I have the Shark brand Vacuum which did help influence my purchase for this carpet cleaner. I have three cats & a family (it can get messy). I've used this thing for five straight days. For one bedroom. This room really needed it, quality carpet but neglected, pet abused, and a nearby bathroom remodel (drywall dust anyone?). So we couldn't really spring for the costs of new carpet at this time. I've re-read the instructions to verify I didn't miss anything. The steam cleaner does get the dirt up, the used water tank looked like mud water. Every. Single. Tank. I had no idea how much dirt this carpet was holding. I had to go over the walkway areas several times. I spread this out over the week so it could dry between. The complaints online focus on the fresh water tank being relatively small, yes it is. I needed two fills for single day on one room (partial area), it's not a big room. Not a big deal. What is kind of annoying is the "undercarriage" or what is better visualized as the brush roll area (similar to your upright vacuum). Pushing carpet cleaner forward, it puts down the water with cleaner, pull back, it sucks up the water/dirt from the carpet. There is a "dry only" mode where it continues to pull up more dirt/water. The brush-roll spins the entire time, good for loosening things up. So all this action kicks up dirt - think about the wheel wells in your car. So this brush roll area becomes just filthy. Since this is carpet "cleaning" and not dirt-redepositing day- you gotta clean out this brush roll area, as you clean, as often as you refill that clean water tank or even more often. The directions don't really mention this wheel well housing - they mention the brush roll, the cover, the other parts (all easily unclipped and rinsed, those parts are clear plastic parts so things are easy to see) the brush roll housing gets filthy and you gotta wipe this out, really well. So unclip the top suction thing (clear plastic/rinse) open brushroll area, pull out brush roll (simple left-hand knobby thing) clean that, cut any long hairs off and then remember to try to wipe out the housing which is dark plastic (difficult to see dirt, just wipe it and be disgusted). I was running through half roll of paper towels. You could probably put this cleaner outside and gently rinse that housing area & then wipe. Then put all back together and start your next clean tank. It's better if you can tag team this: one person do the back/forth of the carpet cleaning, then when it's time to break it down & refill tank, pass this off to someone while you go get a frosty beverage, you come back to freshly cleaned carpet cleaner with new tank of water, you're all refreshed and ready for round two. So.. brush roll housing gets filthy, that needs regular cleaning during your carpet cleaning adventures. Second thing I wasn't crazy about but not sure there's any solution to it: Wet Dust Bunnies. Yes, yes, I did exactly as the manual stated and I vacuumed beforehand (Shark vacuum too). Apparently dust bunnies are forever. So, as you are suctioning up this dirt and dust and micro everything, the dust all reconvenes around this wetness, so the brushroll, and/or the wheels of the cleaner, kick out these wet dust bunnies back out onto the carpet as you are carpet cleaning (picture the dust layer you clean off ceiling fans, but in wet clumps). This room has short, berber carpet. It was pre-vacuumed. I supposed you can say that the carpet cleaner works soooo good, as to suck up enough dust/etc to create wet dust/hair clumps that then get flung back out once they reach a certain size/density? My carpet is very light colored so this was easy to see & pick up when it happened and possibly a sign that the brush roll housing was getting filthy? Idk. The manual/directions continually reminds you that this is a carpet "cleaner", not a vacuum. (Yes, again, I vacuumed every area I cleaned). So keep this in mind. Ya gotta pause to clean the cleaner, multiple times for one room (frequency could be filth dependent) and you gotta catch those wet dust bunnies. But yes, I would recommend this machine, my carpet looks almost new (it really is old so I can't boast "new" but that's not any fault of this cleaner as the carpet, impressively, looks better than I thought it could). I used a lot more of the Cleaner solution than the stain treatment (stain treatment sprays out from the hose attachment only for hand scrubbing, & although I used quite a bit, I didn't spray out an entire bottles worth) I did use more than one bottle of the carpet cleaner, so buy accordingly. The directions are easy, breaking down the machine is easy, cleaning is easy (except brush roll housing area, that's the least easy to clean & never mentioned in the manual). Once you read the directions and use it and put it away, I don't think you'd need the directions again, it's intuitive design so it's easy to remember. Pics above are Day zero (before clean) Day 1, and Final (bright spots are sunlight, not a bleached area). I'm happy with the results.