We have ancient cats and dogs; messes happen. Most of the "self cleaning" products in the world are really just code for "'more expensive and not that great" BUT NOT THIS MAGICAL WONDER OF MODERN ENGINEERING. Holy bananas, this little machine can scrub stains out of carpet that you had long ago given up hope on with a single "deep clean" sweep. It's remarkable. we had a cat-diarrhea incident occur while we were at work, we got home late, and thanks to this miraculous machine, we still got to sleep before 1am and could invite people we liked to actually sit on the couch. 'The incident' being just a memory we can laugh about now.