Carpet Shampooer – Your Ultimate Carpet Shampooer Guide

A carpet shampooer can be a great investment for a house with carpeted floors. The larger initial investment in the shampooer unit will pay itself off in the savings over time compared with renting one or calling in a cleaning company every time your carpets need cleaning. So what do you as a consumer need to know in order to make the best decision when buying a carpet shampooer?

How does a carpet shampooer work?

The first step in shampooing a carpet is to soak the carpet with a mix of hot water and a shampoo. This will need to soak in for around 15 minutes in order to loosen the dirt that has been ground into the carpet from everyday living. Once the soaking is over the carpet is rinsed by the carpet shampooer, spraying fresh water onto the carpet to help draw out the dirty water. Some varieties of carpet shampooer may heat up the rinse water, other do not. As the carpet is being rinsed a powerful vacuum in the shampooer sucks the water out of the carpeting. A carpet shampooer will have rotating brushes that it uses to scrub the carpets to help remove the dirt.

Is there a difference between a carpet shampooer and a carpet steamer?

A carpet shampooer uses shampoo and water to clean a carpet. The water may or not be warmed at all, and a set of moving brushes is used to help clean the carpet. This may not be the right choice for all carpeting types, some more delicate types may be damaged by the rotating brushes, so be sure to check for manufacturer’s recommendations for cleaning methods before purchase.

A carpet steam cleaner also uses water and shampoo to clean carpeting. While it has the word steam in its name it does not actually use steam to clean the carpet. It heats the water to near boiling to clean carpeting and kill any organisms or bacteria in the carpet. A carpet steam cleaner does not use brushes and just vacuums up the water from the carpet to remove dirt.

There is another cleaning machine called a steam cleaner. This does use steam to clean and sterilize. However, a steam cleaner is designed to clean hard surfaces like tile or concrete floors, they are not meant to be used on carpeting at all.

What should I look for in a carpet shampooer?

There are two main styles of carpet shampooer: full size machines which while smaller than a rental unit will take up a large amount of closet space and compact cleaners that will fit on a shelf. The full size carpet shampooer is great if you will regularly be cleaning large areas of carpeting, the come in upright and cannister models. The upright units resemble a bulkier upright vacuum cleaner and the cannister unit will have a wand attached to the main cannister unit by a hose. If you need to frequently clean small messes, like spilled drinks or pet messes a compact carpet shampooer can quickly handle those little messes, but will take way too much effort for cleaning large areas of carpet.

Another thing to take into consideration are the available features and accessories for the carpet shampooer you are looking at buying.

Attachments: these additional tools will attach to the hose on your carpet shampooer to allow you to clean in tight spaces, clean upholstery and other specialized jobs.

Tank size: The larger the tank is, the more square feet you can clean before you need to dump the waste tank or refill the clean water tank.

Powered brushes: Powered brushes will keep scrubbing at the same pace no matter what speed you are pushing the carpet shampooer. This will let you concentrate on stubborn spots without having to push it back and forth as much as a machine where the brushes are spun by the wheels turning.

Hose length: If you have carpeted stairs you will probably want to invest in a machine that has a hose long enough for you to clean the stairs without having to carry the carpet shampooer up the stairs while you’re cleaning.

Tank shut-off: Some models of carpet shampooer will have a sensor in the waste tank that will shut it off once it has been filled with dirty water so there is no risk of overflow.

Popular carpet shampooer brands

Bissell: Bissell makes upright, cannister and compact models of carpet shampooer for sale. They offer upright models designed to deal with those special messes that come with owning a pet. Their cannister cleaners can be used as a carpet shampooer, a water separating vacuum and can be used to clean hard surfaces as well. In their compact carpet shampooer line they have the SpotBot line that can be placed on a spot to be cleaned and they will clean the mess on their own. Bissell machines can be found in many major retailers both online and in stores.

Hoover: Hoover mainly concentrates on the upright style of carpet shampooer. In Hoover’s Max Extract carpet shampooer line there are models for pet messes, multipurpose units that work on carpeting and hard floors, wide track shampooers that clean large areas faster and the Pressure Pro that offers deep cleaning. Hoover also offers a compact carpet shampooer for spot cleaning. Hoover shampooers are also available in many major retailers.

Rug Doctor: This is a carpet shampooer rental company, they also sell their carpet shampooer. Rug Doctor sells two carpet shampooer models: the Mighty Pro and the Wide Track. This is a simple and solid upright carpet shampooer with an available upholstery kit. Rug Doctor carpet shampooers can be rented at many grocery stores, or can be purchased directly from the company.

With the right carpet shampooer in your closet you can easily handle any messes as the pop up without the inconvenience of going to rent one or wait for a cleaner to come to your house. Remember, with any carpet shampooer use only the manufacturer’s suggested shampoo and cleaning solutions to avoid damaging the machine.