Carpet Cleaning

[Jeff]

Hello

What is the best d-i-y system for cleaning domestic carpets? Any recommendations for specific manufacturers and is it best to buy or hire?

Many Thanks Jeff

[EricP]

Either hire a proper machine from the booth in many supermarkets or buy a "George", machine, it is very good. Avoid the "Vax" type of machine.

The real secret is the washing solution used. Some of the commercial stuff is magic at shifting dirt. There is a thread somewhere in here on this topic.

[The Medway Handyman]

Having spent many, many years in the cleaning industry, I'd reccommend that you hire a Rug Doctor

can hire these and buy the chemicals sale or return at Homebase & other stores - their site has a rental locater.

The Rug Doctor uses a system known in the trade as 'fast extraction' which gives a really deep down clean, is easy to use and gives quick dry times.

I have no connection with the company whatsoever.

[Jeff]

Thanks for the responses... Jeff

[Guy King]

The message from "The Medway Handyman" contains these words:

Doesn't matter, you're a trades person not a DIYer so your input is invalid. (insert smiley of choice here)

[The Medway Handyman]

Nice one! :-)

[Tim S]

Seconded - it's a heavy machine, but the vibrating brush and decent spray plus reasonable extraction means it can shift almost anything - I use it to fix my house on a regular basis after toddlers/babies have ikked/dropped food/walked mud everywhere and it works. Sometimes difficult bits need some spot cleaner applied - Homebase supply this too along with the shampoo.

HTH

Tim

[meow2222]

The best isnt always the best though. If you'll be cleaning carpets and upholstery on and off for years, buying a vax is going to be much cheaper, and gives quite good results.

NT

[F]

As others have recommended Vax, I'd be interested to know why you wouldn't.

Not a troll, just a genuine request for enlightenment from someone who is in need of a decent cleaner for carpets and upholstery.

TIA.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Because all it really does is vacuum up a solution it lays. It doesn't scrub the carpet in any way. So you'd be better off doing it all by hand - and use a universal wet or dry vacuum to remove the excess moisture if needed.

[The Medway Handyman]

AFAIK Vax make two types of carpet cleaner, a tub type & an upright type.

The tub type attempt o use the pressure/extraction principle but use a gravity feed instead of a pressure pump. That was the case anyway. They simply don't have enough solution pressure to clean carpets deep down.

The upright type use the same principle pressure/extraction, but again no pump mentioned in the spec.

The Henry 'George' does have a pump, but is relatively low pressure low volume. 1 bar @ 1 litre/min IIRC. Professional machines will have at least

5 bar @ 3 litres/min. Deeper penetration, more flushing action, better cleaning.

Not knocking the George, for small areas where time isn't a problem it will do a pretty good job.

[Guy King]

The message from F contains these words:

I found they're OK for frequent use- they keep dirt down - but once the carpet's dirty to start with they're not much good. They just squirt cleaning solution in and suck it out again, there's no scrubbing or agitation.

[meow2222]

2 of you have said that, but its not correct. Best to choose one of the Vaxes with contrarotating brushes, as it will scrub in 2 directions not

1. Pressurised solution delivery is the most important point, machines without that are poor.

A Vax is not going to give you the higher pressure delivery of a pro machine, but they're still pretty good and will clean loads of stuff over the years, so a Vax may be the better choice in real life.

NT

[dmc]

Yep, great machines. Bit of a bugger to use in our small hall way due to its size but it still did a good job.

Found it was a fair bit cheaper (>30%) to hire from Morrisons instead of homebase if you have one local btw.

Darren

[manatbandq]

But they do lift a lot of dirt along with the solution (just look at the water afterwards! Pretreating heavily soiled areas from a hand sprayer and leaving it to soak for a while is effective. The head has a rubber squuegy type piece that is effective at working the solution into the carpet if you use a back and forth motion.

MBQ

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It is with the one I borrowed. Useless thing. They might make a better one but I'll not bother finding out if they can produce rubbish like this.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

That may be so but it's far less effort to get down on your knees and use a sponge or brush. A full Vax doesn't move easily.

[The Medway Handyman]

On a technical note, a high pressure solution pump (3 to 7+ bar) does provide a high degree of mechanical agitation - but more importantly it also provides the flushing action required to actually remove the dirt.

The spray in/suck out idea (known as spray extraction) is a continous process.

[manatbandq]

Eh? It's on wheels and all you have to move most of the time is the head on the end of the flexible hose.

MBQ

[meow2222]

A full vax moves just like any other upright hoover. Not sure what model you've been using, but it sounds very different to what I've used.

Hand washing is not effective, I've tried it in the past. It lacks the pressurised delivery and the strong suction, so it cleans nothing but the surface, doesnt get the dirt out, just moves it to the bottom of the carpet, and so on. Hand cleaning only cleans the surface, which is better than nothing but not comparable to a carpt cleaner.

NT