10 Best Upholstery Cleaners in 2022 – Reviews

This ingenious carpet cleaner from Bissell features a strong spray and an equally powerful suction that enables it to remove dirt, odors, and allergens from any type of carpet. It also has a large capacity tank that allows you to clean a number of carpets before you need to empty it out. Furthermore, the device features a cleaning path of no less than 11 inches and 6 cleaning rows of rotating power brushes intended to loosen and remove deeply ingrained dirt from the carpet. Not just that but it also features a tough stain tool and spraying crevice tool to help with spot cleaning tasks and upholstery maintenance.

As the name suggests, this is a handheld upholstery cleaner, a compact device that you can manipulate using just one hand. It features a cleaning width of just 3 inches due to its compact design, yet more than enough for regular cleaning jobs. It is also equipped with a spot lifter, a power brush, and a corded handheld extractor with a surprisingly long power cord for continuous cleaning. At the same time, its rotating brush can be used to loosen dirt and stains of any kind while its suction feature cleans and dries the carpet in a single passing motion.

The Easy Steam Cleaner from Dirt Devil may not be the most technologically advanced out there, but what it lacks in technicality it surely makes up in reliability. We say this because the Easy Steam Handheld Cleaner is a powerful device by most metrics, capable of developing a safe high-pressure steam function intended to cut through any mess or deeply embedded dirt. Not just that but it also features a wire grill brush, a fabric tool, a window squeegee, a flexible hose, and a filling cup for good measure. Other than that, it also benefits from an easy-to-use design and a surprisingly affordable price tag.

Perfect for those of you who have shedding pets, the Turboclean from Bissell was designed to clean any type of upholstery as efficiently as humanly possible. With a weight that barely passes 12 lbs, this cleaner is easy to maneuver and even easier to carry. Ideal for removing not only hair but tracked-in dirt or stains, it employs a 2-tank system to keep clean and dirty water separate at all times. Also worth mentioning is the fact that it uses a 4-row rotating dirt lifter power brush which when combined with the cleaner’s impressive suction, allows it to loosen and remove deeply ingrained dirt from any carpet type.

Although a bit larger in size than many of the cleaners we talked about so far, this ingenious cleaner from Rug Doctor can be used to handle any difficult cleaning task that lesser, more inexpensive devices might not be able to. This is because of its powerful suction, one that sets it apart from the rest in this price range. As such, the device functions with twice the suction of other equally sized upholstery cleaners. Easy to use and surprisingly easy to move, this seemingly bulky device also comes with a retractable handle and carpet-friendly wheels for extra maneuverability.

This portable carpet and upholstery cleaner enjoys a quite versatile design, one that allows you to use it for a multitude of tasks. Equipped with a powerful spray and an equally powerful suction, it can not only help with removing dirt in a remarkably short amount of time but it will also leave a dry surface behind when it’s done. Thanks to its flexible hose, tough-stain brush, and spraying crevice tool, it enables you to use it not just for regular carpet cleaning jobs but to clean pretty much any surface that can take it. What’s more, it also benefits from separate clean and dirty water tanks along with a spacious collection tank to top it off.

Equipped with a wide path nozzle and a sixth brush, this flexible carpet cleaner from the reputable Hoover is bound to provide up to 20% more cleaning than regular five-brush cleaners. This is owed to an exclusive SpinScrub technology that offers 360-degree cleaning by gently loosening dirt at a finer level. The device owes its efficiency to a powerful 12-amp motor with heated cleaning capabilities, a feature that enables the device to clean much larger areas than traditional carpet and upholstery cleaners. Furthermore, the device comes with separate tanks for clean and dirty water, which is a very useful feature to have.

As a result of a hands-free spot & stain cleaning mechanism, this device employs automatic cleaning cycles to go through the cleaning process with minimal input from the user. This allows you to simply choose your desired setting and then walk away from the machine as it performs its duties. Thanks to a practical spiral brushing feature, this machine can process not just carpets and upholstery but car seats, stairs, low-pile carpet, and pretty much any other surface that can handle it. Interestingly enough, the machine comes with a 3-inch tough stain stool, two pet stain and odor formulas, an oxy boost pet, and a 3-in-1 stair stool for good measure.

You want an upholstery cleaner to be versatile in this day and age, which is precisely what makes this particular machine stand out. Crafted to employ chemical-free cleaning functions, it enables you to not only clean a surface deeply but to also sanitize it without using any potentially hazardous chemicals. This is done with the help of hot, pressured steam, a feature that helps you eliminate grease, grime, stains, and even mold from virtually any type of surface. What’s more, it also features a 48-ounce water tank that heats up to optimal temperature in less than 8 minutes or so, after which it provides up to 45 minutes of continuous steam.

Few upholstery cleaners can even come close to Bissell’s Big Green professional Carpet Cleaner, a machine designed to handle all sorts of cleaning jobs. Equipped with a large DirtLifter PowerBrush, this machine allows for a fairly deep scrubbing, a depth no other cleaner can match as far as we are aware. The machine also benefits from a heavy-duty suction feature that allows it to clean both on the forward and the backward pass, thus reducing the overall cleaning time by quite a lot. Furthermore, this ingenious machine also features two large tanks for full-room cleaning and a professional, trial-size Bissel formula for an increase in efficiency. All things considered, this is without a doubt, one of the best upholstery cleaners money can buy.

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Finding The Right Upholstery Cleaner

You need to understand that although most upholstery cleaners are designed for roughly the same purpose, they do not all meet the same functional standards. In fact, some are definitely more maneuverable than others, and a few of them are even reputed for their versatility. With that in mind, one should take the time to learn as much as possible about what makes a good upholstery cleaner before committing to a purchase. Not to say that they are particularly expensive or difficult to maintain, but you do need to figure out as much as you can about the operational principles of these machines and how to best make use of what they have to offer.

The Depth

The first thing you need to find out about an upholstery cleaner is how deep it can go when cleaning a surface, be it a rug or a carpet. Keep in mind that dirt sometimes becomes ingrained into the fabric fibers of the rug or carpet, which means that you are going to need a reasonably powerful cleaner to get it out. With a cheaper model, you may tackle the problem to some extent, but then again you will have to repeat the process quite often for best results. With a stronger cleaner, however, you get to thoroughly remove any traces of dirt and grime, mostly because of the steam function many high-end models use.

The Tank

Another thing you need to consider is just how large and accommodating the cleaner’s tank is. It needs to be said that with traditional upholstery cleaners, you get a tank capacity that’s little over 30 ounces or so. Modern versions on the other hand, sometimes employ not one but two or more tanks for good measure. It is also common for some of these cleaners to have separate tanks for clean and dirty water, thus giving you more freedom during the deep-cleansing process. Not just that but a reasonably sized tank can also reduce how much effort you put into the whole process and how quickly you get the job done.

The Features

You also want to keep an eye out for any versatile, multi-purpose upholstery cleaner as these machines serve a secondary role at times. If needed, you can use these versatile machines to clean not only household surfaces but car seats and other textiles as well. The ideal cleaner can work on stairs, rugs, and even furniture if need be, although you should expect such a device to command a price tag to match. On a related note, let us point out that high-end models can sometimes boast hands-free functions that allow you to simply choose the preferred preset and then take your hands off the machine as it performs its cleaning duties.

The Design

With most upholstery cleaners, you shouldn’t expect too much ingenuity design-wise, mostly because these machines need to fit a specific role inside the household. As such, a decent cleaner should not only be easy to maneuver but also relatively easy to store. It is for that reason that some people prefer lightweight versions, roughly around 15 lbs or so. On the other hand, you have 20 lbs cleaners or even heavier, which usually employ much stronger motors. The increase in size generally comes with an increase in suction power and a few other useful features like steam output and more flexible brushes.

The Power Cord

You may not think much of it at first, but the importance of a flexible and reasonably long power cord cannot be understated. A decent cleaner needs an equally decent power cord, the type that allows you to move around the room with ease. The cord has to allow users to move the machine around if needed without getting in the way of your cleaning. Interestingly enough, most upholstery cleaners have power cords between 15 to 22 inches long. This seems to be the accepted standard unless you use a cordless and/or handheld machine.

The Maneuverability

Speaking of handheld devices, we should remind you that upholstery cleaners come in all shapes and sizes. As such, some of these machines can be rather small by most standards, which even though takes away from their overall cleaning power, does improve their versatility and ease of use. When dealing with spots or chemical accidents of any kind, you really should employ a larger, bulkier model, even though it might prove harder to maneuver.

The Price Tag

You should always think about the cost of household appliances when buying them, no matter how essential they might be. Seeing how you aren’t likely to use an upholstery cleaner all that often, there isn’t really a reason for you to spend a couple of hundred dollars at most. Most of these machines are actually cheaper than that, even though the low-end models usually lack the complex features of those made by reputable brands.