Product Review: Resolve High Traffic Foam

Even indoor dogs can be hard on carpets. Whenever dogs lie down for a long chew on a rawhide chew, run in and out of the yard, or gets dirty at the dog park, the carpets suffer. I have several areas of the carpet that get particularly dingy from dog activity. So I decided to try Resolve High Traffic Carpet Cleaner. 

This is a large area cleaner, so you can do a patch of carpet that’s three feet square, which is usually enough to cover a dirty area in front of a crate or around a bed. It’s designed to work with a gadget called Easy Clan Carpet Brush from Resolve, but you can use it even if you don’t have the brush (which I don’t). Simply shake and spray the foam over the dirty area, then work it into the carpet using a damp, clean mop or cloth. I used a microfiber towel (I use them for everything when I clean around the house). The instructions say you should rub the foam in two directions, wait for it to dry, then vacuum it up.

I have to say, it did a very good job. I feed my dog a raw diet, and occasionally, he’ll take a pork neck bone, chicken wing, or other messy treat to the middle of the floor and commence to gnawing it. This sometimes leaves a damp, yucky mess behind. I start with a damp towel to blot up most of it, then use the foam. This foam seems to attach itself to the dirt and mess, then dries so you can vacuum it up.

There are other high-traffic areas that I’ve tried this foam on. The carpet inside the back door leading to the yard always gets dark and dingy. But this foam cleans the dirt well between professional carpet cleanings (every 6 months). One caution, though. The more a carpet gets abraded, the more it “blooms,” which means the fibers unwind from the loops and give a “spread-out” and worn look. So I wouldn’t want to be rubbing this or any other product vigorously and frequently on the same spot of carpet. However, for occasional cleaning of high-traffic spots that get dirtier than most of the rest of the carpet, Resolve High Traffic Foam does a good job.

The fragrance is light and clean, not perfumy, so you get the added benefit of freshening up the room without overpowering your dog’s sensitive sniffer. You can even use it on upholstery, if your dog should have a mishap. It’s best to use as little foam as you can and avoid overwetting, to avoid rings. Also, you should clean the entire section — all the way to the seam — when cleaning upholstery. NOTE: Evidently, the manufacturer is testing different packaging designs, so your can may look slightly different than the one shown.

Although not a substitute for professional steam cleaning, this is a good product that will help keep dog households with carpeting cleaner between steam cleanings.

 

Bissell Spot Bot Pet Deep Cleaner Product Review

When my husband and I adopted three children under the age of 4, my sister recommended I purchase a Bissell Little Green Machine, which I did in all haste. With two big dogs and three tykes, it proved to be a life saver, so much so that I drove the poor thing into the ground. When it came time to replace it, the Bissell Spot Bot walk-away cleaner caught my eye. What busy full-time mom/entrepreneur/homeschooler wouldn’t want a cleaner-upper that will do the job for her while she does three other things?

I got one for around $130 (you can find them for $120 to $150 from Wal-Mart, Target, Sears, and a dizzying array of online sources). Between spills and an incontinent dog, it has gotten quite a workout, and I have to say, it works as advertised.

There is a hose attachment, and a setting for working manually with the hose, which is nice. But if you want to let the machine clean up the spot, you can set it to automatic and it just does its thing in about 3 minutes for surface stains and about 5 minutes for set-in stains. When it’s done, a tone sounds. And keeps sounding every 5 seconds until you turn it off.

I’m happy with the way it works on urine stains. I still prefer to take a big towel and stand on the stain before treating it with the Spot Bot because the urine spreads out on the carpet padding so much before I can get to it. But then I fill the tank with a pet stain cleaner and warm water, and let it do its thing. For manual applications (for example, if there are lots of spots), I like the manual brush/suction arm. It has a trigger spray so I can get as much or as little spray on the spot as I want. The suction is very powerful for such a small motor, and I have seen no diminishment in the suction since I bought it about nine months ago.

I used a low-sudsing pet stain cleaner, AKC Gold Stain & Odor Remover, which worked well in the machine. The tank has water and detergent levels marked on it, and the Spot Bot even comes with a few samples of Bissell’s cleaning products to use in the machine. These worked very well for me. They also recommend putting the water in first, then the detergent, which cuts down on the sudsing as the water goes in. I find that hot water – if it doesn’t shrink your carpet – dries faster, reducing the chance of mildew. Also, if you have ceiling fans, putting them on high to dry the spot also helps.

The manufacturer has put a Microban coating onto the insides of the machine to inhibit bacterial growth due to prolonged wetness. Still, I like to rinse it out when I’m finished. I empty the dirty intake tank, then put it back. I run clear water in the sink, then suck it up with the hand-held brush. The clear water gets sucked up, rinsing the tube and the intake tank. I just do that whenever I’m done because I can’t stand smells that I can’t get rid of.

The only (minor) problem with the walk-away feature is that you have to have a stain that fits completely under the scrub/suction station for that feature to work. Most dog pee stans will fit just fine, even if it’s a big dog. But male dogs who mark against a wall or furniture will require the manual brush. So will some vomit stains if they’re irregular and spread out. In this case, I just moved the Spot Bot around until it was all picked up. And you do have to still pick up the solids from the stain first before cleaning. But that’s entirely reasonable and to be expected. The automatic cycle really does a great job, and cleans better than I can do with the manual scrub brush/wand.

The cord is long enough that I can reach any stain from a nearby outlet. It uses any cleaning solution (although a diluted solution is best to avoid creating lots of suds). The cleaning solution tank and dirty water tank are easy to empty, clean and install into the machine (nothing’s worse than wrestling with levers and tanks when you’re hollering for the kids to stay out of the mess until you can clean it up).

I love the new Bissell Spot Bot Pet Deep Cleaner. I stow it under the guest bathroom sink where it is convenient to pull out and use quickly. It does what it says it will do and it has held up well under regular use. I would recommend this for any household that has pets. I wouldn’t be without it.