Carpet cleaning questions: stairs, hot water, detergent

[Yong Huang]

Our carpet is 7 years old. It's quite dirty on the stairs especially near the edge of each riser. I'd like to hear some good tips about how to clean this part. I'm thinking of renting a steam vacuum cleaner from Kroger or Home Depot. I don't think I should drag it on each step of the stairs as I do on the floor. But using an attachment (if there's one) won't have enough sucking, will it?

My friend's Hoover SteamVac DualV allows up to 140F or 60C degree water. I didn't check Kroger's renting cleaner yet. But isn't 140F too low for a good job? I know "steam" is a misnomer but I heard the hotter the cleaner after the job, except perhaps the carpet won't be very soft if the water is too hot. Correct?

Can you also recommend a few brands of detergent?

Thanks for advice.

Yong Huang

[Dan Espen]

Sounds like you are over analyzing this. If you have very dirty carpets, just about anything is okay.

I bought one of those Hoover wet vacs. Works very well, just use the carpet cleaning solution that comes with the unit.

Rental units work too.

[Joe]

You might be happier just calling Stanley Steemer to do it for you. Some of the local neighbors have used their service and were OK with it. Prices are fair for the time they took. HTH

Joe

[cshenk]

"Yong Huang" wrote

If you have a need for fairly frequent spot cleaning, consider getting one of the smaller hand held units. 'Green Machine' I seem to recall is the name. Folks with pets use them for the occasional 'oops' and they work pretty well for that.

Very useful for stairs. Not super powerful, but they will work with a few treatments and not too hard or heavy to get around odd spots. You can also use them to clean the carpet in a car.

See if your friend has one you can borrow? Then you could try it out (buy him a bottle of cleaner sold at just about any grocery etc).

One warning, they also come in a cordless style but those do not have enough power to be of any use.

[professorpaul]

I love the Green Machine. Great for pets (been there, done that), also excellent for car upholstery, house upholstery. The stuff that comes with it is Ok, but I like the stuff (cheaper) that you can get at the grocery/hardware store with the rentals. Comes in a big red container

-- no idea what the brand is. I also have a small Bissel upright for carpets as well. I need to get a bonnet buffer/scrubber one of these days as well, as my old Hoover gave up the ghost a year ago, and I haven't gotten around to replacing it.

Carpets on stairs take a real beating. I have replaced the stair carpet before I've replaced the floor carpets.

[cshenk]

"professorpaul" wrote .

Oh yeah! I forgot to mention cleaning the sofa. Yup, great for that!

Ours died and since we were pet and mostly carpet free for 6.5 years in Japan, we didnt replace it but we need to think about it now that we are back stateside.

My carpets are a wreak here but they were not good before we left so I do not blame the renters for that one. We have to wait for the money to stabilize before we replace them (lots of other damage the renters did cause that couldnt wait).

I'm partial now to berber types at least for the main living spaces.

Ok, I think I know the one you mean.

I had a floor scrubber but it went odd at the cord so we got rid of it for safety reasons.

Next time, we need to replace the carpet over the little foot riser at the built in bar. Its got a color matching but obviously old shag from long before the berber was put in.