Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

We recently bought this model from Costco, although Amazon is now selling it for less. We had a previous model and while it still works great, we took it to our cabin, so we needed something for our main house. After a quick and easy assembly of the new model, I set about cleaning our carpets and quickly realized that while it does a good job at cleaning, Bissell cut too many corners designing this cleaner and those decisions severely limit the usefulness of this model. First, the separate soap tank has been removed. You mix the soap directly into the water container, which is a little larger than a gallon. This means you are committed to cleaning a large area of carpet. I was able to clean my entire dining and living room area in one tank, going over several places many times for some stubborn stains. There is no way, without wasting a lot of soap, to clean a small room or area. The older model was much better with a separate soap tank, since you could pour out the unused soap to save for later, allowing you to clean any size space. The next problem is the short power cord. It says it's 22ft but navigating around furniture means you can't get very far from a plug. You could use an extension cord, but why have to deal with additional plugs? The winding posts on the cleaner, where you store the cord when not in use, allow for a lot more core. Bissell just got cheap here, they could have easily given you 35-40ft that that would be a lot better. The final problem is less severe but with the other things I mentioned, was the nail in the coffin. There is no indicator how much more cleaning solution (soap+water) is in the tank, and you can't tell if you've run out or are running low. The previous model had a small spinning indicator when you sprayed the soap or water and you could see into the soap container. You could tell if you were out (spinner not moving) and you could see if you were low of soap. Not so with the new model. Since the soap and water are mixed into the tank, which is surrounded by dirty water (when cleaning) or by the plastic bodywork, you can't see how much is left while working. I guess you could stop, turn it off and inspect, but that's a poor workflow. These problems were all experienced at the same time for me while cleaning our stairs. We have 19 or so carpeted stairs between 2 floors. I had finished cleaning the upstairs hall and started using the hand tool to clean the stairs from the top down. I got about half way and ran out of fluid. I was also at the end of the reach of the power cord. I didn't want to refill the tank since I didn't have another large room to clean. So half the stairs were left for next time. On the plus side, Bissell did a few great things with this design which improves these areas over the previous model. When the handle is upright (e.g. using hand tools) the beater bars (there are 2 on this model) stops moving. This wasn't the case on the earlier model and is a good design and safely feature. Bissell also makes it very easy to clean up the machine when done, allowing you to remove the front suction area in addition to all tank and associated components. You can wash off all the carpet fuzz that sticks to it easily now. This easy removal also makes it easy to get to the belt and clean out the dirt that accumulates there. We're returning this model. Hopefully Bissell will address these severe shortcomings to make a mediocre cleaner into a really good one.