Quick Answer: Simple Green doesn’t make a carpet cleaning machine — it’s a 50-year-old, family-owned cleaning-chemical company (Sunshine Makers, Inc.), and every “Simple Green carpet cleaner” result is actually a concentrate or spray meant to run through a machine you already own. The flagship Simple Green Clean Building Carpet Cleaner Concentrate (~$29.49-$43 for 1 gallon) is Carpet and Rug Institute certified and meets the Green Seal GS-37 standard, built for Bissell, Hoover, Rug Doctor, and rental extractors alike. If you landed here expecting an upright or portable like the ones this site reviews, there isn’t one — but the solution itself is a legitimate, certified alternative to the Bissell and Hoover formulas we usually recommend.
The bright-green bottle under the sink is one of the most recognized names in American cleaning — which is exactly why “Simple Green carpet cleaner” gets searched at all. People assume a brand that trusted must build the machine to match, the same assumption that trips up shoppers searching for a Kirby, Rainbow, or Zep carpet cleaner. It doesn’t. Here’s what Simple Green actually sells for carpets, what it costs, and whether it’s worth buying over the Bissell and Hoover formulas already in this site’s picks.
Simple Green carpet cleaner, by the numbers
- 50 years — how long Simple Green has been in business as of 2025, per the company’s own 50th-anniversary materials; the formula traces back to a solution Bruce FaBrizio and his father developed to strip tannic acid buildup from coffee-roasting machinery, not a carpet product at all.
- 108 employees — Sunshine Makers, Inc.’s staff count, still privately owned and operated by founder Bruce P. FaBrizio from company headquarters in Huntington Beach, California, per published business-directory figures.
- $50 million+ — Sunshine Makers’ estimated annual sales, per an Orange County Business Journal estimate; the company doesn’t disclose figures publicly, consistent with its status as a privately-held, family-run business rather than a public appliance brand.
- 4.8 out of 5 — Simple Green Carpet Cleaner’s customer rating across 26 reviews on Influenster, with 84% rating it five stars — a strong score for the solution itself, even though it’s not the product most people picture when they search the brand name.
What Simple Green actually sells for carpets
| Product | Type | Best for | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple Green Clean Building Carpet Cleaner Concentrate | Low-foam concentrate, unscented | Deep-clean base formula for any extraction machine | ~$29.49-$43 / 1 gal |
| Simple Green PRO Carpet Cleaner | Ready-to-use spray, 32 oz | Spot treatment, no machine needed | ~$19.99 |
| Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner Concentrate | General-purpose concentrate | The brand's famous flagship — not labeled for carpets | ~$10 / 128 oz |
Every one of these is a chemical formula, not an appliance. Simple Green’s own product pages describe the Clean Building and PRO Carpet Cleaner lines as compatible with “carpet extraction machines, dip tanks, and professional cleaning equipment” — the same cross-brand compatibility language Bissell and Hoover use for their own formulas on our best carpet cleaner solution picks, and the same claim Zep makes for its own carpet shampoo line.
Why “Simple Green carpet cleaner” even gets searched
Simple Green built its reputation over half a century on one specific bottle — the original biodegradable, non-toxic, non-flammable All-Purpose Cleaner Concentrate that’s sat under millions of American kitchen sinks and in garages since the late 1970s. That brand trust is so strong it bleeds into categories the company barely touches at retail: carpet cleaning is a real part of Simple Green’s catalog, but it’s sold mostly through janitorial-supply and industrial channels (Staples, Ace Hardware, commercial-supply sites) rather than the Walmart and Target aisles where the all-purpose cleaner lives. Shoppers searching for “Simple Green carpet cleaner” are usually picturing a machine to match the trusted name on the bottle they already own — there isn’t one, and the carpet formula itself is genuinely harder to find in a regular store than the company’s flagship product.
Simple Green Clean Building Carpet Cleaner Concentrate
- Low-foam concentrate built for extraction machines — compatible with Bissell, Hoover, Rug Doctor, and rental units, per Simple Green's own product listing.
- Certified by the Carpet and Rug Institute not to damage fibers or backing, and meets the Green Seal GS-37 standard for environmentally responsible formulas — a real third-party bar, not just "eco" marketing copy.
- Sold mainly through janitorial-supply and industrial channels rather than big-box retail, so check availability before assuming it's on the shelf at your usual store.
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Simple Green vs. the Bissell and Hoover formulas we usually recommend
Simple Green’s Clean Building Carpet Cleaner stacks up well against the Bissell Professional Deep Cleaning 2X formula our solution guide ranks first — both are low-foam, machine-safe extraction detergents, and Simple Green’s Green Seal GS-37 certification is a genuine step beyond Bissell’s own marketing-only “eco” claims. The real differences are distribution (Simple Green leans far more on commercial and janitorial-supply channels than Bissell’s retail-first presence) and formulation focus (Simple Green’s reputation was built on an all-purpose cleaner, not a carpet-specific line, unlike Bissell and Hoover, which engineer and warranty-test their formulas against their own machines). Most of this site’s picks default to Bissell and Hoover for that reason. Simple Green is a legitimate, certified third-party alternative — not a downgrade — in the same category as Zep’s carpet shampoo, and worth a look if a real Green Seal certification matters more to you than brand-matched convenience; our best eco-friendly carpet cleaner guide covers other certified options if that’s the deciding factor.
The bottom line
Simple Green doesn’t make a carpet cleaning machine — it’s a 50-year-old, family-owned cleaning-chemical company whose carpet line is a Carpet and Rug Institute-certified, Green Seal GS-37-certified concentrate and a ready-to-use spot spray, both meant to run through equipment it doesn’t manufacture. If you want the machine, start with our best carpet cleaner pillar guide. If you specifically want Simple Green’s own formula, the Clean Building Carpet Cleaner Concentrate is the pick — low-foam, certified, cross-brand compatible, and a genuine alternative to the Bissell and Hoover formulas already on our best carpet cleaner solution list.