Carpet Cleaning Machine

[street]

Does anyone have a carpet cleaning upright machine? What is your experience with one and what would you recommend buying.

Any suggestions, tips, con or pros would be appreciated on using one or what to get.

 

[Bamaman]

Hoover and Bissell seem to be the most popular. There's a $149 Hoover that injects the cleaner fluid, scrubs and sucks the dirty cleaner back into a holding tank. I had one that did a good job. I have the same type of machine that does my hardwood flooring.

If you want to get into the real steam carpet cleaners, they get pretty pricey.

 

[Irishgirlyc58]

Hoover and Bissell seem to be the most popular. There's a $149 Hoover that injects the cleaner fluid, scrubs and sucks the dirty cleaner back into a holding tank. I had one that did a good job. I have the same type of machine that does my hardwood flooring.

If you want to get into the real steam carpet cleaners, they get pretty pricey.

I have the Hoover that does all this and it has done a great job.
This Hoover performed beyond my expectations. For a while I used it every day. Not for the entire carpet but large sections of it. I was planning on replacing the carpet so this was a temporary solution and I was quite pleased.
Carpet has since been replaced.

 

[Jerry1]

Personally, I don’t think any of them are any good. I had a couple of them and I’ve had “professional” cleaners clean my carpet, when I had carpet. Their best use is for spot cleaning. My belief is that they all have too little suction and they put down too much liquid.

When the “professionals” did my carpet, the moisture caused the carpet to relax and I had to have a guy come in and re-stretch it to get the wrinkles out of it.

What are you trying to accomplish? If you just want to freshen up your carpet, you might want to look into a dry cleaning product. I’ve never seen it, but when I was working and commiserating with my coworkers about my wrinkled carpet, one of them said that she used a company that had a dry product they covered the carpet with and then vacuumed it up. She seemed very satisfied with that process.

 

[street]

My objective is to clean the entire carpet in a few rooms. I was just hoping to get one myself and do them. I have had a profession outfit do many years old and wasn't satisfied with it.

I appreciate the input and hoping for more personal experiences of the results and if it is a good idea to get one. Thanks

 

[wmc1000]

For a few rooms just rent one at the local grocery store. That's what we did in the past.

 

[zinger1457]

^^^^Just rent one when needed, I've rented the ones at HD and Lowes and they work well, sometimes shocked at how much dirt they pick up when emptying the cannister, even from carpets that don't look all that bad.

 

[street]

How long before carpets are dry? Can you control the amount of water that is applied with these machines?

 

[Aerides]

Back when I had carpet, my experience was that by the time one of these becomes necessary, you might as well get a good one as you'll be doing it every couple of months. Your carpet is never going to go back to new, and however clean it looks the day after will degrade back to the prior state pretty quickly.

 

[old medic]

We have had a Brisell for years, works great. We normally plan the cleaning around a weekend camping trip and always dry when we get back. Not sure on the water control, but carpets never seemed soaked.

 

[savory]

I would rent a machine as you should not wash your carpet too often.

I cannot remember if the water can be reduced. You could reduce the amount by the quickness you move the wand.

Rinsing, to remove as much detergent as possible is as or more important than washing. You will leave some detergent behind since it is nearly impossible to get a complete rinse. The detergent left behind will act as detergent and remove dirt from the bottom of shoes. So, the better you rinse, the less detergent left behind and the longer your carpet will look clean. I would also suggest spot cleaning before you do the entire carpet so you do not dwell in one place. Again, apply as little detergent as you can of spot cleaner.

A no shoes approach to walking on the carpet will help as well as frequent vacuuming. You can't vacuum too much.


As for drying, fans will speed up the result. Try to stay off the carpet until dry. A damp carpet with detergent is a great bottom of the shoe cleaner.

In terms of the wet or dry method, I am not convinced one is better than the other for long term care. In each case, you leave some cleaning solution behind that will serve to clean the bottom of shoes/feet and soil the carpet. I have only discussed the dry method but never used it.

Good luck.

 

[finnski1]

I suggest this method for fixing your carpet issues.

 

[easysurfer]

Hoover and Bissell are two of the big names.

I've bought two Hoovers in the past. One was a bluish grey colored one. Hardly used, but I gave that away and bought a more friendly Hoover model. A Hoover Power scrub model. Though not perfect (what is?) what I like about the power scrub is a good part of the clean can get taken apart for cleaning after use. Otherwise, if not cared for, gets yucky.

 

[pacergal]

We are on our second one. First was a Bissel, the one we have now is a "Royal Precision 7910 Carpet Extractor " that we have had for years. We only use plain water, the heat/steam extracts dirt well enough. If we have spots, I will spray a bit of carpet spot remover and rub a bit first. It works well, spray/steam one swipe, suction up with 2-3 swipes to limit the amount of moisture. Keep fans going to help dry if needed.


About every 5-7 years, we have a professional carpet cleaner come in.

 

[Midpack]

Personally, I don’t think any of them are any good. I had a couple of them and I’ve had “professional” cleaners clean my carpet, when I had carpet. Their best use is for spot cleaning. My belief is that they all have too little suction and they put down too much liquid.

When the “professionals” did my carpet, the moisture caused the carpet to relax and I had to have a guy come in and re-stretch it to get the wrinkles out of it.

What are you trying to accomplish? If you just want to freshen up your carpet, you might want to look into a dry cleaning product. I’ve never seen it, but when I was working and commiserating with my coworkers about my wrinkled carpet, one of them said that she used a company that had a dry product they covered the carpet with and then vacuumed it up. She seemed very satisfied with that process.

We had a Hoover SteamVac like the one pictured below, and it was better than nothing, and a necessity for the 30+ years we had dogs. However, it was not as effective as a professional cleaning service, how could it be? BTW, it used hot water, no steam involved really.

If you get one, my advice is pay attention to how much water it leaves behind. Once you've made your cleaning passes with soap solution, you need to go over and over the carpet to suck up water MUCH longer than you may realize - the only way to know is feel the carpet with your hands. You will never get it totally dry, but if you just make one pass, you will leave so much water behind your carpets will smell musty.

Effective carpet cleaning is TWO steps. Getting up the stains and dirt. Then getting all the moisture out of the carpet once is clean(er). Most units DIYers can buy aren't very good at the second step.

 

[COcheesehead]

When we had carpet we used to use dry methods. They didn’t leave soap residue that attracted more dirt over time. For small rooms, a box of powder and a good vac was all you needed. We have also used the dry methods on wool area rugs with good results.

 

[street]

WOW! Great advise and thank all of you for the input! My thoughts on not using detergent like pacergal commented on what they do. I plan on getting one not all that expensive and they would do large throw rugs also which could be done outside in summertime.

finnski1 suggested wood flooring and we do have some of that and I love it. My wife isn't completely sold on it in every room.

I'm going to look into the cleaners mentioned and decide what I'm going the get.

 

[easysurfer]

We had a Hoover SteamVac like the one pictured below, and it was better than nothing, and a necessity for the 30+ years we had dogs. However, it was not as effective as a professional cleaning service, how could it be? BTW, it used hot water, no steam involved really.

If you get one, my advice is pay attention to how much water it leaves behind. Once you've made your cleaning passes with soap solution, you need to go over and over the carpet to suck up water MUCH longer than you may realize - the only way to know is feel the carpet with your hands. You will never get it totally dry, but if you just make one pass, you will leave so much water behind your carpets will smell musty.

Effective carpet cleaning is TWO steps. Getting up the stains and dirt. Then getting all the moisture out of the carpet once is clean(er). Most units DIYers can buy aren't very good at the second step.

Yes, that's the Hoover model I had before getting a different one. That model was good except at times, I'd be steam cleaning (so I thought) but something wasn't fitting together and the water wouldn't flow properly. I'd have to re-seat the tanks to get working. Also, I don't recall how easy it was to take apart to clean.

WOW! Great advise and thank all of you for the input! My thoughts on not using detergent like pacergal commented on what they do. I plan on getting one not all that expensive and they would do large throw rugs also which could be done outside in summertime.

finnski1 suggested wood flooring and we do have some of that and I love it. My wife isn't completely sold on it in every room.

I'm going to look into the cleaners mentioned and decide what I'm going the get.

I'm almost out of cleaner. Next time, I'm going try a DIY solution from youtube.

 

[Midpack]

Also, I don't recall how easy it was to take apart to clean.

It's pretty messy, but manageable with a bathtub or largish utility sink.

 

[Animorph]

We bought a Bissell TurboClean DualPro Pet Carpet Cleaner a month ago. We have old carpets and a new dog. We were happy with the results for the two rooms we have cleaned so far.

The water/shampoo flow is controlled by a trigger that you can pull as needed. Bissell starts with two passes with the trigger pulled followed by two more passes of vacuum only, with variations depending on light or deep cleaning. You can add more water on particularly dirty spots by adding more passes. That had a bit of a learning curve to get used to.

The worst part of using it is cleaning up after you are done. I end up with lots of wet pet hair clumped on and near the roller brush, along with plenty of dirty water. It all needs to be pulled out and wiped off. The dirty water tank needs to be emptied and rinsed out. We just store the extra shampoo/water with the machine for next time. Carrying the machine from the cleaned carpet to the kitchen sink for cleaning tends to leave a puddle of dirty water at the start and end and drips in between. That path is tile for us, so it's a simple wipe up. All of this is enough to put off carpet cleaning until you really feel like it.

 

[Walt34]

We bought one of these Hoover "Smartwash" carpet cleaners two or three years ago, and are happy with it. The main thing I don't like about it is the noise - almost as bad as a lawn mower and I use earplugs when using it. But it cleans great. As someone else mentioned the amount of dirt it pulls from a carpet that doesn't look that bad is surprising.

Oh one other thing - the bearings that support the rollers are steel. NOT stainless steel as one would think, so just be sure to put a drop or two of oil on them after use when you clean it. Just enough to keep them from rusting but not so much that it'll drip oil on the carpet.

One would think they'd have sense enough not to use materials that will rust in a carpet cleaner that will get wet, but they did.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/HOOVER-...ine-FH52002/304157459?ITC=AUC-128427-23-12140

 

[street]

Thanks again for the experiences you have had and the brands that worked for you. I appreciate your posts very much!

 

[Sunset]

I've rented in the past, the size and power of a rental seemed to me to pretty good. I've known folks that buy one, but then use it once every bunch of years.
I doubt they even recoup their cost compared to renting.

I've taken a home one apart as it wasn't working right, that my FIL gave me. The little plastic fan was cracked. It confirmed my feeling, I'd rather rent one and not have a storage, maintenance issue since it's rarely used.

I'm sure consumer report has evaluated them

 

[Lewis Clark]

If you just want to freshen up your carpet, you might want to look into a dry cleaning product. I’ve never seen it, but when I was working and commiserating with my coworkers about my wrinkled carpet, one of them said that she used a company that had a dry product they covered the carpet with and then vacuumed it up. She seemed very satisfied with that process.

One company that produces a dry power is called "Host". Their system has the user buy the powder that has the consistency of sawdust. The user rents a machine that rubs the powder into the carpet. Then it gets vacuumed up.

In our experience it works pretty well and the carpet does not have to dry afterwards.

 

[Retired Expat]

Does anyone have a carpet cleaning upright machine? What is your experience with one and what would you recommend buying.

Any suggestions, tips, con or pros would be appreciated on using one or what to get.

We don’t use the upright because the small ones with a hose can do upholstery as well. We run an AirBnB and the little Bissel we have is great for spot cleaning the rugs but also for the upholstered dining room and terrace dining chairs For the big carpet we get that professionally done a couple times a year