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What To Use In A Bissell Spot Cleaner: 6 Best Alternatives

What can I use instead of Bissell cleaning formula? Here’s the 6 best alternative cleaners to the Bissell Spot Clean Solution. And Easy Tips!

What Can I Use In Bissell Spot Cleaner?

Hi guys! I am back with another post about my favorite cleaning tool. That’s right, my Bissell SpotClean Pro!

I bought this portable deep cleaner about a year ago and have been happy dancing about it ever since.

And, I want to make sure to say that this is NOT a sponsored post. I am in no way affiliated with or paid by Bissell. I just honestly use and love this easy to use spot cleaner.

Here's what you can use in Bissell Spot Cleaner to safely & effectively clean your cars, rugs, carpets, couches, and more. Which Cleaners Are Made for A Portable Bissell? And, possible alternative and natural cleaners for carpet and upholstery cleaning.
What can I use instead of Bissell cleaning formula? Keep reading for my favorite alternative cleaners to the Bissell Spot Cleaner Solution.

Some links on this post are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you. 

And, since I am a DIY blogger, I am always sharing my favorite cleaning tips with you all because that’s just the exciting kind of girl I am. 😉

You can see my super popular cleaning tutorials for How to Clean Car Seats At Home, How to Clean Area Rugs At Home, and How to Clean a Couch for examples of why I love my Bissell Spot Clean Pro. 

Those cleaning tips with tutorials include step by step guides for safely using the deep cleaner at home and short videos showing the cleaner in action. I highly recommend checking those out.

Grab this printable guide to Deep Clean Your Car Seats At Home. Easy to follow steps, tips for keeping your car clean longer, and household products that work as cleaners. Best way to deep clean car seats.
I love how easy it is to carry this Bissell wherever I need it. Including when I Deep Clean Car Seats.

But first, let’s talk about what you can use instead of the Bissell Cleaning Formula in a Bissell Spot Cleaner!

Table of contents

Here's what you can use in Bissell Spot Cleaner to safely & effectively clean your cars, rugs, carpets, couches, and more. Which Cleaners Are Made for A Portable Bissell? And, possible alternative and natural cleaners for carpet and upholstery cleaning.
Don’t forget to Save this DIY on Pinterest.

What Alternative Cleaners Can I Use in my Bissell Spot Cleaner?

First and most importantly, Bissell specifically states that they only recommend using the Bissell Cleaning Solution in their machines. In fact, here’s the exact wording used in the Bissell user guide.

Always use genuine BISSELL formulas in your machine. Other formulas may harm the machine and
void the warranty.

Now, I know some of you still want a Bissel Cleaning Solution alternative. I’ll give a few ideas soon, but first let’s cover what Bissell says you can use in Bissell Spot Cleaner or other portable Bissell’s.

Household cleaners being tested for ways to get rid of gray silverware plate scratches.
People love to come up with new cleaning hacks, but that doesn’t mean they’re safe or effective. Check out Testing 6 Ways To Remove Scratches On Plates And Dishes to see what I mean.

Which Cleaners Are Made for A Bissell Spot Cleaner

You can check the label on the different types of Bissell Cleaner Solutions to see whether or not that cleaning product can be used in the Bissell Spot Cleaner.

Some of the Bissell solutions are made for the portable carpet cleaners. Some of them are made for the Bissell upright carpet cleaners.

Bissell marks the label on the front of their cleaning products with an easy to understand picture. Here’s a look at what you’ll find on the label.

Check the label on Bissell Cleaners for the correct machine to use it in.
The label on Bissell Cleaning Solutions shows which ones are made for portable carpet cleaners and which ones are made for the upright carpet cleaners.

If you are using a portable Bissell carpet cleaner, pick the cleaners with the green circle around the portable cleaner image on the left. It’s pretty easy to understand. Right?!

Current Cleaners That Can Be Used in a Bissell Spot Clean Pro

If you have a really tough stain, be sure to use the optional Bissell Stain Pretreat. To clean tough stains better and faster.

And one more tip, sometimes Bissell switches to a new and improved formula of the available cleaners. Follow this link to the Bissell Store on Amazon for the latest list of Bissell cleaners made for the portable Bissell Deep Cleaner.

Here's what you can use in Bissell Spot Cleaner to safely & effectively clean your cars, rugs, carpets, couches, and more. Which Cleaners Are Made for A Portable Bissell? And, possible alternative and natural cleaners for carpet and upholstery cleaning.
I LOVE this portable Bissell. It’s smaller size makes it easy to carry, easy to set up, easy to clean, and easy to store.

6 Possible Bissell Spot Clean Solution Alternatives

OK, I already pointed out above that Bissell might void your warranty if you don’t use one of their cleaners

BUT, I know some of you prefer to skip the unknown chemicals, need a special cleaner, or just don’t feel like driving to the store. 😉

So, here are some possible alternative cleaners that you might want to use in a Bissell Spot Cleaner. Just know that these alternative cleaners aren’t approved by Bissell as a cleaner that you can use in Bissell Spot Cleaner.

Here's what you can use in Bissell Spot Cleaner to safely & effectively clean your cars, rugs, carpets, couches, and more. Which Cleaners Are Made for A Portable Bissell? And, possible alternative and natural cleaners for carpet and upholstery cleaning.
Don’t forget to Save this DIY on Pinterest.

Hydrogen Peroxide

I’ve had a lot of luck using Hydrogen Peroxide to get stains out of fabric lately. And, the Bissell Pet Stain Cleaner uses hydrogen peroxide as it’s main cleaning ingredient.

I’ve even applied it directly to a stain on a chair that completely disappeared by the next morning. So, my first pick as an alternative cleaner for Bissell Spot Cleaners is hydrogen peroxide!

I’d fill the Spot Cleaner tank with a 50/50 mix of hot water and hydrogen peroxide. Then get to work on whatever you’re cleaning.

Rubbing Alcohol

You can use 70% Strength Isopropyl Alcohol mixed with water as a good disinfectant cleaner. Mix the alcohol with hot tap water at a ratio of 30% to 50% alcohol to water.

Alcohol can be pretty good at breaking down oily stains. In fact, I used a 50/50 mix of alcohol and water to clean my upholstered headboard.

I decided to give it a try in my Bissell Spot Cleaner after seeing a few people suggest it for oily headboard stains.

Unfortunately, the alcohol didn’t quite work on my headboard. Not because of the alcohol, though. There are 3 BIG reasons that cleaning project was a FAIL. Watch this Cleaning Fail YouTube video to see what I did wrong.

And, don’t forget to always use rubbing alcohol in a well ventilated area. It can have pretty strong fumes.

Using Vinegar to clean hard water spots on glassware.
Vinegar is a popular cleaner, you can even use it to Remove Hard Water Spots On Glassware.

White Vinegar

You can try using 1 cup of white vinegar in your Bissell Spot Cleaner. Pour in the Vinegar, then fill the rest of the Bissell Spot Cleaner tank with hot tap water.

Just be sure to follow normal safety guidelines that go with using vinegar as a cleaner. Many people love to use vinegar to clean just about anything and everything around a house.

I use vinegar when cleaning hard water stains on windows, cleaning kitchen cabinets, and to safely clean a shower glass door.

Image of vinegar about to be mixed into a pretreat for bad odor smells in clothes.
Check out 3 Easy Ways To Get The Sweat Smell Out Of Shirts And Gym Clothes to see another use for Vinegar.

Vinegar isn’t safe for every surface in a home because it is acidic. But, if you know that you can safely use vinegar on your item, then it’s worth a try.

I highly recommend pouring out any leftover vinegar mix and flushing the Bissell Spot Cleaner with water after using it. Leaving vinegar in contact with soft rubbers or any metal pieces that might be inside the cleaner could cause them to rust or breakdown.

Filling the tank on the Bissell SpotClean Pro.
Filling the tank on my Bissell with the concentrated cleaner and hot water.

Just Hot Tap Water

Desperate times call for desperate measures, right? If you want to clean up a spill right away, but you don’t have any cleaning solution for the Bissell SpotCleaner, then you should try hot tap water.

Hot tap water is pretty good at cleaning up fresh spills and most of your easy to clean light dirt and stains.

You can always clean up most of the mess with hot tap water. Then come back later with the proper Bissell cleaner, if needed.

Other Brands of Portable Carpet Cleaning Solutions

Of course, there is always the dozens and dozens of other brands of portable carpet cleaners. Just follow that cleaners recommendations for mixing the cleaner with water.

You want the cleaning ratio to still be right in your cleaner. And, just in case, be sure that you aren’t using a foaming cleaner, it will cause a giant, bubbly mess inside the machine.

Before and After using a Bissell Portable Cleaner on Cloth Car Seats.
Look at this amazing before and after from deep cleaning my car seats. I was shocked at how well this worked with just the standard cleaner.

Dawn Dish Soap???

I’m not a fan of this one, guys. Don’t get me wrong, I love Dawn dish soap. Just not for use in a carpet cleaner.

Do not use Dawn Dish Soap or any dish soap in a carpet cleaner. Dish soap, even just a dot, will bubble up in the tank and on whatever you are cleaning, causing a giant mess.

And, sudsy dish soap will take longer to completely remove from whatever you are cleaning.

Examples of cleaners that don't damage the finish on kitchen cabinets for a post with 3 ways to clean white kitchen cabinets.
Dawn can be pretty effective to Clean White Kitchen Cabinets, if you know how to use it.

If you clean something with Dawn dish soap in the Bissell carpet cleaner tank, you won’t be able to suction out all of the soap without switching to a tank of just plain water.

If you leave soap behind in whatever it was that you were trying to deep clean, it can actually attract and trap dirt in the fabric. It could also make the fabric or soft material feel slick or even stiff.

So, even though people will suggest a little Dawn sometimes, I wouldn’t risk using it in a carpet cleaner.

You can use Dawn for a lot of cleaning around your house though. For example, safely cleaning marble shower tile, cleaning shower glass doors, and even to prep for painting vinyl shutters.

Cleaning a couch with a Bissell and the approved cleaner.
Cleaning my couch with the Bissell Spot Cleaner was a quick and easy 30 minute job.

What Can You Use A Bissell Spot Cleaner On?

I really LOVE this Bissell SpotClean Pro. I recommend getting a portable deep cleaner like this, if you don’t already have one in your home.

There are so many places you can use a Bissell Spot Cleaner in your home. And, at just around $150 it is definitely worth the price.

You can even split the price with family to share it in a few homes. Just make sure you get a turn. Here’s where I use my Spot Upholstery and Carpet Cleaner.

Watch the Bissell Spot Cleaner Clean My DIRTY Car

This portable cleaner is so powerful, it cleaned up 3 years worth of chocolate milk spills off my dirty cloth car seats!

Cleaning SUPER DIRTY Car Seats using a Bissell SpotClean Pro - Satisfying Deep Cleaning Video

For my favorite tips for keeping your car seats clean longer, check out the Best Way to Deep Clean Car Seats!

Well, that’s it for what alternative solutions you can use in Bissell Spot Cleaners. Good luck!

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How to Fill the Gap Between Cabinets and Floor in your Kitchen, Bathroom, or Laundry Room with Caulk.

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Here's How to Whiten Tile Grout and seal grout in one easy DIY project. Actually, pick from 30 different grout colors for this, not just white. Here are the steps, how-to video, and before and after pictures from my Kitchen Floor Grout Makeover. #AbbottsAtHome #Grout #Kitchen #Bathroom #HomeImprovement

Here’s how I Protect the Finish and Fix a Sun Damaged Door with 1 easy step!

My poor front door takes a serious beating from the hot Texas sun. This 1-step fix moisturizes my Dry Wood Front Door, gets rid of heat haze, brings back the shine, and protects the door from sun-damage.

Marble tile sounded hard to maintain, but I finally figured out How to Clean Marble Shower Tile, Kill Mildew, and Seal.

Here's the easy to follow DIY steps for How to Clean Marble Shower Tile, safely kill that gross mildew, and seal your marble. With How-To Video and DIY Marble Tile Cleaning Steps.

Here’s the best and easiest way to fix water stains on ceiling leaks without painting!

Quick and easy written steps and video for How to Fix Water Stains on Ceiling Leaks without paint. In just a few minutes, get rid of most water stains.

That’s it for what you can use in Bissell Spot Cleaners. Let me know if you have questions. Don’t forget to sign up for the Abbotts At Home email newsletter to get DIY, Remodeling, and Crafty ideas in your inbox.