Cleaning Your Carpets with the Rug Doctor
I always wished I had my own steam cleaner, so that I could scrub my carpets whenever I wanted. I learned that frequent steam cleaning can ruin the carpet fibers, making your carpets look worse than they did before hand. An ideal steam cleaning schedule is about 2-3 times per year, depending on certain factors. If you have pets and kids, or are just constantly tracking dirt in onto your carpet, you may want to opt for about 3 times per year. For someone who lives alone, or is hardly ever home, you can get away with once per year, if any. Having your own steam cleaner is nice, but for those of us who can’t afford the $250 for a good one, renting one is the next best thing. Rug Doctor is one of the best rug scrubbers I’ve come across, performing and cleaning like a professional machine.
There are many retail stores that rent the Rug Doctor, such as Big Lots, Rite Aid, Shop n Save and others. To rent a machine, you’ll need to provide your driver’s license and a credit card, just for your name purpose; your credit card will not be charged for anything, unless you want to put the rent charge onto it. The normal rental period is 24 hours, which is plenty of time to scrub a houseful of carpet. The rental charge doesn’t include the cleaner, hand tool or spot treatment. All of these cost extra, and the costs depend on your retail store.
Once you take the Rug Doctor home, make sure you read the directions on how to use the machine. It’s not too difficult, but could be confusing. To get started, you’ll need to premix the rug cleaner into a large bucket of hot water. Read the directions on the back of cleaner to see how much you’ll need to mix in the water. The directions for the Rug Doctor will tell you the tank’s capacity is about 2 gallons, but I noticed that it took more, like 3 gallons. Take the white tank off and set it aside. Pour the cleaning mixture from the bucket into the red tank. Fill it up until it reaches the middle of the screen. Replace the white tank, and connect the black hose. The white tank is where all of the dirty water will go, and you need to make sure the black suction hose is connected completely.
Now it’s time to start steam cleaning! There are 2 buttons that you’ll need to push in order to turn the machine on. Start in one area of the room; corners are best. Hit the trigger to release cleaning solution onto the carpet. Move the machine backward toward you, while pulling the trigger. The directions tell you to move the machine about 10 feet per second, so that you don’t release too much cleaner on the carpet. Only do a small section at once, about 4 feet long. Now you need to lift up the machine by tilting it backward and pushing it forward. You need to go over the section you just put cleaner onto, and suck up the water. Go over the section slowly, making sure you pull up the water. The carpet will be a little damp, but should not be soaked.
You will probably have to stop between cleanings to refill the tank and to dump the dirty water. How often you need to do this depends on how much carpet you need to clean, and how much cleaner you use.
Once you’re finished cleaning all of your carpet, make sure the machine is clean before you take it back to the store. Be sure you get it back on time, because they will charge you late fees. As far as your damp carpet, try to walk on it as little as possible until it dries. To lessen the drying time, try to put some fans on the carpet, or open windows if possible. Keep the furniture off of the carpet until it dries. If you put your couches back onto wet carpet, the wetness can ruin the legs of your couch.
Overall, I’m very satisfied with the results I received from the Rug Doctor. My carpets look almost brand new, and they smell much cleaner too. I had a few stains in the carpet, like red soda and grease marks, and they all came out. I would recommend this machine to anybody who is looking to steam clean their carpets for less, and doesn’t want to hire a professional.
