• I purchased a reconditioned Bissel ProHeat 2x that is labeled as a model 9400R, reconditioned. It's a reconditioned 9400-something, although it's not the latest one of that series. I bought it at Ollie's Bargain Outlet. Their regular price is $127.99. I used a 25% off one item coupon and that reduced the price to $102 with tax. Can't beat that.

This machine comes with a 30 day warranty from Ollie's. I don't think there is any other warranty on it. For $100, who cares. It pays for itself in 4 days or less. I assembled mine with no difficulty and it works flawlessly.

My 9400R is purple ("Black Cherry" is what Bissell calls it) and it's one that doesn't have the spray nozzles because it is an older version of the 9400 series. It uses a sponge or something to wet the carpet. I had no problems with it not getting the carpet wet enough. When the tanks are properly assembled and installed on the machine, it has good suction for drying the carpet (do that carelessly and you will find it lacks suction.) The 12" path is perfect. I would not want one any narrower. The noise level is not excessive. The machine is a bit heavy to push when the water and soap tanks are full. An elderly woman or someone with rotator cuff damage might have problems pushing/pulling it. The carpet rinse feature is nice -- no sticky carpets from soap residue. The two brush rollers fluff and brush the carpet but they are not aggressive.

Someone called this machine more of a "carpet refresher" than a deep cleaner. Maybe so, if you are one who lets your carpet get absolutely filthy before trying to clean it. In that case, just call a commercial cleaner to do the initial deep cleaning and then use a machine like this to maintain the carpet afterward. As with any carpet cleaner, vacuum well to remove pet hair and mud and debris and start with the carpets as clean as possible before you begin to shampoo. If you have pet stains, or grease stains, or whatever, use common sense and realize that you have to pretreat and specially clean those areas first, then shampoo the carpet.

I use fans to hasten carpet drying afterward.

Pros:

• a reconditioned unit sells for about half the price of a new one
• will pay for itself in 4-5 days at most (assuming $25/day for a rental)
• excellent performance in most situations
• 2 brush rollers that are not overly aggressive (a common complaint about the current Bissell Deep Clean Pet Premier and certain other models)
• easy to move and carry around and far less hassle than getting a rental unit
• You have to figure that at least some of these refurbished units were bought, used once or twice, and then returned to the store as "defective" by dishonest people who took advantage of the store's return policy to get a free carpet cleaner rental. And thus, there was nothing wrong with many of these units to begin with. They just can't be sold as new anymore.
• Comes with a small bottle of cleaning solution.
• Can be switched from floor to the hand tool to clean near the baseboards and to do cars or furniture or other.
• very long cord
• This unit can also be used on bare floors.

Cons:

• has only a 30-day warranty (I believe)
• lacks Microban feature and also the spray nozzles that later 9400 series has
• lacks Multi-Use tools
• Not every refurb unit will be perfect and you run the risk of getting a lemon that you have to return.

^ 90 days warranty from Bissell on the reconditioned units, per the owner's manual enclosed with it.

Service manual for the ProHeat 2x series:
http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/vacuu...pair-guide.pdf

My 9400R is still working like a champ.

btw, the most common fixes for it not sucking up water are:
1. The screen in the tank lid has hair or debris on it. Clean it off.
2. The tank lid is not correctly attached to the tank base. It hooks on at the front.
3. Someone left the big round knob on the tank set to "Tools" and it has to be rotated to "Floor."

Apparently the extra tools set is pretty worthless. The turbo brush is more gimmick than useful and reviews say that the brushes barely turn. The crevice tool isn't all that useful or necessary. The 6" stair nozzle is probably the one thing that might be of real use, since you can treat a larger surface area in one pass.

Wow! I'm so glad I took the time to google my problem! Your advice to clean the filter of the little red trap door solved it... How simple the solution was. Thanks!!