Are wet vacuum cleaners effective ?

Roxie

I need to either get my carpets professionally cleaned, or have thought about buying a wet vacuum cleaner (looking at a Vax or a Bosch). Are the wet cleaners any good or a waste of money, time and effort? Would be grateful for advice from anyone who has one/used one? I should probably add that its not heavy soiling, just we have a few children/pets and cream carpets (yes I know THAT was a big mistake!!!) and they are looking a bit grubby.

a-builder-A1

I use a Vax Rapide delux, it was bought by my wife, and it works great.
Ive taken it to work a few times now and used it a few times after long construction jobs, and it gets me a few brownie points with my customers!:j

Lara

My sister has a Vax and thoroughly recommends it. So that's two votes for the Vax !

emilyt

We have a BIssel carpet cleaner. To be honest with you it is very heavy to use and uses a lot of cleaning liquid. It does clean the carpets but i am sure there are better ones on the market. Just wish i knew before i had bought it.

clairehi

we had the carpets of a (small) 4 bed house professionally steam cleaned for £70 when we moved out.

he did a fantastic job and the carpets came up good as new.

I would not use any carpet cleaner which involves detergent as the residue left may attract more dirt.

Lord_Gardener

Yes they do work! We use a Vax rapide powerjet Pro carpet washer V-028 which does a good job even with just water! Remember cleaning is just a balance of energies (thermal, cheimcaL and mechanical) and time! It's all about solubilising the soil(dirt). Most dirt on your carpet is water soluble, so water should dissolve itand take it into solution - the cleaning fluid (surfactant ) will speed this process up and help with more difficult soils - oil/grease, etc. Remember, steam is just very hot water! We use very little if any detergent in our cleaner and you'd be suprised what a good job it does and how dirty the water gets! If you think that you'll need to clean several times a year, a cleaning machine is the most cost effective solution.

Mrs_pbradley936

I can recommend a vax. We bought ours years ago to clear up after a burst pipe caused a flood.

chloejane_2

we have a bissel and like you have two children 2 dogs, cat etc and cream carpets, we used it loads and loads, it always brought the carpet up nicely, it is heavy but did the job fine for us and i should not complain as my grandad gave it to us unused, as my nan had brought it some time ago and put it in the garage and it never came out again lol, but now we have moved we have no carpets so it sitting under the stairs!

Jake'sGran

Roxie wrote:

I need to either get my carpets professionally cleaned, or have thought about buying a wet vacuum cleaner (looking at a Vax or a Bosch). Are the wet cleaners any good or a waste of money, time and effort? Would be grateful for advice from anyone who has one/used one? I should probably add that its not heavy soiling, just we have a few children/pets and cream carpets (yes I know THAT was a big mistake!!!) and they are looking a bit grubby.

I never think of them as wet vacuum cleaners. I am about to buy a carpet cleaner, preferably a Karcher as I believe they are the best. Not the cheapest though) From what I have read so far it's a good idea if the water container only holds about a litre, something about the speed of it heating up. There was a thread on the BBC boards about these cleaners and Karcher was recommended. Got to admit their pressure washers for use outside are great.

Roxie

Jake'sGran wrote:

From what I have read so far it's a good idea if the water container only holds about a litre, something about the speed of it heating up.

Good point! I'd been looking for ones that held more water thinking I'd need to empty it less :rolleyes:

Thanks to everyone for their advice, I will definitely buy a cleaner after hearing such positive remarks, just got to decide which one :rolleyes: