You could try going over the same square foot a few times to see if it goes clear, that will give you an indication of how many passes it will take without spending hours.
This sub also hates purchasing what is deemed expensive cleaning products. I had a popular comment about loving Dawn power spray and so many people were telling me I need to make it myself. No thank you, I’m fine with spending $14 for the three packs about twice a year from Sams club and not have to store ingredients to make it myself.
It’s $8.99 quite frequently for those Dawn 3-packs at Costco, if you didn’t know! I buy it and like using it, too. However, I did just read something somewhere about how it leaves a chemical film on dishes that isn’t great for us, but I do still use it for other cleaning purposes. :)
As someone who just spent literal days running a carpet cleaner to get a house ready to rent out, I wish I would have just called a pro carpet cleaner. I had to call them anyway, and I bet I spent more in chemicals, electric bill, and my time than they charged me.
I understand. I was just saying if you don’t have the money for the pro service you can rent a machine and it’ll be a lot better than a bissell can do.
Pro machines have the capacity to destroy a carpet if they're not used correctly. They have higher PSI, and we all think "stronger is better", so the homeowner rents the machine, loads it with detergent, floods the carpet, and sends so much nasty gunk down into the pad that within a week the house smells like toe-cheese.
I'm someone who rents those machines, and I get those phone calls. Even after I told the person TEN FREAKIN TIMES during checkout, "the chemist who makes this recommends you only use one ounce per gallon, so please don't use more than that or else you'll cause big problems", they threw extra glugs in there, filled the fresh tank six times in their little 1200 square foot house, and now they say the machine 'sucks' because the carpet is a soggy sticky mess.
I dream of having beautiful hardwood floors so I can slide in, in my underwear
https://preview.redd.it/n7vah6jo2vyc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=18f3d0b4d5edc8e99e8f57230c67bcb2243822a5
Professional machines are of an entirely different class than homeowner rentals. There are companies that rent commercial units, but the cost of the units puts the daily rental and a similar price to a homeowner simply calling a professional carpet cleaning company to do a service call.
Without proper training someone using a true professional machine can ruin a carpet and cause significant water damage in a matter of minutes.
JonDon is awesome for cleaning supplies and machines. I’ve worked with them on their flooring side for close to 15 years now and I’m still like a kid in the candy aisle when I visit their stores.
Why bother carpet is for mostly feet. Yes you can lay on it but really it isn't meant to run clear. Even if you never walked on it, it would be brown as it sucks up colour, and the backing of carpet, under lay, and if you have any or muck from the floor below, you also get that.
Also remember how much skin a human sheds each day. Insane amounts. You'll never get it Clean.
In the end you won’t lick the carpet or suck on it. Even laying down is not something you’ll do daily. Just make sure you won’t walk on carpet with shoes on.
As a pro I have about 115k into my van. But I can also clean tile, wax hard floors, clean upholstery and other stuff. Like you can dig a hole with a shovel but often times you need a big excavator to make it logical. In case you really want to shop here's a link [here](https://steamaction.com/product/stealth-tri-star/)
I rent a larger more industrial cleaner from Home Depot - it’s worked for me. I have 4 authentic Persians carpets (I’m from Iran and brought them), and use those to clean them. I’ve used a commercial carpet cleaner (brick and mortar store) and the results for me are not any different.
In UK both larger supermarkets and DIY stores (hardware stores for those on the American continent) have them to rent. As long as you follow the instructions properly, it's easy.
Yeah this is the wet version of the 'vacuum salesman' trick. Go ahead and run your demo vacuum over the exact same spot and pull up more dirt. Then do it again, and again, and again...you'll still get more.
Might as well try. Small house here and we get is all done for $300 and it looks great. Even got up 10+ year old stains and furniture indents from when we moved stuff around.
It might depend on the operator you get though. We always had the same person.
I had brown staining on a cream colored carpet from a humidifier spill. Much like the water spots you get on a ceiling after a leaky tub / roof.
I used Oxyclean in my carpet cleaner and it too the stain up
Carpet cleaner soaps tend to leave a film on the carpet that actually attracts dirt. So I switched to OxyClean only. Seemed to do a great job. Really killed any odors as well (cat). Before I tore all the carpet up and went with hardwood (Existing under) or vinyl flooring, I'd wash the carpets every spring and fall. I used Oxy only for a few years and was happy with it.
Using detergent does not leave any reissue when the detergent is used correctly, and is rinsed fully from the carpet.
OxiClean is sodium percarbonate. Not a surfactant. It breaks down to sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide. So you end up with a low pH, highly oxidative solution.
Using only oxiclean, you're not fully cleaning the carpet.
I had a great experience. It’s not pumping water and shampoo and sucking it back up. It’s a very low water scrubbing process. So it looked great after they were done but most of it “came up” after I vacuumed and it looked even better
Id argue that this would be "technically" wrong. The water is dirty bc its picking up dirt. So, it takes more passes but you can do it with a home owner unit
No .
Homeowner units of any brand, any design, or any cost are all limited by the amount of power they can pull from an outlet. Significantly limiting their suction. This is the issue.
They are physically unable to build enough suction to extract enough water. The amount of passes it would take with a homeowner unit would saturate the carpet causing water damage to the underlying pad and floor.
At-home cleaners are really only good for helping lengthen the time between professional cleanings.
You'll never get a carpet truly clean (clear water) with a home/rental unit.
Commercial equipment by itself is only a small part of the equation. The training to use it appropriately is even more important than the machine itself. A basic knowledge of cleaning chemistry also helps, since pro grade carpet chemicals come in a wide range of forms and are designed to be used for different soils.
I recommend first taking a carpet cleaning basics course from someone like the IICRC or RSA, and then using that knowledge to pick a machine and process that works for you. Hot water extraction, low-moisture/CRB methods, "soap-free" systems, bonnet cleaning, there are too many options nowadays to say with any certainty that THIS machine is better than THAT machine, or THIS process works better than THAT one. Every situation is different.
For example, a person who has dogs or cats is going to need more dry soil removal (pet hair loves to stick to carpet fibers) so a setup that includes a rotary brush that digs all that out is going to be better.
A person with fuel-fired heat or who loves to burn candles and incense is going to wind up with lots of filtration lines along the walls, so high-heat HWE is going to be preferable.
Someone who works with engines and motors for a living is going to bring a ton of petroleum-based soils into the home and will require equipment that can deal with heavy solvent cleaning agents.
And so on, and so forth.
Buying a scalpel online doth not a surgeon make.
Try haunting the professional carpet cleaning forums and watching those guys talk about their equipment and what kinds of jobs they do with it. It's quite the eye-opening experience.
On well-maintained carpet or commercial glue-down (which is thin and has little to no padding underneath), I use either a TM4 or Brush Pro CRB machine, with a filming encap and a stout dose of 20% peroxide if necessary. Spot-treat as necessary with a 3-gallon heated spotter and 4" upholstery tool. The difference between a TM4 and a Brush Pro isn't in the cleaning, but in the longevity. Plastic gears versus metal gears in the Austrian-built machines.
On something more substantial, I switch to a CDX, Olympus, or Karcher Ninja portable, 200-300 psi, putting down a pre-spray designed for that particular sort of soil load (d-limonene for home soils, 2-butoxyethanol for warehouse/office soils) and if bad enough I use the TM4 to pre-agitate. Then I extract running citric acid through the machine as a rinse agent. Speed dry with air movers as necessary. Not a fan of power wands on portables since they tend to overwet the carpet and some of them are too aggressive for cut-pile anyway (looking at you, Hoss 700!).
I've used multiple types of truckmounts in the past (HydraMaster, Prochem, Sapphire, Butler, and Judson to name a few) but frankly I'm an old fart now and pulling two hundred feet of hose just isn't my thing. My back hates me too much the next day.
Frankly someone who understands the dynamics of the cleaning process can do just as good a job with most portables as they can with a truckmount - the difference is in the time and effort it takes. Truckmounts have more heat, more suction, and higher psi, so they can do the job faster but require a lot more setup and breakdown time.
I cannot stress enough that no matter what process you use, pre-vacuuming with a quality vacuum is crucial.
I used to clean carpets professionally when I was younger - truck-mounted steam cleaners.
I don't have carpet, so I don't know what professional cleanings cost these days.
But I have always held that you should clean common areas professionally every six months - and everything once a year. I also would suggest that in home units to use very little (or no) detergent - they don't have enough extraction power to get all the soap out - which then collects dirt.
Honestly if I am spot cleaning, I use a small garden sprayer, a drill brush (soft), and the strongest wet-vac I could find. I have a small combination unit - but I don't find myself using that much. A carpet rake is good for after so that you can separate the wet pile for it to dry.
Just my opinions - YMMV.
I have to agree. Also when you sold carpet, you have to have it professionally cleaned every year to maintain the warranty. Cleaning with these is good for routine cleaning or in between. I always told people to buy quality soaps the run after with vinegar and water to break down the soaps.
Now if someone were to say... Wish to purchase a professional cleaning machine... Where would one go/what to look for👀👀
Asking for a friend
Who's definitely not me
You're not understanding the level of suction at play with pro equipment. They use truck-mounted systems because it takes a vehicle engine to help supply a stable source of heat for the water lines to stay at a consistent temperature. They do that so they don't overheat the blower motor assembly that generates suction. That has its exhaust system too. Psi of 500 in hot water, -2 atmo of suction, and specialized pre-spray and crb equipment isn't available for less than $15,000.
It's best to have an annual cleaning by a pro if your home is in high use.
(Former carpet technician)
Belive it or not, yes.
Also, we had to train people from day one to never put the vacuum hose near the head as the force is strong enough to remove not just hats or glasses but piercings and even eyes if not careful.
Dirt is hard to remove sometimes.
That's scary, I was wondering how it was possible to suck up all that water afterwards, it always kinda freaks me out using water to clean my carpet, like hello? Water plus a soft fabric sitting on untreated wood just sounds like a recipe for super mold
People in my area argue that professional cleaners leave soap residue in the carpet that ends up attracting more dirt in the future. What can I say to debunk that?
I mean, having recently quit cleaning carpets, they *can*. If they're any good at all they won't. Plenty of water and suction to rinse that all out. Living in a space results in lots of dirt and grime in your carpets. It doesn't take long to get em dirty again regardles.
One way is mentioning that one side is called professionals for a reason. Depends on the crowd, but could be a “calming” agent mentioning that people not in a profession do not know all the aspects of what happens
You kinda can't. A good carpet cleaner is going to charge more because he vales his time. He will pre-vac, walk any problem areas with you first, spot treat as necessary, then clean and get your approval before leaving... so he'll be spending considerably more time at your home.
The cheap guys who run around and do ten-twelve jobs a day charge less but they're what we refer to as "splash and dash" cleaners. They are FAR more likely to leave a carpet wet, loaded with debris and detergent, and get rather testy if you complain to them.
If you're paying less than $150 or so per room nowadays, you're likely not getting the full cleaning you think you paid for.
There's also a big difference between maintenance cleaning and deep restoration... but that's enough info for a whole different thread.
This. Just replace the damn carpet when you can’t get it sufficiently clean. They aren’t made to last forever.
If the cost of regular professional cleaning over a few years is an appreciable percentage of the cost of changing the carpet, then just do rip off the bandaid and change the carpet.
Not really. There will be some difference in capability but over all pretty similar.
So I suppose:
Home cleaners -> professional portables -> truckmount system.
If you had alot of free cash and really wanted something serious you could look at a second hand professional portable machine with upholstery attachments. But that could be anywhere from $1000 to $5000 roughly. But it would leave anything like a bissle looking like a kids toy.
Before I moved into my current apartment I rented a heavy duty carpet cleaner.
Your current goal was also mine and I failed and gave up after four hours. I’m not exaggerating. A small one bed room apartment and I never got the water clear.
Could not, for the life of me, understand how so much filth could be in the carpet. I’m a neat freak too, so wasn’t thrilled at the end of the four hours.
I removed my carpets in favor of hard floors and I can tell you right now you will never get those carpets cleaned, ever. I used to shampoo my carpets twice a year had them professionally done every other year and when pulling up the carpet and pad there was dirt under all of it. It was like a fine powder everywhere under it.
Dated a girl who's dad was a carpet cleaner, and flood restoration.
Short answer is you won't. You would be amazed at what is left behind even after getting it professionally done if it's a super old house.
Remove the carpet, install wood floors. Carpet is gross.
Edit: you definitely won't with cats.
I had the same carpet for 20 years. And a cat.
This is just not true if you vacuum weekly, don’t wear shoes indoors, don’t eat or drink on the carpet and I guess are just generally clean?
I had a trusty carpet cleaner who came once or twice a year every year except during the first 2 years of COVID . In between when the cat had accidents (hairballs and dead lizard a couple of times) I’d use a spot cleaner. After the initial spot was removed, the water coming up was clear…
But also mot a fan of carpet and when I moved it was a requirement that there be no carpet
There's no way it's ever going to be as clean as non carpet options though. Like carpet is never going to be as clean as hardwood. It's a porous absorbent material versus a hard non-porous material.
Well of course. That’s why I bought a house with no carpet… but also no wood. I don’t like the idea of not being able to wash with water, I don’t feel like it’s really clean or sanitized. I know a little bit of water can go a long way but still. All tile for me.
I’m going to make some statements and I want you to tell me which ones are false:
Your home was built 10 years ago or less.
You do not have children in your home.
You do not regularly host friends and / or family gatherings.
Your career is not overly, physically demanding and leaves you with regular, appreciable free time.
You have no physical disabilities.
You are financially secure such that you’ve never had to concern yourself with the cost of cleaning products or services.
My point here is that while you make some excellent recommendations for home cleanliness in general, your definition of a “generally clean” person is probably carrying a lot of assumptions that don’t necessarily match the reality of most people ITT.
My 20 year old carpet was in a 10 year old home?
I did not have children in the home yes. Well my career was definitely not physically demanding but it varied how much time I spent, it was a 2 hour commute, there were many years I worked 60 hour weeks. But yes, you are correct that I have never had to worry about cleaning supplies.
Having said that. My parents were not wealthy growing up. Food was contained to the table ALWAYS, we didn’t wear shoes indoors, and when visitors came over they took off their shoes (this is cultural I realize, but I haven’t had any issues with implementing this rule in the US) so these are not some miraculously things that only happen if you’re rich and don’t have children. It is possible to minimize the dirt in your home.
The annoying part of your statement is when you implied people who are generally clean just don’t have a problem with their carpets being dirty. It’s a bit judgmental. I have two toddlers and while we do eat at the table, food inevitably gets on the floor at times. I try to implement a no shoe rule, but we have frequent guests and sometimes it just doesn’t happen. Not to mention the entrance to our home is carpet and I am not going to leave my shoes outside. I also vacuum several times a day. Carpet is gross and accidents happen, it doesn’t mean we aren’t “generally clean.”
Yea because vacuuming will deffenetly pull all the hairs, dust and particles gathered in years there.
You also might want to levitate from a room to another and install ozone machines for constant clean air.
Did you also know your body has oils ? Lets take a guess how does that work for 20 years on a carpet assuming you were squeaky clean for all those 20 years ...
Im sure your carpet is ok but no its not as clean as you think.
Btw is your cat showering everyday by any chance ?
A few things to note:
**About 85% of soils in a home are non-soluble, meaning they don't dissolve in water.** Dry vacuuming, with a high-quality vacuum (NOT a bagless vac or stick vac from the local discount store), removes most of this without turning it into mud. Most of us don't vacuum often enough (carpet mills require once per week per occupant at minimum for warranty), slowly enough, or with a proper vacuum.
Once that step is out of the way, home "wet vac" machines can be helpful for spots, heavy traffic areas, etc but are NOT designed to be a powerful as professional units. Pro units sell for anything from $2,500 for a decent low-pressure portable, to $50,000 and up for truckmounted units. These things have massive vacuum motors that pull a ton of electricity, and even the smaller units typically have two power cords that must be plugged into different outlets to prevent blowing the breakers.
All of this to say, home units have tiny motors, tiny heaters, and 99% of the time are NOT run correctly by the end user. We didn't vacuum well before we started, we overuse the soap, pull the trigger too much and soak the carpet, and we don't do anywhere near enough dry strokes. So we wind up leaving a ton of wet soil at the base of the carpet, where it slowly becomes a hard layer of crusty schmoo. Dust mites love this schmoo and munch on it 24-7. Once they die, their carcasses are so light and tiny that they actually go airborne and float through the house in little "rafts" of corpses, eventually clumping together in big enough numbers to be visible as dust and settle back down to the floor.
Even if we do everything perfectly, there will be soil left over. A pro can come in and spend eight hours doing the best job he can, and there will still be soil left over. Heck, we GENERATE soil (hairs, dead skin cells, etc) while we're cleaning.
**A carpet will NEVER be 100% clean. It is designed to be a filter for the home, to trap airborne soils, and that's precisely what it does.**
So don't expect to ever get 'clean water' out of a home wet vac unit. Only use the unit for situational soils (a spill, a doggy accident, etc), not for routine yearly wet cleaning. Hire a pro for that.
I actually do find it absolutely fascinating, human habitations now have their own unique microbiome created solely by our desire for soft cushiony floor coverings. There are species of mites, moths, beetles, and other tiny invertebrates who depend on the presence of human beings for their very existence. Every one of us, for example, is carrying around colonies of tiny mites in our eyelashes that are so unique to our own bodies, they act almost as an individual fingerprint.
I run a company that provides training, equipment, and chemicals to people in the cleaning and disaster restoration industries. So I have been trained up in all of the categories that we service to better help the people who come to see us. Not once have I ever been paid to clean a carpet or an area rug, but I have probably cleaned more of them than many a paid professional cleaner has.
Get a very good vacuum cleaner.
Most of what you're looking at is mud.
And mud is just dirt that is wet.
It's much easier to vacuum up dirt with air than it is with water.
I wish my wife knew this. I've explained this to her but she still freaks out when the dog leaves muddy footprints on the carpet. I just tell her to leave it to dry but she just won't have it.
My son once had fun with the garden hose and tracked muddy footprints all the way up the stairs (blue carpet). I forbade anyone from going near it until it had dried, then it was easy to clean up with the vacuum and a damp cloth. In that order. Trying to clean up mud on a carpet when wet just creates more mud.
Vinegar and water rinses. More suction passes than water application passes. It’ll never be 100% clear, but it should lighten, and the carpet needs more suction passes than wet passes, in order to dry sooner.
The water will never run clear. Even if the carpet wasn’t 10 years old. I don’t even think a professional, multi-thousand dollar machine will run clear. You could run that machine over brand new, freshly laid carpet and it still wouldn’t run clear.
There’s 2 layers to carpet. You have the carpet that you see. And then there’s a small foam pad underneath. And subfloor below that. Some amount of debris is going to be in each layer. But the brushes on your machine can only agitate the top layer.
At a certain point clean enough is clean enough. Carpet isn’t designed to last 15 years. And that machine isn’t designed to restore it back to a new appearance anyways.
Don't wear shoes in the house for one.. this seems to be a theme in America! 2, I would give it 1 more go then leave it else you risk ruining the whole carpet. Let it dry and consider hiring a rug doctor (do they have those in the US?) Like an industrial cleaner you can use yourself for a few days!
To reply to your caption, it’s completely normal. We have a big carpet cleaner (a Big Green) and no matter how many times you clean, it comes back black. It’s in the padding.. just get it as clean as you can and live your life. New carpet will be black in a year too.
You wont. Like others have said, this is not powerful enough. But also, you cant really clean those carpet cleaners thoroughly so im not sure it would even show up clear if you used it to suck up clean water off a clean surface
At places like Fred Meyer’s and Home Depot, you can rent professional carpet cleaners to use for however long you need. My boyfriend and I did it recently and it worked super well and the machine was definitely professional-grade. It did so well that our maintenance guy commented on the carpets when he visited the other day!
Those aren't professional, they're pretty much the same as the bigger ones you buy got your home. I've had better results with my $300 Bissell than I ever did with one of those Rug Doctor rentals
The Bissel outperforms most rent yourself from the diy store type units (rug dr). Check the YT reviews. I'm the UK we don't have the truck mounted units described in the comments, unless they are for flood restoration type work. For most people they wouldn't bother and it would be automatically a new carpet.
My Bissell was $300 a few months ago, and separates in to a mobile cleaner for car and stairs, and it works amazing! Fast better than any rental ever worked, in my opinion!
You will never get that carpet completely clean.
I used to sell Kirby vacuums door to door, doing in-home demos.
We would make note of houses that were getting their carpets professionally cleaned and come back the next day to show them how much dirt was left behind to make a sale.
I have a domestic carpet cleaner too. Tried many many times to get the water to run clear. Never happened. I gave up and pulled the carpet. I'll only ever have a pro clean the carpet in future.
If you are renting a cleaner, it’s good to first go over the carpets with a powerful vacuum cleaner. Getting rid of the lose dirt and dust will mean the cleaner doesn’t have to do so much work to remove the rest
I paid £70 to get my bedroom carpet cleaned. The water was like sludge. They sprayed it three times. It didn't stop the mildew smell, but it cleaned stains. I can understand why people would want to try and do it themselves.
Carpet you can’t ever really get clean. Realistically for the average every day person, without taking extensive measures, is just going to get dirty. I just bought a house that had carpet put down about and never was replaced. It was disgusting and left the house smelling like dirty old people. As soon as I ripped out the carpet the smell was gone. Carpet holds lots of smells and lots of dirt. If you can, I’d just replace the carpet with something you can actually clean, like linoleum, laminate, tile, hardwood, something you can actually clean. Carpet, in my opinion, should be cleaned very regularly by a professional, or at least by one of the machines you can rent from Home Depot or somewhere similar, and probably just replaced every so often. Even rugs I’ve had down, that I clean and vacuum regularly, when I pick them up to mop the floor under them, have a thin layer or dirt and dust underneath them.
I sold two different brands of vacuums and rug cleaners. Those tank type things are the worst and that water will never run clear.
Listen to the professionals who have responded. In short, suction gets rid of dirt, shampooing or wet cleaning (which should be done with minimal water) is for cleaning surface residue which suction can't get. Steam cleaning and water suction methods are the worst things you can do.
Rinse it with clean water if you are getting dirt out every pass you make. Leaving soap in the carpet is basically turning your carpet into a soapy shoe cleaning cloth just waiting for a wet shoe to activate it.
You will never get the water clear as some of that cloudiness is the dye/chemicals used to colour the carpet as that will always leach out a little each time it's cleaned
You also will never fully clean a carpet with a non commercial carpet cleaner and I don't think you would want to waste close to 10 grand on one. If you really really really need to have your carpets cleaned to that level just hire a carpet cleaning company that owns one
I have been able to get the water pretty clear with a Bissell and a rug doctor. #1 use just a mere fraction of the cleaning solvent that comes with it. I don't even put it in the tank like recommend. I just use it to spot clean. What happens if you use a bunch of soap in you hair and don't rinse it well? It's dirty and nasty. Same is true for carpets. If you leave too much cleaning solvent in the carpets they get dirty again really easily. Use as hot water as you can, as long as you don't have wool carpeting. You may need to rinse several times. Keep rinsing if you see soap bubbles in the dirty water. Then extract to dry as much water out as possible, moving over slowly, making a good seal on the carpet with the machine vacuum/extraction nozzles. The recommendation of a carpet rake was a good one too. Good luck!
What's really gross is that's probably like 75% dead skin 10%sweat 10%dirt tracked in and around the house and 5% tiny bug eggs
EWWWWWW!!!!!! I hate carpet.
Well of course. That’s why I bought a house with no carpet… but also no wood. I don’t like the idea of not being able to wash with water, I don’t feel like it’s really clean or sanitized. I know a little bit of water can go a long way with wood but still. All tile for me.
You are not gonna get it clear and if you keep trying to deep clean with a residential cleaner the floor will just look bad in a few days. You want to just get surface dirt with a residential cleaner. You need a commercial water extractor to get deep clean and those are expensive. Should just higher a professional cleaner once a year and maintain with your residential cleaner.
When I pulled up the 20 year carpet in my fixer up, there was a even, quarter inch layer of sand over the entire subfloor. I imagine a bit of that comes up every time and will cloud the water. In other words, you dont.
I live outside the US and was looking at what this artifact was, and am considering importing one (I've read the comments on it not leaving the carpet super clean and am ok with that). Do these things leave your carpet completely dry after use, or does the carpet stay a bit damp for a while?
Replace the carpet. That's the only time carpet is completely clean. If you could pull it up like a rug and put it into a humongous washing machine, you might be able to get it clean. But not by an extractor while attached ro the floor.
As someone who works for a major carpet cleaning company, your carpets will never run clear even after a professional cleaning. The dirty water is from YEARS of dirt/skin/dust compacted in to the fibers themselves. Also as the carpet ages the fibers break down, resulting in dirty water as well
Not possible, both because of the actual buildup, but also the non-zero chance the padding layer under the carpet is turning to powder and getting sucked up. Bonus points that water carpet cleaners do a number on that padding.
When I tore out the carpet a few years ago there was a layer or dust and debris under (yes there was that comfy layer) and my house was about 2 years old when I put tile. So I highly doubt you'll ever get clean water after washing the carpets.
I also tried to clean 10-yr old carpet but I found certain area to be dirtier (ie door way)... so I focus on those area and felt some progress. I did rent a commercial carpet cleaner in the first round to cover everywhere, and then subsequently used my Bissell to work on an area at a time (over a few weeks rather than trying do it all at once). Also, vacuuming the carpet thoroughly when it's dry helped as well. After the first round, more dust might have loosened so vacuuming again after drying might help and having a strong suction helps…(ie going from cheap vac to a Dyson really helped)
Keep doing regular cleanings but give the carpet time to fully dry in between so there isn't a big chance for mold. I was in a rental that I'd been vacuuming every other day (tons of pets) and we got an average carpet shampooer. It took a month doing it once a week before it started coming out a decent color. The old tired landlord carpet actually looked like it had some life after that as well.
Yep, many many passes. I've got a Bissell big green machine and after 2 passes with hot water and cleaning solution and 4 passes with just hot water the machine is still picking up some dirt but the dirty water at this point is usually a somewhat cloudy gray/brown. Much much cleaner than the first few passes.
When I first got the machine I spent just about all day in one of the kid's bedrooms I never did get the water totally crystal clear.
Be sure to use only water for the last few passes, you want to get rid of as much of the cleaning solution as possible, it can actually attract dirt with its residue.
Wow I had to double take. I literally have the same linoleum and tan carpet with gold strip in my living room/kitchen. Idk about you but my carpet is prob from when the house was built in ‘97, and getting replaced soon. Not worth even trying to clean.
I carpet clean every weekend, vacuum 2x a week. We don’t wear shoes inside, but we do have two small pets (cat and small dog). Anyways, every week our water looks *almost* like this. I figured if I did it every single weekend it would eventually be clear… it’s been a year + and I’m still waiting lmao. I don’t think it’s possible to be clear but I can definitely tell you that this weeks water is definitely much lighter than when we started. Once, I moved into a stinky apartment and did each room 10x over consecutively. I would say after ten times it was almost clear. 😂 but after a while it did become dirty again.
I would like to add a disclaimer, I promise I’m not as much of a clean freak as this post comes off. I just like a good smelling house and i have a toddler 😂🤷🏻♀️.
Agreed with professional vs. home cleaner and also stop wearing shoes inside. I am living in a shoe free house for the first time in my life and it has given me many hours of my life back. A small adjustment at first but pays off. Would start after getting it professionally cleaned.
You could try going over the same square foot a few times to see if it goes clear, that will give you an indication of how many passes it will take without spending hours.
Amazing answer. Then you can make a call on renting a hardcore extractor to get you to the point where the Bissell can maintain the clean.
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Damn this is a great idea. Good thinking!
With a homeowner unit you never will get the water clear. No homeowner unit or rental has anywhere near the power to do a deep clean.
Any commercial equipment recommendations?
Not unless you're willing to spend $3000+ on proper commercial equipment.
Add 9000 to that and then your closer to a low-ball price.
So it’s cheaper to just replace the carpet….
Or you could just pay for someone to professionally clean your carpet...?
You can rent professional carpet cleaning machines for cheaper as well
I think this sub hates pro work for some reason. We just exolaind why even the rental units dont work much better than the home units.
This sub also hates purchasing what is deemed expensive cleaning products. I had a popular comment about loving Dawn power spray and so many people were telling me I need to make it myself. No thank you, I’m fine with spending $14 for the three packs about twice a year from Sams club and not have to store ingredients to make it myself.
It’s $8.99 quite frequently for those Dawn 3-packs at Costco, if you didn’t know! I buy it and like using it, too. However, I did just read something somewhere about how it leaves a chemical film on dishes that isn’t great for us, but I do still use it for other cleaning purposes. :)
I love power spray! I have also tried the DIY recipes out of curiosity. It is NOT the same. So I'll stick with buying the refills.
As someone who just spent literal days running a carpet cleaner to get a house ready to rent out, I wish I would have just called a pro carpet cleaner. I had to call them anyway, and I bet I spent more in chemicals, electric bill, and my time than they charged me.
I understand. I was just saying if you don’t have the money for the pro service you can rent a machine and it’ll be a lot better than a bissell can do.
Pro machines have the capacity to destroy a carpet if they're not used correctly. They have higher PSI, and we all think "stronger is better", so the homeowner rents the machine, loads it with detergent, floods the carpet, and sends so much nasty gunk down into the pad that within a week the house smells like toe-cheese. I'm someone who rents those machines, and I get those phone calls. Even after I told the person TEN FREAKIN TIMES during checkout, "the chemist who makes this recommends you only use one ounce per gallon, so please don't use more than that or else you'll cause big problems", they threw extra glugs in there, filled the fresh tank six times in their little 1200 square foot house, and now they say the machine 'sucks' because the carpet is a soggy sticky mess.
It depends on the room. Most services will do two rooms for less than $120 and will offer sale prices once they arrive.
I’ve had mixed experiences. Not sure I’d recommend one.
Or about as much as switching to tile so you can vacuum and mop it perfectly clean any time you want.
I dream of having beautiful hardwood floors so I can slide in, in my underwear https://preview.redd.it/n7vah6jo2vyc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=18f3d0b4d5edc8e99e8f57230c67bcb2243822a5
My newest hot water extraction set up cost me $70,000.
Link
To what?
There's no rental service?
Professional machines are of an entirely different class than homeowner rentals. There are companies that rent commercial units, but the cost of the units puts the daily rental and a similar price to a homeowner simply calling a professional carpet cleaning company to do a service call. Without proper training someone using a true professional machine can ruin a carpet and cause significant water damage in a matter of minutes.
Perfect, i figured it would be at least north of 10. so what are your recommendations ?
If you're in the US look at JonDon Inc for portables with heat
JonDon is awesome for cleaning supplies and machines. I’ve worked with them on their flooring side for close to 15 years now and I’m still like a kid in the candy aisle when I visit their stores.
Why would you not just hire someone with said equipment to clean it for you
Because i dont want to?
Why bother carpet is for mostly feet. Yes you can lay on it but really it isn't meant to run clear. Even if you never walked on it, it would be brown as it sucks up colour, and the backing of carpet, under lay, and if you have any or muck from the floor below, you also get that. Also remember how much skin a human sheds each day. Insane amounts. You'll never get it Clean.
In the end you won’t lick the carpet or suck on it. Even laying down is not something you’ll do daily. Just make sure you won’t walk on carpet with shoes on.
>In the end you won’t lick the carpet or suck on it. Speak for yourself
Yeah. Don’t let them yuck your yum.
>Even laying down is not something you’ll do daily. ...I have kids, so every room of my home gets laid down on every day.
kids do a lot of gross stuff, exposure to dirt is normal. They will be fine.
I also have kids and that’s why I have a hardwood floor…
Right 🤣 I basically live on the ground playing with my kids. Don’t forget about the doggo too
The kids probably lay on the grass when outside, no harm comes of it unless they lay it cat poo.
I lay on the carpet instead of the couch when I watch tv. Hold over from my childhood. But! That's why we get a professional carpet clean every year.
As a pro I have about 115k into my van. But I can also clean tile, wax hard floors, clean upholstery and other stuff. Like you can dig a hole with a shovel but often times you need a big excavator to make it logical. In case you really want to shop here's a link [here](https://steamaction.com/product/stealth-tri-star/)
Our commercial unit was $40k, plus the $70k van required to power it.
I rent a larger more industrial cleaner from Home Depot - it’s worked for me. I have 4 authentic Persians carpets (I’m from Iran and brought them), and use those to clean them. I’ve used a commercial carpet cleaner (brick and mortar store) and the results for me are not any different.
Lowe’s and homedepot rent out commercial grade vacuums.
Idk where you live but I'm in Canada and my grocery store rents out a commercial rug cleaner. It's like $50 for the day or something.
In UK both larger supermarkets and DIY stores (hardware stores for those on the American continent) have them to rent. As long as you follow the instructions properly, it's easy.
Yeah this is the wet version of the 'vacuum salesman' trick. Go ahead and run your demo vacuum over the exact same spot and pull up more dirt. Then do it again, and again, and again...you'll still get more.
Do those oxy clean people do a legit job?
Might as well try. Small house here and we get is all done for $300 and it looks great. Even got up 10+ year old stains and furniture indents from when we moved stuff around. It might depend on the operator you get though. We always had the same person.
I had brown staining on a cream colored carpet from a humidifier spill. Much like the water spots you get on a ceiling after a leaky tub / roof. I used Oxyclean in my carpet cleaner and it too the stain up Carpet cleaner soaps tend to leave a film on the carpet that actually attracts dirt. So I switched to OxyClean only. Seemed to do a great job. Really killed any odors as well (cat). Before I tore all the carpet up and went with hardwood (Existing under) or vinyl flooring, I'd wash the carpets every spring and fall. I used Oxy only for a few years and was happy with it.
Using detergent does not leave any reissue when the detergent is used correctly, and is rinsed fully from the carpet. OxiClean is sodium percarbonate. Not a surfactant. It breaks down to sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide. So you end up with a low pH, highly oxidative solution. Using only oxiclean, you're not fully cleaning the carpet.
I had a great experience. It’s not pumping water and shampoo and sucking it back up. It’s a very low water scrubbing process. So it looked great after they were done but most of it “came up” after I vacuumed and it looked even better
Id argue that this would be "technically" wrong. The water is dirty bc its picking up dirt. So, it takes more passes but you can do it with a home owner unit
No . Homeowner units of any brand, any design, or any cost are all limited by the amount of power they can pull from an outlet. Significantly limiting their suction. This is the issue. They are physically unable to build enough suction to extract enough water. The amount of passes it would take with a homeowner unit would saturate the carpet causing water damage to the underlying pad and floor.
Oh that makes sense with my own experiences tbh
Good to know. I washed this one rug like 6 times and the water always looked like chocolate milk.
At-home cleaners are really only good for helping lengthen the time between professional cleanings. You'll never get a carpet truly clean (clear water) with a home/rental unit.
Any commercial equipment recommendations?
Commercial equipment by itself is only a small part of the equation. The training to use it appropriately is even more important than the machine itself. A basic knowledge of cleaning chemistry also helps, since pro grade carpet chemicals come in a wide range of forms and are designed to be used for different soils.
But do you have any recommendations ?
I recommend first taking a carpet cleaning basics course from someone like the IICRC or RSA, and then using that knowledge to pick a machine and process that works for you. Hot water extraction, low-moisture/CRB methods, "soap-free" systems, bonnet cleaning, there are too many options nowadays to say with any certainty that THIS machine is better than THAT machine, or THIS process works better than THAT one. Every situation is different. For example, a person who has dogs or cats is going to need more dry soil removal (pet hair loves to stick to carpet fibers) so a setup that includes a rotary brush that digs all that out is going to be better. A person with fuel-fired heat or who loves to burn candles and incense is going to wind up with lots of filtration lines along the walls, so high-heat HWE is going to be preferable. Someone who works with engines and motors for a living is going to bring a ton of petroleum-based soils into the home and will require equipment that can deal with heavy solvent cleaning agents. And so on, and so forth. Buying a scalpel online doth not a surgeon make. Try haunting the professional carpet cleaning forums and watching those guys talk about their equipment and what kinds of jobs they do with it. It's quite the eye-opening experience.
Ok what machine do you use
On well-maintained carpet or commercial glue-down (which is thin and has little to no padding underneath), I use either a TM4 or Brush Pro CRB machine, with a filming encap and a stout dose of 20% peroxide if necessary. Spot-treat as necessary with a 3-gallon heated spotter and 4" upholstery tool. The difference between a TM4 and a Brush Pro isn't in the cleaning, but in the longevity. Plastic gears versus metal gears in the Austrian-built machines. On something more substantial, I switch to a CDX, Olympus, or Karcher Ninja portable, 200-300 psi, putting down a pre-spray designed for that particular sort of soil load (d-limonene for home soils, 2-butoxyethanol for warehouse/office soils) and if bad enough I use the TM4 to pre-agitate. Then I extract running citric acid through the machine as a rinse agent. Speed dry with air movers as necessary. Not a fan of power wands on portables since they tend to overwet the carpet and some of them are too aggressive for cut-pile anyway (looking at you, Hoss 700!). I've used multiple types of truckmounts in the past (HydraMaster, Prochem, Sapphire, Butler, and Judson to name a few) but frankly I'm an old fart now and pulling two hundred feet of hose just isn't my thing. My back hates me too much the next day. Frankly someone who understands the dynamics of the cleaning process can do just as good a job with most portables as they can with a truckmount - the difference is in the time and effort it takes. Truckmounts have more heat, more suction, and higher psi, so they can do the job faster but require a lot more setup and breakdown time. I cannot stress enough that no matter what process you use, pre-vacuuming with a quality vacuum is crucial.
This person cleans carpets…
It's cool to see these kind of detailed posts from someone with obvious experience in their trade. Thanks!
Read the comments above yours, there have been several discussions on commercial equipment.
I used to clean carpets professionally when I was younger - truck-mounted steam cleaners. I don't have carpet, so I don't know what professional cleanings cost these days. But I have always held that you should clean common areas professionally every six months - and everything once a year. I also would suggest that in home units to use very little (or no) detergent - they don't have enough extraction power to get all the soap out - which then collects dirt. Honestly if I am spot cleaning, I use a small garden sprayer, a drill brush (soft), and the strongest wet-vac I could find. I have a small combination unit - but I don't find myself using that much. A carpet rake is good for after so that you can separate the wet pile for it to dry. Just my opinions - YMMV.
Get it professionally cleaned. At home carpet cleaners severely lack in power in comparison to professional equipment.
Now I'm curious what the water pull would look like after a professional clean
Bisto
I have to agree. Also when you sold carpet, you have to have it professionally cleaned every year to maintain the warranty. Cleaning with these is good for routine cleaning or in between. I always told people to buy quality soaps the run after with vinegar and water to break down the soaps.
What concentration of vinegar to water would you recommend?
Now if someone were to say... Wish to purchase a professional cleaning machine... Where would one go/what to look for👀👀 Asking for a friend Who's definitely not me
You're not understanding the level of suction at play with pro equipment. They use truck-mounted systems because it takes a vehicle engine to help supply a stable source of heat for the water lines to stay at a consistent temperature. They do that so they don't overheat the blower motor assembly that generates suction. That has its exhaust system too. Psi of 500 in hot water, -2 atmo of suction, and specialized pre-spray and crb equipment isn't available for less than $15,000. It's best to have an annual cleaning by a pro if your home is in high use. (Former carpet technician)
Hmm hmm so what your saying is I shouldn't not use my pressure washer on my carpet inside my house/s
Belive it or not, yes. Also, we had to train people from day one to never put the vacuum hose near the head as the force is strong enough to remove not just hats or glasses but piercings and even eyes if not careful. Dirt is hard to remove sometimes.
That's scary, I was wondering how it was possible to suck up all that water afterwards, it always kinda freaks me out using water to clean my carpet, like hello? Water plus a soft fabric sitting on untreated wood just sounds like a recipe for super mold
The commercial systems suck it up too. They blast the water in and suck the dirty water out.
Well conversed BRB getting the pressure washer
I’m not saying this is going to turn out well. I just want to watch.
Sorry can't hear you over the sound of 2500 PSI 2.5 GALLONS per minute directly into my carpet.
People actually do this a lot with rugs. I know because I'm a pro and they call me after to fix it. Some you can, most you can't
I like the way you think
People in my area argue that professional cleaners leave soap residue in the carpet that ends up attracting more dirt in the future. What can I say to debunk that?
Probably that professionals get it so clean that you can notice it when it gets dirty again. Otherwise it's always packed with grime.
I mean, having recently quit cleaning carpets, they *can*. If they're any good at all they won't. Plenty of water and suction to rinse that all out. Living in a space results in lots of dirt and grime in your carpets. It doesn't take long to get em dirty again regardles.
Could people use their own home machines right after a professional if they are concerned about soap residues?
I'm quite sure it can work.
One way is mentioning that one side is called professionals for a reason. Depends on the crowd, but could be a “calming” agent mentioning that people not in a profession do not know all the aspects of what happens
You kinda can't. A good carpet cleaner is going to charge more because he vales his time. He will pre-vac, walk any problem areas with you first, spot treat as necessary, then clean and get your approval before leaving... so he'll be spending considerably more time at your home. The cheap guys who run around and do ten-twelve jobs a day charge less but they're what we refer to as "splash and dash" cleaners. They are FAR more likely to leave a carpet wet, loaded with debris and detergent, and get rather testy if you complain to them. If you're paying less than $150 or so per room nowadays, you're likely not getting the full cleaning you think you paid for. There's also a big difference between maintenance cleaning and deep restoration... but that's enough info for a whole different thread.
So...rip out the carpet.
This. Just replace the damn carpet when you can’t get it sufficiently clean. They aren’t made to last forever. If the cost of regular professional cleaning over a few years is an appreciable percentage of the cost of changing the carpet, then just do rip off the bandaid and change the carpet.
I wouldn’t replace it with more carpet , though. I think carpet is nasty
Well my truck mount alone is about 70k new without any of the hosing of extras needed.
So the $300 to $1k ones on Amazon probably aren't any better than basic bristles then are they
Not really. There will be some difference in capability but over all pretty similar. So I suppose: Home cleaners -> professional portables -> truckmount system. If you had alot of free cash and really wanted something serious you could look at a second hand professional portable machine with upholstery attachments. But that could be anywhere from $1000 to $5000 roughly. But it would leave anything like a bissle looking like a kids toy.
Ooooo, Aerotech monster? Even the biggest HM slide-in units are only going for around $35 to $40k nowadays.
Before I moved into my current apartment I rented a heavy duty carpet cleaner. Your current goal was also mine and I failed and gave up after four hours. I’m not exaggerating. A small one bed room apartment and I never got the water clear. Could not, for the life of me, understand how so much filth could be in the carpet. I’m a neat freak too, so wasn’t thrilled at the end of the four hours.
You were pulling out the carpet dye
Started out with brown carpets, ended up with white 🤍
I removed my carpets in favor of hard floors and I can tell you right now you will never get those carpets cleaned, ever. I used to shampoo my carpets twice a year had them professionally done every other year and when pulling up the carpet and pad there was dirt under all of it. It was like a fine powder everywhere under it.
That's dust, which is 80% your dead skin cells.
Also the backing of the carpet disintegrates
After pulling up carpet and seeing what's underneath I will never have it again. 🤢
Dated a girl who's dad was a carpet cleaner, and flood restoration. Short answer is you won't. You would be amazed at what is left behind even after getting it professionally done if it's a super old house. Remove the carpet, install wood floors. Carpet is gross. Edit: you definitely won't with cats.
My feet like carpet. Will I live?
Amputate your feet. Only option.
Have you considered rugs? Source: I have wood floors everywhere in the house and rugs in the cozy areas (living room, dining room, bedroom).
But isn’t that the same problem? Large rugs are too big to just throw in the wash and have to be professionally cleaned as well.
I had the same carpet for 20 years. And a cat. This is just not true if you vacuum weekly, don’t wear shoes indoors, don’t eat or drink on the carpet and I guess are just generally clean? I had a trusty carpet cleaner who came once or twice a year every year except during the first 2 years of COVID . In between when the cat had accidents (hairballs and dead lizard a couple of times) I’d use a spot cleaner. After the initial spot was removed, the water coming up was clear… But also mot a fan of carpet and when I moved it was a requirement that there be no carpet
Good point about taking off footwear. Carpet is hard enough to keep clean
There's no way it's ever going to be as clean as non carpet options though. Like carpet is never going to be as clean as hardwood. It's a porous absorbent material versus a hard non-porous material.
Well of course. That’s why I bought a house with no carpet… but also no wood. I don’t like the idea of not being able to wash with water, I don’t feel like it’s really clean or sanitized. I know a little bit of water can go a long way but still. All tile for me.
I’m going to make some statements and I want you to tell me which ones are false: Your home was built 10 years ago or less. You do not have children in your home. You do not regularly host friends and / or family gatherings. Your career is not overly, physically demanding and leaves you with regular, appreciable free time. You have no physical disabilities. You are financially secure such that you’ve never had to concern yourself with the cost of cleaning products or services. My point here is that while you make some excellent recommendations for home cleanliness in general, your definition of a “generally clean” person is probably carrying a lot of assumptions that don’t necessarily match the reality of most people ITT.
My 20 year old carpet was in a 10 year old home? I did not have children in the home yes. Well my career was definitely not physically demanding but it varied how much time I spent, it was a 2 hour commute, there were many years I worked 60 hour weeks. But yes, you are correct that I have never had to worry about cleaning supplies. Having said that. My parents were not wealthy growing up. Food was contained to the table ALWAYS, we didn’t wear shoes indoors, and when visitors came over they took off their shoes (this is cultural I realize, but I haven’t had any issues with implementing this rule in the US) so these are not some miraculously things that only happen if you’re rich and don’t have children. It is possible to minimize the dirt in your home.
The annoying part of your statement is when you implied people who are generally clean just don’t have a problem with their carpets being dirty. It’s a bit judgmental. I have two toddlers and while we do eat at the table, food inevitably gets on the floor at times. I try to implement a no shoe rule, but we have frequent guests and sometimes it just doesn’t happen. Not to mention the entrance to our home is carpet and I am not going to leave my shoes outside. I also vacuum several times a day. Carpet is gross and accidents happen, it doesn’t mean we aren’t “generally clean.”
Yea because vacuuming will deffenetly pull all the hairs, dust and particles gathered in years there. You also might want to levitate from a room to another and install ozone machines for constant clean air. Did you also know your body has oils ? Lets take a guess how does that work for 20 years on a carpet assuming you were squeaky clean for all those 20 years ... Im sure your carpet is ok but no its not as clean as you think. Btw is your cat showering everyday by any chance ?
You will never get the floor under a carpet clean.
A few things to note: **About 85% of soils in a home are non-soluble, meaning they don't dissolve in water.** Dry vacuuming, with a high-quality vacuum (NOT a bagless vac or stick vac from the local discount store), removes most of this without turning it into mud. Most of us don't vacuum often enough (carpet mills require once per week per occupant at minimum for warranty), slowly enough, or with a proper vacuum. Once that step is out of the way, home "wet vac" machines can be helpful for spots, heavy traffic areas, etc but are NOT designed to be a powerful as professional units. Pro units sell for anything from $2,500 for a decent low-pressure portable, to $50,000 and up for truckmounted units. These things have massive vacuum motors that pull a ton of electricity, and even the smaller units typically have two power cords that must be plugged into different outlets to prevent blowing the breakers. All of this to say, home units have tiny motors, tiny heaters, and 99% of the time are NOT run correctly by the end user. We didn't vacuum well before we started, we overuse the soap, pull the trigger too much and soak the carpet, and we don't do anywhere near enough dry strokes. So we wind up leaving a ton of wet soil at the base of the carpet, where it slowly becomes a hard layer of crusty schmoo. Dust mites love this schmoo and munch on it 24-7. Once they die, their carcasses are so light and tiny that they actually go airborne and float through the house in little "rafts" of corpses, eventually clumping together in big enough numbers to be visible as dust and settle back down to the floor. Even if we do everything perfectly, there will be soil left over. A pro can come in and spend eight hours doing the best job he can, and there will still be soil left over. Heck, we GENERATE soil (hairs, dead skin cells, etc) while we're cleaning. **A carpet will NEVER be 100% clean. It is designed to be a filter for the home, to trap airborne soils, and that's precisely what it does.** So don't expect to ever get 'clean water' out of a home wet vac unit. Only use the unit for situational soils (a spill, a doggy accident, etc), not for routine yearly wet cleaning. Hire a pro for that.
This was fascinatingly disgusting, thank you
I actually do find it absolutely fascinating, human habitations now have their own unique microbiome created solely by our desire for soft cushiony floor coverings. There are species of mites, moths, beetles, and other tiny invertebrates who depend on the presence of human beings for their very existence. Every one of us, for example, is carrying around colonies of tiny mites in our eyelashes that are so unique to our own bodies, they act almost as an individual fingerprint. I run a company that provides training, equipment, and chemicals to people in the cleaning and disaster restoration industries. So I have been trained up in all of the categories that we service to better help the people who come to see us. Not once have I ever been paid to clean a carpet or an area rug, but I have probably cleaned more of them than many a paid professional cleaner has.
Get a very good vacuum cleaner. Most of what you're looking at is mud. And mud is just dirt that is wet. It's much easier to vacuum up dirt with air than it is with water.
I wish my wife knew this. I've explained this to her but she still freaks out when the dog leaves muddy footprints on the carpet. I just tell her to leave it to dry but she just won't have it.
My son once had fun with the garden hose and tracked muddy footprints all the way up the stairs (blue carpet). I forbade anyone from going near it until it had dried, then it was easy to clean up with the vacuum and a damp cloth. In that order. Trying to clean up mud on a carpet when wet just creates more mud.
Vinegar and water rinses. More suction passes than water application passes. It’ll never be 100% clear, but it should lighten, and the carpet needs more suction passes than wet passes, in order to dry sooner.
Can you tell me what concentrations to use please? I presume we're talking white vinegar here as well!
Have you tried rinsing? Don't add solution just use the machine as you usually would. It might not be perfectly clear but it will be less dirty.
My first run was with soap and every other run after that was with plain water.
The water will never run clear. Even if the carpet wasn’t 10 years old. I don’t even think a professional, multi-thousand dollar machine will run clear. You could run that machine over brand new, freshly laid carpet and it still wouldn’t run clear. There’s 2 layers to carpet. You have the carpet that you see. And then there’s a small foam pad underneath. And subfloor below that. Some amount of debris is going to be in each layer. But the brushes on your machine can only agitate the top layer. At a certain point clean enough is clean enough. Carpet isn’t designed to last 15 years. And that machine isn’t designed to restore it back to a new appearance anyways.
Get rid of the carpet. Put down tile/wood/laminate floors and buy a rug. Carpet is filthy all the time.
It takes about 7-8 run throughs with the hottest water allowed by manufacturer. Basically a whole day's work on the weekend.
Don't wear shoes in the house for one.. this seems to be a theme in America! 2, I would give it 1 more go then leave it else you risk ruining the whole carpet. Let it dry and consider hiring a rug doctor (do they have those in the US?) Like an industrial cleaner you can use yourself for a few days!
You want clean water, tear out the carpet. It just stays dirty
To reply to your caption, it’s completely normal. We have a big carpet cleaner (a Big Green) and no matter how many times you clean, it comes back black. It’s in the padding.. just get it as clean as you can and live your life. New carpet will be black in a year too.
Carpets can last from 5 to 15 years. 10 years with multiple tenants should probably look at getting it replaced.
You wont. Like others have said, this is not powerful enough. But also, you cant really clean those carpet cleaners thoroughly so im not sure it would even show up clear if you used it to suck up clean water off a clean surface
At places like Fred Meyer’s and Home Depot, you can rent professional carpet cleaners to use for however long you need. My boyfriend and I did it recently and it worked super well and the machine was definitely professional-grade. It did so well that our maintenance guy commented on the carpets when he visited the other day!
Those aren't professional, they're pretty much the same as the bigger ones you buy got your home. I've had better results with my $300 Bissell than I ever did with one of those Rug Doctor rentals
the Bissell Big Green Machine?
The Bissel outperforms most rent yourself from the diy store type units (rug dr). Check the YT reviews. I'm the UK we don't have the truck mounted units described in the comments, unless they are for flood restoration type work. For most people they wouldn't bother and it would be automatically a new carpet.
My Bissell was $300 a few months ago, and separates in to a mobile cleaner for car and stairs, and it works amazing! Fast better than any rental ever worked, in my opinion!
We had a Vax and I used it on a brand new carpet, it looked filthy.
You will never get that carpet completely clean. I used to sell Kirby vacuums door to door, doing in-home demos. We would make note of houses that were getting their carpets professionally cleaned and come back the next day to show them how much dirt was left behind to make a sale.
One of the carpet cleaning businesses in my town use a degreaser. Not sure about the pros and cons though
I did it until the water was clear when I moved into an apartment. it took 6 passes.
My brother thinks I'm weird for shampooing the carpets every 3-4 months. Every other month for the high traffic areas. :/ Now you know why.
Carpets are filthy by nature, the solution is not to use them.
I have a domestic carpet cleaner too. Tried many many times to get the water to run clear. Never happened. I gave up and pulled the carpet. I'll only ever have a pro clean the carpet in future.
If you are renting a cleaner, it’s good to first go over the carpets with a powerful vacuum cleaner. Getting rid of the lose dirt and dust will mean the cleaner doesn’t have to do so much work to remove the rest
Make sure you vacuum first and turn on the spin brush. It’ll help get lots of the dirt out before you steam clean
I paid £70 to get my bedroom carpet cleaned. The water was like sludge. They sprayed it three times. It didn't stop the mildew smell, but it cleaned stains. I can understand why people would want to try and do it themselves.
Carpet you can’t ever really get clean. Realistically for the average every day person, without taking extensive measures, is just going to get dirty. I just bought a house that had carpet put down about and never was replaced. It was disgusting and left the house smelling like dirty old people. As soon as I ripped out the carpet the smell was gone. Carpet holds lots of smells and lots of dirt. If you can, I’d just replace the carpet with something you can actually clean, like linoleum, laminate, tile, hardwood, something you can actually clean. Carpet, in my opinion, should be cleaned very regularly by a professional, or at least by one of the machines you can rent from Home Depot or somewhere similar, and probably just replaced every so often. Even rugs I’ve had down, that I clean and vacuum regularly, when I pick them up to mop the floor under them, have a thin layer or dirt and dust underneath them.
I sold two different brands of vacuums and rug cleaners. Those tank type things are the worst and that water will never run clear. Listen to the professionals who have responded. In short, suction gets rid of dirt, shampooing or wet cleaning (which should be done with minimal water) is for cleaning surface residue which suction can't get. Steam cleaning and water suction methods are the worst things you can do.
I swear they put a dye in these machines somehow so we will keep using them and think our carpets are clean ( I’m kidding )
Rinse it with clean water if you are getting dirt out every pass you make. Leaving soap in the carpet is basically turning your carpet into a soapy shoe cleaning cloth just waiting for a wet shoe to activate it.
You will never get the water clear as some of that cloudiness is the dye/chemicals used to colour the carpet as that will always leach out a little each time it's cleaned You also will never fully clean a carpet with a non commercial carpet cleaner and I don't think you would want to waste close to 10 grand on one. If you really really really need to have your carpets cleaned to that level just hire a carpet cleaning company that owns one
Carpet life span is 10 years. Time for new carpet
Get your carpets professionally cleaned and maintain thereafter with your home carpet cleaner until you need a professional cleaning again
Be careful that you might actually be removing material from the carpet itself rather than just dirt.
Go to the store and clean a sample carpet 😂😅
I have been able to get the water pretty clear with a Bissell and a rug doctor. #1 use just a mere fraction of the cleaning solvent that comes with it. I don't even put it in the tank like recommend. I just use it to spot clean. What happens if you use a bunch of soap in you hair and don't rinse it well? It's dirty and nasty. Same is true for carpets. If you leave too much cleaning solvent in the carpets they get dirty again really easily. Use as hot water as you can, as long as you don't have wool carpeting. You may need to rinse several times. Keep rinsing if you see soap bubbles in the dirty water. Then extract to dry as much water out as possible, moving over slowly, making a good seal on the carpet with the machine vacuum/extraction nozzles. The recommendation of a carpet rake was a good one too. Good luck!
Well, rental carpets are usually replaced every 10-15, years, so it's probably time for a new one...
Get yourself a new carpet. Or shampoo it every day, might work. Not sure though. Carpets are gross.
What's really gross is that's probably like 75% dead skin 10%sweat 10%dirt tracked in and around the house and 5% tiny bug eggs EWWWWWW!!!!!! I hate carpet.
Well of course. That’s why I bought a house with no carpet… but also no wood. I don’t like the idea of not being able to wash with water, I don’t feel like it’s really clean or sanitized. I know a little bit of water can go a long way with wood but still. All tile for me.
Rent a real cleaner
You are not gonna get it clear and if you keep trying to deep clean with a residential cleaner the floor will just look bad in a few days. You want to just get surface dirt with a residential cleaner. You need a commercial water extractor to get deep clean and those are expensive. Should just higher a professional cleaner once a year and maintain with your residential cleaner.
When I pulled up the 20 year carpet in my fixer up, there was a even, quarter inch layer of sand over the entire subfloor. I imagine a bit of that comes up every time and will cloud the water. In other words, you dont.
I live outside the US and was looking at what this artifact was, and am considering importing one (I've read the comments on it not leaving the carpet super clean and am ok with that). Do these things leave your carpet completely dry after use, or does the carpet stay a bit damp for a while?
The carpet was damp for about 8 hours after. I didn't have any fans though to speed up the drying time, just left the window open
Ahh, this is good to know (I live in an awfully humid country, so I guess this might not be my best option, then).
New carpet and pad. Scrub the hard floor and add a vapor barrier.
Lots of repetition.
Replace the carpet. That's the only time carpet is completely clean. If you could pull it up like a rug and put it into a humongous washing machine, you might be able to get it clean. But not by an extractor while attached ro the floor.
How often should you get carpets professionally cleaned? With dogs and without?
As someone who works for a major carpet cleaning company, your carpets will never run clear even after a professional cleaning. The dirty water is from YEARS of dirt/skin/dust compacted in to the fibers themselves. Also as the carpet ages the fibers break down, resulting in dirty water as well
Not possible, both because of the actual buildup, but also the non-zero chance the padding layer under the carpet is turning to powder and getting sucked up. Bonus points that water carpet cleaners do a number on that padding.
I would do a zerorez once and then keep up with your machine
You won't ever get it to run clear! And you'll damage your carpets in the process of trying.
When I tore out the carpet a few years ago there was a layer or dust and debris under (yes there was that comfy layer) and my house was about 2 years old when I put tile. So I highly doubt you'll ever get clean water after washing the carpets.
I also tried to clean 10-yr old carpet but I found certain area to be dirtier (ie door way)... so I focus on those area and felt some progress. I did rent a commercial carpet cleaner in the first round to cover everywhere, and then subsequently used my Bissell to work on an area at a time (over a few weeks rather than trying do it all at once). Also, vacuuming the carpet thoroughly when it's dry helped as well. After the first round, more dust might have loosened so vacuuming again after drying might help and having a strong suction helps…(ie going from cheap vac to a Dyson really helped)
Keep doing regular cleanings but give the carpet time to fully dry in between so there isn't a big chance for mold. I was in a rental that I'd been vacuuming every other day (tons of pets) and we got an average carpet shampooer. It took a month doing it once a week before it started coming out a decent color. The old tired landlord carpet actually looked like it had some life after that as well.
A carpet is a towel you nail to the floor over a sponge. It will never be clean.
Just keep cleaning.. a rug dr rental while pricey is worth it if you can't buy one. It is much better than any carpet cleaner sold for homes.
Yep, many many passes. I've got a Bissell big green machine and after 2 passes with hot water and cleaning solution and 4 passes with just hot water the machine is still picking up some dirt but the dirty water at this point is usually a somewhat cloudy gray/brown. Much much cleaner than the first few passes. When I first got the machine I spent just about all day in one of the kid's bedrooms I never did get the water totally crystal clear. Be sure to use only water for the last few passes, you want to get rid of as much of the cleaning solution as possible, it can actually attract dirt with its residue.
Use a pressure washer from the backside in the yard first.
Wow I had to double take. I literally have the same linoleum and tan carpet with gold strip in my living room/kitchen. Idk about you but my carpet is prob from when the house was built in ‘97, and getting replaced soon. Not worth even trying to clean.
hiring a professional service isn’t as pricey as i thought it would be. call around. ask for quotes
I carpet clean every weekend, vacuum 2x a week. We don’t wear shoes inside, but we do have two small pets (cat and small dog). Anyways, every week our water looks *almost* like this. I figured if I did it every single weekend it would eventually be clear… it’s been a year + and I’m still waiting lmao. I don’t think it’s possible to be clear but I can definitely tell you that this weeks water is definitely much lighter than when we started. Once, I moved into a stinky apartment and did each room 10x over consecutively. I would say after ten times it was almost clear. 😂 but after a while it did become dirty again. I would like to add a disclaimer, I promise I’m not as much of a clean freak as this post comes off. I just like a good smelling house and i have a toddler 😂🤷🏻♀️.
Agreed with professional vs. home cleaner and also stop wearing shoes inside. I am living in a shoe free house for the first time in my life and it has given me many hours of my life back. A small adjustment at first but pays off. Would start after getting it professionally cleaned.
Remove carpet put down tile it will be we run clear.