A carpet cleaner's effectiveness is judged by how well it loosens and sucks dirt. Different cleaners offer a variety of features, including attachments for cleaning upholstery and tight areas between furniture, moving brushes that scrub more aggressively, and tank indicator lights that alert you when tanks need refilling or emptying. Bissells and Hoovers, for example, both offer a multitude of cleaning solutions with various features.
Bissell over the past 130 years has offered innovative floor-care products, including vacuums, carpet sweepers, deep cleaners and bare floor vacuums. They also offer floor cleaning chemicals. The company's roots go back to 1876 when Anna and Melville Bissell owned a crockery shop in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Melville created a carpet sweeper machine to clean up sawdust used to pack china. The couple built a factory to produce the sweepers in 1883. Queen Victoria ordered her palaces to be "bisselled" every day.
Hoover, part of TTI Floor Care North America since 2007, is one of the most recognizable brands in the vacuum cleaner industry. Hoover markets several upright carpet cleaners, hard surface cleaners and specialty vacuums. Murray Spangler, a janitor, suffered from asthma. In 1907, after combining a soap box, fan, pillow case and a broom handle, Spangler had invented a suction sweeper. W.H. Hoover purchased Spangler's patent and with Spangler as a partner, the Hoover brand was born.
Both companies offer vacuums. Bissell's varieties include upright, stick, canister and hand vacuums. Hoover offers these same types. Both companies' vacuums cost about $200 to $300 for uprights in 2010. Bissell's stick vacuums all cost under $100; however, Hoover's stick vacuums range from under $100 to almost $200. Canister vacuums vary greatly in price for both companies, ranging from under $100 for simple models to almost $400 for more sophisticated styles.
Bissell and Hoover also both supply carpet cleaning systems. Bissell offers products that focus on ridding your home of pet and other allergens. Hoover also offers one pet-centered product. Bissell offers hand-held spot cleaners, but Hoover does not.
Dirt Devil also offers products for carpet cleaning in similar styles to Bissell and Hoover, including upright vacuums, hand, stick and canister vacuums, as well as steam and carpet cleaners.
According to Consumer Research, the Hoover SteamVac with Clean Surge F5914-900 is recommended as "Best Carpet Cleaner" more than any other upright carpet cleaner. For carpet cleaning on a budget, the Bissell QuickSteamer PowerBrush is highly recommended.