Carpet Cleaners
I
confess we have more carpet left in my house than I would
like - the compromise of living with a non- allergenic spouse.
Thankfully, we only have minimal carpeting left in the bedroom.
Also, in our home office, the last owner thoughtfully put
down white Berber- a wonderful carpet in theory, and a nightmare
to keep clean. I have tried out a variety of carpet cleaning
methods both do-it - yourself and outside services. I have
come to two main conclusions; 1.Outside services are exorbitant.
By the time they charge you $10 extra for each of the stairs,
the spot remover and any other extra they can think of, the
$50 per room price has escalated to $100 per room and even
when you think it is clean, in 30 days the carpet looks awful.
Then I sit looking at a dirty carpet for months feeling like
I just wasted a ton of money for nothing. 2. Doing it yourself
requires time and patience. Renting a machine cost me $125
for 24 hours last Spring and we only anaged to get one room
done. It looked like it was going to cost a lot less but by
the time you had to buy the special rug cleaner, the price
had doubled. I rented a Rug Master and wasn't too happy with
the results. I wished I could have done one room and then
a few days later returned and done another room etc. I have
also tried vapor steam cleaning of carpets which in theory
should be far superior to a hot water extractor cleaner such
as the TW300. In the next issue of this newsletter I will
be talking about vapor steam cleaning at length but for cleaning
overly soiled large area carpets such as those tested by the
TW300 hot ware extraction machines are better. Vapor steam
machines are best for non chemical removal of stains and spills
and the up keep of relatively new carpeting ,or valuable oriental
rugs I have also been examining dust mite control cleaning
products and it is clear that using a carpet cleaner to spray
the solution into a carpet is the most effective way to apply
the dust mite control solution- and a whole lot better than
applying it by hand with a sponge or spray bottle. .Incidentally,
using a vapor steam cleaner you do not need to apply any dust
mite control solution. The vapor steam will kill the dust
mites on contact. But it was on very dirty carpets that our
testing panel decided to test the powers of the TW 300.
Pluses:
1.No doubt about it, it truly cleans carpet.
Our testers came back and shamefacedly all reported that the
water that they threw away at the end of each carpet cleaning
session was near pitch black! It was embarrassing how dirty
the water became, even when carpets looked reasonably clean
to the naked eye[thank goodness for navy blue]. When we used
it on a white carpet the before and after sections were dramatically
different from each other. It was like seeing a commercial
on television!
2.The controls were easy to manage and the machine
was pretty light and easy to move around. Carpet cleaners
are not small machines but this was much easier to use than
the Rug Master we rented previously and which I had to bribe
my husband to use as it was too awkward for me to maneuver.
3.I was worried that as an allergy sufferer
I would be left with soaking wet carpets and mold would start
to grow in a hurry. The carpet was left slightly damp but
did not seem wet, so the extractor did vacuum up excess water.
Of course , I can't see mold spores but I do not seem to have
suffered any adverse reaction afterwards and I am hypersensitive
to mold.
Minuses:
1. Dark carpets fared best and the result was
a pleasant renewed freshness, and sense of cleanliness. Our
infamous white Berber[which really should be thrown out] was
dramatically improved but not perfect. The results were somewhat
streaky and needed a second application. To be fair , this
carpet was filthy and was not going to come out instantly
creamy white whatever machine was used.
2. The operating instructions are on the side
of the machine. An excellent idea for those of us who lose
paper manuals. However, the "get down on my hands and knees"
to read instructions was less rather awkward.
3.We also would have liked some tips on how
to use this machine to its best advantage. Not that our testers
were not ready to experiment but it was not clear for instance
how much water to spray on before vacuuming off. In the end
we decided that the spraying needed to be pretty constant.
4.The hose would get twisted if one did not
watch what one was doing. It was not a big minus, just a little
gripe.
5.Cleaning the edge of the stairs was rather
awkward using the TR300 and an accessory for this purpose
would have been appreciated.
6.Longterm stains need pre-spotting[as with
all carpet cleaners of this type]but more recent dirt seem
to lift off easily with the hot water and cleaning solution.
7.Unlike when using vapor steam cleaners which
only use water, it is necessary with The TW300 to use a allergy
friendly cleaning solution. We prefer using a minute amount
of low or non foaming concentrate which dilutes in the hot
water. We used Quicknbrite and LifeTime, both available to
members at discount directly from the manufacturer. Both did
an excellent job, although still foamed too much. The Lifetime
we particularly like for pre-potting.
Summary:
Rating 
We liked the TW300 carpet cleaner and felt it
was an excellent tool and one which we immediately personally
bought for in-house use. So that tells you something. We test
a lot of products and keep few of them. It is not perfect
but the black water convinced us it was doing what it was
designed for- cleaning carpets. I like the thought of being
able to clean my heavy traffic carpets, such as stairs frequently
In addition, using it for the application of dust mite control
products seemed like an excellent added bonus and one which
made it much easier to do that particular chore. At $995 we
initially thought the price tag was rather hefty but on reflection
we realized that it would not take very long to pay for itself.
Carpet Cleaners
First Published: September, 2000
Updated: September 2003
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