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I tried the Shark StainStriker on my gross couch — it's way better than Bissell
Compact but mighty, the Shark is powerful and easily removes stains on carpets, couches and other upholstery.
Up until recently, I had the dirtiest couch in existence. Okay, maybe not in existence but after a few years of spills and an unfortunate incident where movers dropped and dragged it on the streets of Manhattan, it was definitely bad. Not wanting to shell out money for a professional cleaning, I turned to the Shark StainStriker Portable Carpet & Upholstery Cleaner — a compact, non-nonsense appliance that (spoiler) actually did the dirty work to de-dirty my couch. Another spoiler? It did a better job than the mega-viral Bissell Little Green Portable Carpet and Upholstery Cleaner. Read on to find out why.
The StainStriker uses a dual-activated stain remover and powerful suction to pull out liquid and dirt embedded deep down in upholstery.
- User-friendly
- Dries quickly
- Easy to store
- Really nice scent
- Small tank
- Noisy
First impressions
Unlike the Bissell Little Green, I hadn’t really heard much about the Shark StainStriker. All I knew was that it had an intimidating name and excellent Amazon reviews (racking up an average of 4.5 out of 5 stars). If you've ever combed through Amazon reviews, you know how ruthless they can be.
The Shark StainStriker arrived in two days in a compact box that was easy for my 5'2" self to carry up two flights of stairs. The box included the machine itself, an integrated crevice tool, a 3.5" reversible brush head, a pet tool and two different bottles of formula, along with instructions. Now, let's take a brief pause for some specs:
Weight: 8.5 pounds
Hose length: 4.3 feet
Tank size: 24.3 ounces
Attachments: 3
Warranty: 3 years
After taking everything out of the box, the first thing we did was follow Shark's instructions and mix together the formula. Once we filled the proper tank with the formula (remember, the other one collects the dirty, gunky water as it sucks), we attached the brush tool to the nozzle, plugged it in and got to work.
The test
As I mentioned before, this couch was seriously stained — and the Shark StainStriker had its work cut out. The couch bore your classic stains from regular use, like sweat, debris, dirt from our clothing, general discoloration and, of course, "dinner and a movie" nights. There were also a few extra large stains from our most recent move when the movers forgot to wrap the couch up in a blanket and dragged it across the streets of Manhattan. The final stain came from the night I decided to slug my whole body in the name of skin care. After rubbing a layer of Vaseline on my legs, I threw on a pair of shorts and curled up on the cushions, forgetting that the formula is very, very greasy and will stain anything. Whoops.
So, yes, it was time to try for some serious rehab. I decided to enlist three of Amazon's most popular portable carpet and upholstery cleaners and patch test one particularly disastrous area of the couch: Shark StainStriker, Bissell Little Green Cleaner and Hoover CleanSlate Plus. Each machine took on a column of three tufted squares — and they all did pretty well! You can read more about my full test here, but, spoiler: The Shark came out on top.
Quick note: Make sure to read the specific care instructions for your couch, carpets and any other upholstery before diving in with the StainStriker — or any other cleaning machine. If you're still unsure, consider contacting your item's manufacturer or doing a small patch test.
The verdict
It took just two passes with the StainStriker before noticing a color difference — of course, the patch was still dirty as hell, but that was to be expected. Even handy machines require some elbow grease. In between each pass of the nozzle, I also noticed that the fabric dried a lot faster than expected. After finishing up one spot, I could see the fabric drying before I was even done with the next one. The perfectly sized brush head was neither too soft nor too rough on the couch fabric, meaning there was no leftover pilling or damage to the fabric. The reversible brush head, adaptable for an array of surfaces, is a nice touch, too.
In the end, it only ended up taking a few minutes to clean the column. Although we were testing a small enough spot that the tank didn't need to be refilled, and about half of the formula was left over, even though the tank is small. Cleaning the entire couch required a second tip to the chemistry lab (i.e., the sink where we mixed the solutions), and I'd assume the same could be said of a large area rug. But for spot cleaning, only once was needed.
Not only did it effectively clean the fabric, the StainStriker was actually fun to use. Little-to-no elbow grease was required and watching both the couch cushion come back to life and the tank fill up with murky water was super satisfying. Oh, and it smelled so, so good. The pleasant (but not overwhelming) scent was clean and fresh — no wet fabric smell to be found.
I was definitely nervous about finding a spot to keep the StainStriker, as our tiny city-sized hall closet was already pretty packed. However, due to the machine's compact size, all we needed to do was move a few things around and it fit like a dream.
What reviewers say
Generally, customers loved how easy it is to use, mentioning that it cleans well, works great and is lightweight. They also agree that the smell is delightful — and shared some of their own stain-sucking stories.
"This mighty little vacuum removed a large, black, liquid mess of dog waste from my cream-colored carpet. Twice," revealed one verified Amazon customer in their five-star review. "The pet waste attachment sucked up the liquid waste that could not have been removed with a paper towel."
"I will say I’m EXTREMELY impressed by this machine," declared a second shopper. "I had this coffee stain in my car since last summer, about a year now. It’s been baking in the Florida heat and I wasn’t sure if it would come out. Now it’s like it never happened." They then continued, noting that it's a "very easy machine to use, foolproof basically."
This final reviewer revealed that it "erased" the scariest of the scary stains: days-old wine stains. They also wrote that the "scrubbing tool is super clever and the different heads are surprisingly useful" before adding that it's "going to save us thousands of paper towels." However, they did have one note: "My only gripe is that I’d like a little mesh bag to store the tools in, but that’s incredibly minor."
The brand promises that it "removes deeply embedded tough stains and odors like pet urine, food and beverage spills from wine and soda to provide a deep clean" and boy, it ain't lying.
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The reviews quoted above reflect the most recent versions at the time of publication.
