There are a lot of things to consider before you choose the best carpet shampoo for your needs, but the two most important things are deciding whether to hire a professional carpet cleaning company or do the job yourself. The reason for this has always been two fold. The first thing is the price of the best carpet shampoo has been out of reach, until recently, of most homeowners and could only be purchased in large quantities. There has always been a problem with knowing the exactly right mix of carpet shampoo and water, plus whatever other chemicals you want to use. The prices have dropped significantly in recent years and many companies are developing cleaning solutions that are very user friendly. Just add a specific amount of water and you are done. Everything has been premixed to save you the trouble and confusion.
The importance in finding the best carpet shampoo for you home cannot be understated. The first thing to consider is the foaming properties of the product. The shampoo should also have water softeners to prevent the minerals in the water from staining and discoloring the carpet fibers. If you are selecting a “green” carpet shampoo make sure you read all of the users comments about the product. Some of these products do not work as well as the older versions.
If you are cleaning only spots you will probably prefer a dry carpet shampoo. This does not require the rental of a carpet cleaning machine and is usually easy to use. You pour the powder over the stain, let it sit for a while and simple vacuum it up. If you want to clean an entire area rug or wall to wall carpet, you will need a carpet cleaning machine and have to steam clean the area. This is also true if you have stains that have penetrated very deeply or are very hard to remove.
Unless you are working on a very small spot or a small area you will want to use a steam cleaner. This job has been made much easier and renting a machine from a hardware store or grocery store is very reasonable and the chemicals are pre-mixed for the size of the area you are cleaning. Simply fill the water reservoir, add the pre-mixed chemicals and run the machine over the whole area. The machine will clean the carpet and extract all of the shampoo and water that remains as it cleans.