Cleaning review
Bissell Little Green Review: Brilliant on Fresh, Beaten by Set-In
Blood, cat sick and coffee all came out in one session. A set-in chain oil stain lightened by about half and stayed there, which is the honest boundary of what this machine does.
By Paulo GerchonPublished 2 min read
Illustration, not a photo — we don’t have a licensed image of this product yet.
Bissell
Bissell Little Green
Good · researched from 4 sources
For fresh spills and everyday pet accidents this does what a rented machine does at a fraction of the effort. Set-in oil and acid stains need pretreating or a professional, and no number of passes changes that.
- Buy if
- Households with pets or small children · Fresh spills, where every source found it excellent · Small homes with no room for a full-size carpet cleaner
- Skip if
- Old, set-in oil or acid stains without pretreating first · Cleaning whole rooms, given the narrow tool · Anyone who needs to run it while somebody else is on a call
We don’t list prices, because Amazon’s change hourly.
The boundary is fresh against set-in
Bob Vila's review is useful because they let it fail. Blood out of carpet in minutes. Cat vomit gone completely. Coffee out of a living room rug with no damage to the fibres. Mystery stains off the stairs, entirely.
Then chain oil on a car ceiling, which lightened by about half and stopped. And grime on a couch arm that was noticeably better after two passes and never actually clean.
That line is the product. Water and detergent under suction lift things that water and detergent can lift. Oil bonded into fibres over months is a different chemistry problem and a small portable machine does not solve it.
The practical consequence is that pretreating old stains before you start is not optional, and every source says so.
What it is like to use
Light, per all three sources: under ten pounds, about 9.7 by The Bitter Lemon's measure, and just over seventeen inches wide.
That number is the reason it gets used. A full-size carpet cleaner lives in a cupboard and comes out for an event. This one you carry to the spill while the spill is still fresh, which is exactly when it works best.
Setup is minimal. Yahoo Shopping describes snapping a hose clip and screwing on a back plate, then filling the tank and squeezing a trigger.
It is loud. Bob Vila measured around 76 dB and says it drowns out conversation.
The tool is the weak point
There is one suction setting. Yahoo Shopping wanted something gentler for delicate fabrics and there is nothing.
The stain tool is narrow, which they also flag as limiting for larger areas, and Bob Vila makes an almost opposite complaint: the spray pattern at about five inches is wide enough to mist solution onto places you did not intend. Those are different parts of the same tool, and between them they describe an attachment that sprays broadly and lifts narrowly.
Bob Vila adds two build irritations: the attachment release button occasionally sticks, and the tool head cover does not come off, so you cannot properly clean the part that touches every stain.
Check which one you are buying
Bissell sells a Little Green Mini with a 16-ounce tank and a cordless version alongside this corded 1400B. They share the name, the colour and most of the photography.
The 48-ounce tank here is three times the Mini's, and reviews of the cordless model report a runtime limit that does not apply to this one at all. Read the model number on the listing rather than the name.
How it scored
The overall 7.8 is the weighted average of these five criteria — we never adjust it by hand.
Stain removal
Bob Vila removed blood, cat vomit and coffee outright, but a set-in chain oil stain only lightened about 50 percent and couch grime never fully cleared.
Value
Bob Vila scored it 8 out of 10 and called it absolutely worth it for households with children or pets.
Build quality
A simple 3-amp machine that Bob Vila found solid, though they report the attachment release button sticking and a tool head cover that will not come off to be cleaned.
Ease of use
Yahoo Shopping describes setup as snapping a clip and screwing a plate, then filling and squeezing a trigger. Bob Vila measured about 76 dB, loud enough to stop conversation.
Portability
Under 10 pounds per Bob Vila and about 9.7 per The Bitter Lemon, with a 15-foot cord and a 4-foot hose that Yahoo extends to roughly 5 with the tool.
Pros and cons
What we liked
- Bob Vila removed blood, cat vomit and coffee stains outright
- Under 10 pounds, so it comes to the stain rather than the other way round
- Yahoo Shopping restored a heavily soiled handwoven rug in 10 to 15 minutes
- A 48-ounce clean water tank, three times the Mini model's
- 15 feet of cord reaches most of a room from one socket
What we didn’t
- Set-in oil and acid stains defeat it, which Bob Vila found on car ceiling chain oil
- About 76 dB, which Bob Vila says drowns out conversation
- One suction setting only, with nothing gentler for delicate fabric per Yahoo Shopping
- The stain tool is narrow, and Yahoo would prefer a wider one for large areas
- Bob Vila reports the attachment release button sticking and the tool head cover not coming off for cleaning
Specifications
| Clean water tank | 48 oz |
|---|---|
| Weight | Under 10 lb per Bob Vila; 9.7 lb per The Bitter Lemon |
| Cord | 15 ft |
| Hose | 4 ft, about 5 ft with the tool attached per Yahoo Shopping |
| Motor | 3 amp per Bob Vila |
| Noise | About 76 dB per Bob Vila |
| Spray width | About 5 in per Bob Vila |
| Suction settings | One |
| Width | Just over 17 in per Yahoo Shopping |
How we researched this
We have not had this unit on the bench. This review synthesises the manufacturer’s published specifications, independent measurements and owner reports listed below. Every figure on this page comes from one of those sources rather than our own measurement.
4
sources reviewed
Bob Vila ran the most varied stain set, including deliberate failures, and supplies the noise measurement, the motor rating and the specific finding about set-in oil. Yahoo Shopping contributed the dimensions, the hose and cord lengths and the observation about a single suction setting. The Bitter Lemon added weight and pet-hair performance from ordinary use, though we have weighted it least because the review reports no downsides at all, which is not a useful signal. All three describe the corded original rather than the Mini or the cordless model, which we checked before citing them.
What we read
Common questions
What stains will the Bissell Little Green actually remove?
What defeats it?
How loud is it?
Is the tank big enough?
Which model is this?
The bottom line on the Bissell Little Green
For fresh spills and everyday pet accidents this does what a rented machine does at a fraction of the effort. Set-in oil and acid stains need pretreating or a professional, and no number of passes changes that.
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