Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The most effective strategy i found in using this is as follows: 1. Spray onto the area, let it soak for a few minutes 2. Brush the area thoroughly with the power OFF. I worked up a good froth. 3. Then i turn the unit back on and spray again, followed immediately by methodically vacuuming off the entire area. 4. Any trouble spots left i got by holding down the spray button with the power on so it was spraying and sucking at the same time, and scrubbing that way. 5. When i was satisfied (and i was on everything i cleaned) i ran just suction until it stopped picking anything up. To respond to the people with very bad reviews of this, i've noticed they often seem to fail to take common sense into account. - If it sprays wider than you expect, it's a fan-shaped spray...put it closer to the carpet. The biggest number i saw was 3 ft. The only way i can duplicate that is to use the spray while STANDING UP. Is that a machine failure, or a user failure? You decide. - I saw someone say they drained the entire solution tank cleaning one step of their stairs. Folks that means they pulled the equivalent of dumping a quart of fluid onto one stair, all through a tiny nozzle when they have to hold a trigger down for it to spray. My best estimate is between 2-3 minutes of constant spraying. Again, machine failure or user failure? - There's a very narrow area on the nozzle that actually sucks in. Find it with your finger, and you'll know what needs to be pressed down on the carpet to get the best suction. Pulling the end towards me worked better than pushing away. The only way to stop the suction on this was user error on my part. It even sucked up some cat litter (didn't expect it to handle any solids) and it sucked up a bucket of water (stress test, i thought it would at least have trouble). - The last common complaint i've noticed are people complaining about the effort it took to use the Little Green. If you buy this, you're buying a tool. It's to HELP you clean, not miracle away the mess. I get the feeling these same people would give a hammer a 1-star rating because they still have to swing it. This removed a cat mess i was incapable of cleaning myself, i know because i tried. It's why i bought this little machine. I expected to have to get down on my hands and knees and scrub, it was the solution and suction that made it possible when scrubbing on my hands and knees wasn't working before. I took a star off because it's very hard to clean the waste tank when you're done. The only access to it is through the pour spout and there is a mechanism inside to shut off suction if the tank is too full. That mechanism gets hair wrapped around it easily. It's not impossible to clean though, a BBQ skewer fits right up in there and lets you get to the hair. The four stars it earned are because it cleaned all but a single stain i used it on. That stain is over a year and a half old and nothing else has worked on it either. It worked great for me, made an impossible cleanup job possible, and reduced (NOT eliminated) the amount of work i have to put into cleaning. Design flaws...it has a few. The solution tank's cap has a thin tube for exchanging air for solution as it sprays. It's all well and good but when you initially fill up the tank, and put the cap on some solution gets in it so when you flip the solution tank over it spritzes a little. Good news, if you do that next to the machine you have a vacuum handy to suck up drops...no need to panic like i've seen some reviewers do. The other problem is the hose. To get the most out of its length you pretty much have to turn the machine so the front faces away from you, which is a little bit of a hastle if you turn it on and off as much as i do when i'm cleaning. Still, not a terrible problem. I encourage you to read the other reviews, just keep in mind that with the 1- and 2-star reviews, were these machine failures, or user failures?