I have two kids, 3 dogs and a cat and my life gets messy. Really messy. So I was excited to try this Bissell Lift off.  I already have the Hoover MaxExtract all Terrain and was mostly happy with it's performance, except for the upholstery tool - suction just wasn't as good and you still had to lug the entire machine around, and up and dodwn the stairs to clean the stairs.  The Bissell lift-off solves that problem - you just pop the cleaner section off the base and take it to whatever you want to clean.  I have done both my cars, my couch and the stairs - and this is absolutely perfect for that and makes all those tasks so much easier.  Suction is amazing and leaves the couch barely damp after cleaning - which is important because I used to rarely clean the sofa because I didn't want to wait all day for it to dry.  When I first got it, I was disappointed that the hand tool didn't have rotated brushes like the Hoover MaxExtract hand tool does and thought I would probably end up ordering one, but after using it I don't think it's necessary.  The included hand tool works great on everything.  I also have a Bissell little green machine, which was worthless and I will now be giving away due to it's poor suction.  The lift-off is miles above the little green machine in cleaning performance and suction.As an upright cleaner, this also does a very good job - comparing it to the Hoover MaxExtract all-terrain, I'd have to say it is performance is about the same.  However, with the Hoover I could be lazy and not vacuum first and it would pull up most of the hair and debris into the dirty water tank, the Bissell's design is slightly different so that larger debris and dog hair doesn't get pulled into the dirty water tank - it gets deposited in clumps on the carpet.  So you definitely do need to vacuum before shampooing or be prepared to pick up the hair clumps.  Technically all shampooers require vacuuming first, so this is to be expected.  I was skeptical that the two brushrolls on the Bissell could do as good a job as the Hoover's 6 spinning brushes, but it does.  On carpets, I really can't tell a difference between the two.  Another bonus with the Bissell lift off is that it does heat the water in the tank to keep it hot throughout the cleaning process.  but this leads me to a few minor quibbles...I wish the clean water tank was slightly larger - It is just barely large enough to do a small room before it has to be refilled.  I can see why they did this from a design standpoint - both tanks have to be small enough to carry the pod around, and also because the clean water tank sits on the heater part which leaves less room for a larger tank.  The dirty water tank is quite a bit bigger than the clean water tank.  I thought I would really hate having to stop and refill it frequently, but surprisingly, I dont mind it so much.  It's a minor thing.Also, some people have said the dirty water tank is hard to empty, but it's really not - if you flip the handle all the way back and down (it seems like it won't go past the corners, but it does) then the entire top section can be lifted off so that you can dump the tank.As far as which one do I like best, the Bissell Lift-off or the MaxExtract dual-v. it's a toss up.  I love the portable piece of the Bissell and the amazing job it does on stairs and uphosltery and how easy it is to carry it around to whatever you want to clean.  However the Hoover can also do hard floors, which the Bissell can't.  So it really depends on what you need most - multi-surface, or portable upholstery cleaner.  I like both, and will probably keep both around for different jobs, but I am absolutely in love with the Bissell as a portable cleaner, since I haven't found anything else that does as good a job.