Don't faint with excitement, I need your help with carpet cleaning

[Crunchymum]

Cream carpets are old and grotty. Can't afford to replace them at present.

Any magic carpet cleaners / shampoo that could help tidy things up a little?

We have a cream carpet and a Vax washer which we use with this Bissell cleaner that seems jaw-droppingly pricey till you realise it works better than the ££££ you spent on other product

We hired a rug dr for a couple of days. Cleaned my grotty cream carpets up lovely

We have a vax carpet cleaner - slightly older version of this one.
It's got a hose and attachments to do the stairs and upholstery too.
We bought it because the previous owners had dogs and the house was stinky when we moved in. It was (and still is) worth every penny.
You'd be better off doing it in summer and leave windows open to ventilate rather than now, but it would still work now as long as you crank up your central heating.
You can buy the cleaning fluid from Sainsburys.

My dad's a carpet cleaner and reckons the diy machines you can hire and rubbish.... but then it would be in his interests to say that

I bought the latest Vax carpet cleaner. It says it's more effective than the rental Rug Doctor one. It's worked a treat on my cream carpets

I tried to clean mine myself with a hired machine. Didn’t come up too well so ended up getting a professional in and they looked brand new.

We are going to hire a DIY carpet cleaner. We don't have the money to buy one outright (nor the storage space to keep it etc) or to hire the professionals in.

It may be false economy but we'll try this in the first instance.