are the bissel pro heats good?

[Bill1234]

Hi autogeek, my birthday is coming in one week and im considering asking for a bissel pro heat. Im younger (not yet adult age). I have heard these are good machines for cleaning stains. I do details on the side for family members for cheap, but im going to start charging 150 -200 for my next details and beyond. What would you need for the proheat, can you use an soap or does hot water do good enough?

If you think this is not a good gift for a person my age suggest something else.
I already have
tools
a good detail arsenal-maybe I could just ask for an ag gift card
pc games-maybe steam gift card.

just think about stuff a teenage guy would like

[Pureshine]

Yes I have one as a back up if my Mytee goes down great little machine.

[dooyaunastan]

I got one as my first 'extractor' machine or what have you. Works great for spots and relatively newer stains but won't do a damn thing (even with Folex) even after numerous treatments to serious stains. But I wasn't exactly expecting that either.

Pick up a bottle of Folex (Home Depot cleaning aisle) and just use the Bissell machine with straight hot water.

Spray folex, let dwell for a bit, scrub, extract, blot-up/wipe-down, and some even follow up afterwards with a shop vac for the added suction power over the Bissell machine.

[Kris R]

Sigh. Man I do about 6 cars a week. I've had 2 of these. Great for that weekend warrior. Great for new spots. But really it's no different than a scrub brush, folex, and a full size wet vac. It doesn't have the suction of a good wet vac.

[Pureshine]

Looks at this thread.
Bissell Pro heat.

[MarkD51]

Over the years, I have owned two Bissel Pro Heat Extractor Uprights.

Both IMO were somewhat poorly made. At these price points they all are actually, nothing but plastic.

The last one I had crapped out after helping a woman in town, and steaming her living room carpets. What she didn't at first tell me, was she previously owned 4 dogs!

I did of course pre-vacuum the entire living room very good, but that apparently only put a small dent in the removal of a literal sea of dog hair.

That dog hair accumilation at the underside of the machine actually siezed up the pump, and burned up a small plastic Drive Gear.

All I actually needed was the pressed on drive Gear, and a new small cogged rubber Belt.

But, here's the problem, Bissel won't sell you the part, they tell you to send it to one of their service centers, and the closet to me was El Paso, 90 miles away.

I'm sure once Bissel got through with me, for a few more dollars, I could've just bought another brand new machine.

I got lucky, by doing an ebay search, and found the entire replacement Pump for $32, and that Pump had a Metal Gear, not Plastic.

It eventually crapped out again some months later.

I decided to buy the Hoover instead, and although the Hoover seems like ancient technology, and not as pretty looking as the Bissel, I've had better luck with it, and it seems that one can acquire parts for the Hoover if need be.
Mark

[EWtheDETAILER]

I've got one and its a pretty solid bang for the buck! Have done close to a hundred cars with my current one... pretty durable... like other guys said, it won't get out the worst of the worst stains that have sat for years, but it will get most of them! I'd say it would be a good investment for you!

[95oRANGEcRUSH]

This topic hasn't been beat to death or anything. A simple search would have yielded dozens of threads related to the Bissell LGM, Pro Heat and other versions.

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