Carpet Washer

[Zee]

Im interested to buy a carpet washer for my carpets because they have quite a few stains on them now and they look a bit dirty.

Can anyone recommend me a decent one which is good for stairs for around £150-£200 which i don't mind spending from Littlewoods

http://www.littlewoods.com/e/q/carpet-washer.end?cmtag=o&_requestid=161201

[Osem]

:erm: Not sure this is quite the right place for this thread but why not try one of these:

http://www.lidl.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg/lidl_uk/hs.xsl/index_20292.htm

I bet it'll be just as good and save you a fortune which you can use on other things...

(Oh and yes we've bought quite a few Lidl and Aldi home/garden/DIY electrical products over the and they've all been exellent quality).

[Paul K]

We have a Vax Rapide and it is very good.

[Osem]

We have a Vax Rapide and it is very good.

Bet you didn't pay the sort of prices Littlewoods are asking.... ;)

[Zee]

Bet you didn't pay the sort of prices Littlewoods are asking.... ;)

Its £279.99 on Vax website (£179.99 until tuesday though) so Littlewoods is a little cheaper. Not sure how much it is on other websites.

Im also thinking of buying thsat Paul, does it remove stains that have been there for a long time?

[Osem]

Its £279.99 on Vax website (£179.99 until tuesday though) so Littlewoods is a little cheaper. Not sure how much it is on other websites.

Im also thinking of buying thsat Paul, does it remove stains that have been there for a long time?

Manufacturer's own websites are very rarely a good guide to realistic pricing.

How effective any machine is will depend on what the stains are and how bad they are.

[Zee]

SOme turmeric, oil and usual dirt in the carpet. oh and green tea.

[beeman]

Personally i would recommend hiring a high powered carpet cleaner (or paying a professional carpet cleaner) ruther then buying a domestic one (VAX etc).

Most modern carpets are NOT designed to bee washed (only spot cleaned). Household carpet cleaners (even the quite expensive ones) dont dry the carpets as well as is nessary which leads to "delamination" (where the seconday backing (felt or faux hessian) seperates from the pile weeking the carpet from were and causes ireparable bubbling).

The problem is carpet cleaners are designed for "proper" carpets as in REAL hessian (almost none-existant nowa days)or rear weve carpets (axminster/wiltons etc) and not the modern cheap (and not so cheap) and chearfull carpets.

As a carpetfitter/flooring inspector i regullary see these issues in peoples carpets and see how upset they get when i tell them there is no fault with the carpet but the cause of the problem is them getting the carpet too wet.

[Osem]

You might be better off trying a good spot cleaner on some of those stains and seeing how you get on. If you have no luck at all I doubt a household machine like these would do much better as they depend on the same sort of cleaning solution to work. Hiring an industrial cleaner might be a better idea if things are really bad.

[Zee]

I hired someone out last year but thought in the long run buying my own cleaner would be better. OK well i think i might just hire someone again.

[beeman]

I hired someone out last year but thought in the long run buying my own cleaner would be better. OK well i think i might just hire someone again.

That is EXACTLY the reason i recommend against buying one. if you own a carpet cleaner you WILL use it way too often MASSIVLY affecting the lifespan of the carpet. I have seen a mid range £30pm carpet distroyed in less then 12 months because the induvudal cleaned it once a month with her vax. She got very upset when i told her it would need to bee replaced at her expense as she had ruined the carpet.

If your having issues with a couple of spots that you cant get out i would reccommend trying to find some "Trichloroethylene". This is buy far the best sport cleaner ever invented (i have in the past managed to get engine oil out of a creme carpet with this stuff). Unfortunatly it is a high solvant so is very hard to get hold of (even my supplyer no longer stocks it, i took there last 8 bottles last year).

[Lew]

Moved to Lifestyle.

[Zee]

What if i used it once every 3 months or 6 months instead, think that would be ok? the professional cleaner would cost me over £100 so i don't know.

[beeman]

What if i used it once every 3 months or 6 months instead, think that would be ok? the professional cleaner would cost me over £100 so i don't know.

There are a lot of variables in how it would affect the carpet. But the main one is how long the carpet stays wet. With morden carpets you have the pile "glued" together with laytex then the secondary backing (hessian, faux hessian or felt) giving it structure glued to the pile layer with more laytex. To much water degrades the laytex sepperating the backing.

Using it every 3 to 6 months should bee fine assuming the carpet is of resonable quality, you dry the carpet as well as possiable using the washer, turn your heating on high untill bone dry (while leaving windows open a crack to provent condensation). Also conditional on the current age/condition of the carpet and (often underated) underlay at the moment.

Hope this helps. Im not trying to put you off cleaning your carpet, if done right carpet cleaners can bee exelent machines (though they gives me less work as a carpet will look new longer :td:) but the temptation to over use them or not fully dry the floor can leadto big problems.

[superbiatch]

Get yourself to TJ Hughes and pick up a Vax for £70, mum bought one a few weeks back and its fab! I'll be borrowing it soon for my cream :rolleyes: bedroom carpet which is covered in make up stains ;)

[danielf]

I hired someone out last year but thought in the long run buying my own cleaner would be better. OK well i think i might just hire someone again.

Surely you can hire the machine without the bod attached and do the actual cleaning yourself?

[raging bull]

Both B&Q and Morrisons (supermarket) hire out the identical carpet cleaner.

[Zee]

Surely you can hire the machine without the bod attached and do the actual cleaning yourself?

Sure, i don't mind to clean it myself. Just don't know how much they charge to go it.