Bissell ProHeat Pro-Tech 7901-1 Upright Vacuum

Good cleaner - poor sprayer

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Nov 19, 2004 | 20 out of 20 found this Bissell ProHeat Pro-Tech 7901-1 review helpful

Pros: Does a nice cleaning job

Cons: Prone to sprayer blockage

The main problem I experienced was, as several of these reviews mentioned, the unit failed to spray solution on the carpet after using it only once.Being mechanically inclined, I decided to investigate myself. I checked three areas of the unit:Base -... I removed the base cover so I could see the lines and the pump. Everything looked ok, the lines had fluid in them but I could see that fluid was not moving through them when I pressed the spray lever on the handle. The small spray heads were not blocked.Handle - Opened up the handle to check if the spray lever was somehow disconnected inside and wasn't really activating the pump. Everything there looked fine.Center (where the heater is) - I found the real problem here and it may be the reason for many of the reviews that mentioned that "the spray stopped working". Inside the lower part of the handle, where the red "heating" light is, there's a small heater which the water lines pass through. Even though my unit was used only once, I could see through the clear lines that the outlet from this heater was blocked. I removed the line from the end of the heater unit and used a paper clip to clear away what looked like a lump of minerals blocking the output. Once it was cleared, the unit started spraying again like brand new.The bottom line, I think, is that, if you have hard water in your area, when that water goes through the heater, it causes some of the minerals to come out of solution, block the heater output and prevent it from reaching the spray heads.The fix is simple enough and, since I was just about to head to the repair center, I know I saved a few bucks. Read more Less