Carpet cleaning

About 20% of my floors are carpeted. It's about time for me to get them cleaned. I've removed spots all along, but now I'm thinking about wall to wall and carpet runners needing a thorough clean. I'm thinking about getting a professional cleaner. Do any of you prefer to do it yourself, and if so what kind of machine do you use?

We bought a machine quite awhile ago. Trying to rent one didn't work as we could never be sure one would be avail and if it would work.
Ours is from Sears.
It's a bit on the heavy side and it can be a little sloppy.

I got a Hoover Steam vac Silver ( I bought before B&B days) It works good.

We used our friends new Bissel and it did a great job.

I have a very old Bissel which I have put through the ringer and may be on its last days. The last time I rented a commercial one from Lowes as I needed to take care of the stairs and needed the hose. It was a (new) Bissel.. cleaned VERY well and the hose allowed me to get to every corner as well as up to the baseboards, something my personal one did not.
While I do prefer to have my own, when I want to do the whole place again, I will go back to rent this machine as I do find they pick up the most water. Our carpets were completely dry overnight. (that says a lot with the humidity we have here)

we have a company in periodically for the communal area especially the track from the kitchen to the eating area as it gets heavy traffic -we also had him in when we had the windows done as the muck that came out was astounding (ie I knew it would be super bad so had him booked for the day after they were due to finish) he virtually gets them looking like new so is worth it and its virtually dry when he is done.
Also a good tip from him on carpet purchasing - mainly wool with about 10% synthetic is the best for cleaning, if you are ever tempted by sizel or seagrass don't be as you can't have it cleaned - stretches when water gets on it.
weve tried ones that you hire with mixed results - machine available locally to us is Rug Doctor and comes with a lot of attachments but I find it hard and time consuming to use and you have to buy all the chemicals as well

I had an old cylinder style Vax machine for years and it worked well but was very hard work. Bought a modern upright Vax a couple of years ago and was pleasantly surprised how well it works with considerably less effort.
I do the bedrooms, landing and dinning room twice a year, in June I just do the visible areas, in the winter I completely strip the room. The hallway needs doing every 4-6 weeks.
I did have a professional cleaner in once, but I didn't think he did as good a job as me with my Vax.

Think of your back.
Moving furniture.
Hire it out, get a coupon online and go from there. (My 2 cents worth)

We also have an apartment bldg in a nearby city. We have had poor luck with hiring local cleaners, even with truck mounted equipment. Ask locally about a reliable service. Renting the Rug Doctor has worked best for us.

Most of our floors are hardwood, so we just have our cottage and a very small area in the main house to deal with. We had our own Bissell and it burnt out after about 9 years. We had some stains in the cottage that kept returning...a big round circle and a smaller one. After we'd clean by ourselves it looked fine, then after a few weeks kept reappearing. We had a pro come in and it was tough, but they got rid of them for good. After that we've been renting the rug dr. from the store. It works fine and for our limited use we didn't want to reinvest in our own cleaner again.

You can use carpet cleanser or strain remover for the cleaning purposes but if you were about to hire some professional or experts then, masters like Ecocleancares, Coit, Denver carpet cleaning is also good to go with. Those guys will suggest you steam cleaning or dry extension methods to get satisfactory outcomes.

Wilburn ... And you run Denver Carpet Cleaning? Why not say so?

I own a Mytee Speedster portable hot water extractor. I do not own my own property yet, but I do clean the carpets at the hotel that I currently work at. But when I do buy my own property I will be ready to clean some carpets!