Random Ep1: Fixing a Bissell Little Green Machine

This week, I went on a deep dive of trying to fix a Bissell Little Green Machine. If you haven’t heard of this cleaning device, you probably don’t have pets. And if you do have it, it will probably need fixing or at least a deep clean a few times in its life. The problem that lead me down this path was the common issue of no spray from the nozel…

note: water, electricity and humans don’t go together great. Do be careful!

Step 1

Watch Drew Smith’s YouTube video of basic troubleshooting. It covers the easy stuff, such as checking the nozel and the solution container. To sum up these steps, you basically want to remove all the bits after the black line, at the nozzel end. If this fixes your problem, you know the issue is in the spring trigger valve or the actual nozel where water comes out. If those steps didn’t fix the problem, you can move to the below step.

Step 2

Unscrew the 6 bottom screws to take off the bottom panel. With the bottom panel off, you can see the pickup where the solution is grabbed by the pump. You can also remove the two screws (and their washers) that hold the black piece in. There is no hose clamp holding the water line to the black piece or to the pump, just a single barb. Using compressed (or canned) air, you can blow air through the black piece to ensure it is not clogged.

Step 3

If you still don’t think you found the culprit, you can remove the top cover of the main motor and pump motor. This involves four screws up top, two on each side. On one of the sides you may need a long thin screwdriver, as it is pretty narrow.

You can now lift off the cover a bit. Note that wires are still connected to the power switch, so do not yank the cover off; just lift it a bit to give yourself some visibility to the solution pump mechanism and its hose. Remove the tiny hose clamp from the black line and slide the hose off the pumps plastic barb fitting.

Note that this black line is the same line that runs to the nozzel end of the hose. Here is where you can again put some compressed air into the line. As long as you have the spring loaded trigger removed from the nozel end, there should be no obstructions from end-to-end. Also, since the black hose runs inside the green vaccuum hose, you can articulate the hose back and forth to try to free up any blockages. Once enough pressure is applied, you should get quick stream of solution out of the nozzel end of the hose, and then freely flowing compressed air.

Step 4

That is it. Reattach the base parts (nozzel, pump line, solution pickup line) and do a functional check. If you got free flowing air from end-to-end of the black line, but you still have an issue. The only other part left to troubleshoot is the pump motor. The motor is clearly visible once you have the handle plastic off (see picture above). It is a basic brushed motor, so you should see a small spark from the brushes when the switch the power on. It should also get warm to the touch after running for a minute or two. I have never replaced one, but good luck…