Bissell SpotClean Pro 1558E Review: Strong Suction, but Just How Loud?
The SpotClean Pro is the portable carpet and upholstery cleaner that people buy after one red-wine evening too many. Two home editors who used it for weeks and 826 Argos buyers agree it lifts fresh stains brilliantly. They also agree it is loud — and the published tank sizes disagree with each other by more than a litre, so we have printed every version.
Where the reviews line up
The evidence comes from three places: a month-long home test by Mumsnet's home editor, published in 2026, an earlier months-long test by Real Homes, and 826 customer ratings at Argos. On the main question they could hardly agree more.
It is very good on fresh spills. Curry on a deep-pile rug, sweet and sour sauce on a sofa cushion, coffee, red wine and ketchup all came out in the editors' tests, and both describe how much dirty water the 750 W motor pulls back up. Fabrics are left damp rather than soaked, so a sofa cushion is usable again quickly.
It is loud. Every source says so. Real Homes wrote it in capitals; Mumsnet calls it startlingly loud. Bissell's own figure is 84 dB — nobody independent has measured it.
It is not a magic eraser for old marks. Real Homes could not shift a red pen mark, and Mumsnet found it less effective on very old stains on a wool rug. It is a spot cleaner, not a whole-room carpet washer — for that, a full-size machine like the Vax Platinum SmartWash is the right tool.
Buy on price, not RRP. Bissell sells it as a bundle at £149.99; Argos had it at £118 on 8 October 2026, its lowest price there, and several big shops (John Lewis, Lakeland, Appliances Direct) no longer stock it. If you see it much over £120 standalone, wait.
The three reviews this summary is built from
- MumsnetHome editor's one-month test on carpets, rugs, a sofa, stairs and a dog bed. Updated May 2026.
- Real HomesAppliances editor's test over a few months on a rug, sofa and cushions. Published December 2020.
- Argos4.7/5 from 826 customer reviews on the product page, checked 8 October 2026.
Before the review: is it still on sale?
Yes, but from fewer places. Bissell's UK site lists the SpotClean Pro 1558E at £149.99, sold as a bundle with three bottles of formula, and Argos, Hughes, Very and Harvey Norman were all listing it in October 2026. John Lewis says it is no longer available online and is unlikely to get more stock, Lakeland marks it discontinued, and Appliances Direct shows it out of stock. We found no announced successor called SpotClean Pro, so treat the shrinking stockist list as a hint that the model is getting old and buy it from a shop that will honour the three-year guarantee.
Specification at a glance
| Spec | Figure | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| Model | SpotClean Pro 1558E (Bissell UK bundle codes B15581UK and B15581UK2) | Bissell UK product pages |
| Motor power | 750 W | Bissell, Argos, John Lewis, Harvey Norman agree |
| Clean water tank | 2.9 L (Bissell UK, Real Homes) · 2.8 L (Argos, John Lewis, Harvey Norman, Mumsnet) | Close enough not to matter |
| Dirty water tank | 3.5 L (Bissell UK, Real Homes) · 2.2 L (Argos, Harvey Norman, Mumsnet) · 2.8 L (John Lewis) | Unresolved — see below |
| Hose | 1.5 m | Bissell, Argos, John Lewis, Harvey Norman agree |
| Power cord | 6.5 m (Bissell spec sheet, Argos, John Lewis description) · 6.7 m (Harvey Norman) · 5 m (Bissell's own marketing text) | 6.5 m is the majority figure |
| Weight (empty) | 5.9 kg (Bissell, Harvey Norman) · 5.8 kg (Argos, Mumsnet) · 6.01 kg (John Lewis) | Heavier once filled — Real Homes suggests a helper on stairs |
| Noise | 84 dB | Manufacturer figure, repeated by John Lewis and Harvey Norman; not independently measured |
| Dimensions | H 35.6 × W 36 × D 25 cm | Bissell, John Lewis; Lakeland says 35.5 cm high |
| Tools in the box | 8 cm Tough Stain Tool, 15 cm stain tool | All listings agree |
| Formula in the box | Bissell bundle: three full-size bottles · Argos: one 236 ml sample of Wash & Protect Pro | Depends where you buy |
| Heating | None — it uses the hot tap water you put in | Bissell's heated model is the SpotClean ProHeat |
| Running cost | About 9.9p per half-hour session, 19.7p an hour, at 26.32p/kWh | Our sum from the 750 W rating; formula costs more than the electricity |
| Warranty | 3 years | Bissell, Argos, John Lewis, Lakeland, Harvey Norman |
| Price | £149.99 bundle at Bissell UK (listed "regular" £205.96 including formula) · £118 Argos · £118.97 Hughes · £119 Very and Harvey Norman | Checked 8 October 2026 |
Mumsnet
Who they are: Poppy O’Neill is a Content Editor at Mumsnet who researches and reviews the products Mumsnetters swear by, focusing on home essentials, laundry and fans; her month of home use is the most recent hands-on test we found.
This is the newest and the broadest test: carpets, rugs, a sofa, stair carpet and a faux-fur dog bed, against black coffee, red wine and ketchup. The verdict is enthusiastic — five out of five for performance, quality, ease of use, value and tank capacity — and the line that sums it up is that the machine "pulls up an alarming amount of dirty water". Fabrics were left damp rather than wet, and dried noticeably faster than a bucket-and-cloth job, though she did not time it. The long cord and 1.5 m hose gave good reach on the stairs.
The downsides are practical and worth knowing. It is startlingly loud when you switch it on. The spray trigger takes getting used to. The hose has to be flushed through with a bucket of clean water afterwards, which she calls a bit faffy, the dirty tank has no proper spout, so emptying it is messier than it should be, and it can leak if you store it with water inside. Very old marks on a wool rug did not fully shift. Mumsnet's separate "Swears By" round-up, updated 5 October 2026, names it the best spot cleaner overall and quotes a forum user who says it cleans up a spill "in less than a minute".
Watch: Bissell SpotClean Pro Unboxing, Reviewing, and Car Testing!
An owner unboxing the machine and trying it on a car interior. We could not tell from the listing whether it shows the UK 1558E or a US-market SpotClean Pro, which looks almost identical.
Watch on YouTube ↗ Independent YouTube video — not made by or for Shopbam.Real Homes
Who they are: Jennifer Oksien is now editor of Top Ten Reviews and was previously TechRadar’s Homes Editor, writing on everything from TV and audio to homewares; her Real Homes test was done as appliances editor, on a unit Bissell supplied and took back.
An older test, but it names the 1558E and it was a real-world one: with the kitchen out of action during a renovation, meals moved to the front room and the rug and sofa took the hits. Curry sauce disappeared quickly from a deep-pile rug, a sofa cushion came up clean and was dry within minutes, and the reviewer says she can highly recommend it. It did not touch a red pen mark, and she concludes it works mainly on food and drink rather than ink. Pet accidents were not tested.
Her complaints overlap neatly with Mumsnet's five years later, which suggests the machine has not changed. Noise heads the list — she compares it to a commercial vacuum. There is no measuring mark for the formula on the tank, the instructions could be clearer, and the machine is heavy when full, so she would have liked wheels. Storage is half-solved: the hose and cable wrap neatly, but there is nowhere to keep the attachments. She also quotes the common complaints from buyers at the time: noise and a short hose.
Watch: Bissell Spotclean Pro Carpet Cleaner Review
A straightforward owner review of the SpotClean Pro. The listing does not say which market the machine was bought in.
Watch on YouTube ↗ Independent YouTube video — not made by or for Shopbam.Argos
Who they are: Argos’s star ratings are written by its own shoppers on its product pages; we could not read its review policy, so treat them as unverified customer experience and weigh the pattern across many reviews rather than individual comments.
Argos is the biggest UK rating pool we could find for this model, and 826 reviews averaging 4.7 is a strong, consistent score. It is a retailer page, so treat it as the numbers rather than a verdict; Argos's page is JavaScript-heavy and our fetch returned the score, the count and the specification but not the individual review text, so we cannot tell you which complaints dominate. Real Homes' 2020 snapshot of the same page (4.8/5, 98% recommending) said noise and a short hose were the usual gripes.
The Argos listing is also where the spec sheet gets interesting. It gives 2.8 L clean and 2.2 L dirty, a 5.8 kg weight, a 6.5 m cord and a 1.5 m hose, and it confirms what is in an Argos box: the two stain tools and a 236 ml sample of formula, not the three full-size bottles Bissell includes in its own bundle. That makes the £118 Argos price and the £149.99 Bissell bundle closer than they look — roughly £30 of the gap is formula.
Watch: Bissell Spotclean PRO Carpet Extractor Review
An owner review that treats it as a small carpet extractor. Market and model variant not stated in the listing.
Watch on YouTube ↗ Independent YouTube video — not made by or for Shopbam.Strengths and weak points
What holds up
- Strong suction for its size — both editors comment on how much dirty water it pulls back.
- Excellent on fresh food and drink stains on rugs, sofas and stairs.
- Leaves fabric damp, not soaked, so upholstery is usable again quickly.
- 1.5 m hose and roughly 6.5 m cord reach stairs and car interiors.
- Three-year guarantee, longer than many cheaper spot cleaners.
- Very cheap to run on electricity — around 10p for a half-hour session by our sum.
What people complain about
- Loud. Every source says so; Bissell's figure is 84 dB.
- Weak on old, set-in marks and ink.
- Hose needs flushing with a bucket of clean water after every use.
- Dirty tank has no proper spout, and it can leak if stored wet.
- No storage clip for the spare tool, no formula measuring mark.
- Heavy-ish when full and has no wheels.
Who it actually suits
Buy it if you have pets, children, a light-coloured sofa or a cream stair carpet, and what you need is a machine that comes out of the cupboard within a minute of a spill. It is also a sensible car-interior cleaner. Keep it beside a good everyday vacuum such as the Henry HVR160 or the Dyson V15 Detect, which pick up the dry dirt it does not.
Look elsewhere if you want to deep-clean whole rooms of carpet — a full-size upright washer like the Vax Platinum SmartWash covers the ground far faster — or if your problem is sealed floors and grout rather than fabric, where a steam cleaner such as the Kärcher SC 3 EasyFix or a Shark steam mop is the better buy. And if noise is a deal-breaker in a flat or a house with a sleeping baby, nothing we read suggests this is quiet.
What we could not check
- The dirty-tank capacity. Bissell UK says 3.5 L, Argos, Harvey Norman and Mumsnet say 2.2 L, John Lewis says 2.8 L. We could not resolve it; 3.5 L may be the overall tank volume rather than usable capacity.
- Real noise. 84 dB is Bissell's figure. No source measured it, though every one of them says it is loud.
- Drying time. Nobody timed it. "Within minutes" and "damp rather than wet" are the best descriptions available.
- Argos review text. The page is JavaScript-rendered; we have the 4.7/5 score and the 826 count but not what the reviews say.
- Which? results. Which? has tested it but the findings are behind a sign-up, so nothing here relies on them.
- Stock at Bissell UK. The page lists it at £149.99 but shows no stock flag we could read.
- Formula cost per use. Bissell values three bottles at £47.97 but does not say how many sessions a bottle lasts.
- The videos. All three were confirmed by search listing, not by opening them, and none of the listings named the channel or whether the machine shown is the UK 1558E or a lookalike US SpotClean Pro.
- Long-term reliability. No source covers how the pump and motor hold up past the first year or two.
Sources last checked 8 October 2026. Prices, stock and listed specifications change — check them against the listing in front of you before ordering.