Carpet Cleaners: Buy or rent?
Carpets are undoubtedly the dirtiest place in the house. Thousands of fibres each holding dirt, debris, hair etc. They may look clean to the naked eye but if you look deeper and wash them youll see that the carpets actually incredibly dirty. Now if the carpets are very badly stained etc it may be worth just getting a professional company in to give them a professional clean. These companies have products and equipment you dont so the results will be much better albeit more expensive.
For those of us who are willing to do a little work ourselves, there are alot of options available to us. For small stains I use Dr Beckmann. It comes in a bottle with a small applicator head and for a little spill etc its perfect! Alternatively there is elbow grease - this can be used on carpets but please always do a test patch first!
For larger areas you can rent a machine from a local hardware store. Often these are around £30 per day to hire plus £20 per bottle of solution so it can work out more expensive long term as I know my house needs carpets washed regularly.
So what options are available for us to purchase? It all depends on budget. I will list a few different options with different price points and highlight the benefits for each of them below.
I have the Rug Doctor X3 Pro Machine - This is similar to the one you can rent. It is a heavy duty carpet cleaner and achieves good results! I use it for all my carpet cleaning jobs in a professional capacity so if you are a cleaner or have a cleaning company and maybe want to expand into offering a carpet washing service - This ones for you! It is the most expensive option so youll need to weight it up against how often you will use it. If you will be using regularly ie - more than once per month, then this should be considered. Its large so youll need somewhere to store it but it has good capacity for clean and dirty water so doesnt need emptied/refilled often. Link with all the spec here - https://amzn.to/3cQp6v8
Middle of the road option which will be suitable for most homes and doesn’t break the bank is the Rug Doctor Flexclean - This is an all in One Carpet and hard floor cleaner with Upholstery Kit. This one is half the price of the X3 so much more affordable and its smaller so is easier to operate and smaller to store. Similar size to an upright hoover. This comes with the upholstery kit which is a major bonus especially for those of us who have children - sofas really do take a hammering. Link with all the spec here - https://amzn.to/2W8qNgF
This is the cheaper option which will keep on top but you wont get the same results as the two above. The vax rapid power revive cleaner is a good choice for people who maybe only wash the carpets every few months and dont want to spend a great deal on a machine. It has a good capacity and a strong motor for good extraction. Its easy enough to operate and again isnt massively big so easy to store. I had this one when first starting my cleaning company and it did the job until I could upgrade. If your on a budget this is the one I would recommend. Full spec here - https://amzn.to/2WdJqjc
Dr Beckmann - https://amzn.to/3aPh2Js
If you decide to try it yourself, please leave some comments below :-)
M