Can You Use A Homemade Cleaning Solution In The Bissell Little Green Cleaner?

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The Bissell Little Green Portable Carpet Cleaner is a highly rated cleaning appliance that effectively removes stains and spots from carpets and upholstery. Depending on your needs, it may even be the best upholstery cleaner for your home. 

Part of the ability to remove stains comes from the included 3-inch tough stain tool and HydroRinse™ self-cleaning hose, and the 8-ounce bottle of Little Green Formula with OXY. This formula is designed specifically to be used in the Little Green cleaner. While reviewers report that it works very well, you may find yourself wondering if you could use a homemade cleaning mix rather than the store-bought one. While some people may try this, it is best to use the official Bissell fluids to protect your machine from damage.

Whether you want to save money or you are trying to be careful about what chemicals and cleaning supplies you use in your home, you may be tempted to create your own DIY cleaning solution to fill your Bissell. Many online recipes suggest ingredients like baking soda and vinegar. While you may want these for a safer home, they are not safe for your machine. Vinegar is corrosive and can permanently damage your machine, especially rubber and metal components. Foam from soap or baking soda can also clog up the machine and cause severe damage to internal components.

The Bissell Little Green costs around $120 on Amazon. While the price is relatively affordable, it is certainly not money you want to throw away by damaging the machine beyond use. Of course, the more you use your machine, the more you will need to repurchase the specialty brand solution, which costs more overall but avoids the risk of ruining it with homemade cleaners. Once your 8-ounce trial bottle of cleaning solution runs out, you can purchase a 32-ounce bottle of Bissell PET PRO OXY Spot & Stain Formula for as little as $10.99. There are also innovative Bissell stain-prevention formulas that are impressive and compatible with some of the Little Green machines.

Overall, the Bissell cleaning formulas are truly the best for your Bissell machine. Since the Little Green is primarily used for spot treatments, use natural solutions for routine cleaning and the Bissell for stains. If you are set on using homemade cleaners for your carpet, then you may want to explore different cleaning machines that are more affordable, better suited to natural ingredients, or known to be easy to repair. You could also go the old-fashioned route and clean your carpets by hand. Either way, when using homemade ingredients, be sure to avoid the biggest mistake everyone makes with DIY carpet cleaning solutions.