When I told some of my mom friends that I would be trying out the Bissell Little Green for an upcoming article, they immediately said two words: Life changing. And after doing the dirty work myself, I can completely understand why — with a few caveats. While I may not be in my mom era yet, furbabies can give toddlers a run for their money when it comes to making your home look lived in. So, I unboxed the portable upholstery cleaner and put it to the test on my pup’s favourite napping spot, aka, my not-so-white couch.
Bissell Little Green Pros
Listen, there’s a reason for the Bissell Little Green‘s over 65,000 ratings averaging at 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon.ca. For being so compact, the Little Green is powerful — a lot more powerful than I expected for a machine retailing at approximately $120.
I appreciated that the setup was simple enough to not have to dive too far into the instruction handbook and only took a couple of minutes. I used the trial Spot & Stain formula that came with the machine and filled the rest of the 48 ounces clean water tank with warm water. The rest of the setup was as simple as plugging it in.
Before starting with the Little Green, I vacuumed the area that I would be cleaning and highly recommend you do the same. Though the suction is powerful, this machine is not intended to be vacuum. I’m embarrassed to say, some of the stains in our couch were very set-in — like months set-in. So, I sprayed any of the areas that looked particularly tough with the formula first and let them sit for a few minutes before going back in with the three inch Tough Stain Tool. I thought it would be best to work in a pattern from one side of the sofa to the other so I didn’t forget which areas I had already cleaned. Well, let’s just say it was very obvious which areas had been cleaned — no pattern necessary. I watched the clean solution turn into muddy water as it was sucked back up into the clear brush head. With the exception of a spot of red wine from who knows when, the Little Green transformed my sofa back to its former glory. I truly was not prepared for how equally disgusting and satisfying dumping the dirty tank of water would be.
Bissell Little Green Cons
For all that this cleaning gadget has right, there are a couple places where the Bissell Little Green just misses the mark. I’m not sure if it was user error, but when I was inserting the full clean water tank, it was leaking quite a bit. My next grievance may not be applicable to all, but I found the length of both the cord and the hose to be really restricting with the size of my sofa. I ended up adding an extension cord to give me a little bit more flexibility, but the shorter hose meant having to rest the body of the machine on the sofa instead of the floor. The included three inch Tough Stain Tool works wonderfully; however, it doesn’t come apart for cleaning itself (a design flaw I believe Bissell is well aware of considering they released an updated version that does). If you opt for the model I tried though, vacuuming your surfaces before will help reduce the amount of debris that could get trapped in the attachment.
Is the Bissell Little Green worth the hype?
As a proud contributor and consumer of #CleanTok (its 107.3 billion views leads me to believe some of you are too), I am happy to report that the viral clips of dirt lifting seamlessly from seemingly the direst fabrics imaginable are not AI generated. The Bissell Little Green is (nearly) perfect for what it is. For smaller, quick and dirty jobs, this is the portable answer you’ve been searching for. If you’re looking to tackle larger deep cleans like my large white sectional or an entire carpet, I would opt for one of Bissell’s more robust spot cleaners or carpet cleaners or be ready to spend a lot of time going back and forth to the sink to dump the dirty tank.
