Carpet cleaners - how well do they work?

[Abubu]

and are they worth the money? (I mean buying a machine you use yourself rather than hiring out a professional to do it)

Thanks!

I've just got a Bissell Aroma Pro (reduced to £150!), which was the Which No 1 Best buy and it does seem to work well. I got 3 tanks of distinctly muddy looking water from 1 room and the carpet looks fresher and kind of re-textured - plus it got rid of dents where coffee table and sofas had been.

I did half a room - we have a through living/dining room so put all the sofas in the dining room end and that half of the room looks lots better. (Will definitely do the other end of the room when things have calmed down after New Year!)

It was quite easy to set up and use - you set a dial to say how much cleaner you want to use (medium/heavy traffic or just water to rinse) hold a switch on the handle and push it backwards and forwards once to let the cleaner/water out, then just push backwards and forwards to suck up the dirty water. Like hoovering really. I haven't used any of the attachments yet, so can't comment on those but they look quite comprehensive.

The instructions warn you that it might collect clumps of 'fluff' if the carpet has never been deep cleaned before and depending on the carpet. I certainly ended up with handfuls of carpet coloured fluff (when we hoover with the dyson then this happens too, to a lesser extent) which I binned as I went along.

Its nice to think that its so much cleaner, but scary to think of the yucky stuff thats been living in the carpet up to now!

Hope that helps!

i have a vax (forget which model)it cost £230 but it is one of the more expensive ones.

i got it about 18 months ago. it's supposed to be for carpet and hard floors but i find it way to messy for hard floors. it pumps out too much water and even when it is on spill sucker mode it doesnt lift it all it spreads it about.

when used on carpet it does clean well but again it leaves the carpet damp.

my biggest issue though is that it has just broken. something that is inside it has worn away so the scrubbing brushes dont turn anymore. they do have a 6 year guarantee which hopefully will cover our repair. however i am dissapointed as it has only been used about 20 times.

maybe not what you want to hear but it is my experience of one.

well, having just this minute vaxed up the remains of a sloppy poo from the hall floor I have to say that I am pleased I have one!

I haven't done whole rooms with it very often as it is very hard work. Mine is a cylinder, not sure if these are harder than the uprights?

It does leave the floor damp - but I think you have to expect that, it isn't soaking, just damp.

We had the whole house cleaned about 3 years ago and they got an amazing amount of dirt out.

We bought one for £200 a few years ago. I really didn't want to get it but I am glad we did. The kids are messy buggers and it is great to be able to clean the carpet whenever we need too.

We have been thinking about getting one too, DS learning to feed himself has not been kind to our carpets!

Can I ask - do they get blobs and stains out as well as doing the general freshening?

mine is good at getting stains out.

the only problem with just doing small areas to remove stains is that that area then looks v clean compared to the surrounding carpet.

Whether it lifts the stain depends on the type of stain - it probably wont lift old stains very well, but if you clean when it happens then the stain doesn't set.