Bissell or Vax?

We have an upright Vax, only a few years old (3 or 4-ish) and it looks like it has turned its toes to the sky. Its always been a bit of a pain in the bum in some respects, going through stages of not sucking up the water that it had just sprayed down.

Yesterday, I went to use it to clean the carpet in the outhouse, and before it had laid any water it was leaking like a good'un; putting the hand held hose on made matters even worse, and there was a distinctly 'poorly electrical' smell in the air; therefore, I have reached the conclusion that she is dead.

Now, being without one of these is simply not optional for us - child and dog in a rented house with cream and light honey coloured carpets throughout mean that carpet cleaning is a fairly regular chore, so we are going to have to replace it, like it or not.

However, I am a tad reluctant to go for another Vax to be honest, given this one's relatively early demise, so I was looking at Bissell ones also.

Any opinions on either please?

 

Thanks @Spruce - good point

I was bored this afternoon (hospital appointment was surprisingly quick) so the net result is that I now have a Vax in numerous component parts on the floor. I have resolved one of the faults (tiny wee holes in the water supply bar a bit blocked), and can see what the smell was being caused by - corrosion on the motor spindle, which I will be able to solve by polishing it or sanding it with fine grade wet and dry.

The main issue is that there is a seal missing (presumed to have broken and 'pinged off*') - a quick phone call to Vax confirms that there should indeed be a wee rubber seal where I think it should be, BUT they cannot supply one as a spare part - they suggested trying a local hardware shop).

I have, however, found an entire water control valve assembly for the princely sum of a fiver, so have decided to gamble a fiver on fixing our current one - even if we get another year out of it, I will be a happy man

If that fails, I will revisit this thread and add a poll

 

We used to hire one, but the hire costs around here started to get a bit stupid to be honest - the last straw was when we went to hire a rug doctor and they wanted a £400 refundable deposit on a credit card. Apparently there had been loads of cases where machines hadn't been returned.

If £10 and a bit of work makes this one go again for a year or two, I'll be happy enough. We do use it quite regularly in one way or another.