Carpet Cleaners

Carpet Cleaners

A carpet cleaner does something a vacuum cannot. It works water and cleaning solution down into the pile, agitates it, then draws the dirty liquid back out, which is the only way to shift a spill that has soaked in, a pet accident or the grey traffic line down a hall. The first decision is size, and it is really a decision about when you will use the machine. A portable spot cleaner weighs a few kilos, lives in a press and gets carried to the mess within a minute of it happening, which is why these are used far more often than their owners expect. A full size upright washer holds several litres in separate clean and dirty tanks and is what you want for a whole room, a stairs or a rug that has never been done. Some of the larger machines now carry a built in spot tool on the same body, which removes the choice. Drying time is the practical constraint rather than cleaning power: the stronger the suction on the recovery stroke, the less water is left behind, and a carpet that is walked on while still damp will re soil quickly. Check whether the machine takes a dedicated solution or works with plain water and heat, and whether the tanks come apart far enough to rinse properly, because a recovery tank that cannot be cleaned starts to smell.

Shark covers both ends of this range, with the portable StainStriker and cordless StainForce for spills and pet stains, and the CarpetXpert deep washers, including HairPro and built in StainStriker versions, for full rooms. Karcher runs the SE spray extraction line, from the compact SE 2 Spot Care up to the SE 4 Select. Dreame adds the CU20 Pro, which finishes with hot air drying to cut the time a carpet stays wet. Dry vacuuming sits in Vacuum Cleaners, and chemical free floor cleaning in Steam Cleaners.

The portable spot cleaners are where a reduced price changes behaviour, because the whole value of one is that it is cheap enough to buy before you need it rather than after the spill. Prices are live all year, so see what is reduced now on vacuum cleaners on sale.