Professional vs. home carpet cleaners

If you have carpeting, you’ve probably wondered what the best method is for cleaning your carpet: is it better to go pro, do it yourself, or something in between? Here we break down the differences in your three basic carpet cleaning options:

Home carpet cleaners

You may have seen a variety of vacuum-like machines at your local home appliance store and at big box retailers like Sears and Lowes, and been curious about them. While there are many different carpet cleaners to choose from, they function somewhat similarly to a vacuum, and to the equipment that professional cleaners use--they use water and steam to penetrate the carpet, and suction to pull the water and soil from the carpet.

While these units are attractive as a carpet cleaning option, the truth is that they are not as effective as professional cleaning, and can be prohibitively expensive, especially when you factor in the cleaning solution (which may be brand-specific) and the number of actual uses the machine will get. In addition, it probably won’t have the same stain removal capacity as a professional service.

Steam cleaner rental

Many retailers (Sears, Walmart, Lowes, etc.) offer rental of what is termed professional grade carpet cleaning units. You can rent the unit by the day or hour and clean your carpet yourself, on your schedule. While that sounds appealing to many savvy homeowners and DIY-experts, it may not be the bargain you’re looking for. These portable units lack the power that truck-mounted units used by the pros have, and they don’t come with a pro to do the work.

Professional carpet cleaning services

Simply put, professional carpet cleaning equipment is more efficient and powerful than carpet cleaners available on the consumer market and the carpet cleaning equipment that individuals can rent. The cleaning agents used by professionals in the industry can also differ greatly from those available to consumers, which may be less concentrated or in different formulations.

Additionally, professional carpet cleaning services have trained, experienced technicians who clean carpets for a living. They know how to handle the equipment correctly, get the deepest clean, and remove tricky spots and stains.

If you purchased carpet and it’s still within warranty, you may want to check out the fine print. Some carpet manufacturers specify that to maintain the warranty, carpet must be professionally cleaned every year or every two years. Keeping your warranty is worth the cost of a pro cleaning, especially when you consider the cost of carpet replacement.

Rug Rover has been cleaning carpets all over West Michigan for almost 30 years; if your carpet needs cleaned, give us a call!