through again, wasting cleaning formula over and over.

 

[kirbyklekter]

Sorry 'bout that!

For some reason I couldn't scroll to the next line to finish. Just wanted to say that these had great suction. If you need to vacuum up an area that got too wet it's easy to just use the hose with no attachments and run it over the area by hand if need be.I make sure the collection tank is empty for better suction just like the regular dry vacuum cleaners. Hearing protection is highly recommended!

 

[huskyvacs]

Oh wow no wonder they are rare. That was about $750 back then!

If I could find a wand style cleaner that doesn't need a feeder to a sink faucet that would be preferred, but it's hard to find one (or know which ones do not need a faucet supply just by looking).

I pre-treat the carpet with a pump sprayer and detergent and just use the shampooer to scrub and rinse up the formula anyway.

 

[kirbyklekter]

fan-of-fans,

Did Regina ever make canister style carpet cleaners? Their are a couple Regina upright models that are suction only with gravity feeding the solution and a built in brush on the nozzle listed here in 1992.$69.00 and 89.00. Looks like Bissell,Hoover and Sears were the main players back then!

Huskyvacs, 399.00 is kind of spendy in'92 dollars for that cleaner! Must be a good one. You know Bissell, it's hit or miss with their quality.

 

[huskyvacs]

Yup. Their shampooers of the early and mid 1990's were pretty good though and reliable. I have their Little Green Machine (old square style) and I love it for cleaning the car. I've had to use it a few times on an emergency basis despite not having refurbished the motor yet (bearing noise) and it still works even with how loud it is. I also have one of their early uprights from the mid 90's that had the hose blow on it and it would still run even with soap and foam bubbles coming out of the motor housing. I still have it and it needs a total teardown and restoration. Hasn't been used since the mid 2000's.

I also seen one of those gravity fed Regina shampooers at Goodwill in 2016 but I had no idea what it was at the time and didn't get it.

 

[fan-of-fans]

All of the Bissell Big Green cleaning machines and other models in the 90s were self contained. The lavender/gray colored Carpet Machine Plus of the 80s required a faucet hook up.

The Big Green came back again about 8 or so years ago with a unit under the Rubbermaid brand. That was the last Bissell Big Green style I remember. They were recently still selling the Big Green Complete system which was a canister unit that could also be used as a water filtration vacuum, but just visited their site and it was apparently no longer available.

Kenmore units were also all self contained, except for some of the earlier BOL models.

As far as Regina, I don't believe they ever made a canister style carpet cleaner, that I can think of. I do remember their gravity feed upright models in the 90s, I think Oreck ended up with those at some point. There were also some Regina branded upright carpet cleaners more recently when Dirt Devil/TTI was using the name on their cleaners.

I forgot Shop Vac also sold a kit that could be used with their wet/dry vacs, to hook to the faucet and make them into carpet/upholstery cleaners. There may have also been a vacuum model or two bundled with it.

Canister cleaners seemed to catch on much better in Europe and the UK for some reason. You'll notice the VAX and other brands of cleaners are common on YouTube from there.

VAX did a run here in the 90s with those cleaners and I see them around sometimes.

 

[kirbyklekter]

Shop Vacs galore

In this catalog are 5 shop vacs of different size from 5gal up to 12ga. All can be converted to carpet cleaner with the Steamteam Carpet Cleaning Conversion Kit. Kit weighs 9 lbs."Includes 50'water tubing,faucet hookup,carpet,upholstery and bare floor nozzles,2 extension wands and cleaning concentrate." 49.94 sale price was 59.95 There was a clear on one side Bissell Steam Mate Power lifter.It looks like a five gallon fish tank with a hose coming out!

Best introduces VAX! The 4-in-1 Cleaning Crew: Vacuum,Carpet Cleaner,Wet/Dry,Mop. The suggested retail price was 399.99, Sale priced at 299.00 8.4amp motor 37lbs. It looks like its made of metal. Orange and black.

It's fun to thumb through these older catalogs, this one is from 1990/91. No surprise they still offer 19 different VCR's, about a dozen telephone answering machines and a new product called the Presto Salad Shooter!

 

[durango159]

The Bissell canisters were decent machines. The Big Green Clean Machine has a two gallon clean solution tank and a very large recovery tank as well. Some of the older ones were actually faucet hook up though. You had to run a hose to a nearby faucet and use adapters to screw it to the faucet and turn on the Hot water. Another hose ran into a bottle of carpet shampoo.

Bissell also had one with a power brush.. Who would have thought it be called the Bissell Big Green PowerBrush. It had a motorized power nozzle with a brush similar to a canister, but it had no suction duct to the brush roll. The brush roll was completely closed off from anything else. There was a 40 jet spray bar that ran the the length of the nozzle and the suction was in the front with a removable window for cleaning. They were very good performers but did have durability issues as O-rings for sealing connection to the wand and solution sprayer would expand and break the plastic parts.

Uprights have taken over in the residential market for sure. However, the commercial market is still heavy on canister style extractors or better yet truck mounted carpet extractors, which are extremely powerful!!

I used to have one of these growing up. We probably had it for about ten years. The photos I found however are courtesy of Google. There were three buttons on the Main suction unit: Suction Motor, Solution Pump Motor, Power Brush--- power to the wand.

 

[fan-of-fans]

I remember seeing those Bissell Big Green Powerbrush models in the JCPenney catalogs, never seen one in person I don't think.

I see it has a three switch setup for vacuum-pump-brush?

The Kenmores had a setup where one switch was vacuum and then a separate off-high-low for the pump. If you used the Spraymate, you unplugged the pump, then plugged in the Spraymate and it had a piggyback connector for the pump to plug in. Then you turned it to high. For the dry power nozzle, you'd unplug the pump, plug in the power nozzle and then switch to high to turn on the power nozzle or off for bare floors to shut the brush off.

The cheaper Kenmores with single speed pump had no separate pump switch - you just plugged in the pump to turn it on or unplug to turn off.

 

[durango159]

Hi Fan of Fans!

The Bissell Bissell Big Green PowerBrush was only meant for use as a Carpet Shampooer. It did not double as s Dry vac like the Kenmore.

The 3 switches were: Suction Spray Brush
They were 3 motor systems with the motorized carpet scrubbing head.

 

[fan-of-fans]

Oh I see. Some of the regular Big Green models came with a filter and attachments for vacuuming. I didn't realize the Powerbrush version wasn't made for that.

 

[ridgidwd0670]

There was also a Bissell Carpet & Upholstery Extraction Kit for wet/dry shop vacs

Early version was more like the 1st generation Rainbow AquaMate (didn't come with upholstery tool or floor squeegee adapter)

Later version had the upholstery tool (like Bissell Carpet Machine Plus)

I have the later version & use it with the Vax SpinScrub head

 

[ridgidwd0670]

early Bissell carpet extraction cleaning kit

 

[ridgidwd0670]

Sears Craftsman carpet & upholstery cleaning kit

 

[bagintheback]

Rubbermaid Xtra-Lift

You could still buy those new through Rubbermaid until at least 2011, which is when I bought mine. I don't remember the exact price but it was pretty discounted at the time, so I might have gotten some of the last stock before it was disoconinuted. It was probably around $300.

It's extremely loud, the water pump PSI is super low, but it's the most powerful carpet cleaner I've owned. Every other consumer Bissell or Hoover hasn't lastest more than a few years, and aside from the Bissell Powerbush models, they don't clean as well. I'd probably buy another now if they we're still for sale.

My understanding is that the current interior design trends are moving more towards hard floors instead of carpets, so there hasn't been a whole lot of change in the carpet cleaner market for awhile. Bissell coming out with their Rug Doctor competitor was probably the Last Big Thing recently (I've used both and the difference is nominal).

But yeah the canisters are way cooler, way more powerful, and last much longer. I guess thats not what people are looking for now.

 

[fan-of-fans]

Rubbermaid

Yeah, I remember when you got that one. It was around the time I started reading the forum in this thread https://www.vacuumland.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?15450 I think I heard it was like $99.

IDK why, but I've never really had as much of an interest in the upright style carpet cleaners as much as the canister type. We did have my grandma's newer Bissell Proheat upright cleaner that she gave us when she got rid of her carpeting. I liked it ok and it was really quiet, but it didn't seem to clean as well as I thought it would.

I think the reason the upright style cleaners won out was because they are easier to use. Just put in the water and solution. No hoses or solution tubes to connect or get twisted up. Plus they take up less space to store than the canister versions with all their parts.

I remember some of those shop vac conversion kits. The Shop Vac brand version was called Steam Team I think.

 

[gottahaveahoove]

My uncle has the big green one. Probably used it once

When I cleaned his cellar, I found it ,all intact in large plastic totes... might never get used again.