Better than a carpet washer!

[Vacuum Facts]

I’ve often found that people think carpet washers are a good approach to stains. For (real-world) messes and stains, a simple damp cloth rinsed in dish detergent and microsponge treatment is the cheapest method I’ve experienced that also gets the best results. I’ve completely cleaned the worst thick and dirty, greasy chain oil patches using this method. Carpet washers don’t clean as effectively on the surface and actually make a bigger mess deeper in the pile. They’re marketed as a silver bullet, and people fall for it, but they’re a bit of a scam for the most part from what I’ve measured. (Incidentally, there are good physical reasons for this covered in this lecture when discussing carpet backing and airspeed as a function of pile depth.)

I evidenced this beyond all reasonable doubt a few years ago and forgot how poignant the video was until I rewatched it in response to a recent thread. I’ve made a playlist of different methods of cleaning and examples. There’s also a playlist showing professional cleaning using microsponges.

 

[kloveland]

I would rather use a carpet shampooer extractor on dog piss. A damp cloth will not clean up dog piss, vomit on carpet.

 

[Vacuum Facts]

You might think that. I found that actually the exact opposite is true and it's even shown fully in the link above. It's hard to dismiss video evidence as strong as provided. And that's the whole point of this thread really—to dispel myths and show what's really true, even if it seems unbelievable at first glance. I've had feedback over the years how people have changed how they clean since.

 

[kloveland]

You must be laughing your ass off. You give out wrong information to get a thrill!

 

[Vacuum Facts]

I mean, you can literally go watch it happen before your very eyes in the video. There's no way anyone who watched it and had an interest in expanding their horizons could possibly suggest it's wrong information. The empirical evidence is right there for you to see for yourself. That's not me giving out wrong information; that's blatant fact denial and reality dismissal. I mean, you just can't reasonably discuss with anyone who flat out rejects reality offered on a plate. But that's fine; my expectations are always low. I guess this post isn't for you at the moment.