Thanks to the Bissell Crosswave, we no longer need to look in two places for a mop and a vacuum.
Imagine weaving effortlessly from one room to the next, one surface to a completely different surface, cleaning it all with a single device — dreamy!
Pegged as multi-surface cleaners, hypothetically, these ingenious wet/dry hoovers would make keeping your home clean and tidy an absolute breeze.
But take a close look at Bissell’s marketing for the Crosswave, and you may notice that one surface is barely mentioned at all… carpets.
Bissell doesn’t hesitate to mention a myriad of hard floors as well as area rugs, but the C-word is conspicuously absent.
So, does this mean that the all singing all dancing all-cleaner has an Achilles heel?
Let’s find out!
Crosswave & Carpet: Match Or Mess?
The quick answer to our question is yes, the Crosswave can indeed be used on carpets.
Bissell may not overtly mention this in their marketing, but they don’t mention that their flagship vac can’t clean carpets either.
There’s a slight catch, though.
Just Because You Can, Doesn’t Mean You Should
Firstly, we’d just like to preface this by mentioning that the Crosswave is absolutely amazing at what it’s supposed to be good at — for a myriad of sealed hard floors and short pile rugs, it really is the cream of the crop.
Using a microfiber roll in place of a traditional bristle brush, it’s easy on delicate flooring, and the wet vac system is unparalleled.
Featuring two tanks – one for fresh cleaning solution and another to recover dirty water – it genuinely does make the humble mop redundant, and being able to suck up spills rather than having to fetch a mountain of kitchen towels is a definite plus.
However, some of the things that make it such an effective and versatile cleaning tool are sort of what limits its potential on carpet, especially thick, cushiony piles.
Why Isn’t The Bissell Crosswave Suited To Cleaning Carpets?
While the vacuum is more than capable of cleaning up surface debris, stubborn and ground-in soiling is a touch too tricky for the Crosswave, but it’s not that it lacks suction.
In fact, for an 11.5 lbs device, the suction is mighty impressive.
The main problem is that microfiber roller.
It can buff your real oak floors to perfection without leaving a scratch on them, but without a bristle brush appendage, it simply can’t dig down deep into the pile and lift all that ingrained detritus.
In light of this, even though it has certainly killed off the mop, the traditional vacuum lives to suck another day, so it’s best not to trash yours just yet.
Still, just in case you want to give it a go, let’s discuss how you’d go about using the Bissell Crosswave on your carpets.
Tips On Using The Bissell Crosswave To Clean Carpets
Where the Crosswave really excels is efficient interim sweeps, by which we mean that if you want to do a quick touch-up between deep cleans with your dedicated hoover, it’s perfect for the job.
All that new surface debris and pet hair will be picked up before it has a chance to sink into the depths of your carpet fibers.
But you won’t get everything, and eventually, you will need to break out the standard vacuum to do another deep clean.
Thanks to the onboard cleaning solution, it’s also great for tackling spills and stains in lieu of a clunky carpet shampooer; however, before you hit the living room with all guns blazing, it pays to do a spot test with the solution first.
It plays nice with synthetic fabrics, but with natural fibers such as wool or silk, well… not so nice.
We don’t know about you, but we’re completely clueless as to the material makeup of our carpets, so erring on the side of caution is a must.
Can You Replace The Cleaning Solution With A More Carpet Friendly Substance?
Unfortunately, we cannot recommend that you replace the branded cleaning solution with your great grandma’s home cleaning remedy.
Bissell warn that the Crosswave is designed to work to its full potential with their solutions exclusively.
That’s not to say that replacing the solution with, say, vinegar and water will break the Crosswave (although certain replacements might), but it does mean that some of the surfaces you clean with it may take on damage.
If that’s not enough to scare you out of giving the old switcheroo a go, how about this — Using anything other than Bissell’s specialist cleaning solutions in the Crosswave will void your warranty.
Still not scared? Dang, you’re brave! Well, if you’re determined to use a vinegar solution (they do work a treat on carpets), make sure you only use 5 teaspoons at most.
The Pet Hair Dilemma
Okay, so we’ve already established that the Crosswave won’t pick up ingrained pet hair, but it will snag any hairs still close to the surface of the fibers — great, right?
Well, perhaps not so much. You have to ask yourself where the hair ends up.
All that fluff ends up in the dirty water tank where you’ll have to reach and fish out all the wet, clogged hair… gross!
Don’t let this completely put you off the Bissell product line, though, as they also offer the Crosswave Pet Pro.
It only costs a little more than the OG Crosswave, yet it comes with a larger tank and – more importantly – a pet hair filter that makes getting rid of the wet dog amassing within said tank a total breeze.
Final Thoughts
Can you use the Bissell Crosswave on carpet? Yes, absolutely, but it’s not going to give you that satisfyingly deep clean you’re accustomed to, so keep that standard vac around for the time being.
As mentioned earlier, we see the Crosswave as the perfect interim cleaner so you don’t have to whip out the big bad vacuum of old quite so much.
But if you wanted a more carpet-oriented device, the Bissell Portable Carpet Cleaner might be more suited to your needs.