Carpet and hard-floor cleaners · Comparison
Carpet cleaners for stairs and upholstery: hose length compared
For stairs, sofas and car seats you work through a hose and hand tool. Six portables compared on hose length first, then tank, cord and heat.
Quick picks who each one fits
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Hoover CleanSlate XL (FH15000V)
Longest hose here: 5 ft*, with a 96 oz* tank
- Hose: 5.0 ft*
- Tank: 96 oz*
- Cord: 22 ft*
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BISSELL SpotClean Pet Pro (2458)
Same 96 oz* tank, 4 ft* hose, long cord
- Hose: 4.0 ft*
- Tank: 96 oz*
- Cord: 22 ft (page also says 20)*
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BISSELL Little Green ProHeat Pet (3969)
Heating feature, 4.8 ft* hose, self-cleaning tool
- Hose: 4.8 ft*
- Tank: 32 oz*
- Cord: 15 ft*
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BISSELL Little Green Cordless (3682), battery
No cord: up to 35 min* of run time
- Hose: 4.0 ft*
- Tank: 34 oz*
- Cord: None, battery*
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Hoover Spotless Mini (FH12300)
Smallest tank (16 oz*) for a few treads or a chair
- Hose: 4.5 ft*
- Tank: 16 oz*
- Cord: 12 ft*
Figures are as stated in each product's current Amazon listing; * from the maker's own spec page (see Sources). Yes or No: whether the listing or maker names the feature.
On this page
What we compared and why
- Hose length. On stairs the machine sits on a tread or the floor and the hose reaches up. A longer hose means more treads per move.
- Clean-water tank. Stairs and a sofa use more water than one spot. A larger tank means fewer trips down the stairs to the sink.
- Cord, or no cord. On a staircase the outlet is usually at the top or the bottom. A long cord lets the machine climb with you; a battery model needs no outlet at all.
- Heat. Some portables name a heating feature. We mark 'Yes' only where the maker or listing names it.
The models compared
| Model | Hose | Tank | Cord | Heats water | Amazon link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hoover CleanSlate XL (FH15000V) | 5.0 ft* | 96 oz* | 22 ft* | Not stated in listing | See on Amazon |
| BISSELL SpotClean Pet Pro (2458) | 4.0 ft* | 96 oz* | 22 ft (page also says 20)* | Not stated in listing | See on Amazon |
| BISSELL Little Green ProHeat Pet (3969) | 4.8 ft* | 32 oz* | 15 ft* | Yes* | See on Amazon |
| BISSELL Little Green Cordless (3682), battery | 4.0 ft* | 34 oz* | None, battery* | Not stated in listing | See on Amazon |
| Shark StainStriker (PX201) | 4.3 ft* | Not stated in listing | 12 ft* | Not stated in listing | See on Amazon |
| Hoover Spotless Mini (FH12300) | 4.5 ft* | 16 oz* | 12 ft* | Not stated in listing | See on Amazon |
Read at this page's build and converted to one unit by us; sources as in the key above. "Not stated in listing": the listing does not give it. "Listing gives two values": it states two, so we show neither.
Hoover CleanSlate XL (FH15000V)
Who it fits: Full staircases and sofas: the longest stated hose here, 5 feet, with a 96-ounce tank and a 22-foot cord on Hoover's page.
Skip it if: Storage space is tight; a big-tank portable is the bulkiest kind of spot cleaner.
BISSELL SpotClean Pet Pro (2458)
Who it fits: Staircases and furniture in one session: the same 96-ounce tank as the Hoover, with a 4-foot hose and a long cord.
Skip it if: You want the longest reach per move; its hose is a foot shorter than the CleanSlate XL's.
BISSELL Little Green ProHeat Pet (3969)
Who it fits: Upholstery and stairs with a heating feature BISSELL names, a 4.8-foot hose and a self-cleaning tool.
Skip it if: You do whole staircases in one go; its 32-ounce tank is a third of the big-tank models'.
BISSELL Little Green Cordless (3682), battery
Who it fits: Stairs and car interiors far from an outlet: no cord at all, with BISSELL stating up to 35 minutes of run time.
Skip it if: Your jobs run past the stated run time, or you want the longest hose; it states 4 feet.
Shark StainStriker (PX201)
Who it fits: Spots on stairs and furniture from a mid-length 4.3-foot hose, with a 12-foot cord on Shark's page.
Skip it if: You want a stated tank figure to compare; Shark's page for the PX201 gives none.
Hoover Spotless Mini (FH12300)
Who it fits: A few treads or a chair at a time, from the smallest stated tank here (16 ounces) with a 4.5-foot hose.
Skip it if: You clean a whole staircase in one session; its tank is the smallest in this table.
How many treads one hose reaches
This is the calculation the listings do not do for you. A stair has a rise (the height of each step) and a run (the depth of each tread). The model residential building code used across most of the US caps the rise at 7 3/4 inches and asks for a tread at least 10 inches deep. One step measured along the slope of the stair is the diagonal of those two: about 12.7 inches for a 7 3/4-inch rise and a 10-inch tread, and a little more on a shallower, deeper stair.
So, as a rough guide with the machine sitting on one tread:
| Hose stated | Whole treads reached above the machine (about 12.7 in. per step, rounded down) | Moves for a 13-step flight |
|---|---|---|
| 4 ft | 3 (3.8) | about 4 |
| 4.3 to 4.8 ft | about 4 | about 3 |
| 5 ft | about 4, nearly 5 | about 3 |
Moves count the tread the machine sits on as cleaned too, so each move covers the treads reached plus one.
The hand tool adds a few inches of reach, and you will often clean the tread the machine sits on as well, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling. To do it for your own stairs, measure one step along the slope with a tape (from the front edge of one tread to the front edge of the next) and divide your hose length in inches by it.
The practical reading: between a 4-foot and a 5-foot hose the difference on a normal flight is about one extra move of the machine. That is worth having if you clean stairs weekly, and minor if you clean them twice a year.
Tank: how far up the stairs one fill lasts
Stairs and upholstery use more water than a single spot. The tanks here run from 16 ounces (Hoover Spotless Mini) to 96 ounces (Hoover CleanSlate XL and BISSELL SpotClean Pet Pro). Six fills of the smallest equal one fill of the largest. If you clean a whole staircase in one go, the big-tank machines save trips down to the sink; if you clean a few treads at a time, a smaller and lighter machine is easier to carry up.
Cord, or no cord
On stairs the outlet is at one end. A cord of 20 feet or more (the two big-tank machines) lets the machine climb most of a flight from one outlet. The BISSELL Little Green Cordless needs no outlet at all; BISSELL states up to 35 minutes of run time and a 4-hour charge. Plan your job to fit inside the run time, or have a corded machine as well.
Heat
Only the BISSELL Little Green ProHeat Pet names a heating feature among these six; BISSELL calls it heated cleaning. We do not say what heat changes on a given stain; each maker's manual explains how its feature is used.
Which one if...
- Whole staircases, often: the Hoover CleanSlate XL, for the longest stated hose with a large tank.
- Whole staircases, and you prefer BISSELL: the SpotClean Pet Pro, same tank, a foot less hose.
- No outlet near the stairs, or car interiors: the Little Green Cordless.
- Upholstery and a heating feature: the Little Green ProHeat Pet.
- A few treads at a time, small storage: the Hoover Spotless Mini.
For the two big-tank machines head to head, see CleanSlate XL vs SpotClean Pet Pro. For pet accidents, see the pet accidents guide.
Reading the table
Every figure with a mark comes from the maker's own page for that exact model number, linked under Sources. BISSELL gives the 2458's tank as three-quarters of a gallon and the 3682's as 33.8 ounces, and gives the 2458's cord two ways on one page (22 feet in the specs, 20 in the box summary); we converted and rounded to whole ounces. "Not stated in listing" means neither the listing nor the maker's page gives the figure; Shark's page for the PX201 gives hose and cord but no tank.
What this page does not tell you
We have not used these machines on stairs or furniture, and we do not rank them. We make no claim about stain removal or drying time. Stair dimensions vary by house and by local code; measure your own.
Sources
- Hoover CleanSlate XL FH15000V product page (hoover.com)
- Hoover Spotless Mini FH12300 product page (hoover.com)
- BISSELL SpotClean Pet Pro 2458 product page (bissell.com)
- BISSELL Little Green ProHeat Pet 3969 product page (bissell.com)
- BISSELL Little Green Cordless 3682 product page (bissell.com)
- Shark StainStriker PX201 product page (sharkninja.com)
- 2021 International Residential Code, R311.7.5.1 Risers (codes.iccsafe.org)