Carpet Cleaners

[YellowSocks]

Do you own a carpet cleaner/steamer? If so, do you like it? Brand? Make?
We need to either rent or buy one soon...
=)
Kk.

 

[EmptyNest]

I just have one of those mini ones for small spots. Other than that, I have the carpets and rugs cleaned professionally...oops and it is past time to do that. But I think I will wait for a bit now as we are having new heat pumps installed in 2 weeks.

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

Don't buy one, rent one that works well. I don't even wanna talk about it, i cleaned carpets all last week. Better to have someone come in and do it, but DH refuses to pay when we can do it ourselves.
He is outside in 92 degree heat, the whole corner of the deck is exposed where the railing and porch decking was sitting on rotting un treated timber. THIS IS THE WHOLE THING - MORONS can be paid to do things to. PO's never did any work here, they hired it out. I am sayng PO's going back 100 years... We have to replace it all now. But we will do it RIGHT.

 

[Morticia]

We have 2. 1 is a Sears that is older than dirt (ha, ha) but I like that one better. The other one is the one I actually can find. It is an upright, with attachments for stairs, Hoover Steam n Vac. What I absolutely do not like about it and this could entirely be the operator of the machine (ha, ha) is that on our own carpet, which is off white, I can see the 'lines' where it has cleaned and where it has missed. So it really DOES clean!
If we do not replace all the carpet next year, then we'll hire someone in to do all the carpet, including ours (altho I am seriously considering ripping it all out and living with the sub floor (I hate the shag carpet we have).

 

[swirt]

I had a Bissel, which lasted around a year...when it broke I took it apart to repair it and realized it was the biggest cobbled together piece of design work I have seen....just really stupid methods of design. We replaced it with a Hoover SteamVac

and have been quite happy with it. It has been working great for several years now. It has a much simpler design that makes it more reliable.
I even used it the other day to scrub/clean our tile floor in the kitchen.

 

[swirt]

I had a Bissel, which lasted around a year...when it broke I took it apart to repair it and realized it was the biggest cobbled together piece of design work I have seen....just really stupid methods of design. We replaced it with a Hoover SteamVac

and have been quite happy with it. It has been working great for several years now. It has a much simpler design that makes it more reliable.
I even used it the other day to scrub/clean our tile floor in the kitchen. .

If you go with one of these cleaners, here is a little advice.

1. Overlap your paths so you don't get stripes.
2. Use 1/4 of the amount of cleaner solution or less that they recommend. If you use waht they suggest, it leaves to much "soap" in your carpet and it actually gets dirty faster. In many cases we've had great results with just using water in the machines. We use the solution on if there is a lot of grime or some kind of odor that needs to be removed.

 

[Samster]

When we used to have wall-to-wall carpeting in our houses, I always used Chem Dry to clean the carpets. Very little moisture so low chance of mildew in the carpet. I'm not a fan of the heavy, damp, steam cleaning.
I have a little Green Machine that does spot cleaning - we have all area rugs in this house & most are wool. It works well for small areas.

 

[YellowSocks]

I had a Bissel, which lasted around a year...when it broke I took it apart to repair it and realized it was the biggest cobbled together piece of design work I have seen....just really stupid methods of design. We replaced it with a Hoover SteamVac

and have been quite happy with it. It has been working great for several years now. It has a much simpler design that makes it more reliable.
I even used it the other day to scrub/clean our tile floor in the kitchen. .

I saw the Bissels at WM but dh didn't want to get something cheap that will fall apart. Thanks for the warning.
We only have area rugs, but dh is distressed about the one in the dining room, still upset with me for getting one that is mostly off-white (but it's so pretty and fits there so well!) which of course has developed a good size spot right near the door. I think a smaller clean would do us, but he's looking online at Rug Doctors for $500 - $800 dollars... I don't think we need to go that far!
=)
Kk.

 

[YellowSocks]

Don't buy one, rent one that works well. I don't even wanna talk about it, i cleaned carpets all last week. Better to have someone come in and do it, but DH refuses to pay when we can do it ourselves.
He is outside in 92 degree heat, the whole corner of the deck is exposed where the railing and porch decking was sitting on rotting un treated timber. THIS IS THE WHOLE THING - MORONS can be paid to do things to. PO's never did any work here, they hired it out. I am sayng PO's going back 100 years... We have to replace it all now. But we will do it RIGHT..

We are fortunate that the family who lived here for 45 years did things right, or at least, they did in 1950. Since then, not so much, but the "bones" of the house are good.
It irks me to pay for things like painting, but at some point I have to recognize that if it's on my to do list instead of my contractor's, then it's not getting done any time soon.
=)
Kk.

 

[egoodell]

We have the Hoover but I can't recall the model. I like it and it's much cheaper than renting.
riki

 

[Joey Camb]

We have a place that rents Rug doctors (have found them good to use) about $40 a day and you can do a lot in that time.

 

[egoodell]

We have a place that rents Rug doctors (have found them good to use) about $40 a day and you can do a lot in that time..

We have a place that rents Rug doctors (have found them good to use) about $40 a day and you can do a lot in that time.

That's why I bought the Hoover. I think it was less than $125 but can't recall. And I don't have to lug it.
RIki

 

[MTLLodge]

We have a place that rents Rug doctors (have found them good to use) about $40 a day and you can do a lot in that time..

We have a place that rents Rug doctors (have found them good to use) about $40 a day and you can do a lot in that time.

That's why I bought the Hoover. I think it was less than $125 but can't recall. And I don't have to lug it.
RIki
.

I have a Hoover also and it's nice to have so you can clean 1 room at a time and not have a steam cleaning marathon!

 

[white pine]

When we used to have wall-to-wall carpeting in our houses, I always used Chem Dry to clean the carpets. Very little moisture so low chance of mildew in the carpet. I'm not a fan of the heavy, damp, steam cleaning.
I have a little Green Machine that does spot cleaning - we have all area rugs in this house & most are wool. It works well for small areas..

Are the costs about the same as steam cleaning? I was thinking about the lakeside setting, moisture and mildew too. We are going to close up the buildings soon, do you think it would be better to do them now, and leave the heat on a bit to dry out or better to wait for spring? Any odor with the chem?

 

[egoodell]

When we used to have wall-to-wall carpeting in our houses, I always used Chem Dry to clean the carpets. Very little moisture so low chance of mildew in the carpet. I'm not a fan of the heavy, damp, steam cleaning.
I have a little Green Machine that does spot cleaning - we have all area rugs in this house & most are wool. It works well for small areas..

Are the costs about the same as steam cleaning? I was thinking about the lakeside setting, moisture and mildew too. We are going to close up the buildings soon, do you think it would be better to do them now, and leave the heat on a bit to dry out or better to wait for spring? Any odor with the chem?
.

I'm using the Hoover steam cleaner. No, no odor remaining after it dries. Cleans the red mud stains out of the carpet from winter time from humans and dogs, among other stains.
Riki

 

[YellowSocks]

It's interesting seeing this old thread.
We had been renting... dh tried all the different places in town and found the hardware and grocery stores to be very disappointing. He was happy with the rental place that does nothing but rent equipment.
But I won a free one room carpet cleaning at the Fair... the guy who came has one leg (he calls himself the best one legged carpet cleaner this side of the Mississippi) My kids thought he was a pirate. He said he'd do it again for $35... about the same cost of me renting, and a lot less work for me! He said he'd do it for free again if I tell enough people about him.
How lucky am I?
=)
Kk.

 

[One Day]

It's interesting seeing this old thread.
We had been renting... dh tried all the different places in town and found the hardware and grocery stores to be very disappointing. He was happy with the rental place that does nothing but rent equipment.
But I won a free one room carpet cleaning at the Fair... the guy who came has one leg (he calls himself the best one legged carpet cleaner this side of the Mississippi) My kids thought he was a pirate. He said he'd do it again for $35... about the same cost of me renting, and a lot less work for me! He said he'd do it for free again if I tell enough people about him.
How lucky am I?
=)
Kk..

You just told alot of people