Which carpet steam cleaner?

Hubby has been having allergy problems and got tested. The doctor gave him a looooooong list of allergens to avoid and suggested we do monthly carpet cleaning. We need to break down and buy a cleaner.

My SIL will buy us one for Christmas and she keeps showing us ones on sale for $75. The one we were hoping would go on sale tomorrow isn't listed in any sales flyers. It typically sells for $240. Do the cheaper ones really work for people who will put it to hard use? Should we take her $75 and put another $150 towards a more expensive machine?

Anyone have experience with a home carpet cleaner? Please let me know what machines you have and what is good and bad about it. thanks!

We have a bissell quicksteamer, which I love it does a great job. It's a smaller version of the bigger ones. I will say I've had the opportunity to use the bigger ones and I like my smaller one because it's easier to use and not so bulky. The smaller ones you have to fill up and empty more often but that's not a problem for me. I've had mine for couple years and love it. Paid around $50 at wally world for it.

I found this interesting to read as well, as I want to invest in one myself and we have Bissell brand here too, thanks for that, now i know what to look out for, ours retail at around 150 to 200 though.

I've been doing a lot of reseach on them because I also wanted to buy one. I'm going to eventually get new carpet and I want to be able to keep it looking like new. Starr still have some accidents every now and then and sometimes my cats will barf too.

I found that the Hoover brand is better than Bissell because they don't break down as often. One of the Hoover's that has gotten great reviews is the Hoover Steam Vac F5914-900 but they don't sell these in any of the stores around me so I'd have to order it online.

I decided to go with the Hoover SteamVac Silver from Walmart and it's $146.94. The model # is F59150900 and it's also received great reviews. They were out of stock at the Walmart that I wanted to buy it from so I ordered it online and they'll ship it to my local Walmart free of charge and will let me know when I can pick it up which should be in early Dec. Good luck.:)