Rug Doctor v Vax v Carpet Cleaning Co

[feelinghappynow]

I have a Vax and not overly impressed. Is a Rug Doctor much better, or do i get a company and pay lots to have the carpets cleaned?

Your experiences please

Rug Doctor (and similar) are fantastic, you will be shocked at the amount of filth (grit, gravel, dead spiders, bogies, cigarette ends, half-bricks) they get out. The bin will have mud at the bottom. But if you give it a second clean, because it was so dirty, the second one will find hardly any dirt remaining.

The carpet cleaning co's will do about the same, so you are paying for their labour. The better ones may be better at pre-spotting and have additional chemicals for difficult stains. You often get "special offers" and two rooms for the price of one. I suppose if some local person has bought a machine, the extra time it takes them to do an extra room is nothing compared to the time it takes to drive to your house, get the equipmenmt out, pack it up again afterwards and drive to the next job.

I have heard the Vax is quite good, but it can't be as powerful.

Thanks - might have a go at the rug doctor. I;ve tried all sorts of cleaning solutions in the vax, and whle it does clean a little, i don't find the results that great at all.

I used to hire a rug doctor every six months or so... got fed up of the cost, so bought a Vax. It's nowhere near as good, so am contemplating hiring a rug doctor again... Meanwhile, the Vax is gathering dust.

Love the Rug Doctor! I hire it and go halves with a friend or neighbour, whoever wants in, keeps the cost down.

I got someone in last month to do mine. It wasn't the cheapest company but they were bloody good and thorough and got all the stains out.
I paid £140 for the lounge,hallway,stairs & landing.
It took the under 2 hours and dried in 3 hours. I think they are called Chem dry or something.
Some of the ads in the yellow pages were quoting as little as £10 per room

Wow - that sounds cheap to me. Will look them up. We have large rooms and with 3 kids around, not sure how practical it is for me to try and do it. Would probably fall down the stairs too!!

Just done their online quote and its £355 for lounge, bedroom, 2 single rooms, stairs and hall and landing.....

We borrowed a friend's vax a few times and while it did clean a bit we weren't overly impressed so decided to buy something different and ended up with a vax! Just a better one! We bought it from Amazon and went through all their reviews, this one got much much better reviews than other models, bit the bullet and bought it. So far we have been very impressed with it, and ashamed at how much dirt as come out of the carpets, the living room one actually looks like new! The hall ones is still yeilding black water so must need about another 3 goes, each time it get cleaner and cleaner and I doubt very much if there is a carpet cleaner out there that could have actually got it perfectly clean first time.. other than a pressure hose!

Rug Doctor are the best ever! I'd love to buy ne but they're ££££.

I have used a Rug Doctor on a carpet in a childrens' play room and it worked very well. However, a good van mounted water based commercial carpet cleaner is really the only way to go if you have a whole house to do. They leave the carpet very clean and almost dry. A Rug Doctor leaves it feeling slightly damp for 24 hrs.

I would not hire someone who just had a small pull along carpet cleaner unless I was short of time. They just dont do a good enough job above and beyond what a Rug Doctor does. It is quite hard work using a Rug Doctor though.

IMO I like renting Rug Doctor. We usually rent it either from B&Q or Morrison (the supermarket), and if you rent it over the weekend (picking it up on Friday's pm and returning it on Monday's pm), you only pay for the price of 2 days instead of 3. So work out nicely and you have enough time to do a 2nd time if necessary.

It is a industrial machine and I definitely wouldn't buy it as carpet cleaning is something that you do once or twice a year. And I just couldn't justify paying hundreds of pounds for a machine that only get used twice a year the most... also storage space is precious! Oh, and the machine is heavy, it's not something I want to store in the loft and bring it down by myself .

If you can afford a company to clean your rooms, just go for it. As doing lounge, bedroom, 2 single rooms, stairs and hall and landing will take up at least a day (and you have to think which order so the room will be dried by the time the kids get back!). Or just rent the rug doctor over the weekend, and just spread out the jobs over the weekend.

Let us know how did you get on .

I have a vax from Amazon (top of the range) and I think it is bloody brilliant. I am a childminder and I use it about three times a year or more often during potty training or sickness.

Vax machine = £125
Pro carpet cleaners machine = £2,500 minimum going up to £20,000 for a truckmount.

Guys, please undestand that you cant compare a vax or rug doctor with a professional carpet cleaner. You'll get cleaner carpets, which will be much drier and without all the hassle of doing it yourself. Its false economy.

I would say that it depends on how often you are cleaning your carpets. If you need to clean regularly, as in the case of toddlers and/or pets then buying your own carpet cleaner is (1) easier, you can clean "accidents" very quickly and (2) cheaper. If it's just an annual clean then get someone in to do the work for you.

If you are looking to buy at a carpet cleaner then this site has some reviews: www.bestcarpetcleanerguide.com

Just had my lounge carpet cleaned by a local company after umming and aahing over whether to hire one and do it myself or not.
I have cream carpets and they had been absolutely destroyed by my two preschoolers - lots of stains and generally looking grey.
The lounge is pretty big - 6m x 6m ish and I paid £40. For that he moved all the furniture, did the carpets, put all the furniture back with little things under the legs of the sofa and best of all? I didn't have to do it.
I took the DC out, came back a few hours later and it was practically dry.
It looks amazing and I'll be getting him back to do the rest of the carpets.
I think rug doctors etc are actually quite expensive as you have to buy the cleaning fluid and then you have to do the graft yourself.
Well worth the money getting someone in.

ChasingStaplers that cleaning job sounds like a bargain! Whereabouts are you based? I'm in SW London and would like to use a company that has been recommended rather than just pick one out of the yellow pages! Thanks