Best Carpet and Upholstery Cleaners of 2025
Are your soft surfaces in need of a deep clean? If the answer is yes, you’re not alone: our research shows most people wait to wash chairs, car interiors, and carpet until there’s a deep-set stain or visible layer of dirt and grime.
But there’s no reason to put off deep cleaning until you’re overdue. With your own carpet and upholstery cleaner you can easily tackle sudden messes and maintenance cleaning on your own schedule.
In this guide we walk through the different types of deep cleaners available, break down how they clean, and recommend specific models for washing different messes, surfaces, and spaces.
Best carpet cleaner for big spaces
The Big Green® Machine Professional Carpet Cleaner is a must have for tackling a whole house full of carpet or prepping a rental property. Its extra-large tanks means fewer trips to empty and refill, and the professional-grade suction can pull out dirt that's been hiding in carpet for years. For stairs and furniture, reach for the 9-foot-long hose and a handheld tool.
Best deep cleaners for small spaces
If your floors are carpeted, consider the TurboClean™ Pet Upright Carpet Cleaner. Don't be fooled by its compact size. This entry-level machine packs a serious cleaning punch perfect for apartments and spaces short on storage. It’s easy to maneuver and features a hose and specialized cleaning tools for stairs, furniture, and crevices.
For spot cleaning and furniture refreshes, the Little Green® Mini Portable Carpet Cleaner has you covered. This tiny but mighty machine can handle big spills and deep-set stains with the power of a full-size machine. It can also tackle cleaning full pieces of furniture, then get tucked back into a small cabinet or closet.
Best deep cleaner for car detailing
For cleaning jobs that take you far from a power outlet, pick up the Little Green® Mini Cordless Portable Deep Cleaner This cordless deep cleaner is pint-sized, making it a breeze to tackle car upholstery and floor mats as well as other hard-to-access areas, from windy carpeted stairs to upholstered patio furniture.
Best carpet cleaners for kid-friendly homes
If carpet cleanups are your top priority the Revolution® HydroSteam® Upright Carpet & Upholstery Cleaner is a good match. This full-size machine fights messes with multiple cleaning modes. Use the Steam Pretreat Mode to help loosen stains that are stuck down in the carpet fibers, including sticky stains like syrup or slime.
If spills and spot-cleaning are your focus, the Little Green® HydroSteam® Pet portable cleaner is ready to be your go-to gadget. You can literally follow your family around with this portable cleaner – our bonus bundle comes with wheels! This device has three cleaning modes including SteamWash™ Mode which is perfect for sticky, oily messes.
Best deep cleaner for pet parents
For wall-to-wall cleaning, the ProHeat 2X® Revolution® Pet Pro Upright Deep Cleaner is ready to tackle carpet, couches, and any other soft surface in your sights. This device is BISSELL® Pet Proven® certified – meaning it has met our toughest cleaning criteria – and comes with multiple cleaning tools so you can take a hands-free approach to yucky messes.
For pawprints and accidents, the Little Green® Pet Pro Portable Deep Cleaner is ready to address "uh-oh" pet moments as soon as they happen. This portable powerhouse targets pet stains and odors with multiple tools and an XL clean tank. The machine is BISSELL® Pet Proven® certified, which means it’s a top-tier product for cleaning tough messes.
Best deep cleaner for upholstery
More than 3 million Little Green® Portable Carpet and Upholstery Cleaners have sold since this device launched the portable deep cleaner category, and it continues to be a favorite among #cleanfluencers. This machine comes with tools designed to get into every crevice of your couch, chairs, and cushions. It’s gentle on fabric but tough on dirt and grime.
Best formulas for carpet cleaning machines
Serious cleaners keep a few different formulas on-hand so they can match any mess. Browse formulas for upright carpet cleaning machines or scan solutions for portable deep cleaners to see which chemist-approved cleaning formulas best meet your needs.
What is the difference between an upright deep cleaner and a portable one?
Upright carpet cleaners can easily clean large, carpeted areas. They tend to look like traditional vacuum cleaners. However, a deep cleaner uses its rotating brush roll to massage cleaning formula into carpet, then applies suction to remove or extract the spent solution. Some upright machines have an extension hose for deep cleaning stairs and furniture.
Portable upholstery cleaners are smaller. They come with handheld scrubbing tools for spot cleaning carpet or deep cleaning upholstery, stairs, and vehicle interiors. Like upright carpet cleaners, portable deep cleaners have separate tanks for clean and dirty water. Some portable machines are cordless, which makes them especially convenient for quick cleanups.
Who needs a deep cleaner?
If you have carpeted floors, rugs, upholstered furniture, or a vehicle, you will find plenty of uses for a deep cleaning machine. Pet owners turn to deep cleaners for keeping carpet and upholstery free from pet accidents, muddy paw prints, and pet smells. Families use carpet cleaners to quickly remove sticky spills inside homes and cars and to prep their spaces for company.
How do deep cleaners work?
Carpet and upholstery cleaners take a spray-scrub-suction approach. The machine delivers cleaning formula to soft surfaces such as carpet and upholstery, then scrub brushes work the formula deep into the material and suction power removes residual formula and stain.
Pairing a deep cleaner with BISSELL® formula delivers the best results. These cleaning solutions were specially developed by chemists to deliver maximum cleaning power for different stains.