Steam Cleaners on Carpet - do they work?

[SallyBear]

My six month old Labrador puppy had the most horrendous diarrhoea a couple of days ago, and decided to bypass the hard floors and use the carpet instead I have cleaned the carpet and rug as best I can with Simple Solution, but it still smells very revolting. Any advice on upright steam cleaners - just wondering if I should buy one? Would they help to get the smell out or should I just get a carpet cleaning company in or hire a carpet cleaner?

Thank you.

Maybe hire a carpet cleaner for now and do further research before you buy? I hear they are astonishing on hard surfaces but on soft furnishings apparently the detergents you use matter more...? The problem with wee and poo is that you can end up baking the smell in and that's why they are usually cleaned with cold, not hot water. There is a special ammonia lifting detergent that people use on babybstuff to get rid of the persistant smell of pee regular washing doesn't shift, maybe that will work on carpets, too? That said we had some minor diarrhoea stains from our cocker and got them off with the regular Vanish foam cleaner.

Got the stains out, just not the smell sadly! Thanks.

Oh yuk, poor you! I used a steam cleaner on our rug after the puppy was house trained and had stopped having accidents. To be honest I hadn't noticed a smell as we'd used simple solution and kept on top of the puddles (mostly wee) but the steam seemed to unlock a lot of dormant smells and it was so gross the rug went straight in the bin.

Maybe if I'd persevered it would have been ok, but I'd prob keep the steam cleaner for less intense smells in future and try a carpet washer or something. Good luck whatever you decide!

Hello

I did our carpets with the Karcher and whilst it was good on stubborn stains I would never do it again.
When you do them with a carpet cleaner if done often enough they tend to bounce back and look and smell lovely.
The steamer sort of flattened and they lost some of the bounce.
They aren't ruined though, but since then I have cleaned with carpet cleaner and the bounce has come back.
I'm not doing them again

Thanks. Bless Toby, he's done it in the middle of the night, so by the time we found it at 7am the smell had bedded in. Anyway the rug is rolled up to be taken down to the tip..... As for the study carpet I'm drowning it in simple solution. We used that all through the house training and its fabulous but I'm not sure its up to sick puppy tummy smells though, sadly. Anyway, it's DH's home office so I can just shut the door on it off to buy a new rug today

Hi Sally, I have a Vax steam cleaner bought shortly after the puppy!

The woman in John Lewis where we got it said they don't really clean carpets, just 'freshen'! Seems pointless. They are fab on our tiled floor however so I'm happy.

But I think for your study you should get a professional in or hire a carpet shampoo.

Hope Toby's better by now

I'm getting a professional carpet cleaner in Minty. Just been to IKEA and bought a purple thick pile rug for 50 quid for the lounge. Toby seems to have taken a shine to it.