Best carpet cleaner 2024: Tried and tested models for stains, grime and pet hair
Choose the best carpet cleaner with our handy buying guide and bite-size reviews
If you have a lot of carpets to clean, a carpet cleaner is a total game-changer. The best carpet cleaners are far more effective than scrubbing away on your hands and knees with nothing more than a bucket and sponge. Carpet cleaners aren’t just for occasional stains either – they’re especially good at removing ingrained dirt and knotted-in animal hair on a wider scale and are an essential tool come spring-cleaning time.
We’ve been reviewing cleaning appliances for years at Expert Reviews. In this article, we will be specifically targeting our top eight powered carpet cleaners but if you’re looking for carpet cleaning products, then have a read of our guide to the best carpet shampoo.
At the bottom of this page, you’ll find our carpet cleaner buying guide, which we would recommend taking a look at if it’s your first time buying. Alternatively, if you already know what you’re looking for, our at-a-glance list highlights our favourite picks. For more in-depth information, jump to our mini reviews, which look at our full list of favourites in more detail.
Best carpet cleaner: At a glance
| Best for a deep clean | Vax Platinum Power Max ECB1SPV1 (~£250) | Check price at Amazon |
| Best carpet cleaner under £300 | Bissell StainPro 6 Carpet Cleaner 20096 (~£237) | Check price at Amazon |
| Best cordless compact carpet cleaner | Vax ONEPWR SpotlessGo Cordless Spot Washer (~£150) | Check price at Vax |
The best carpet cleaners to buy in 2024
1. Vax Platinum Power Max ECB1SPV1: Best for a deep clean
Price when reviewed: £250 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… cleaning large dirty carpets
- Not so great for… storage
This Vax is perfect for dog owners, large families, clumsy folk and anyone with lots of carpet that needs regular maintenance. At 9.6kg, it’s big and heavy, so you will need to have somewhere to store it when it’s not in use. However, despite its size, we found it relatively easy to manoeuvre in our tests and efficient at dealing with wide-scale grubbiness.
The carpet cleaner’s main brush bar is accompanied by seven additional brushes, making it well equipped to tackle even the most deeply ingrained dirt with ease. It also has two wash settings – quick and deep-clean – and the powerful suction delivered by its Dual-V technology means quicker drying carpets. If you regularly find yourself having to tackle stubborn stains, the Platinum Power Max’s handy pre-treatment wand lets you treat the area in advance of cleaning, while the SpinScrub tool is perfect for tackling your stairs, car and other difficult-to-reach areas. As a bonus, it also comes with a squeegee bar for use on hard floors, which we think makes this model ideal for dual-floor households.
We tested this deep-cleaning model on a bedroom carpet and a very dog-soiled rug and it tackled both with ease. Yes, we had to move slowly with several back-and-forth movements over the same spot, but the end result was hugely impressive. The SpinScrub tool was equally brilliant at dealing with one particular dog stain that required a great deal of elbow grease.
This is a top-tier carpet restorer that not only deep cleans but claims to remove up to 93% of bacteria while it’s at it.
Key specs – Weight: 9.6kg; Cable length: 9m; Cleaning width: 37cm; Tank capacity: 3.5l; Hose: Yes; Heater: No; Warranty: 6 years
2. Vax SpotWash Home Duo: Best spot washer for small spaces
Price when reviewed: £170 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… spot cleaning carpet and hard floor, easy storage, no job too small
- Not so great for… large areas
Spot cleaners such as the Vax SpotWash Home Duo are perfect emergencies, tackling spills and other liquid-based accidents, rather than entire carpets. About the size of a large mop bucket, the Vax SpotWash could easily be stored in a cupboard under the sink, ready to go in an instant.
The inclusion of two tanks means clean water and detergent is sent out of the SpotWash’s spray nozzle, which the appliance then sucks back up again and is collected in the dirty water tank.
It comes with three funnels that attach to the end of the hose, so you can choose between large, small and crevice cleaning. Each one can have a brush attached, so it can scrub the area as well as depositing clean water and sucking the dirty liquid back in again. All worked well in our tests, scrubbing soil, blackcurrant squash and coffee out of carpet with relative ease.
Read our full Vax SpotWash Home Duo review
Key specs – Weight: 4.5kg; Cable length: 5.5m; Cleaning width: 17.5cm; Clean capacity: 1.1l; Hose: Yes; Heater: No; Warranty: 2 years
3. Bissell StainPro 6 Carpet Cleaner 20096: Best for most people
Price when reviewed: £237 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… affordable cleaning in smaller homes, fresh red wine spills
- Not so great for… old, dried-on stains
There are newer, more expensive Bissell models, but we think the StainPro 6 is an excellent performer and, at its new low price, it’s a very worthy contender. The StainPro 6 is best suited to households with two or three carpeted rooms. Despite its cumbersome dimensions, we found it’s surprisingly easy to manoeuvre, although you will need to have the storage space for it.
After filling the 3.7l tank with hand-hot water, we found Bissell’s HeatWave technology kept the water at optimum temperature during the cleaning process and this warmth made cleaning much more efficient. The six rows of cleaning brushes, meanwhile, do stalwart work at agitating the dirt. It then sucks up the moisture, leaving the carpet slightly damp for a couple of hours or so.
It had no impact on old, dried-in stains, but easily dealt with a new spill of red wine after just three passes. Aside from one mishap when the water lid’s catch inadvertently popped off and spilled slightly, we think this top-tier cleaner performed with aplomb.
Key specs – Weight: 9kg; Cable length: 8m, Cleaning width: 30cm; Tank capacity: 3.7l; Hose: Yes; Heater: Yes; Warranty: 5 years
4. Vax ONEPWR SpotlessGo Cordless Spot Washer: Best cordless carpet cleaner
Price when reviewed: £150 | Check price at Vax
- Great for… cordless cleaning, easy storage
- Not so great for… large areas
If you have pets or messy toddlers, we think you should consider this cordless, light and small option from Vax. Its size makes it perfect for occasional mishaps or giving the car seats a whizz over, and it’s small enough to store in a cupboard. Granted, it only runs for about 15 minutes per charge, but that’s enough time to clean up a few pet or wine accidents.
The SpotlessGo is equipped with two scrubbing brushes (a nylon one for general duties and a rubberised comb for cleaning up after pets), a short 80cm hose, a small 28ml water tank and a much larger 400ml dirty-water reservoir.
We found that the Vax ONEPWR SpotlessGo is very effective on small stains as long as you catch them early. It’s also a doddle to use, although your arm will almost certainly ache after a minute or two of scrubbing back and forth.
Key specs – Weight: 2.8kg; Cable length: Cordless; Cleaning width: 10cm; Clean capacity: 28ml; Hose: Yes; Heater: No; Warranty: 3 years
5. Rug Doctor Portable Spot Cleaner: Best compact carpet cleaner
Price when reviewed: £160 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… spot cleaning
- Not so great for… automated cleaning
If you have dogs or messy toddlers and just want a stain-removal alternative to a bucket of water and a sponge, consider this small, easily stored portable option from the carpet-cleaning ninjas at Rug Doctor. We found its small, 11.5cm motorised hand wand is excellent at dealing with one-off stains and perfect for keeping the car’s interior spick and span. However, it does require a good deal of energetic back-and-forth scrubbing action to do its work.
The two water tanks (one for clean water, the other for dirty) are clearly visible and easy to handle, although we found filling the main water tank was a bit fiddly since it requires careful measurements of both water and the detergent solution.
The Rug Doctor isn’t an especially light machine at around 8kg, but thankfully it comes with wheels and a pull-about handle for relatively easy mobility. As well as our own results, it’s worth noting that many owners have reported exceedingly good results when dealing with spot stains, and some users have found it a godsend at cleaning up after puppy accidents, although we couldn’t test this ourselves.
Key specs – Weight: 8.2kg; Cable length: 4.6m; Cleaning width: 11.5cm; Clean capacity: 1.9l; Hose: Yes; Heater: No; Warranty: 2 years
6. Vax Platinum SmartWash: Best premium carpet cleaner
Price when reviewed: £300 | Check price at John Lewis
- Great for… deep cleaning larger areas
- Not so great for… cleaning on a budget
An upgrade over the Platinum Power Max Carpet Cleaner, Vax’s Platinum SmartWash improves over its predecessor in several areas. For one, it no longer requires a trigger to deploy water and cleaning solution onto the floor. Instead, a sensor automatically deposits a suitable amount as the unit is moved forward, and picks the dirty liquid up as it rolls back. It also has a separate tank for cleaning fluid, is lighter, and no longer comes with a pre-treatment wand.
A spinning brush head massages stubborn stains on rugs and carpets as you move the vacuum-like cleaner, and the device also comes with a 2.5m hose along with an antimicrobial tool for manually scrubbing upholstery. To help with the drying process, the Vax Platinum SmartWash has a ‘dry only’ setting, which stops adding more water when pushing it forward and instead only lifts liquid out of the carpet. In our experience, you will still need to wait a few hours after use for carpets to be dry enough to walk on, but it certainly helps suck up the worst of the moisture that comes from cleaning.
We tested it on a dirty, 15-year-old rug, and were very impressed by the results. It looked newly bought, and the cleaned area was fresher-smelling and softer to walk on. We were also able to tackle a particularly stubborn stain with the cleaner’s rotating attachment. It’s pricier than the Power Max, but the extra cost may be worth it if you’re looking for smart settings that can streamline the amount of manual work needed for a clean.
Read our full Vax Platinum SmartWash review
Key specs – Weight: 7.4kg; Cable length: 9m; Cleaning width: 32.5cm; Clean capacity: 3.5l; Hose: Yes; Heater: No; Warranty: 6 years
7. Bissell PowerClean: Best upright carpet cleaner under £150
Price when reviewed: £149 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… affordability
- Not so great for… ease of use
The Bissell PowerClean falls at the cheaper end of the carpet cleaner scale, although it still has all the key basics you would expect, including a rotating brush, and two tanks to hold clean and dirty water.
The design is simpler than you might find on more expensive models, however. The dirty water tank, for example, is held in place by two clips, one on either side of the machine, which we found requires some fiddling to release. More expensive models tend to release both tanks with a smoother, single-handed operation.
Our testing shows it’s an effective carpet cleaner though, despite some cheaper-looking elements. Switching the machine on will set its rotating brushes and suction off, while a trigger on the handle releases a 2% mix of Bissell’s cleaning fluid (of which 236ml is supplied) and warm water. Squirt a bit of that into the carpet, then let the brush do its work. It wasn’t as hard-working in our tests as more expensive models, but it does an excellent job for the price.
Read our full Bissell PowerClean review
Key specs – Weight: 5.6kg; Cable length: 6m; Cleaning width: 18cm; Clean capacity: 2.36l; Hose: No; Heater: No; Warranty: 2 years
8. Numatic George GVE370: Best vacuum with wet carpet cleaning
Price when reviewed: £300 | Check price at Henry
- Great for… multipurpose wet and dry cleaning
- Not so great for… cleaning large carpeted areas
Have a peek into the janitor’s room of any commercial premises and you’ll likely spy a happy-faced Henry vacuum cleaner smiling away in the corner. The Henry is one of the most reliable and toughest vacs on the market, and certainly the most simple in terms of design and function. Well, meet his brother George, who not only deals with the vacuuming but is a dab hand at dealing with wet stuff too. That doesn’t make George a top-tier carpet cleaner, but we’d argue it does make him the best all-rounder on this page.
George is a true do-it-all machine capable of general day-to-day vacuuming, cleaning hard floors, carpets and stains, and sucking water out of blocked sinks and boat bilges. In our tests, it didn’t perform as well as a genuine carpet cleaner, but it made a fair fist of it and was especially good at dealing with spot stains and general spillages. If you’re looking for one easy-to-stow option that’s laudably efficient at dealing with most of life’s domestic mishaps, we are confident that George is your man.
Read our full Numatic George review
Key specs – Weight: 8.8kg; Cable length: 10m; Cleaning width: 30cm; Clean capacity: 9l; Hose: Yes; Heater: No; Warranty: 1 year
How to choose the best carpet cleaner for you
How easy is a carpet cleaner to use?
Well, let’s just say it’s not rocket science. True, chances are you will look into the box of parts you’ve just received and wonder how on earth you will put it all together (most carpet cleaners require some form of assembly), but get past that bit and you will find it almost as easy to use as a vacuum cleaner. Just remember that cleaning carpets isn’t like vacuuming – everything has to be done very slowly and methodically with an inch or so of overlap to prevent streaking.
To avoid over-wetting the carpet, never use more than four shampooing strokes on a single section and, as a precaution, be sure to test-clean a small hidden patch of carpet first just in case the detergent causes discolouration. When it’s dry, slide your foot over the carpet to ensure all areas of the pile are facing in the same direction or it may look a little odd.
Domestic machines such as the models above use relatively small water tanks (usually around 3.5l) and this water is used up so quickly that you will be back at the tap for another refill in no time. Most domestic carpet cleaners use a two-tank system: one for the clean water/detergent mix and the other to collect the dirty stuff. You can safely expect them to clean about ten square feet of carpet per tank.
Do I really need a carpet cleaner?
Domestic carpet cleaners are much bigger than vacuum cleaners so storage can be a real issue. However, whether you actually need one is solely based on how much carpet you have installed in the home and whether you have animals or clumsy kids about the house.
Odd spot stains can be dealt with the old-fashioned way – on hands and knees with a scrubbing brush, a bucket of hot water and some specialised carpet-cleaning detergent – but if you have a household full of cream carpets, a pair of dogs and two messy sprogs then a domestic model will save a lot of hassle and time.
READ NEXT: Best hard floor cleaners
Is there an alternative to spending good money on a carpet cleaner?
If you only ever expect to use a carpet cleaner once in a blue moon, consider renting one. Companies including HSS Hire, Rug Doctor and Homebase hire out various models for around £22 per day, plus £10 for detergent. But if you need the whole house doing or have a badly soiled carpet or a stubborn stain, your best option is to call in a specialist carpet-cleaning service.
These companies invariably use professional cleaning machines that cost in excess of £2,000 (the average domestic model is around £250). The machines themselves not only have much large water tanks (35l compared with 3.5l), but the people operating them know exactly what they’re doing. Professionals will have experience in recognising the type of stain, the best chemical detergent for the job and whether or not the stain is removable in the first place. As a rough ballpark figure, you will find that professional companies charge around £65 for an average-sized bedroom.
READ NEXT: Best wood floor cleaners
Can I use a carpet cleaner on my wooden floors?
Not advisable, especially if you have laminated flooring installed. The amount of water administered during the process will seep into the cracks and expand the floorboards, leaving them permanently warped. However, they’re fine to use on tiled and vinyl floors, although a standard squeegee mop will be just as effective and far less hassle.
