ReTRo HouSeWiFe

CLEANING PRODUCT

The SpotBot by Bissell, RATING: VERY GOOD

SUMMARY

I have actually had the SpotBot longer than my other floor cleaning robots, but I got caught up in the excitement of my new moving robots, so the poor SpotBot got pushed to the end of the review line. SpotBot does not deserve such treatment, as it is actually extremely useful, indespensible even.

What is a SpotBot, you may wonder? To be honest before my husband brought it home from Lowes, I had never heard of it! I was perfectly content with my full grown Bissell carpet cleaner or so I thought... (My husband realized before I did that I was not perfectly content....I may have mentioned once or twice the hours spent cleaning a tough spot out of the rug.) But one fine day, it was suddenly there.

REVIEW

I just realized that I forgot to finish up my Bissell SpotBot review, and have left everyone thinking that it is only annoying! Not true! The SpotBot is very useful indeed, and I have come to rely on it very much. I know it seems like I have more floor cleaning devices and robots than is considered sane, but the truth is, I have beige/cream colored carpeting in the entire house. (Kitchen & bathrooms excepted). Combine that with two dogs who will not stay outside, two teenagers and their friends, and a DH who considers the floor one big place to put things that are full of stuff and easily knocked over, and you may come to the conclusion that I don't have enough.

SpotBot is great for those "just get it out quick" situations. For example, the other day I was sitting at my desk minding my own business and Beagle came strolling over to my chair, and went "BLAAAH" which is the sound a beagle makes when barfing. This is the perfect situation for the SpotBot. I could go on to describe many other perfect situations, but you really don't want me to.

Here are some SpotBot usage tips:

• After dumping out the dirty waste water into the toilet, rinse out the plastic container, and then let it dry out thoroughly. Otherwise stuff will start growing in there. I soak mine in the utility room sink which I have filled with hot water, a bit of detergent and a dash of bleach. Then I let it dry.
• Crop circles:  If my beige carpet hasn't been cleaned by big Bissell in awhile, SpotBot will produce crop circles; very clean, perfectly round circles within an outer ring of darker, dirtier carpet (caused by what I call the bleed effect of the rotating brushes pushing some dirt outwards to form this ring). It's not a tragedy, it just means that at some point you are going to have to pull out the big Bissell and clean your whole carpet.
• One very annoying feature of SpotBot is the beeping when a cycle is done. It won't shut up and will keep beeping until you come and press stop! This somewhat detracts from the "just walk away" feature, because SpotBot makes you come back.

RETRO HOUSEWIFE, 2007-02-12

SpotBot Handsfree Compact Deep Cleaner

See these Pet Formulas? I have them and they work well. I use them when there has been some sort of "pet accident".

I prefer using the Oxy Gen, as I think it smells better.