Every year as Spring approaches I look at the sad state of
my carpets. My problem is I live in the Northeast and suffer
through the winters, and I have a HUSBAND. If I had children
it would be another matter, I would just order them to take
their shoes off in winter. But a husband is different. So
my husband with his size 13 shoes tramps an amazing amount
of the mud, sand, and salt through the house, and seems to
be oblivious to the havoc and anguish he is causing. Every
Monday, after the cleaning lady has done her thing, I can
enjoy a few hours of blissful clean respite, before those
size 13 feet come home and do their damage.
By March of each year, the carpets and area
rugs are shall we say - just filthy?
If I could wave a magic wand over the mess, or say there
was a perfect carpet fast-cleaning tool, I would tell you. There
are some products that work, but they take time and effort.
My first line of attack one recent Sunday while my husband
was out skiing, was to take out the trusty TW300
carpet cleaner. It is not a perfect tool- but it works, and I have
been using it without any problems for 3 years. I dislike the fact the
handle leaks and comes apart from time to time (duct tape worked wonders
here), or that I have the lumber the darn thing around; but it is pretty
simple to put together, and can cover a good sized area in about 15 minutes,
which is about the time you have between refills of the hottest water
you can get from your tap, as the TW300 has no built in heater.
The water at the end of each round is just totally black
and disgusting, so the carpet cleaner is certainly doing its thing. It
does not do spots and stains or edges of stair carpet very well, and for
those, I take out the Formula
212 spot cleaner which is a near miraculous product.
The final phase is to get out my favorite vapor
steam cleaner, the Ladybug.
If I had the patience, I would do all of my carpeting with the Ladybug
steam cleaner as it is better for your carpets and steam cleaners do a
better job of getting deep down clean. But I go for immediate fast gratification
and then go over the area with the steam cleaner and attack really stubborn
stains and dirt ground in so that even a vacuum
cleaner cannot get it.
There are fundamental differences between really steam
cleaning a carpet and using the TW300
carpet cleaner, the latter is a hot water extraction unit and similar
to the technology used when someone comes to “steam clean”
your carpets.
Please do not expect to use TW300 carpet cleaner on a badly soiled carpet
and restore it back to its original luster 100%. If it were really soiled,
it would be best to use a professional cleaning company first and then
use the steam cleaner for superb maintenance. The steam cleaner will then
take out any of the chemicals that the professional cleaning left.
Overall, steam cleaning carpets with vapor
steam cleaners will remove most spots and stains (providing that there
has been no chemical reaction with the fibers) and it will also remove
any chemicals and odors. Because the heat straightens the fibers and removes
static charge from all pet and human hair, it allows for really deep vacuum
cleaning of sand (the major destroyer of carpets), other solid particles,
and hair.
I hope this has not thoroughly confused you all. The
truth of the matter is this is, there is not a perfect solution
although you CAN clean your carpets at home and avoid all those
outrageous professional carpet cleaners company charges.
First Published: early-April, 2003
Updated: September 2003
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