Carpet Cleaning?

I was wondering what you guys do to clean your carpets. I have watched some videos where the detailer uses an electric type of polisher with what looks like a brush head. Others just rent a commercial carpet cleaner. What are your thoughts about the best way to get the carpets clean? Thanks!

 

A lot of it depends on how dirty your carpets are. I'm not a fan of extractors...that's a lot of water, and exposing wiring connections (under the carpet) to excess water can be an issue. The brushes that attach to drills or polishers do a very nice job of agitating and loosening set in stains, but I've had good success with Wolfgang carpet cleaner on topical stains like coffee and soda spills.

 

You could tear it up.....Giggity

 

Much more helpful response than mine. Dr Steve in the house.

 

For light stains or spills I use baby wipes (huggies are the best by far). Long story warning:

I travel a lot with work. On one of the trips we had a reseller tagging along for some first hand training with the boss and I. This guy was a trip, smoked cigars every chance he got and was a real clutz. About 3 days into a week long trip he is wearing Khaki pants to a demo we are doing. He also has a full cup of coffee to go he had to have from the morning stop of breakfast.. He spills the whole damn cup all over his Khaki pants (luckily it wasn't that hot). After a round of swearing we pull over at a gas station. Now I figure he's gonna change, nope. He breaks open his fanny pack / travel bag and breaks out baby wipes. My boss and I exchange looks like "WTF is this guy got rhoids and headed to the John?!?!". He starts wiping his pants down with the baby wipes swearing up and down its going to get rid of every bit of coffee stain and smell. We aren't buying it. About a 1/2 hour later and pulling into the clients parking lot where we are doing the demo I look back and sure as shit his pants are dry, not a stain on them and no lingering smell of coffee in the air. Ever since that I've been a believer of baby wipes. We keep a pack or 3 around for "pet stains" on the carpet as well as spills and drops from relatives and kids. They work amazingly well for light to moderate stains. In fact I had a bad spill of soda (2 liter my son decided to shake on the way home from the store) in my old Tacoma. It went all over the back seat, carpet, back of the front seats and in between the front seats and console. I was not a happy camper... I hit what I saw (it was at night) with wipes as good as I could. Came back out the next morning and hit the rest, you could not tell a soda exploded in that truck after I was done. No stain, no smell no stickiness, nothing. For deep stains or spills I use Shout lol. We have beige carpets in the house we are in everything shows up on the carpet. For the big stuff nothing works as well as Shout...the tile can't come soon enough with 2 dogs now.

 

Thanks Steve. I just ordered a couple of their products!

 

I just went to Wallyworld and bought a small container of them. Just tried it on spots on our house carpet. It looks like a winner.

 

depending on what you want to clean weather just dust, or want to get rid of some spots)

 

What you have seen are different techniques for cleaning, each of it having a purpose behind. Normally, I vacuum it twice a week. I am very allergic so I have to be sure that the carpet is clean and no rug bugs (had an awful story with them some years ago). My neighbor purchased a special cleaner. I have seen on the internet that it costs around $150, so I borrowed it to try before the purchase. But, I destroyed a small carpet. So actually for me, the best strategy is to take them twice a year to the service for a professional cleaning. They also use eco detergents, so no chemicals in my house.

 

That's.....freaking amazing. I've never heard of this. I'll have to pick some up and try them out.

Also - I'm a huge fan of Tuff Stuff.

 

I scotch guard my carpets once a year after a good cleaning (and dry time) with carpet cleaner. That really makes them easier to clean. Other than that, just regular washing of the tray liners and vaccuuming/spot cleaning anything that gets past them has been my system. Frequency makes it easy/quick vs a big ordeal.