Mine is a four cat household, two of whom are 17+ years old.  Don't judge; nobody intends to be a crazy cat lady.Carpet cleaning has become a way of life and makes a huge diffence in the air quality in my home. I have both an Atlantis and a Bissell Pet Bot.  Both are great products, but both have limitations.  The Atlantis is a huge canister gizmo and an equally huge nuisance to get out for use; the Pet Bot is terrific, but only cleans a six inch circle at a time.  I'm thrilled with this Bissell Upright Deep Cleaner.The handle is relatively easy to attach, and much easier than putting together a set of bookshelves. It's obvious when the screws are in the right place, even though you can't see where they're going.  The directions clearly state to use a large long handle Philips screwdriver. You can't fail!There's a bit of a learning curve on operating and I have a couple of nits to pick, but I still love this machine. It makes a horrendous amount of noise, and the dirty water container doesn't always plop into place correctly, which means the water won't heat. It's difficult to tell how much cleaning solution is left, and the dirty water container seems unnecessarily large.  The dirty water container is also sealed with a couple of openings which makes it hard to clean, and there's a long plastic piece inexplicably floating around in my unit.  It doesn't seem to affect operation, though and I'm very satisfied with the effort/result ratio in regards to my rugs.This carpet cleaner is well-balanced and doesn't take a lot of strength or time to use.  A couple of passes over an area of rug is enough.  The rug is not saturated, just damp, and dries in a couple of hours.  On a really heavily soiled area, I've elected to do several regular cleanings over several days, rather than go over and over the same area at one time.  This seems to work well.  The Bissell will not do as thorough a job as a professional carpet cleaner with a single use, but it's much more cost effective.  I could have paid for the Bissell with two and a half professional carpet cleanings, and I think using it more frequently will keep my carpets as clean as an infrequent professional cleaning.The lift-off spot cleaner is perfect for cleaning upholstery, though I haven't used it for that yet.  I have used the pedal to release the unit and used it for cleaning the fringe on an area rug, and it worked just fine.  You can fold the rug back on itself and work in a straight line so the strings don't get caught in the machine.I'm very, VERY pleased with every Bissell product I've owned, and this one meets the high standard I've come to expect.  Now, if I just knew where that plastic piece was supposed to go...