Rug Doctor - worth it?

[HauntedLittleLunatic]

I have a basic Vax upright cleaner thing.

Would hiring a Rug Doctor machine go over and above this? Would it be worth the £30?

[HauntedLittleLunatic]

10 mins before the closing ceremony was a bad time to start a thread...so bump :)

[ChablisLover]

Bump cos I've been thinking about it too!

[HauntedLittleLunatic]

Personally I thought it did a really good job. I spent more on the cleaning solutions than the machine tho. Will post more about it when I switch laptop on.

[BlueMoon74]

I thought it was fantastic! Yes, it's heavy, yes, it takes time. You really do need to completely empty the room you are doing too, as the carpet really is totally wet afterwards. I used one after taking back my apartment after tenants (who had trashed the place). Before using, I was thinking I was going to have to rip out every carpet and replace. Every carpet came up brand new

My mum used one, and just went around her furniture. Really didn't have the same end result. If you're going to bother, bother and do it properly and hopefully you will have the same great end result I did!

[BikeMedalsRunningMedals]

I thought it was amazing. Hard work, but fab results!

[HauntedLittleLunatic]

Right here is my experience (and how I felt I got the best out of it/what I would do differently next time).

I have a Vax upright spit water on the carpet and suck it back up type of machine. Last used about 18m ago. When I did this I did some spot treatments first and was disappointed when you could clearly see bright spots after cleaning (i.e. the cleaner hadn't done as good a job as I had with a scrubbing brush), which was my main reason for considering the Rug Doctor.

I tried to get mine from Tesco. But they only do self serve machines which you have to pre-book online or by phone. I could see 3 machines in the slots but it wouldn't let me book one there and then (only for 4hrs time and I wasn't waiting). So instead I went to B&Q with my ID.

Really easy to book out. I bought 1Litre of their cleaner which is extortionate (£12, could have got it for £10 at Tesco so expensive and annoyed). I also bought the spot treatment for about £3.50.

Went home. Treated my spots. Lugged the machine up the stairs to start in my bedroom. Makes a lot of noise and other than the ridiculously filthy water coming out couldn't really see a huge improvement in the carpet itself, but then it wasn't massively dirty as it was a bedroom.

I did the stairs with a combination of the spot cleaner rubbed in with a scrubbing brush and uphosltery attachment and now I could see a difference carpet definitely looked brighter and "fluffed up".

Now I turned to my lounge. I moved the furniture and started in those areas. Water still coming out ludicrously filthy. It was when I started in the main central area that I could see the difference. It really was like you see on the you tube clips linked from their website, maybe not quite as extreme but most definitely visible difference. I almost took photos but I was too ashamed. Wish I had now as I would have posted them so you could see. Now I knew my carpet had patches of dirt but I didn't think it was that bad.

I finished the job and went to bed. When I got up this morning it looked fab, no evidence of the brighter spots where I had treated but there was a small area in one of the sofas which looked a little darker (this was where I had started and before I got the "nack" which I will come to). I had a great idea I would just do this area again. HUGE MISTAKE (kind of).

Once I had redone that patch - water was still filthy and now I did have a bright patch which was cleaner than the rest meaning I would have to do the whole lot again. I rushed to Tesco for more cleaning solution and also bought the High Traffic spray they sell. I repeated the whole of teh visible area of my lounge. Pushed the furniture back a but where I could but didn't move it and do under. It does look even better now. You couldn't see the recleaned strips as clearly - except in the high traffic area but it was still just about noticeable. And there was just as much dirt coming out on day 2 .

Seeing as I now had enough cleaning solution I also did DCs rooms too and redid mine - which now does look brighter and fluffier.

So my top tips.
Shop around for the detergent - it isn't the same price everywhere. Buy bigger bottles it works out much cheaper and you can save it for next time.
Don't bother with spot treatment. I'm not sure that the high traffic spray did an awful lot either. You can treat the spots using a bit of the diluted solution out of the bucket.
i hired mine mid-afternoon-mid-afternoon which meant I had plenty of time to give a second going over before returning.
Go really really really slowly - make sure you can see the foam/spray wetting the carpet at the side - if not IMO you are not going slow enough. This will use a lot of solution, so I started using about half the detergent it says. But I honestly think that most of the cleaning is done by the beating brush not the detergent and the slower you go the more brushing goes on, but the bigger the volume of solution used - which is why I halved it.
Don't try and carry it upstairs with any solution in the bottom tank. It is bloody heavy without!
Clean inwards from the edges of the room - because you can't back up close eough to the walls. On my carpets I found the machine was smoother and cleaned better when working with the pile of my carpet, so I just cleaned inwards a little way from the opposite end and then did long stripes in the direction that the machine was happiest in.

It wasn't particularly hard work. I spent more time refilling the tank as it uses a LOT of water than actually cleaning (the timer says I used it for a total of 3.5hrs but actually I spent about 4hrs yesterday and 3hrs today actually doing it.

You will need to clean your sink afterwards the contents of the water were gross. Spent more on the cleaning fluid than on the machine but I wouldn't use the extra treatments next time.

[anon5678]

@HauntedLittleLunatic I know it's this is really old lol but thanks for this info, super helpful. Renting one this weekend