Getting rid of ingrained dirt completely from a carpet is no easy task. A vacuum cleaner is undoubtedly a versatile cleaning machine and can only do so much. Tough jobs require the use of tough tools, restoring your carpet to its former glory is a job for a carpet cleaner! There isn’t a ton of variety of carpet cleaners to choose from, and only a handful of manufacturers specialize in the cleaning appliance. One such brand is Bissell – their line of ProHeat carpet cleaners is well-equipped to eliminate the more stubborn patches of dried mud tracks out of carpet fibers.
Two models, the ProHeat 2X 1986 and the 15651, from Bissell comes with an assortment of upgrades that their predecessors lacked. Needless to say, using these carpet cleaners is easier than ever before, but this begs the question: which of them reigns supreme? That’s what we’re going to find out today.
Cleaning Width
1986
Unlike vacuum cleaners, a broad cleaning head is ideal since you don’t need to maneuver the tool between and around furniture legs. The 2X 1986 has an 11-inch cleaning width that will cut the time it takes to clean a carpet thoroughly.
15651
The 15651 measures 12 inches in width. The 1-inch difference won’t seem like much, and it will probably take just as many passes (including repeated passes) as the 2X 1986 to finish cleaning a similarly sized carpet.
Conclusion: That being said, we’d recommend opting for a wider-headed carpet cleaner since it technically requires fewer passes to clean larger carpets. However, this depends entirely on your home’s carpeting setup – for instance, if you have wall-to-wall carpeting across most rooms in your home, then the 15651 would be the better option. If you only have a few carpets scattered here and there, either one of these Bissell carpet cleaners should work fine.
Clean Water Tank Capacity
1986
Carpet cleaners rely on water and detergent to clean carpets down to their fibers’ roots. Ideally, users would want a larger tank as it requires less frequent refilling, increasing the convenience factor by a lot. The 2X 1986 comes with a big 1-gallon transparent tank that lets you eyeball how much water is left. There’s very little guesswork involved in operating this carpet cleaner.
15651
The 15651 uses a slightly smaller tank that holds onto ¾ of a gallon. Due to its wider cleaning path, this carpet cleaner uses more water per second than the 2X 1986, so you’ll need to refill the tank in full more frequently than the 2X 1986.
Conclusion: When it comes to the tank’s capacity, large is always better. The weight of the tool after refilling the tank isn’t that much heavier, and you can also get a lot more work done per tankful. Just note that the size of your carpet and the stubbornness of any stains should dictate whether to go larger or smaller. In either case, the 1-gallon 2X 1986 wins in this department.
HeatWave Technology
1986 and 15651
As we already know, hot water does a heck of a better job at removing deep stains from carpets than cold or lukewarm water. Both Bissell carpet cleaners are equipped with the company’s proprietary HeatWave Technology – a system that heats the water in the tank to increase its dissolving power to eliminate even the nastiest marks on your carpets. HeatWave Technology maintains the water’s temperature throughout the cleaning cycle to ensure that the very last drop of water retains its maximum cleaning effectiveness.
Weight
1986
Using a carpet cleaner doesn’t require as many forward-and-backward movements or passes as a vacuum cleaner, thereby making the tool weight almost irrelevant. The keyword is “almost” since many people want the most lightweight cleaning appliance available. The 2X 1986’s dry weight- the unit weight without water and detergent – is only 19 pounds.
15651
The 15651 weighs in at 5 pounds heavier than the 2X 1986. Despite its added poundage, we still found this carpet cleaner as easy to maneuver as the 2X 1986, even on a full tank. The only problem where weight might become an issue is cleaning carpeted staircases, but we’ll get to that later on in this article.
Conclusion: 19 pounds or 24 pounds – the difference in weight is almost insignificant. Lifting either of these tools downstairs won’t strain your back and shoulder muscles, so both of these carpet cleaners could easily be categorized as “lightweight.”
Detachable Cleaning Pod
1986
Some of the most ingenious Bissell carpet cleaners come with detachable cleaning pods. The main cleaning components – motor, water tank, suction inlet, and others – are on a handheld piece that is released from the main body. The 2X 1986, sadly, doesn’t come with one.
15651
The 15651 does. If you need to higher up horizontal surfaces like upholstery and staircase steps, you can detach the cleaning pod from the main body and use it as a handheld cleaner. The pod weighs roughly 10 pounds without water, so it might be hard to work overhead spaces, but this piece makes it a lot easier to do spot-cleaning around your home.
Conclusion: Even though this isn’t a must-have feature, it makes cleaning concentrated stains in higher places easier than lifting the entire unit. If you have pets that like to climb on furniture and leave little “surprises,” then 15651’s detachable pod is for you.
CleanShot Pretreater
1986
Pretreating a carpet involves removing all of the leftover dirt and grime from foot traffic. It’s an essential part of the carpet cleaning process as it allows carpet cleaners to focus entirely on embedded stains rather than vacuuming embedded debris. The 2X 1986 has a handy pretreater located on the right-hand side of the cleaning head. It delivers a constant stream of whatever cleaning solution you use whenever you need it.
15651
This tool doesn’t have any pretreatment system in place. Unfortunately, this means you’ll need an entirely separate thing, or you may need to pretreat your carpets manually before running this carpet cleaner. You can get away without pretreatment, but the 15651’s brushes may suffer.
Conclusion: The CleanShot Pretreater in the 2X 1986 puts this tool a step above many other carpet cleaners, including the 15651. The stream of detergent works well in eradicating odors from whatever stains are on your carpet before the carpet cleaner begins its cleaning cycle.
Included Cleaning Tools
1986
The 2X 1986 does not have a detachable pod, but this doesn’t mean cleaning carpeted steps and upholstery is impossible. With the 2X 1986, you get two cleaning tools – a 3-inch tough stain tool for removing marks from carpet, and a 2-in-1 pet and upholstery tool for concentrated cleaning. These attach to the included hose, which you can navigate to surfaces above floor level.
15651
Like the 2x 1986, 1561 also comes with two cleaning tools. Alongside the 3-inch tough stain tool, you also get a spraying crevice tool that fits between cushions and in tight spaces for maximum cleaning. The crevice tool doesn’t work particularly well for pet stains, and you’d most likely use it less often than the 2X 1986’s second cleaning attachment.
Conclusion: Whether you get the 2X 1986 or the 15651, you can always purchase additional cleaning tools from Bissell whenever you’d like. These two carpet cleaners are compatible with each other’s included cleaning accessories, and they’re both available for sale separately. If you want maximum versatility in a single purchase, then the 2X 1986’s 2-in-1 pet and upholstery cleaner will make a difference.
Hose Length
1986
To maximize the use of your cleaning tools, you’ll need a long suction hose to reach high and far. The 2X 1986 comes with a super-long 8-foot hose. While the unit is standing upright, you have about an 8-foot radius to move around for concentrated cleaning with either of the attachments.
15651
The 15651’s hose is half the size of the 2X 1986 but remember: it has a detachable pod. As long as the pod is taken away from the tool’s main body, you can extend your length and height of reach to almost anything without worrying about toppling the carpet cleaner’s body in the process.
Conclusion: We’ve tested both systems, and we found that the 2X 1986, when extending the hose to its maximum length, tends to tip over a bit too frequently. It is not the case with the 15651 if you remove the pod of the main body. It compensates for the hose’s shortness.
Verdict
Looking at both of these tools, we can confirm that both work extremely well at cleaning up whatever messes your pets, children, or even yourself have left for future-you to clean. However, when it comes to convenience, the Bissell 15651 takes the cake. Not only does It have a wider cleaning head, but the detachable pod makes spot-cleaning on almost any surface entirely possible. It has a smaller water tank, which can be a minor annoyance from time to time, but the versatility of this tool is unparalleled by what the Bissell 2X 1986 has to offer.
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Last update on 2023-06-05 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
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