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These models go from stairs to cars to upholstery and beyond.

This story was updated in October 2022 to ensure all recommendations vetted and tested by the Good Housekeeping Institute Home Care and Cleaning Lab were both current and in stock.

Food spills, pet messes and dirt stains from normal wear and tear can make carpeting, upholstery, even the interior of your car look dirty and worn. While you could go to work with a carpet stain remover spray and a cloth, a corded or cordless portable carpet cleaner can suck up wet spills better than a cloth and powers through stains often better than you can by hand, and they're nimble and easier to use than a full-sized carpet cleaner.

When the Good Housekeeping Institute Home Care and Cleaning Lab evaluates portable carpet cleaning machines, we test how well they lift fresh and set-in food, dirt and other stains and how easy they are to fill, empty, clean and store. We also assess their weight, how easy they are to maneuver and how comfortable they are to use and hold. Finally, we have each tested and scored by Quiet Mark, an outside organization that evaluates products and appliances for sound on a scale of 1 to 3 stars — “quiet” appliances get a 3-star rating, while those deemed “loud” get a 1-star rating. In our last category test of portable carpet cleaners, we conducted 38 separate tests and assessed nearly 500 data points!

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As you read through this guide, you'll learn more about each of our recommended portable carpet cleaners, how we test them, what features you should look for, what to consider when buying a portable carpet cleaner and why Good Housekeeping's recommendations are so trustworthy.

This little cordless carpet cleaning champ is among the best Bissell vacuum cleaners we've tested. In our test, this model earned the best overall score for performance, which took into account stain and odor removal, sound, run time and more. It removed fresh and dried red wine and blueberry pie filling stains and the machine was easy to clean and maintain. Its built-in rotating brush has deep-cleaning power, but it can be switched off when cleaning delicate fabrics, like woven rugs and velvet. It also comes with a nubby rubber pet tool to tackle pet messes.

You'll get 20 minutes of running time, though it does take four and one half hours to recharge the battery, so the number of stains you can tackle on one charge may be limited. And like on many portable carpet cleaners, the eight-ounce tanks are small and could require more frequent refilling than models with larger tanks. Testers loved how easy it was to reach and use the thumb controls. Bissell recommends using its own ready-to-use formula, which we think is worth it because the formula doesn't require diluting and can be stored in the machine for multiple uses.

Easy to carry and store, this corded portable cleaner comes with an array of helpful features for a model at this price point. A five-foot hose makes it easy to pick up spills in awkward places such as behind the sofa or in the car, and we found that the pet attachment efficiently tackled set-in and embedded stains.

This Hoover got top marks for ease of use, too: The cord wraps at the back, the hose clips to it neatly and its slim design makes it convenient to carry and use on stairs. The tanks, though a bit small, stand on their own, delighting our tester who raved, "they are super easy to fill without any spilling." Take note: Hoover requires using its own pre-mixed solution or risk voiding the warranty. It’s not the quietest nor the loudest machine: Quiet Mark rated it 2 stars.

This Rug Doctor is a workhorse that powered through our stain tests and did the best job of nixing both the stain and the odor of the yellow ammonia we put down to simulate pet urine. The tradeoff: It's loud, earning a 1-star rating from Quiet Mark. In our tests, the nozzle’s rubberized bristles even grabbed pet hair while removing stains.

The large tanks on Rug Doctor’s corded model hold 64 ounces of cleaning solution, meaning less refilling through big or multiple jobs. Adding the cleaning solution to hot water in the solution tank is a little tricky as the tank does not stand on its own and can be heavy when full, so be sure to balance it well on a flat surface. Thankfully, its wheels and a carrying handle helped make it easy to maneuver and move from one area to the next.

Bissell’s SpotClean Pet Pro’s four-foot hose, extra-long power cord, plus large tank capacities make it useful for bigger cleaning jobs, especially in harder-to-reach places. We especially liked the special “stain trapper” tool that keeps nasty pet messes from reaching the hose or dirty water tank where they can settle and cause odors. In our tests, it was second only to the Rug Doctor in overall stain removal, and was excellent at removing the odor of yellow ammonia that we put down on carpets to simulate pet urine.

Keep in mind that there's an extra step required here: The cleaning formula must be diluted before use, so it lasts longer. Because the tanks are large, we found it heavier to carry than smaller models, especially when the tanks are full and it received a "loud" rating in our sound tests.

Weighing in at only about five pounds, this cordless Black+Decker’s wide mouth and powered rotating brush deals with wet messes like juice, oatmeal or chunky soup. Unlike many others, it can use any brand of portable machine cleaning solution. With a run time of 30 minutes per two and a half hour charge and a tank and nozzle that are top-rack dishwasher-safe, we found the Black + Decker very easy to maintain. It was second only to the Rug Doctor in lifting mustard stains and an indicator signals when it needs recharging. Like other compact models, the tanks are small and need frequent filling and emptying when used for multiple cleaning tasks. It was also deemed "loud" in our sound testing.

The Bissell Little Green Machine has been a solid reliable cleaner that we've tested many times in the GH Cleaning Lab and is now all the rage on TikTok. The four-foot hose extends the reach of the machine and the 48-ounce tanks mean you don’t have to refill or empty them that often. Some portable cleaners can be cumbersome to disassemble and clean for storage: Not this Bissell.

We found the hydro-rinse tool very handy to help flush out the hose before storing it, ridding it of trapped gunk and debris which could start to smell after a while in storage. In addition, we love that the hose wraps around the base and snaps into the back and that the cord winds neatly up on the back, too. Note that the cleaning solution must be diluted before use and we did find it tricky to do so while holding the tank. This little machine earned "loud" marks from Quiet Mark.

Cordless power plus its square shape and two-foot hose made this Hoover model easy use in the car and to set on a stair step in our tests. While the smaller tanks make it fairly lightweight and ideal for a quick cleanups, they do need refilling and emptying more frequently than models with larger tanks. Tea and red wine stains were no match for the Hoover in our tests and Quiet Mark rated it 2-stars or average for sound. The removable battery on the compact Hoover ONEPWR Spotless Go recharges in less than three and a half hours and works in other ONEPWR devices, so if you have the stick or hand vacuum, it will power them, too. We did find the 13-minute run time on this battery rather short compared to others in our test.

When the Good Housekeeping Institute Home Care and Cleaning Lab evaluates portable carpet cleaning machines, we test how well they lift fresh and set-in food stains and other spills from light-colored medium pile carpets. We assess how easy they are to fill, empty and clean and how well they remove the odor of the ammonia we put down. We also measure their weight and assess how easy they are to maneuver and how comfortable they are to use. In our last category review of portable carpet cleaners, we conducted 38 different tests, and logged over 494 data points.

Understanding the impact of noise pollution in today's busy households, we sent the machines to be evaluated by Quiet Mark, an independent organization that evaluates products for the sound levels they produce. Appliances deemed “quiet” earned a 3-star or "good" rating, products with average sound levels earn 2 stars and those considered “loud” were given a 1-star rating.

✔️ Warranty: Some manufacturers will void the warranty if you don’t use their brand of cleaner. Check the manufacturer's website or the user manual to be sure. Most machines come with one-year limited warranties. Some may offer longer ones.

✔️ Brush: Consider a carpet cleaner with a powered rotating brush to take the effort out of removing stains from your carpet. It rotates like the brush on a vacuum cleaner to better remove carpet stains that have seeped deep into the pile. Without a powered rotating brush, you will need to scrub the stain manually using the built-in stationery scrub brush.

✔️ Tank size: Large tanks for cleaning solution and dirty water mean less frequent refilling and emptying for larger jobs, but remember that large tanks weigh more when full, and can be heavier to carry up and down stairs. A 64-ounce tank filled with solution and water will add four pounds of weight to the machine. If you know you will be frequently cleaning up stains, or cleaning large areas and stains, a larger machine might be more handy than a smaller one.

✔️ Cordless vs. corded: Cordless cleaners increase portability, but check how long they run, and how long they need to recharge, especially if you’re contemplating using them for bigger jobs. You won't have to worry about battery life with corded models, though you'll be tethered to a smaller cleaning radius.

✔️ Weight: Carpet cleaners with hoses stand on their own while you're using them so all you're really lifting is the weight of the nozzle, but they do need to be carried from room to room and perhaps up and down stairs. With handheld models, you're holding the entire weight of the machine while you are doing the cleaning, so look for one that will be manageable even when fully filled.

✔️ Upright vs. portable: While upright carpet cleaners certainly have hoses and attachments to tackle stains and clean upholstery and stairs, their primary function is to deep clean rooms of wall-to-wall carpeting. They are bigger, heavier and take up more storage space that portable models and take longer to set up. Portable models are smaller, lighter and give you the flexibility to maneuver better into tight spaces, like the car. And because they are designed to be used the moment a spill happens, you can keep portable carpet cleaners filled with cleaning solution so they are ready to use when you need them.

Portable carpet and upholstery cleaners are designed to be ready to use at a moment's notice when spills happen, so if there's leftover solution in the clean water tank when you're done using it, it's fine to leave it there for the next time. But, it's always important to empty, rinse and dry out the dirty water tank, remove any fuzz, lint or hair from the brushes and flush any debris from the nozzle before storing it. This helps keep bacteria from growing and odors down and means you'll have a clean machine the next time you need it. The last thing you want to do is deposit any old dirty remnants on a new stain!

Carolyn Forté has over 40 years experience testing all types of cleaning appliances and stain removal products for clothing and home furnishings, drawing on her textiles background to make sure GH's recommended cleaning products are safe to use on today's carpeting, upholstery and clothing fabrics. She is the Consumer Information Chair of ASTM's F-11 Vacuum Cleaner Committee, where industry engineers develop test standards for wet and dry vacuums and floor and carpet cleaning appliances. She supervised all the testing for this review, assuring that the tests were conducted in a repeatable and reliable way.

Lynn Redmile is a contributing Product Reviews Analyst for Good Housekeeping and spent over two years testing all kinds of portable and full-size floor cleaning products, including robot vacuums, handheld vacuums and portable carpet cleaners. She conducted all the hands-on testing for this review and helped develop some of the carpet cleaning testing protocols.