Looking to buy a new carpet cleaner - need advice

My current cleaner, a Bissell Pro Heat (which is about 3 years old) was a nice unit until it started giving us problems. About a year ago I had to take it to a repair place because it stopped dispensing fluids (one or more of the fluid lines must have gotten clogged). After it was fixed, it worked well again until just the other day when I now notice it won't dispense fluid when using the attachment. I think we've reached the point to where it's no longer worth the money to keep having it repaired as the repair costs will soon exceed the intial purchase price.

duckcountry wrote: For home use, look online at ebay and find a used rug doctor.  You won't get a warranty but you should be able to get the biggest bang for your buck.  However, you should call a professional in (that is what we all are) at least once every 6 months to get out what the rug doctor leaves behind.  Urine is a unique problem due to the acids and their stubbornness at releasing for the flooring material.  I have a recipe for home use that I have had received solid votes of confidence on from every homeowner I have shared it with.  If you want it, leave me a private message here.

I must say, considering this is a forum about carpet cleaners, it's pretty disappointing to see that I've only had one person offering recommendations. Where is everybody?

Urine binds really well with not only carpet fibers but the padding below the carpet.  And it has a tendency to lock itself into the wood and concrete molecules below the padding.  Getting rid of visible signs of urine does not mean you got rid of the source or smell.  Those steam cleaners you see on the infomercials are good for small grease spots on kitchen counters, etc.  Rug doctors are stronger than you overworked steam cleaning vacuum but ever they will fail at taking on most urine.  But they are better overall than what you are using now.

The thing about ALL dogs is they go where you know they go and where you DON'T know they go.  There are no exceptions.  You have seen CSI so you know the technology exists to find the urine with the proper lights which are expensive and we as professionals have them.  In properly treating urine it is important that all spots be detected and treated.  If the dogs disrespect you so much that they are adult dogs with a bad habit, leave them outside.  They are not nor will they ever be humans and they came from the wild so they can take it outside.  If you are worried about them and the weather, put in a doggy door in your garage and let them use it as a toilet.

If these are spots with repeat attacks by your dogs, the carpet needs to come up, padding will need to be replaced and the subfloor treated and sealed before the new padding is put in place.  The carpet needs to be cleaned from BOTH top and bottom.  Male dog urine gets much stronger when wet. 

You might want to consider hard wood or tile & grout floors if you feel you must keep the offending dogs inside.  We don't sugar coat it; if you have dogs,  you either live with the damage and smell they produce or decide if it is you OR the dogs that learn to live outdoors.

Most dogs that can't be house broken are either abandoned or left at the pound.  They aren't permitted to turn homes into barns.

 There ya go gramps.. The Pro's have spoken..!!

About ten years ago, I bought a Hoover upright home carpet cleaner, thinking that I could do a better job of keeping my carpets clean than most pros. So I'd been using it ever since then, and was pretty happy with my results.

Recently, the house my parents had rented out to a bunch of college kids became vacant. My parents wanted me to do the carpet cleaning. You can just imagine how nasty they were after having four college kids (one was a car mechanic) live there for 18 months. These carpets were beyond nasty, and I couldn't touch them with my Hoover.

So I started researching carpet cleaning. I started considering it as a new businees, too, but that's beside the point. I read *huge* amounts of info on carpet cleaning. My local RotoVac supplier allowed me to rent a Mytee 1001DX and a refurbished RotoVac Power Wand. I used ProChem chemicals. The carpets came out beautifully.

Moral of this long story: you may *think* you can do a better job than the pros, but you'll be wrong. Even a new guy with good tools can get better results than a Hoover (or equivalent) home unit. Imagine what an experienced *pro* could do with those same tools (or better ones. The 1001DX is an entry level machine). I'm sure the carpets in my parent's rental would look even better.

Use the home carpet cleaner for maintenance, but there's just no substitute for a good professional cleaning.