Shampooing Berber Carpet ?

[thermokid]

Does anyone know of a method of shampooing White Berber carpet that actually gets it clean?? I have shampooed it with my Kirby which it looks clean for awhile but then the traffic areas get dirty really fast. Sometimes I shampoo it with My Hoover All terrain then I use my Kirby after that... that combination of shampooers seems to get it cleaner and it stays clean longer.. But still I wish I knew of a process that would do the job right the first time. Any Suggestions from anybody??? I'm willing to try anything other then tearing out the Berber carpet and putting in plush carpet... Thanks for your suggestions.... Dan

 

[bagintheback]

Dry clean the carpet. Zorb works nicely. It's not too hard, but use a bagless vacuum. Look my my carpet before and after.

 

[eurekastar]

I have used my Hoover then used clear water on a second pass to rinse. I'm not sure, but I think soap residue that's left in the carpet will attract dirt more quickly. That's why I rinse. One thing I've always wondered is if the carpet needs to be retreated with Scotch Guard or something like it.

 

[kloveland]

Carpet Shampooing

My second cousin owns her own company that sells commercial carpeting to big office buildings. One of her clients is Spirit Communications, and those buildings are huge with yards and yards of carpeting. Last time I was in Kansas City, she let me tour her offices and I visited her storeroom. I did not realize all the different styles and patterns of commercial carpeting that existed. The experience was very interesting to me.

She suggested to me that I might want to start my own commercial carpeting cleaning business, since I was so interested in vacuum cleaners. During our conversation she said the only way to get carpet really clean was to have a professional come in and clean with a truck mounted system. I have to agree with her, a home steam vac does not have the psi to blast the crud/dirt from the carpet fibers. Although I have had fair results with my Dirt Devil steamer. (I would really like to have a Hoover Steam Vac instead.) The steam vac doesn’t compare to a truck mounted system or a portable system with high PSI. A commercial carpet cleaner is really the only way to get a dirty carpet really clean.

However I would like to try Zorb like you suggested Nathaniel just to see how the product performs. And I do agree with Bill using a second pass with clean water does help. I wouldn’t want to leave shampoo in my hair, so why would I leave shampoo in my carpet(heard that from a commercial carpeting companies advertisement).

 

[kloveland]

Opps, Should have said "Sprint" instead of "Spirit"

 

[xraytech]

I pre-preat our white berber that is in 2 bedrooms with a spray of all purpose cleaner with bleach and let set for about 30 min and then I shampoo with the steam vac as usual, then follow it with a rinse of 2 cups white vinegar to 1 gallon very hot water.
I figured since the berber is not in public rooms, is 17 years old, and well worn it wouldnt hurt to try spraying the bleach.

I have found in th epast that I got best results when using my grams commercial Thermax shampooer that she has from when she rented them, it does an amazing job, I just cant afford the $2500-$3500 for one of my own,

 

[suckolux]

I know it can go a bit gray over time, just an observation.Not sure how to prevent that either.

 

[eurekastar]

Vinegar?

Do you use the vinegar in your final rinse to neutralize any soap left in the carpet?

 

[kirbfan94]

just go rent a rug doctor, they work really good.

 

[riccarlover]

We have berber too...

I always just use the Steam Vac about once a year (although I think it's been almost 2 :/). I always thought the results were good. But as mentioned, it's nothing compared to the professional results. If only we could all afford truck mounts!

Clayton

 

[vacman117]

When I get a few stains every once and a while, I just run over it a few times with the Hoover Dual-V. But my dad is friends with a guy that owns a carpet cleaning business, and he has one of the truck mounted ones, so we get that done for free when we need it. It REALLY does do sooo much better than a Steam-Vac. That is your best bet probably

 

[sanimatic]

Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports rated carpet cleaners fairly recently and they were very clear that the professional cleaners, such as Stanley Steamer, remove the most dirt.

But I was surprised that they were as favorable to several carpet cleaners as they were. They gave the Hoover Dual V, All terrain the highest rating with ratings of excellent for dryness and coverage and very good for cleaning and convenience.

The Hoover Steam Vac with spin scrub was second and the Hoover Platinum was third.

The bottom line that I got was that these machines continue to improve and certain ones are doing an acceptable job, but professional is best. Chris.

 

[bimmer740]

White Berber

I have white berber with some neutral colored specks through out in our den and it has taken a beating over the past 10 or so years since we have had it. I do shampoo it every so often with my Kirby but it doesnt do the greatest job. At the begining of June I became fed up with the numerous stains that had appeared on the carpet and was contemplating buying a Steam Vac. As mentioned above Consumer Reports recently rated several units and commercial carpet cleaning companies. I was thinking about the Hoover All Terrain but after all the reviews I have read, CR, ePinions, here on vacuumland, and on the web, I decided to go with Stanley Steamer. They did an fabulous job on the rug, along with our spare bedroom, an area rug, and two of the cats perches (which are an off white color). I booked the entire thing online the day before and never even had to pick up the phone. While there is still one small stain that they could not get out, the rug looks wonderful and around $230 it was money well spent.

My concerns with the Hoover was its durability, cleaning power, and most of all how much water it removed from the carpeting. My biggest fear was that it would not remove enough water from the carpet, leaving it too wet and taking forever to dry. This can also cause mold to grow in certain climates or cause the rug to smell. Several years ago we had a company that my mom uses in her office clean our rugs, they specialize in cleaning carpet and upolstery in homes that have had fire damage. While they were more costly than Stanley Steamer, they too did a wonderful job and seemed to be very knowledgable in removing difficult stains.

Dan, I noticed that you said you use your Kirby after the steam vac. From what I have read here in the past, most people who own a Steam Vac and Kirby, use the Kirby first and then the steam vac. That way you can scrub the carpets and then remove all the soapy residue that the Kirby leaves behind, decreasing the rate of the carpet re-soiling.

 

[floor-a-matic]

I use my RinseNVac RV-85 with PB850 power brush & does really well

 

[mark40511]

Do any of you notice it's harder

to get berber dry with the typical steam vacs? The pile is so low. I always add a hand weight to the top of my machine which allows it to extract more water. I'm sure professional is best. I always use hot water and white vinegar and no shampoo at all and it works really well. I also heard you can use hot water and ammonia. I feel like the carpet shampoo never gets rinsed out well so I don't use it.

 

[ralph123]

I don't know if it's all low pile carpeting or just berber, but there's a tendency for stains in the pad to wick up through the carpeting when it's cleaned. Even pro's have to sometimes reclean a spot in berber after a couple days.