First look at the photo I uploaded. The recovery tank turned BLACK after I cleaned a small area in my son's room to test it. The carpet looks brand new in the area I just cleaned. That's great. His carpet didn't even look that dirty, but gosh, he definitely cheated dirty after seeing how clean he got off that little car. I'm not an avid carpet cleaner and don't have much experience with any carpet cleaners other than one I hired a few years ago which offered me very little help with the general cleaning of my carpet. So what I was looking for was something SIMPLE and effective to detect and deep clean carpets. I wanted something light and compact. This meets all my needs. Setup is extremely easy and user-friendly. It's very light and compact. I had to fill the tank with clean water 6 times to clean a bedroom and hallway. I agree because it was so easy. My ivory carpet now looks new in the areas I painted. There were stains (thank my kids!) that I rubbed with my hands and knees but never washed off. This carpet cleaner gets rid of these stains after a few washes. Wonderful! I am very happy with this purchase!