The first step to clean carpet is to vacuum the carpeted area well. You want to run the vacuum a few times to make sure that you get any loose dust and not just the large debris on top. After you are sure you have vacuumed completely, then you need to mix the carpet shampoo solution. Any brand of carpet shampoo will do, but you can also make your own. A mixture of vinegar and water with a small amount of dish soap makes a nice carpet shampoo. Make sure to read the directions on any carpet shampoo container carefully. Generally you want to use about half or maybe even less of the amount recommended. You want to avoid foaming. Add the appropriate amount of water and if necessary you can add antifoaming agent. Some carpet shampoo machines have a separate compartment for this, but others just have you add it to the shampoo solution.

Once the carpet shampoo is mixed, you will fill the reservoir in the carpet shampoo machine and get to work. Run the carpet shampooer slowly over an area of the carpet. Good technique is to pull the carpet cleaner back in long rows. Look at the solution being sucked into the machine to makes sure it is not too foamy. If it is, then you can stop and dilute the solution some. When water stops flowing into the machine then it is time to empty the waste water and refill the cleaning solution.

It is good practice to run over the entire carpet twice and then run over it a third time with only cold water in the reservoir. You want to make sure that the last time you go over each section of carpet there is absolutely no soap going into the waste compartment. Soap left behind in your carpets is one of the worse mistakes you can make and is extremely bad for your carpets.

You need to think about how much money you want to spend on carpet cleaning before you make the decision about what kind of carpet shampoo machine is best for you. Carpet shampoo machines you buy in a department store or home improvement warehouse and cost anywhere from two hundred to six hundred dollars. Once you have chosen the model that you want, you need to think about how many times per year you are going to shampoo your carpets. It costs about forty dollars to rent a carpet shampooer over night so multiply forty times the number of times per year you will use carpet shampoo. Then divide the cost of the shampooer by that number and you will know how many years it will take to get your money’s worth out of a purchased carpet shampooer. If the number of years is longer than the typical lifetime of a carpet shampoo machine then you are better off renting.

It is also important to consider what other surfaces you might want to shampoo before you make the decision to buy or rent. Rental carpet shampooers almost never have attachments or tools for shampooing upholstery or stairs. They also have only one mode for shampooing carpets. You cannot use them on other hard surfaces as well. Carpet shampoo machines that you buy often do have this versatile functionality. With the right attachments you can clean the upholstered furniture in your home, your curtains, and all the nooks and crannies that you cannot reach with a traditional carpet shampoo machine head.

However, you need to consider how much space you have available in your home for storage. Carpet shampoo machines are not small and you will need to find some room in a closet or in the garage to store it when it is not in use. This is often the biggest sticking point when it comes to buying over renting. In addition, sometimes the carpet cleaners you can buy for home use are not powerful enough to clean high traffic areas or carpets that are extremely dirty. For those kind of jobs you might need an industrial carpet cleaner which you have to rent.

First, you need to consider how hard you and your family are on your carpets. If you have rules in your household such as no shoes in the house, no food outside the kitchen, etc. then the chances for your carpet to get really dirty are less than if you have kids running around the house in dirty sneakers every day and people spilling food and drink often. In addition, if you have pets then your carpets need much more care. Pets drag in dirt and many other things on their paws and bodies. If you and your family including the pets are hard on carpets then you will need to use carpet shampoo more often than some.

Another factor to consider is the fabric your carpet is made of and how delicate it is. Some carpet fibers do not stand up well to vigorous scrubbing or brush action. If you have a carpet made of delicate fibers then you might want to consider shampooing it less often. You need to consider the life span of the carpet in your calculations about how often you will use the carpet cleaning machine.

A third factor to consider is cost. If you own your own carpet shampooer then the cost to clean your carpets is minimal. You only need to replenish your cleaning solution. If you choose to rent a carpet shampoo machine then the cost is only slightly more. You can usually rent a machine from your grocery store for about thirty dollars per day. However, if you hire professionals to clean your carpet, it could cost you significantly more. You need to take your budget into consideration before making the decision to shampoo your carpets.

After you have considered all of these things, you will find that most people shampoo their carpets about once per year. Every six months is a better choice for families with a lot of risk factors like pets and small children. Every two years is a possibility if the carpeted areas in your home are rarely used. In truth, most people just wait until their carpet is looking dingy and then shampoo it. However, I would not wait so long that your carpets look like the picture above. If your carpets get this bad, then it might be hard to ever get the stains out. Try to spot clean troublesome stains as they happen rather than waiting for y our annual or semi-annual carpet shampooing. As long as you properly rinse the carpet each time you use carpet shampoo and use the machine correctly, you can shampoo your carpet as often as necessary. Just keep in mind that frequent shampooing could cause the fibers to start to break or come loose.

You may be surprised at how easy it is to make a perfectly serviceable carpet shampoo. Many people find that they like the homemade shampoo even better than any they can buy in the store. One of the most common homemade carpet cleaning solutions is simply a one to one mixture of water and vinegar. Vinegar is one of those magic household materials that can clean almost anything. The slightly acidic nature of vinegar allows it to break down dirt, oils, and other contaminates. This solution works best if you use hot water or if your carpet shampooer has a heater built in. You might be concerned about the vinegar smell, but do not worry. The smell dissipates quickly and you do not have the lingering smell of vinegar on your carpets.

You can also make a very effective stain cleaning paste that works well to get out tough stains. You do not use this carpet shampoo in a machine, but you can use it with a small brush to target particularly hard to get out stains. A mixture of baking soda and peroxide makes a very powerful oxygen bleach type product. Make sure to test the paste on a small and inconspicuous piece of your carpet to make sure there will be no adverse affects on your carpet. I like to use this paste before I run my carpet shampooer as a first step. Baking soda is also a good carpet cleaning agent because it is an odor neutralizer. You can use the baking soda paste on urine stains and get both the stain and the odor out of your carpet.

There are many other home remedies for stains out there. For example, if you add a small drop of dish detergent to your vinegar cleaning mixture then you get more foaming action which helps to get a better clean. In addition, club soda is an excellent home remedy for red stains like red wine.

• Most carpet shampoos have some kind of stain protector in them so that after you finish your cleaning, the carpet will be somewhat protected from future stains. I think that this additive is crucial. Spills are going to happen no matter how careful you are so it is good to have a line of defense in place to protect your carpet.
• Some shampoos have special anti allergen ingredients for families that struggle with indoor allergies. An example would be benzyl alcohol, which professionals have proven can combat dust mites and other common allergies.
• Orange extract is a cleaning additive that is especially good at cutting grease. You find orange in many different kinds of household cleaners and carpet shampoos are no exception. Carpet cleaner with orange extract is a good choice if you are trying to clean a carpet in a garage or that is particularly dirty.
• Some carpet shampoos claim to be able to eliminate urine and other unpleasant odors from soiled carpets. The likely scenario is that they contain some kind of ingredient that kills the bacteria that causes odor. An alternative is that the formulation contains a pH stabilizer. If a molecule has an odor it most likely is either basic or acidic. The pH stabilizer chemically alters the odor causing molecules so that they are pH neutral.

All of the above conversation has been about cleaners for full size upright carpet shampoo machines. There is another variety of carpet cleaner that is used for spot cleaning and small stain removal. These smaller portable machines use different types of cleaners at times. One example, is that some handheld carpet machine cleaners have oxygen bleach in them. Oxygen bleach is great for fighting stains on carpet because it is extremely effective without being harmful to the carpet.

The most common mistake that people make when they are shampooing their carpets is that they use too much carpet shampoo. If you leave any soap residue behind when you are finished, you could experience a problem called wicking. Wicking is when any dirt that was left behind deep in the carpet or any dirt that is underneath the carpet in the pad is attracted to the soap residue and then that mixture of dirt and soap rises to the surface. It is possible for your carpets to look even dirtier than they were when they started if you have severe enough wicking.

Leaving behind soap residue happens most often when there is too much shampoo is the cleaning mixture. When there is excess shampoo you get lots of foaming. Foaming can not only be bad in terms of the wicking potential, but also, the foam is not necessarily the best cleaning agent. You want a good mixture of shampoo and hot water to best clean your carpets. Some machines have reservoirs available for antifoaming agents. These additives are added to the carpet shampoo mixture to minimize the amount of foaming, but they do not eliminate wicking. Even if you get rid of most of the excess foam, there still could be too much soap in your cleaning agent.

Your best bet is to read the instructions on your carpet shampoo carefully and then use about half of what they recommend. You might not get as much foaming, but you will clean the carpet well. It might be necessary to run the shampooer over the carpets a second time since there will not be as much active ingredient in the cleaning mixture the first time. Then, you will need to go over the carpets a third time with nothing but water in the cleaning reservoir. This rinsing is necessary to get rid of any excess soap residue left behind. Keep rinsing until the waste water comes out clear and free of soap and bubbles. Even though this multi-pass method is slightly more work, it will be worth it when your carpet is beautifully clean and stays that way when you are done.

There are a few homemade carpet shampoo recipes can help with odor elimination. If you want to try to make your own carpet shampoo odor killer then the best product to start with is baking soda. Baking soda is commonly marketed as an odor neutralizer and people have been using it to kill odors in their refrigerators and freezers for years. The method of odor neutralizing employed by baking soda is pH buffering. Odors are typically acidic or basic in nature. Whenever odor particles encounter baking soda it neutralizes the extreme pH and as a result eliminates the odor. Another common home remedy for odor neutralizing is hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide works by killing the bacteria that causes odor. A combination of hydrogen peroxide and baking soda makes a paste that works extremely well against urine stains and mildew odors. That is why it is a good cleaner for large bathroom rugs.

Some commercial carpet shampoos utilize encapsulation as a means of odor neutralization. Febreze for example, is made of molecules that have inner pockets that are very attractive to odor molecule s. The odor molecules find their way into these pockets and then are encapsulated by the Febreze molecules. Then, the odor molecule is released when the Febreze molecule is engulfed with water. This is why Febreze is so good for clothing that you can put into a washing machine. However, it is not a good choice for carpet cleaning. Another choice is dry foam carpet shampoo that works on this same principle and is then vacuumed away. One thing you want to be careful of with odor neutralizing carpet shampoo is shampoos that contain perfumes. Sometimes these perfumes will just cover up an offending scent instead of actually negating it. In addition, the perfumes could react with the existing odors in unattractive ways and you might end up with an odor worse than what you started with.

Pre-treating stains is universal to all carpet shampoo projects, but with car carpet shampoo, there are a few tips to keep in mind due to the nature of carpet stains you find in a car. You might be amazed to find that some of the best car carpet shampoo might be homemade carpet shampoo products you already have in your house. Gasoline stains are of particular concern in your car since you may step in gasoline when at a gas station and then transfer it to your car carpet. A combination of vinegar and detergent works well on gasoline stains. No matter what anyone tells you, almost everybody eats and drinks in their cars. As a result, food stains are quite common. One household remedy that works well on food marks is toothpaste. If mold is a problem for your car carpet or car upholstery then citrus cleaners and peroxide detergents are a possible solution.

Once you have pretreated stains, you need to think about cleaning your entire car carpet. Car carpet shampoo is different from carpet shampoo used indoors because you do not want to introduce any water and as little moisture as possible to your car interior. Auto carpet shampoos are typically foam based like the dry foam carpet shampoos you can use in your house. You will spray the car foam carpet shampoo on your floor carpets and let the foam sit for a period indicated on the product instructions. Then you want to use a hard bristled brush to vigorously work the foam into the carpet. After the foam carpet shampoo dries, you can vacuum up the dirt and dried foam with a vacuum cleaner. If you are wondering how shampoo car carpet works, then you should think of a magnet. The foam attracts dirt and grime to it like a magnet and then the dirt dries with the foam next to it. Then it is easy to vacuum up the dirt. You need to work the foam deep into the carpet to attract the grime that has worked its way deep down.

First, there are many things you can use around your home for spot and stain removal. A baking soda paste is good for neutralizing odor and hydrogen peroxide kills the bacteria that causes odor and will remove organic stains. A combination of these two ingredients is a fantastic way to get rid of pet urine stains. Not only does it get rid of the stain, it gets rid of the lingering odor. Hydrogen peroxide alone is a great aid in removing bloodstains. Another common household item that can be applied to carpet cleaning is alcohol. The isopropyl alcohol that you have in your medicine cabinet is great for removing some particularly tough stains like ink. Of course, there is the tried and true method of using club soda to get out tough stains. Always blot when working with stain removers, never wipe or scrub.

For cleaning larger areas of your carpet, you will need a homemade carpet shampoo recipe. One very popular recipe is to use equal parts vinegar and water with just a small amount of dish detergent. Some people might say that they do not want to smell of vinegar throughout their entire home, but you would be surprised by how fast the vinegar smell fades. Typically, you cannot even tell you used vinegar once the carpets are completely dry. The small amount of dish detergent, usually about a tablespoon in two gallons is just enough to give the solution some foaming action. Foaming is considered a desirable trait in carpet shampoos. This is definitely a more economical solution. Keep in mind that the bottle of vinegar shown on the right only costs a little over a dollar while a comparable amount of carpet shampoo would cost ten times that. Another popular homemade carpet shampoo solution is one made of Windex and water. The Windex brings its own foaming capabilities to the table.

You may be wondering if it is safe to use these homemade concoctions in your carpet shampoo machines because they always recommend you use the brand name products. There are countless testimonials that any of the homemade carpet cleaning recipes mentioned above will work fine in commercial carpet shampooers. However, they are not recommended by the manufacturer and it is possible that you could void the warranty on your machine if you use homemade shampoos. For more information about other homemade cleaning products, visit All About Cleaners.

There are several advantages to these small portable carpet cleaning devices. That is why I think that a portable handheld piece of equipment is the best carpet shampoo machine you could purchase. The first advantage is that this home carpet shampoo machine is small and easy to store. You can easily fit one of these carpet scrubbers under the sink or in a small inconspicuous corner of your hall closet. It is easily put out of sight but still easily accessible in case you need to clean up a spill quickly. Another advantage is that the carpet cleaner is easy to use. Upright machines are hard to maneuver and difficult to get into small places. The smaller models have small handheld brushes and long hoses that allow you to reach in between furniture and into corners.

One possible disadvantage that I have noticed through using these products is that the canister that holds the soapy water and the discharge is not very secure. I have noticed that the canister sometimes falls out or comes loose which causes leaks. In addition, the hoses have come loose during use causing a big mess. I am sure if you buy a reputable Bissell carpet shampoo machine or a Hoover carpet shampoo machine you will not run into these problems.

It is important to remember that these compact carpet shampooers are good for small spills or spontaneous cleanings, but not for overall carpet cleaning. Yu still want to use a regular upright carpet shampooer when it comes time to clean your entire carpet. These large carpet shampooing are usually meant to take care of the daily dirt and grime and not targeted stain removal. The compact carpet cleaning machines are more appropriate for those.